Capitalism is Ruining Travel

Odd, because without capitalism, there would be no (or very little) travel. Without capitalism, airlines, hotels and restaurants would probably be more utilitarian and cost more. Competition has driven down prices and, on the surface, driven up quality. or experience Capitalists push things that sell. Airlines are more likely to offer a free drink while skipping an engine inspection (this probably doesn’t happen, because what airline offers free drinks anymore?). Seriously though, it’s not enough to sit in the cheap seats now, it’s luxury box or bust. As we have moved beyond the lower price, better product end of capitalism, we are now in the lower price, crappier product and a boatload of extras phase of capitalism.

Capitalism in its purest, theoretical form should follow the ECON 101 model of pure competition. This allows everyone freedom and the ability to live the American dream or the Moroccan dream (I actually stayed in the Moroccan Dream Hostel in Fes, where the owner said he borrowed the name from the American Dream). What they don’t tell you is that a pure competition is characterized by three things, (1) very low barriers to entry into the market, (2) no one has pricing power, and (3) no one makes any money. The first simply means that anyone can set up shop and start making/selling widgets. The second means that all products are a commodity and if one producer raises their price, consumers will simply start buying from their competitor. The third is the natural result of being in a industry where anyone can join in with a minimal investment and the products are indistinguishable between vendors. Historically, there have been impediments to purely competitive markets from existing such as advertising, creating a brand, difficulty in being able to price check and location among others. The internet may be helping to lower these. It might be that the closest thing we have to this in real life is the day labor market or the unskilled labor market where there are plenty of workers and plenty of work that employers want done as cheaply as possible. Sorry for the digression.

So, purely competitive markets seldom exist in nature due to factors like those mentioned above. Because the third point is so important, tweaking the first two are important to keeping people from starving. Governments often add barriers to entry in the form of licensing requirements, zoning, restrictions on producers and selling. Producers or merchants often create the second by nice displays or signs, getting a location on a busier street, or in medina and markets in the developing world, by haranguing passers by and haggling over price.

The problem is that capitalists hate competition. Every capitalist would LOVE to be a monopoly. I am sure Sam Walton loved to go to work everyday when he was competing with Sears, Ben Franklin and KMart, but he probably loved it more as he watched those competitors fade to the background. Jeff Bezos probably has a similar feeling about watching Walmart fade.

So how does all of this effect travel? In short, just about every industry and every country has a company akin to Walmart. As competitors gain advantage and have pricing power, they grow, they merge, etc. The US is down to four major airlines, meaning we have neither low fares or good service. Europe and Asia are doing better. Their service isn’t better, but there are many more carriers and their prices are much lower. The airlines have also been very effective at eliminating the competition of rail, which is generally considered to be more environmentally friendly.

Lodging has bifurcated into to (1) chain hotels and (2) AirBnBs. There are also many hostels, guesthouses and boutique hotels are still available in places that are not the US. These often offer affordable options. Chain hotels operate throughout the world and serve to raise lodging prices while making Hanoi look and feel exactly like Atlanta. They tend to start on the higher end, like resorts and business centers and trickle down through the rest of the economy. In the US, there are very few places or market segments that a chain cannot be found. AirBnB started out as the savior to this homogeneity. It offered homeowners a way to rent out a spare room or their second home to generate some extra income. It has now morphed into a system where individuals or companies are buying and/or leasing and subletting houses and apartments to travellers everywhere. AirBnB is typically a very affordable way to travel. Many criticisms have been leveled at AirBnB including destroying the fabric of a neighborhood and creating safety issues because these properties often are not subject to the same standards as hotels. In my opinion, both of these concerns are overstated. The bigger issue is the loss of tax revenue until municipalities update their ordinances to collect hotel taxes. In the US, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) could become a problem for larger operators, as these spaces are often not ADA compliant, but that’s something for an attorney to figure out.

AirBnB has brought down travel costs and in my opinion improved the quality of the experience. However, as more and more people and companies get into the business of managing multiple properties, the properties develop a ‘look’. And that look is Ikea. Ikea offers cheap furniture in a minimalist style worldwide. I have stayed in more than 30 AirBnBs on five continents, some look like an apartment that someone would like in, others look like an Ikea showroom. The problem with Ikea is that their products require assembly and are not that durable. These products are often assembled by people of not great skill and used by a lot of different people with varying levels of care. They don’t last long and are often in varying states of brokeness.

Restaurants and attractions also are becoming more and more homogenous. This is a huge problem in the US and its affecting international tourists coming to the US. People don’t want to eat at the Applebee’s next to the Target in multiple cities after a day of riding the rides at Ye Olde Amusement Park. Other countries are having similar problems. How many cities in Europe now have a Christmas market? Want to book a tour? Most tourist centers feature multiple tour companies offering the same tour. In the medina of Marrakech, shops selling souvenirs, sell largely the same souvenirs. As time goes on, destinations become increasingly homogenous. The shear number of these shops has also increased.

The pressure to buy something is also constant in larger, more tourist areas. Whether it’s food or merchandise, in tourist areas, people are constantly trying to sell you something. In airports, it’s no longer that you’re constantly walking by various shops, but you have to physically walk through the duty free shop to get to your gate at many airports.

You can pay extra to get to the fast line at airport security, for amusement park rides, for more legroom, bigger luggage. In fact, airlines are offering a plethora of additional services that used to be part of the ticket price. This allows the airlines to charge a higher fee by charging for things that used to be included in the ticket price.

So, in order to make more money, vendors are constantly pushing something extra. To me this takes away from the experience. We would probably all be better off if we were content to stand in line a little longer, pay a little more, leave people alone to browse and just to enjoy the experience of life and living. We just need to find a better way of keeping score. To paraphrase Rihanna Gunn-WRight, we don’t have a capital problem, we have a capital allocation problem.

Why Do I Love Morocco?

Objectively there are a lot of places better than Morocco. Immediately prior to visiting Morocco, I was in Spain and I loved Spain. Spain had a well developed tourism industry, excellent public transportation (probably the best in Europe), amazing food and so on. In short, there’s nothing not to like about Spain. Morocco on the other has some buses and trains, in larger cities like Marrakech there are pickpockets and young men constantly trying to run one scam or another, the cities are comparatively rundown and not much to look at. Being not quite (actually quite far from) perfect makes Morocco interesting. And interesting often trumps good.

Morocco is chaotic. Morocco has three official languages: Standard Arabic, Berber and French. According to my food tour guide in Marrakech, Moroccan Arabic is not pronounced the same as standard Arabic and Arabic speakers have trouble understanding Moroccans speaking Arabic. Berber is an indigenous language to Morocco and was not a written language for most of its existence, therefore many native Berber speakers cannot read or write the language. Moroccan French also poses some challenges for French speakers., it is heavily peppered with Arabic and probably Berber. It also seemed that most of the people around the major cities dabbled in Spanish and English. With this many languages being spoken to one degree of fluency or another, it’s a wonder that anyone can speak to a Moroccan. To think, many Americans get uptight about one additional language. Moroccans seem to move between three to five effortlessly. Having a base in all of these languages makes learning new ones easier and expands the mind.

The three large cities I visited all have medinas, which are basically the old cities comprised of a labyrinth of narrow streets that are laid out on anything but a grid and surrounded by a wall. GPS systems don’t work well there and no accurate maps exist. I tried Google, Apple and Maps.me in Marrakech, Meknes and Fes and found no appreciable difference in their inability to figure out where you are. They are only good for giving you a point on the map to navigate toward. The streets do not match reality. As a word of caution, everywhere you go you will be told by locals that you are going the wrong way, that the road is closed ahead or the tannery is that way (don’t go to a tannery), or the big square is this way or the way out is over there. Some of these people may legitimately be trying to help you, but be aware this is a well known scam in Morocco. My understanding is that basically they run you down some alleys and before you know it you’re in a dead end alley with three Moroccan guys and you need to buy your way out. I ran into this more in Fes and Marrakech than I did in Meknes. In Fes and Marrakech it happened on every street and around every turn.

If you read any travel blog about Morocco, it will have a list of the best things to see/do in whatever city they are writing about. Inevitably one of the items on their list will be something akin to “get lost in the medina.” My experience is that getting lost in the medina is part of everything you will do in one of these places. There’s no reason to declare it a separate activity. The medinas were my favorite and simultaneously the most frustrating part of any Moroccan city. Whatever you do, don’t avoid the medinas. Dive right in, ignore all the people trying to give you directions. Just remember, they did not ask where you are going, how could they possibly know, you’re going the wrong way?

The medinas will have everything you ever thought you needed. The ones in Fes and Marrakech had more of an eye toward tourists, where the one in Meknes had more of an eye toward locals. What this means is that the ones in Fes and Marrakech had more crafts and souvenirs. Meknes had more track suits and Chinese imports. All will have restaurants and hammams. All will have food stands, hostels, hotels and a camel butcher. The medinas are a functioning city with neighborhoods and each neighborhood will have a mosque and a fountain for muslims to clean themselves. There are a number of sites to see in the medinas such as mosques, madrassas, tombs and palaces. They will all be difficult to find and probably not as interesting as the hunt itself. After spending hours wandering these three medinas and visiting the sites noted in various guidebooks and on travel blogs, I honestly didn’t find any of these to be as interesting as the medinas themselves.

The food sections will have dried fruits, including dates and figs. The camel butcher will be easily identifiable by the camel head on a hook and the hump of fat hanging at his stall. Stop and watch for a while, as cuts meat on order, he adds a little ft from the hump. The owner of my hostel in Fes said that camel is not widely eaten in Morocco, but there are a couple of camel butchers in Fes. No restaurants have it on the menu, but you can buy the meat and take it to a restaurant and have it prepared for you. There are also stalls with live chickens for purchase. So, basically anything you want, you can buy in the medina.

Outside of the medina, these cities are more modern. The streets are wider and straighter, the buildings are more modern. It looks more like what a westerner would recognize as a modern city. In all three cities, Fes, Meknes, and Marrakech, the tourist sites were in or near the medina. However, wandering the streets outside the medina is a worthwhile experience to feel the city.

To move between the cities, Morocco has a good system of railways and the roads are good also. It seemed like there were plenty of police checkpoints along the way, so I don’t recommend driving there. To get from Marrakech to Fes, I took a three day/two night tour that went through the high Atlas and the mid Atlas mountains and into the Sahara. One night was spent in a hotel in the mountains. It got down in the 30s and the hotel had no heat, so it was quit cold. I had the misfortune of visiting the Sahara when it snowed for the first time in 40 years. The second night was spent in a tent in the Sahara. To get to the tent, we had to ride a camel two hours each way. My advice on camel riding: don’t ride a camel. A couple of laps around the parking lot would have been plenty for me to understand that I do not like bouncing up and down on my balls and would prefer a car. There was no need for a two hour ride to the camp.

Of course, the Sahara is the Sahara and well worth seeing. It is difficult to walk in, which you know if you have ever walked in dry sand before. The night sky can be stunning, though it rained when I was there and was cloudy.

So, why did I love Morocco? The only thing that was unfalteringly good was the food. Everything else had moments of frustration, uncertainty and and discomfort. I guess constantly being happy just isn’t enough to sustain me. A trip where everything is perfect is both intellectually and physically lazy. Having to think and evaluate and walk make for a more interesting experience and that is good.

Madrid: The Good and the Bad

Let’s start with the bad: (1) the subway car doors do not open automatically. They require pushing a button or lifting a lever. This is a minor inconvenience, but it’s the only public transit system that I have ever been on where the doors don’t open automatically. (2) It’s one of the few international destinations that Americans go to in droves, some wearing turkey headdresses, others yelling at children, all to be avoided, and, (3) navigating the main train station is a pain in the ass. After a long and arduous task of finding the ticket office, we almost missed our train because we couldn’t find the entrance to the platform. For reasons unknown, one side of the sign says platforms 1 - 12, the other side say 13, 14, 15. It’s the same entrance, just put 1 - 15 on each side. So, in a nutshell, these are minor inconveniences and really there’s nothing not to like about Madrid.

Tanya joined me for a week in Madrid. We rented a small AirBnB near the Franco Rodriguez Metro stop on the 7 line. Madrid has an outstanding Metro system (except for the doors) with 12 lines to put you within walking distance of just about anywhere in the city. The system was also clean enough for the city’s teens to be at home sitting on the floor of a car on a Saturday night, drinking.

Madrid was a city that felt very much like home from the start. The neighborhood we stayed in was away from the tourist bustle in a five story building on a side street. We began our days with Tanya sleeping in and me walking to a nearby bar called La Mina. It was a small place with only a few tables. I imagine it as typical of many neighborhood joints scattered across Madrid. They were open for breakfast, lunch and dinner six nights a week. I ate breakfast there nearly every morning and we ate dinner there most nights as well. In Spanish culture, breakfast and dinner are smaller meals, with breakfast served before work and dinner usually after 8p. Lunch is eaten in the mid-afternoon followed by rest before returning to work.

So, my morning usually started at La Mina with a Cafe con Leche served in a glass. The glass was filled halfway up with coffee, then the server returned with two pitchers of milk and gave you the choice of caliente or fria, or a combination. I always went with caliente as I have never developed a taste for cold coffee. Then, I explored the breakfast menu, trying several different offerings during our stay. I would take a croissant relleno jamon y queso back to Tanya (para llevar). Until this trip, I never realized that dolma and relleno mean essentially the same thing in different languages and carry more meaning than the English equivalent ‘stuffed’. This experience gave me an opportunity to mutter a few words of Spanish to people who could only mutter a few words of English and be understood and laughed at in the best possible way. When I returned to our building, there was usually a worker shoveling coal into the boiler through a door on the first floor. The coal smell eventually wafted through the building.

La Mina is also where most of our evenings ended. Tanya and I would get a table and order a few things off the menu and drink wine. Tanya would talk to the bartender in Spanish who would help her with her pronunciation and understanding. Dinner time was a little slower paced than breakfast, with one bartender as opposed to the two or three servers working breakfast. At breakfast, the bar was lined with saucers, spoons, glasses and a sugar packet ready to be filled and set in front of customers as soon as they walked through the door. Small tapas, pastries, churros and tortillas (spanish omelets) were in display cases at the bar, ready to go. Dinner seemed to have none of this advanced preparation. Finding a neighborhood place, briefly establishing a sense of community is what Tanya dreams of in a vacation and it was restorative and relaxing.

One night when we didn’t eat at La Mina, we went to Sobrino de Botin (nephew of Botin), the oldest continually operating restaurant in the world. When Tanya and I travel, we try to eat at least once in an upscale restaurant and try to eat a more local cuisine the rest of the time. Botin was the upscale night. Botin is a tourist trap and we were there on Thanksgiving, which meant it was an American tourist trap. We booked the Botin experience, which included a tour of the restaurant prior to dinner.

Our tour group consisted of two other groups of Americans. The first, was a nondescript group of three young southerners transplanted to New York. The other group was five middle age or more American women, all wearing turkey headdresses and drinking from a bottle of wine when they arrived at the restaurant. Tanya turned to me and said that we would not be sitting with those women. She then pulled the guide aside and told him that it was our wedding anniversary (it was not) and asked if we could get a private table. We were seated at the Hemingway table. This is the table favored by Ernest Hemingway as the restaurant was a favorite of his during his time in Spain. Seated next to us was another table of four Americans. Parents and a younger man and woman, we were unsure whether the younger were a couple or brother and sister. The girl did most of the talking, loudly. At first she prattled on about a variety of mundane subjects including the virtues of zucchini spaghetti vs. squash spaghetti. Eventually, she went into a full blown meltdown about her lack of a career, no babies and a class reunion coming up. The younger man was mostly silent, the older woman threw a few jabs, but the conversation seemed to go on between father and daughter.

We enjoyed our dinner enough. The house specialty is suckling pig. It is served as part of a larger menu of several courses. The tour of the restaurant was good, seeing the original wine cellar and foundations built on top of another building and the oven dating to 1725 were interesting. If none of those things interest you, a less expensive dinner of better quality is not hard to find in Madrid.

Madrid has at least three of the world’s finest art museums: The Prado, the Reina Sofia, and the Thyssen-Bornemisza. We went to all three, which is a testament to their greatness. We are not normally ones to spend a lot of time in museums, but these were extraordinary. The Prado featured work acquired during the Spanish monarchy and dates to the 16th century and before. There are many, many paintings of the life of Christ, his birth and sequence of events of his death, mostly. There are also enormous number of paintings of noblemen and women, most of which would have been entirely forgotten by now if the picture did not hang in The Prado. The Prado also had a number of Rubens, who painted mostly about rape, beheadings and Satan. The collection is enormous and I don’t think we even saw it all.

The Reina Sofia featured mostly works from the late 19th century forward. The most notable work in the collection was Picasso’s Guernica. It also featured more work by Picasso, and also Dali, and everybody who is anybody from the 20th century.

The Thyssen-Bornemisza, we almost didn’t go to because we thought it might be too many museums for a week. I’m glad we did, because had a broad and magnificent collection. It had some of the same artist as the other two in its collection and it also filled in the gaps. Its collection was broad and expansive. If you find yourself in Madrid and only have time to go to one museum, this would be a good choice.

In addition, in this city of art, we say a Brueghel exhibit in the city center which featured all of the Brueghels. I am sure there are many fine museums and galleries we missed. In fact, the tour guide on our tour of Botin was a painter. There is not shortage of art in Madrid.

There is also no shortage of excellent food. I would try to stay out of the tourist areas to save money, but there is good food everywhere and there is no need to eat anything but the local fare. There are also a number of markets or food courts in the city, the most famous with tourists is Mercado San Miguel. Go there if you don’t want to hear Spanish spoken. It serves up mostly nuevo-Spanish foods and wines from a number of booths at an inflated price. I still maintain that the best food is available outside the tourist areas. Specialties include jamon iberico, paella, all manner of tapas — a few favorites include patatas brava and tortilla patatas.

So what is there to do in Madrid besides eat and see art? There’s the royal palace, a number of churches, mostly catholic. Madrid is also a convenient place to be for day trips. We went to Toledo one day by rail. Segovia, Avila, Cuenca, and Salamanca are also easily reachable by rail for a day trip.

Toledo is a medieval city that is the former capital of Spain before it was moved to Madrid. It is also known for its knife and sword making. Most of that has left the city by now, but one can still by some beautiful handcrafted blades. It’s a fun place to wander for the day. At one time (before the inquisition) there was a sizeable Jewish community and the city has been compared to Jerusalem. Having been to both, there are similarities, most notably, both have been conquered by Jews, Muslims and Christians. One of the synagogues has served as a house of worship for all three. Overall, it is touristy, but a side trip worth making.

Art Watching

Tanya and I have spent two days exploring two of the great museums of the world — the Prado and the Reina Sofia, both in Madrid. The Prado’s collection consists mostly of works from the 16th and 17th Century. It includes many of the most important works of the era. The Reina Sofia’s collection consists mostly of work from late 19th and 20th Centuries. Tanya preferred the Prado and I, the Reina Sofia. Tanya said that the Prado put her back in touch with why she wanted to be an artist in the first place. Many of the paintings were ones she had studied in Art school.

The Prado did not move me in the way that it did her. Many of the works in their collection were biblical scenes interpreted by the artist or portraits of noble people. These paintings were either commissioned by the church or by a wealthy family, two types of patrons that are near vomit-inducing to me. The biblical scenes were usually the artist’s interpretation of some part of Jesus’s life, usually either his being born or his dying. There seems to be an entire body of work missing — Jesus’s little league team, his senior prom, college graduation, all missing. The portraits of noblewomen were usually dressed in some high collared garment that resembled a neck brace while the men favored funny hats.

After a while, the paintings evolved into biblical scenes where the women were topless. And then there was Rubens. Rubens seemed to favor paintings involving rape, beheadings, and/or satan. There were also still lifes and landscapes. I attribute these to be because this was an age of exploration and discovery. Something had to adorn the walls of those early ships plying the seas, just like the Viking Cruises of today, Viking ships of yore must have had similar, albeit higher quality art. The skill of these artists was undeniable, but being limited in their subject matter made the art less interesting to me. Occasionally, the artist would slip a subversive image into a painting, but that was about it for imagination.

The gap of more than two centuries between the Prado collection and the Reina Sofia collection showed how much the world changed in the intervening centuries. The Reina Sofia had very little figurative work. The best known piece in the Reina Sofia was Picasso’s “Guernica”. There were a number of Picassos on display. This not the first time that I have seen Picasso’s work in a museum, but there’s really nothing like it. His genius just flies off the wall. The museum in Tel Aviv displayed three small works of his from different periods of his life. It was a joy to see how he transformed and reinvented art. The Reina Sofia had numerous works by Picasso and many more by artists influenced by Picasso. Seeing these paintings, drawings and sculptures was to be in the presence of greatness. If I see God, I want it to be through the eyes of Picasso.

In addition, there were works by many other artists, including Dali, who is another personal favorite. We wandered for hours in each museum (something we seldom do) and could have wandered more, so vast and interesting were their collections.

As with any museum, some of the art moved me while others barely caught my eye. This art watching started me thinking about what qualified a piece to be art, and if it was art, what made it great? Everyone has their one definition, some would say that art should be above judgement. For me, it’s a little more complicated. I think there are a few tests that I apply to a piece to determine whether I, (a) want to think of the piece as art, and (b) want to consider it good or great. I am sure others will disagree and that’s fine, we must all be our own arbiters of taste.

First, I think a work of art must have an element of craftsmanship. I don’t want to look at a piece of art and think with a high degree of confidence that I could have made the piece myself. I say this as an average guy with no particular skill or talent — not as a painter evaluating the work of other painters, or a carver evaluating the work of other carvers.

The next test that I apply is, would I have thought to make whatever the piece is? Obviously, this test is more difficult to apply as something figurative involves fewer choices by the artist than something abstract. However, how the subject is posed and lighted and adorned are all ultimately decisions of the artist and show the artist’s vision. The craftsmanship is how they carry out that vision.

The third test, is that if I had the ability and the imagination to create the work, would I have done it? This is maybe more about what I would want hanging on my walls. There are a number of pieces of art in the world that I would not want on my walls. That doesn’t mean someone would. As with most of my rules, these are more guidelines, not all three have to be met and there are no checklists. I don’t walk through a museum actively asking these questions about each piece, it’s usually only when I am in a quandary about a certain piece.

This is probably part of what makes being an artist difficult, knowing that everyone who sees your work is passing judgment on it and on you. It’s also knowing that most of the people who see your work probably won’t like it that much. For that, I try to not express my opinion on creative works very often. People doing creative things should be encouraged because they are putting piece of themselves out into the world and should be respected for that.

The Reina Sofia had a large exhibit of Ceija Stojka, a gypsy or Romany holocaust survivor, who died in 2013. She spent time in several Nazi concentration camps. She started painting in 1988 at the age of 55 and was self-taught. Most of her paintings were about her early life. There works were mostly on paper and sometimes her technique could be described as crude. But, she developed her craft and created a large body of incredibly powerful work and clearly conveyed the atrocities she saw. That’s why we should be kind in our criticism — it took her 55 years to start painting and she did incredibly powerful work until she died. I wouldn’t want negativity to drive an artist not to share their work.

The Rest of Italy in a Nutshell

Not long before I left, we has dinner with friends. One was German and a political scientist. We were talking about Europe and I said that Italy had only unified in the mid-1800s. He shot back that some would argue that they haven’t yet unified. Like all good humor, there was an element of truth in this statement. Italy varies greatly from north to south and from city to city. The civilizations are old and the geography lends itself to isolation. I was struck in my limited view of the country how many of these cities or regions were independent states at least once in their recorded past. All had been conquered and changed hands multiple times through their histories.

The northern and southern extents of my travels in Italy were Milan and Naples, the second and third largest cities in the country, respectively. The contrast between these two extremes was stark. Milan was clean and orderly, where Naples was dirty and chaotic. Crossing the street in Milan had no adverse effect on my heart rate or blood pressure. Drivers in Naples have little regard for crosswalks and seem to think it’s sporting to scare pedestrians. The Milan subway was clean and efficient. The Naples subway looked as if it had been used in the opening credits of ‘Welcome Back Kotter.’

The languages are also have some regional differences. The Neapolitan dialect is peppered with Spanish. My AirBnB hosts in Naples were Tony and Thelma. Tony was Italian, Thelma was Cuban. I noticed when talking to Thelma that her Italian was peppered with Spanish and assumed that was due to her being Cuban. Later, Tony mentioned that Naples had been under the control of Spain in its past and that all Neapolitans used certain words that could be traced directly to Spanish, though Thelma more than most. I later researched this a little and found a blog that listed words in the Neapolitan dialect that were attributed to Spain.

The cuisines of the two cities is also quite different. Milan’s specialties include a cotelleta, which is a piece of meat pounded paper-thin, breaded in a thick, crunchy breading and fried to a golden brown. What kind of meat? Does it matter? The breading takes up more space than the meat. They also saffron risotto, also known as saffron rice. Saffron is perhaps the most expensive spice in the world. It turns the rice yellow. Neither saffron or rice are native to this area, both gained popularity as a symbol of wealth and stuck around. Osso bucco is the another Milanese dish talked about a lot. It is a braised veal shank. Not bad, I have had it several times in and out of Milan and it never fails to underwhelm.. In short, Milanese cuisine is similar to German or Austrian cuisine and not one of my favorites.

Naples, on the other hand is best known for its pizza, but first I would like to discuss other aspects of Neapolitan cuisine. Naples is on the coast and has excellent seafood. On a street food tour, we went to a seafood stand in the market and sampled anchovies, shrimp, calamari and seaweed dumplings (for lack of a better short description. They were small bits of soft dough with seawood, breaded and fried.) All of the above were fried. With the exception of the dumplings, the breading was very light, flour only. It did not overpower what was inside, but complimented it, giving it texture, but not flavor. In short, it was the perfect way to fry food.

The Neapolitans are also known for their Ragu, which is different than Bolognese ragu. The Neapolitan ragu, I am told has only two ingredients: beef and tomato. The beef is chopped and cooked for a long time with the tomatoes and the two cook down and form a stew. It’s impossible to believe that they get this much flavor out of just two ingredients. It is served several different ways: over a variety of pastas, in a hollowed out baguette (not the right term) or scarpetta. Scarpetta is basically a bowl of ragu served with slices of the baguette to sop up the ragu with. I tried it both with rigatoni and scarpetta. I saw no way that the hollowed out baguette would end without me wearing most of it. If you decide to go with pasta, and go to a restaurant that specializes in ragu, the waiter will offer options and if their English is good enough, will explain in great detail the pros and cons of each type of pasta. My advice: try the scarpetta, if you’re only going to try it once. The bread they give you is a crunchy sourdough that is just lovely on its own. This is a fantastic dish and don’t leave Naples without trying it.

Pizza though, pizza is the one thing that only praise is allowed. The Neapolitans grudgingly acknowledge that New York has more pizzarias — but no one does it better. I tried to compliment the Neapolitan pizza by telling the tour guide that American chefs were now coming to Naples to learn how to make pizza and importing ovens from Naples. Her response was one of hurt, she said that they still couldn’t make it as good because they didn’t have the Naples water. This is the total bull argument of why New York has the best bagels. Of all the things that make pizza in Naples great, the water is least among them. I think the sourdough starter matters, the tomatoes matter, the cheese matters, the oven matters, the wood matters. The water? I doubt it. Whatever it is, the pizza is great. Try the classic Margherita and some others. To go to Naples and not eat pizza would be a gastronomic tragedy you may not recover from.

The other cities of Italy that I visited were Rome , Florence, Venice, Bologna and San Marino (actually an independent nation and not a city of Italy). Bologna, I covered in a previous blog post and won’t go into it here. Rome, Venice and Florence are the tourist darlings of Italy. I spent precious little time in each of the three. Aside from the amazing tourist sites in each of the three, they each have their own peculiarities. Rome, of course once had the world’s largest empire. Venice was probably the richest city in the world at one point. It still is a wealthy city, though most of its people have moved out to make way for the tourism industry (and climate change). Venice probably has the most tourist per square foot (0.104 square meter) of any city in the world (flooded or not). Just to give you an idea of costs, in the tourist area, if you are eating at a reasonably good local restaurant in Venice, you will be eating seafood and spending close to $50. That is what I paid for cod, a salad and wine. In Rome and Florence, eating like a local in the tourist area will cost about $30. In Milan and Bologna, about $15, and in Naples, a Margherita pizza is 4 euro. So, in Naples with a drink and cuperto, expect to pay about $10.

And what is cuperto? If you called it a tip, you wouldn’t be wrong. It is an amount added to the bill if you dine in the restaurant. Don’t dine in, don’t pay it. It was explained to me as rent on the space of a table. It is added to the bill and all you have to do is pay the number at the bottom. No additional tip is expected.

Of the cities that I visited, I spent the most time in Bologna and Naples and probably had enough time to thoroughly explore both cities, if there is such a thing. Usually, as the time approaches for me to leave, I discover new things to explore, foods to try. The major tourist sites are done at that point, but in most places, those are the least interesting places. At the time I was in Venice, the biennial was ongoing. The biennial was housed in multiple venues throughout the city. Most of these venues were not on the tourist radar. Several were consulates, most are nondescript buildings by Venice standards. Having said that, the original function of most of these buildings were private residences of the wealthy people of the day. In many cases, the artwork of the biennial had to work hard not to be overshadowed by the space it occupied. One of the benefits of going to the biennial was getting to see the insides of these buildings that you may not have even noticed as you walked by.

Rome and Florence are of course places that you must go. The crowds will be huge, but as with anywhere, move slowly and try to get outside of the tourist area, if that is possible. As I said my time in these areas was short and spent walking around looking at stuff, which is the least instructive way to see things.

In Naples, as Tony drove me to the airport, he mentioned the Spanish occupation of Naples, which I was unaware of. When I did a little research I found several examples of the Spanish influence, I wish I had paid more attention to. I spent time going to Pompeii and hiking Vesuvius, both are worthwhile. It is also worthwhile to wander the street and alleyways, and to step into a courtyard because that’s where the city is. Stop in an unknown pizzeria and sample their pie, you might find an undiscovered gem. All of these things I had time to do and did in Naples. But in a city that has been around for thousands of years, a week is not enough to excavate it.

Bologna: The Key to Italy

La Dotta, La Grassa, La Rossa — the three nicknames of Bologna, oddly it was none of these that brought me to Bologna. What brought me to Bologna was its rail network. Bologna is the rail hub of Italy. From there, Venice, Ravenna, San Marino (Rimini), Florence, Modena, Parma, Milan and Verona are all easily accessible for a day trip. Everything else was gravy and there was plenty of gravy.

La grassa — the fat, the metaphorical gravy. Bologna is known as one of the culinary centers of Italy, it has several signature dishes including spaghetti Bolognese (known locally as tagliatelle al ragu) and tortellini al brodo. They are also known for tortelloni. It is also where the largest manufacturer of gelato equipment is located, there are a number of fine gelato shops here — no need to deal with those carpetbaggers over at Lindt. You don’t need to eat their swill in Bologna. Want to go to Gelato U? Come to Bologna. The advice that I have been given by several reputable sources for seeking out a good gelato shop is that good gelato is made in small batches. The best machines don’t make more than a couple of gallons at a time, so look for shops where all of the bins are nearly empty — avoid places where the gelato is heaping over the top of the bin. Also, look for shops that keep the bins covered, leaving the gelato exposed is bad for the gelato. Look for shops that only have a few flavors as they are probably making it fresh.

There is a distinction between tortellini and tortelloni. Tortellini are smaller and have a meat filling which is primarily veal. There is only one way to prepare tortellini in Bologna and that is al brodo or in broth. The dish is essentially a soup where the tortellini are cooked in both chicken and beef broth — not an either or. Tortelloni are larger and, I believe, can have a variety of fillings though I only had them with ricotta cheese. The can be served with a variety of sauces.

Of course, when in Bologna, you must try the Tagliatelle al Ragu, it’s the signature dish of the city and is served everywhere. You have most likely eaten a bastardized version of this your entire life, you should try the real thing at least once.

Bologna is capital of the Emilia-Romagna province which is home to Parma (home of prosciutto and parmigiano cheese) and Modena (home of balsamic vinegar). Prosciutto and Parmigiano are readily available and should be sampled whenever possible. There are several different types of prosciutto, most notably crudo and cotto and the same goes for the cheese. I recommend a food tour of Bologna because there’s just so much here. I went on one conducted by Taste of Bologna, it was a half day and very thorough. AirBnB also had one listed that was a full day and went to Parma and Modena to where they make these products. That could be interesting as well.

Prosciutto and parmigiano are pretty straight forward in that most Americans will have tried these products, though not the best quality of either (again, a good reason for a food tour, they can explain the quality differences). Balsamic vinegar is a whole other animal. Everyone is familiar with the Balsamic vinegar available in supermarkets and on salads from Applebee’s to Olive Garden, but it is an insult to Modena to call that balsamic vinegar even though some of it may even be produced in Modena. This competitively priced brown substance used to slather on lettuce is not true balsamic vinegar. True balsamic vinegar comes is a small, rounded bottle. No one will ever give you more than a few drops at a time. It is very expensive and concentrated and aged for a minimum of 12 years.

Pizza is not a Bologna thing. If you want pizza, go to Naples. The only time I had pizza in Bologna it was this thick concoction that, in New York, they call Sicilian-style and in Bologna they call Neapolitan. There is no local pizza making tradition here and that’s an important point. Italy is culinarily diverse. Milan, Bologna, Venice, Rome, Naples, as well as other areas all have their own unique specialties.

La Dotta — the learned. Bologna is home to the oldest still operating university in the western world. It has moved from its original location, but the Teatro Anatomico, which was the first dissection lab of the university. This is a beautiful room with hand carved wooden human forms and a marble dissection table. Also here are old lecture halls — they don’t make universities like this anymore. The Poggi museum, Ithink could best be described as a museum of the history of science. The museum itself is at times more beautiful than the exhibits and that’s saying something.

La Rossa — The red is a bit of a double entendre. The city’s architecture is mostly red in color, but the city was also the longtime headquarters of the Italian Communist Party. There’s not a lot of tourist information on the communist history. The architecture though is all around you. The two most notable pieces of architecture (in my opinion) are the Basilica di San Petrinio and the Portico di San Luca. Construction of the Basilica began around 1390 when the city was briefly independent. The church was not consulted in this decision and was ticked off. The city ran out of money, the two wings necessary for the cross footprint and most of the marble facade were never completed. The inside is also rather spartan in the fresco/mosaic department by Italian standards. For these reasons, no one would consider this to be one of the most beautiful churches in Europe, but it is one of the most interesting. It offers a rare example of 14/15th century construction in the process. Look at the front, above the marble and the brick is uneven. THis was done to give the marble facade some interlock and help it stay attached to the brick structure. The walls adjacent to where the wings should be were also toothed to continue construction some day.

The Portico di San Luca is the longest portico in the world and is overthree kilometers long and rises about 300 meters as it leaves town and heads up the hill. It is covered the entire way and has 666 arches. You should walk it. It follows the stages of the cross.

So, back to what brought me to Bologna in the first place: day trips. I went Venice, San Marino, Florence and Milan all by train (San Marino requires a bus in addition to the train). I also spent time in Rome and Naples. Bologna is far less touristed than the others. A decent local lunch in central Bologna will cost around $15, in Florence or Rome $30, in Venice $45. Milan seemed to be more comparable to Bologna. to Bologna in price. Naples,you can get a Margherita pizza for 4 euro, so that’s tough to beat. All of these assume that you are eating at a local place and eating the local specialties. I don’t know what a burger at the Hardrock Cafe in Venice costs because only an asshole would do such a thing. All of these prices (except Naples) assume that you will drinking water and wine with the meal — water because I’m an American and wine because I’m in Italy. You will have to pay for both of these, though neither is expensive, assuming you drink the house wine which is always good.

Of the day trips, Florence is beautiful. Most of the main sites are walkable from the train station. The same is true for Venice. These are both cities that deserve a visit. Milan, I never warmed to, partly because it was cold and rainy while I was there. San Marino is worth visiting if you’re in the neighborhood because it is an independent nation and the world’s oldest Republic, but you can knock it out in a few hours and I wouldn’t plan a vacation around it. I skipped the other possible day trips because it was cold and rainy the rest of my time there and it didn’t seem worthwhile given the weather. But, Italy is essentially a collection of former city-states, principalities and whatnot, most of which were independent at one time and conquered many times. Due to the geography, they are fairly isolated and developed their own unique cuisines and histories. All could require some attention.

Jerusalem and Israel: The Heavy Weight of History

If you grew up in a western culture (Judaism, Christianity or Islam), Jerusalem is going to resonate with you. Even if your upbringing was not overly religious, it has worked in to your unconscious mind and made itself at home.

You should know, or will figure out that Israel is expensive. I spent six days in Israel, split between Tel Aviv, Haifa, and Jerusalem. The two days in Tel Aviv were enough to see most of Tel Aviv and the one day in Haifa was enough to see Haifa, but the three days in Jerusalem….

The main sites of Haifa are the Ba’aim Gardens and the Cave of Elijah. Both of these are interesting enough, and the gardens offer an incredible view, but if you have a limited amount of time in Israel, Haifa may not be your best use of that time.

Tel Aviv is the largest city. It is also the city that feels the most diverse. I rented a bedroom in an apartment in south Tel Aviv. This was a fairly poor, immigrant-rich neighborhood. It was common to see African and Indian immigrants, the antithesis of what I imagined when I thought of Israel. As an American, I anticipated Israel was all Jewish and by Jewish, I mean Ashkenazi. In fact, about 75 percent of Israel’s population is Jewish, and not all Jews are Ashkenazi. As a result, Tel Aviv looked a bit like a small New York and my neighborhood, specifically looked a lot like Queens. As the largest city, possible capital and location of the airport, you about have to spend time in Tel Aviv. If you have a limited amount of time to spend in Israel, I would suggest limiting the time spent in Tel Aviv too.

Jerusalem will take as much time as you have to unwind it. You can compare a lot of places to Jerusalem, but Jerusalem compares to no place. This place has history and I can’t even keep the timeline straight. It’s not the biggest city, nor is it in the most strategic location, but it has been the center of religious faith for the three major western religion since their beginning (and yes, I know this is an oversimplification, but all three are willing to and have shed blood over it.)

The old city of Jerusalem has four quarters. The quarters are basically unequal sections within the walled city where various peoples reside, so in a sense it is a segregated city. The four quarters are Muslim, Jewish, Christian and Armenian. The Muslim quarter has the largest population and the market. The Jewish has the Western Wall and seems a little tucked away. The Christian is probably the most visited by tourist as includes the Jaffa Gate, which is where most tourists enter. The Armenian is the smallest and is comprised of small winding passages. It has some good restaurants tucked away and is a little less crowded to wander in. Certainly, the most interesting is the Muslim quarter. which begins at the Damascus gate. I am usually not one for markets, but this one is a market like no other. Eat there, wander around, get lost, buy something if you want. Watch for tractors and carts, they take the whole street as this town was not built for modern times.

There are no overt markers delineating which quarter is which. Further, I don’t believe there are any laws restricting transfer of real estate to people not fitting the definition of the quarter. But, maybe there doesn’t need to be. Without going to deep into the weeds, the old city was built, rebuilt and built on top of ruins many times over the course of centuries. I took a one day tour. The guide noted that the street elevation in the old city was originally 4 meters (about 13 feet) below where it is today. That’s 13 feet of rubble, debris, history and stories. Also, the walls in their current form and location were built by Suleiman the Great (or Magnificent) around 1540. He then had the engineer killed and buried inside the Jaffa Gate. Look at the walls closely though, in some places, the walls were built on top of earlier walls and earlier walls. You can see changes is the cut of the stone which indicate a newer period of construction.

So what is there to see in the old city? Well, for starters the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in the Christian quarter was supposed to have been built over the site of the crucifiction and the tomb of Jesus. Which brings up another point: at the time of the crucifiction, it was outside the walls — the city was expanded by Suleiman. In the Jewish quarter, there is the western wall or the wailing wall. There’s just so much history, I would urge hiring a guide to at least get you started.

Construction of settlements outside the walls began around 1860, and progressed slowly. The first settlements were to the west and were slow to fill, now they are highly sought-after addresses. Development outside the walls did eventually take off and included a YMCA designed by Shreve, Lamb and Harmon of Empire State Building fame. Development outside the walls also followed along the main roads, the most important of these was Jaffa Road which connects Jaffa (south Tel Aviv) to the Jaffa gate. I stayed in a CapusleInn off Jaffa Road (remember Israel is expensive). Along Jaffa and other roads in this area, there are the usual assortment of shops and restaurants, not all of which are kosher or observe Shabbat (though most do).

If possible, spend Shabbat in Jerusalem. Public transit stops running, many of the restaurants and shops close, many of the citizens stay in. Around dusk on Friday, the city feels a bit like a ghost town or post-apocalyptic. It is suddenly more quiet and many fewer people and cars are out. Then you will hear a crowd running through the old city singing. It starts in the Jewish quarter and goes through the Armenian and Christian quarters (the only thing I can think to compare it to is a New Orleans second line) and it ends outside the Jaffa gate with this crowd gathering in a circle dancing and singing. Then it disperses and reappears at about the same time the following night. A certain sect of Jews bookend Shabbat in this fashion.

In between these two celebrations, the town falls silent again except for the nightlife. I had signed up for a Sunrise tour of Masada and the Dead Sea for Saturday morning. This meant that I had to leave for Masada at 3a and climb a mountain in predawn hours. In retrospect, the tram opens at 8a and the sunrise wasn’t worth the climb, I would have happily gone later. So, at 2:30a during Shabbat, I was walking across Jerusalem to meet my tour bus. The area around Jaffa Road, outside the old city was hopping. Techno beat was streaming from clubs, couples were walking around, police patrolled, this was not what I expected at all. At this point in my life (and probably at no point), I have little interest in clubbing at 3a, but was shocked by the amount of activity.

So, the tour took us first to Masada and then to Ein Geddes, a nature preserve and finished at the Dead Sea. The first two stops were fine and one could take them or leave them depending on your interest in such things. The Dead Sea shouldn’t be missed because, (1) at its current rate, won’t be around that much longer; (2) the oddity of it; and, (3) the history. Though the tour I went on was only about the second point, the first and the third are equally important. I suspect the first point will at some point be solved by piping in water from the Mediterranean or some other source. The tourism and ,ud industries are just too valuable to be destroyed by an environmental catastrophe. The third is probably worth exploring. I am sure there are some tours that can take you to the historic sites. If I were to do it again, I would stay in one of the resorts at the Dead Sea, where you could leisurely make use of the Sea and plan some more intensive tours of the area and then head back to Jerusalem.

So, in conclusion, Israel is a trip that is worth saving up for as it is expensive. I would say two days in Tel Aviv, two at the Dead Sea, four in Jerusalem (do a food tour and a two day walking tour and a day to wander), and probably three more days to see the West Bank, Nazareth Bethlehem and whatever else I missed. So, that’s 11 days for Israel.

Cyprus: It's on the Move

No, seriously it’s moving. I was first struck by the cracks in the walls of my AirBnB which was build into the side of a hill, in 20th Century America, we would say it had a walkout basement. Cyprus is old and this house, as most houses in Cyprus doesn’t fit easily into the common architectural phylotypes of the West. This house was old. The owner didn’t know how old, only that her parents had purchased it for 9,000 pounds in 1978.

As I drove through the mountains, there were rocks in the road from recent landslides around every corner. In some places the road was partially caved in, in others longitudinal cracks had formed in the pavement as the road separated in preparation to cave. My AirBnB host told me that a home she had purchased and later resold required substantial foundation repairs. It looked like most of the buildings on the island had foundation problems.

Prior to going to Cyprus, I had fantasies that I might fall in love with it and Tanya might fall in love with it and we would end up retiring there. It’s a relatively inexpensive place to live as far as islands in the Eurozone go, though that’s changing. The landscape reminds me of Arizona in that it’s arid and mountainous, except for an area of pine forests (think Flagstaff). Unlike Arizona, it also has stunning coastlines and beaches. It also has a splash of Hawaii, in that it has a native people that seem to be looked down upon by immigrants and conquerors and an influx of new people coming in and buying up prime real estate and building luxury condominiums. In the case of Cyprus, the current crop of outsiders is primarily Russian. And of course, like the British (former colonizers), they drive on the left. And also like Arizona, they have subpar public transportation.

These last two points are the main reasons that I am not itching to go back — there is not safe, reliable way for me to get around the island. I hated driving on the left. Driving on the right is not inherently better, but if it’s all you have done for forty years, the change is daunting. The world is just simply a better place when I am not trying to drive on the left. So, I don’t want to visit countries that drive on the left and lack adequate public transit so that I feel like I should risk driving. To make a long story short, within a couple of hours of renting the car, I went through some sort of skinny tunnel and cut the corner short on the passenger side and bashed in the front, left door and also broke a tie rod and damaged a tire. This lead to some hostilities with the rental agency, but let’s put all that behind us because it’s really not an interesting story.

What was interesting was that the British woman who rented an AirBnB to me gave me impossibly bad directions. This led to wrong turns, the tunnel, etc. I stopped at the house where the Google Maps led me to and asked. An old man came to the door in camos. I tried to communicate that I was looking for an AirBnB and showed him a picture of my host, thinking maybe he would recognize her (the AirBnB was in a small community outside of Paphos). He didn’t, but he invited me in to try some of his homemade hooch, Ouzo, I think. He also gave me some candy that is pretty typical throughout the caucuses, balkans and Turkey. I don’t know what it’s called, but they cook down grapes with nuts. Sometimes they run a string down the middle and it comes out looking like a candle. Personally, it’s not my favorite. After a couple of drinks, he showed me where he thought I wanted to go, but he was wrong and I had to resort to calling the host and she guided me in.

So, what is there to do in Cyprus? First, there are beautiful beaches. I’m not really a beach person, so I walk around a little, look at stuff ,and stay away from the water. If I ever develop into a beach person, I’m sure these will be some of my favorites. They already are some of my favorites, it’s just that I don’t really like sand and I don’t swim that much either.

There are also quite a few ancient churches and monasteries. These are mostly in or near small villages up in the mountains. Some of these are quite difficult to get to in a regular car as the roads go from asphalt to gravel to dirt.

Aside from that, there’s Nicosia which is the capital city. It is the only divided capital city in the world. The division is the result of war in which Turkey invaded in the 1970s and established the Turkish Republic of North Cyprus on about 40% of the island. The division runs throw Nicosia. It is possible to enter North Cyprus via land crossing points. This is kind of an interesting thing to do. The border zone around the checkpoint in Nicosia is rather built up and commercial on each side of the border. Once out of that zone, particularly on the north side, development drops off pretty fast. The Selimiye Mosque was the most interesting thing I saw in my visit to the North Cyprus. It began as a Catholic Church in the Byzantine Empire when Cyprus was taken over by Selimiye the Magnificent. It was then converted to a mosque. You can’t drive to North Cyprus, so you’re somewhat limited on what you can do in the country without arranging for transportation. I stayed near the border crossing and was only there a few hours.

So, in summary, if you like beaches, Cyprus has some beautiful beaches. I would recommend staying at one of the resorts to avoid driving. There are several tour companies on the island that can get you out to see some of the sites, I just don’t think the risk of driving justifies any of the sites that I saw.

The Co-Capitals of Byzantium Revisited

This post is not intended to be political, but it is necessary to note the rapidly changing events and that Turkey may soon be a nation under siege. The American President announced that he was pulling US troops back and abandoning our long-time ally, the PKK. This caused a uproar in the halls of congress and we don’t know how that will eventually play out. My fear is that, like 1991, Bush signaled to Hussein that the US wouldn’t intervene in Kuwait. When Hussein then invaded Kuwait, the US went to war. My fear is that an embattled US President may seek war with Turkey to prop up his reelection chances at home. This President is beneath nothing. I hope I am just a doomsayer and none of this comes to pass, but I don’t see how this can fade quietly away. I also know that this administration has next to no diplomatic skills. We are in a perilous time with no clear path out, with a politically motivated leader who has been backed into a corner.

I spent 10 days in Istanbul followed by six days in Thessaloniki. Prior to planning this trip I knew little of Thessaloniki. My main criteria for going there was that it was easily reachable from Istanbul and had cheap flights to Cyprus — it’s choice as a destination was a pragmatic after thought. It wasn’t until later that I learned it had been the Co-Capital of the Byzantine Empire. As recently as the 14th century, it was larger than London.

The struggle to separate from Istanbul is told in the “Museum of the Macedonian Struggle” in Thessaloniki. This small, but informative museum is housed in the former Greek Consulate which was the headquarters of the resistance or independence movement. Guerilla fighting and terrorist attacks staged by Greek Macedonians against Ottomans and Bulgarians in the early 20th Century were planned in the consulate. Thessaloniki and the surrounding area did not become part of Greece in 1912. Curiously, Ataturk (the father of modern Turkey) was from Thessaloniki and his former home is on the grounds of the Turkish Consulate and is home to the Ataturk Museum. I was unable to visit the museum because it was closed because of Erdogan’s aggression toward the Kurds occurring only about two weeks prior to my visit. At the time of my visit, Greek police had increased security at the consulate and protests in front of the consulate were ongoing.

The modern cities of Istanbul and Thessaloniki have little in common. The population of Istanbul is nearly 15 times as large as the Thessaloniki metropolitan area while its land area is nearly five times as large. It’s shear size makes Istanbul one of the largest and most important cities in the world. Its geographic location straddling two continents has historically meant that it was in a strategic location for trade. As a result, Istanbul was fortified with walls and a moat (what remains of the moat is now planted in vegetable gardens). Thessaloniki’s fortifications were somewhat more modest though it was attacked on several occasions from both land and sea.

Of the countries that I have visited on this trip, Turkey is probably the one that has given me the greatest difficulty in terms of language. The Turks speak Turkish and not much else. By contrast, Greece was probably the easiest I had it. Most of the Greeks that I encountered spoke reasonably good English.

The people of Turkey and Greece also stand in contrast to one another. The Turks are intense, when Erdogan said he was offended by Trump’s amateurish letter and would deal with it in time, Trump should be worried. The Turks are world class grudge holders. One hundred years from when a future Turkish President orders AiR Force One shot down, he may announce that we are now even for the offence shown Erdogan. This intensity permeates every aspect of Turkish life. A hug is almost as common as a handshake, business negotiations begin with a cup or two of tea (that’s how I bought carpets). If you have the same waiter more than once, the waiter will greet you with a handshake. I twice saw old men moved to shoving fights in the street over who knows what. Nowhere have I seen more flags on display than Turkey.

The Greeks do not show the same intensity. They do care a great deal about their place in the world. My time in Thessaloniki featured nightly protests of the Turkish invasion of Syria. People make an effort to leave out food for the stray animals in the neighborhood. Where service in a Turkish restaurant is quick and efficient, service in a Greek restaurant, well it’s going to be an hour and a half. Somewhat inexplicably, Greece is loud, dirty and nothing seems to work. Istanbul, after adjusting for the huge size, is orderly, quiet and efficient (there should be a lot of caveats with that). Somehow, Greece has charm that Turkey lacks. I liked both a great deal for different reasons. It seems that Greek identifies as the cradle of democracy and holds that dear, where Turkey identifies with an empire lost and wants it back.

Turkey is a secular country with a population that is more than 90 percent muslim and the muslim influence is very much present in Istanbul. Greece’s constitution recognizes Greek Orthodoxy as the prevailing religion and, indeed more than 90 percent of the population is Greek Orthodox, though the religion appears to be in steep decline. In Istanbul, there seems to be a mosque (camii in Turkish) on every street corner, the most famous include the Blue Mosque and the New Mosque (about 400 years old) and several others. In Thessaloniki, St. Demetrius and some others are on every Top 10 list. Both cities have a Hagia Sophia, though Istanbul’s is the one everyone talks about. Although the practicing population of each seems significantly lower (particularly in Thessaloniki where it seems no one under the age of 60 even knows where a church is located), religion has framed the city. The call to prayer can be heard all over Istanbul five times a day. Rather than being intrusive, it’s a beautiful and incoherent reminder of time and history. It is common to see women in some form of cover ranging from a modest head scarf to to a burka and all points in between. No form is religious dress in noteable in Thessaloniki, except for cross jewelry as necklace pendants, earrings, or to dangle from the rearview mirror of disproportionately large size, making me question whether the wearer was a Christian or a Rapper.

With Turkey being a muslim country, pork is nonexistent. Greece eats more pork than I realized. It was on every menu and prepared as souvlakis and stews. I managed to make it out of Greece without trying moussaka, as I am not an eggplant lover, that’s OK. Greece/Turkey did seem to be the dividing line between west and east — where coffee meets tea so to speak. Greece is where I stopped drinking tea. It’s not necessarily where I started drinking coffee (Turkish coffee is a thing and it is indistinguishable from Greek or Cypriot coffee). But in Turkey they drink tea. They drink it at meals, between meals, in business negotiations. Following a meal, a restaurant would often bring complimentary cups of tea in small hour glass cups. In Greece, they were much more likely to bring a complimentary dessert when you asked for the check.

Istanbul has excellent public transit with an array of systems including, subway, light rail, trams, ferries, buses and minibuses. We took all of them except the minibuses. These remain a mystery. All worked well and are used extensively by the Turkish people and are crowded. This system allowed us to stay outside the tourist area and commute in. If you plan to use public transit in Istanbul, buy an Istanbulkart (you need it to ride). There are different styles, we bought the reloadable ones. The machines that you purchase the cards from are at every station. The English instructions seldom seem to work, so you’re flying blind.

Thessaloniki has a bus system that I took in from the airport and didn’t use again. It was very crowded. The bus systems seemed extensive. It worked out that my AirBnB was centrally located and I could walk everywhere. Thessaloniki is small enough that it is possible.

As for must see tourist sites in Istanbul, they are almost too numerous to mention and draw huge crowds. The Museum Pass (not to be confused with the Muzekart which is only for Turkish residents and citizens) is probably a good investment. It allows you admittance to 12 museums and historic sites and we visited six of them. In addition, the mosques are free. In addition to the mosques, the Grand Bazar, the Hagia Sofia, the mosaic museum and the Islamic art and textile museum were excellent. The Chora Church is small, but has impressive mosaics and frescoes. It is also next to the Cafe Asitane which is a somewhat high end restaurant (dinner for two was about $60) that seeks to recreate Ottoman dishes. It was good, though we got as much enjoyment out of the many great Turkish restaurants. One should also take the time to explore the neighborhoods of Istanbul. Take a ferry ride across the Bosphorus to Kadikoy and walk around. It is like Istanbul’s Brooklyn and has many amazing restaurants. Also explore the area across the Golden Horn around the Galata Tower. We visited the Jewish Museum, many shops, and Aga Hamami in this neighborhood. It is an old Turkish bath. Whether you visit this bath or a different one, a Turkish bath should be visited. The Museum of Innocence is also in this area, but we ran out of time.

Thessaloniki has Roman ruins throughout the middle of town. It also has an interesting mosque called Yeni Camii. It is small and slightly out of the way. It was built in 1902 for the Donmeh. THe Donmeh were crypto-Jew who followed a rabbi in the 17th Century that claimed to be the messiah. The Sultan publicly converted them to Islam. They continued to live in Thessaloniki and built the mosque (or camii) with the Sultan’s money in 1902. The mosque contains many Jewish symbols, indicating that the conversion was in name only. The museum of Byzantine Culture and the Jewish Museum are also very good. Thessaloniki had a large population of Sephardic Jews and at one time accounted for half the population. A fire in the early 20th Century followed by the devastating effect of the holocaust dwindled the population. The Jewish Museum tells that story very effectively. The neighborhoods and alleys of Thessaloniki are also fun to roam.

Both of these cultures are lived very much outdoors. Walking around, sitting in cafes are a part of life.

Budapest

Hungary is a country where people are willing to sit at a picnic table in the rain and cold just so they can smoke while they drink their beer. (Note: Hungary is a wine county. It is also a palinka and unicom country, but they still consume a lot of beer, they just don’t make much.)  It is also a city with very good public transit and a developed tourism industry. Hop on, hop off buses roam the streets as do all other manner of tourist.  In this trip that has now spanned six countries, Budapest was the first where I encountered Americans in anything other than a novel quantity.

I spent eight nights in Budapest, which is probably more than is ideal as a tourist, but I was in an AirBnB with a washer, so I made good use of my time.  An ideal length of time for a normal tourist visit would be 3 to 4 days. That should give you plenty of time to hit the main tourist sites, go to a bath and do so at a relaxed pace without having to kill time in some third tier museum.  However, if you do decide to go to a third tier museum, Budapest has an extensive and easy to use public transit system consisting of buses, trams, and a subway. If you’re there for only 3 to 4 days, It’s probably cheaper to buy single tickets.  If you’re staying for longer, you can buy a seven day pass. One and three day passes are also available, but seemed comparatively expensive. 

As is always the case, eat the local food.  You’re going to get the best Hungarian food in the world here.  But, keep in mind, Budapest is a bit of a melting pot with a large Chinatown and a large Asian community.  Thai, Sushi and Vietnamese restaurants were also plentiful as well as Chinese. While I was there, I had some excellent Chinese in Chinatown and some meh Thai in the centrum.  There are also several kosher restaurants near the Dohany Street Synagogue.  

As I was there for eight days, I took some liberties with the eating local mantra, not only eating Chinese and Thai, but also trying Ukrainian (they share a border) and Italian. But sticking to the local food there’s plenty to sample. There are the dishes that everyone is familiar with such as goulash and chicken paprika, but also try goose. Goose is a very popular meat here that we don’t see very often in the US. It’s not exorbitantly expensive either. Goose is so popular that McDonalds was advertising a ‘Goosey Gustav’ burger with goose liver on it (I would not recommend that as your foyer into goose). Hungary is also the second largest producer of foie gras in the world. I personally do not eat foie gras for ethical reasons. My ethical concerns were reinforced when I visited the Central Market on a food tour and was shown a foie gras liver, it was huge and pale. I asked how big a normal goose liver was as I had an idea of the size of a chicken liver in my mind. There were regular goose livers sold at the next counter, the size and color difference was disturbing.

The foie gras/liver viewing was on a food tour I went on with foodtourbudapest.com. The tour lasted four hours and we sampled several liquors and wines. We also samples a traditional, simple sandwich, salami, goulash, a crepe dish, letscho, a pasta, cakes, and coffee, while visiting six places including an old coffee house, the market and a few others. Nora, the guide was very good at explaining Hungarian food and how it relates to Hungarian history.

So, other than cuisine Budapest is famous for its baths and its architecture. I wrote an entire post on the baths of Budapest, so I won’t rehash it here. The link to that post is here . I went to Gellert and to Rudas. Gellert is more ornate and coed. Rudas, less so and single sex, mostly.

The architecture of Budapest’s downtown area is beautiful. Budapest was once three cities Obuda, Buda and Pest. Obuda, or old Buda, was the hilly side with the castle, etc., Buda was the rest of the hilly side, and Pest was the flatter side with the Parliament building. What I found interesting about the city is that the Danube does not serve as a dividing line between classes or races. Certainly, once out of the city center, the development on the Pest side becomes more working class, and it is also true that the highest real estate values are on the Buda side (specifically, in Obuda). But most tourists who are there for more than a few days are going to spend most of their time on the Pest side.

The Buda side though probably has the most visited sites — The castle area has the castle (obviously), Matthias church, the National Gallery, all but one bathhouse (Széchenyi Thermal Bath) and the labyrinth under the castle. It also has the Citadella and the Fisherman’s Bastion. All of these are close together and can be seen in a day. It would probably be a mistake to visit Budapest and not visit this area. How long you stay depends on your interest in castles and churches. As for the labyrinth, if you’re not claustrophobic, go to the labyrinth. It doesn’t cost very much and is worth 0.5 to 1 hour. It is the cave where Count Dracula was imprisoned and that’s not the most interesting part about it. It’s just fun to wander the caves and see various displays.

The Pest side has the larger population and most of the hotels and public transit. It also has its fair share of tourist sites. The Jewish Quarter, or more appropriately, the Jewish Ghetto should be visited. The reason ghetto is the more appropriate term is that Budapest never had a quarter prior to 1944 when the Arrow Cross party, backed by the Nazis rounded up the city’s Jewish population and herded them into a three block area. The Dohany Street Synagogue and free guided tour (after you pay the entrance fee) are well worth it. The tour provides an excellent architectural history of the beautiful synagogue as well as history of the Jewish population of Hungary and the Holocaust. This tour takes under an hour and is worth it.

The Jewish Quarter is now kind of the party area of Budapest. The Ruin Bars are located here, although most are being forced out in favor of fancier ruin bars. Actual ruin bars opened in the years following the fall of the Iron Curtain in dilapidated pre-War buildings. They were pretty Spartan affairs and just a way for people to make money or have a drink with friends. Now, about anything can call itself a ruin bar. Other than that there are many places to eat and drink in the Jewish Quarter, including some serving kosher fare.

The Central Market is also worth visiting — once. It is very crowded and a tourist trap these days. I see people eating there, but to me it’s not worth the hassle. If you do a food tour, this is a likely stop.

Other things to see include St. Stephen’s Basilica, the mausoleum of Gul Baba is a little out of the way on the Buda side, but worth seeing if you have the time and are looking for an urban hike.

If you are in Budapest more than a few days, visiting Margaret Island is worthwhile. It is an island in the Danube that has fountains, botanical gardens sports fields and other things. It is basically a large city park.

I thought Budapest was a beautiful city that probably warrants 3-4 days. I would start with a food tour and adjust the itinerary based on that. Include a bath,though probably not two.