Location Bias in Restaurant Reviews

So, I heard an interesting story about on-line review sites on the radio the other day. Apparently, if seeking reviews on restaurants one should place more weight on a local's review than a visitor's review. And why? Because a visitor might be more 'forgiving' of shortcomings because the visitor is in a new place and may think that deficiencies are just local variations and different in this town than where they are from. Failings in service or quality might be a local novelty rather than a shortcoming.

Hmmm. Perhaps I should include more reviews of my local restaurants, because I can absolutely say that sometimes, when traveling, it is the entire experience that gets wrapped up in the review. For example, I have no memory of the food I ate at one restaurant, but check out this view. You know I was enchanted as I dined. (Oh, except for that incredibly loud family that showed up after our appetizers and proceeded to punch each other and giggle and bellow about how the kabobs are better at home. Suddenly my meal wasn't as appetizing, but that is not the fault of the restaurant.)

Sunset and a storm - our view at dinner in Cappadokia.

Beware the Dropped Shoe Brush in Istanbul

Beware the shoe shine guy who drops his brush in front of you in Istanbul... suppress your natural desire to be helpful and ignore the brush and just keep walking. Yes, we were had. We thought we were being helpful, but we were lead away from the security cameras and his 'cousin' joined him and we were separated from about $20 or $40, we don't actually know...

This happened to us outside the Grand Bazaar.

But, as we were walking in front of the Dolmabache Palace someone tried to do it to us again. This time at least we were smart!!! We just kept walking and then laughed about it with incredulity.

Now that we know, we found a web site about this very subject.... And, in my 'Long Trip Debrief' I have added a note to check for large city scams. I am not going to be duped again! (Famous last words.) Or at least I am going to try and remember that if people eagerly engage you in conversation, they might be seeking something from you. If you, however, initiate the interaction, you are probably pretty safe. I mean, our experience was that the people were all really lovely.

Who Do You Think You Are Resumes

on TLC at 9 pm Eastern time on 7/26. So very excited!

http://www.tlc.com/tv-shows/who-do-you-think-you-are/

Bring Greenies to Turkey and Greece

Should I ever return to Greece or Turkey I am going to load up on Greenies in my suitcase (and make room for more souvenirs as I spread the Greenie love.)

I am not trying to advertise for Greenies, but I do know that my cat will seek out and tear a bag open, so I figure she likes them. Whether they are actually good for her, I have no idea, I just know she's a fan and I am a fan of her.

I noticed on this trip that I can not concentrate on what I am being told if there is an animal around - and this is particularly true if that animal is a water buffalo or a cat. And seeing as there were no water buffaloes in this area of the world, it was cats. And were there ever cats.... Everywhere. And frequently very healthy looking.

Let us begin with my friend at home - full name: Free-to-a-Good-Home, also known as Freeda. She was out all night, the camp counselors tell me, and this is her 'bugger-off' face in the morning when she went to bed.



Here we have an attractive little feline laying on a column capital from the Greco-Roman period now found at the Istanbul Archaeology Museum:


And a friend from the museum, hanging out at the little cafe, who will even jump in your lap if you let him - very sweet and soft, but eager for food


Sleeping contentedly in the Yildiz Palace park


Beautifully colored and fluffy cat parading along Çirağan Caddesi (yes, that is my foot, so you can get a sense of how friendly the cat was)


Jumping back in time, and to Greece... On the beach in Leros


In Kalimnos, Greece... one can see how my traveling companions might have thought them pests.... but I was thrilled.


Just a small sampling of the cats I wanted to put in my bag to take home.

We only saw one pregnant cat - at the Istanbul Archaeology Museum - and only a few litters. We did see many tipped ears, though, so attention is being paid to the animals.

I guess I am not particularly a dog person, but there are plenty of dogs around as well - and well-behaved and fairly clean and healthy looking. Many had tags on their ears, but they too are living an contemplated-in-the-US life on the streets.

3,000 Views

Ha! We made it to 3,000 page views today! How fabulous is that? I swear it isn't only me.

So, who is this person who keeps +1'ing me? I would welcome a comment to know who you are (I think.)

Sira Restaurant, Uçhisar, Turkey - A Review

I wish I had taken some photographs of the restaurant. I just didn't expect it to be so nice. It was especially nice after the previous dinners we had had at another nearby restaurant where we were surrounded by large touring groups. Some of the other guests at the other hotel restaurant seemed to have trouble keeping their voices down, which meant that we could not even hear ourselves think! Tough for a romantic dinner that way.

But Şira was lovely and small, with no huge round tables where the guests shout at one another from across the table.

The manager, Kâmil Koparal, asked us our names when we entered and then continued to address us by them all evening... which was unsettling... He has an eidetic memory. Unsettling in an interesting way... we felt like idiots not remembering his name. Another table asked him his name and we latched on to it.

Anyway, we enjoyed our dinner very much and would recommend the restaurant to others. It was too cool to eat outside, but the dining room was intimate with only a few tables. They do wine tastings at the hotel, so we found some nice local wines on the wine list and found a nice one to accompany our dinner.

I'd go again if in Uçhisar.

Happy Independence Day!

Tying my trip to Turkey with Herb's Life in WWI

I had to post twice today to capture both the events happening on 7/3...

On July 3rd, when the Commanding Officer is writing his letter to the Chief of Service U.S.A.A.S. with French Army about the Ambulance Corps, the Sultan, fighting on the side of the Germans, was dying.

I took this blurb from the History Channel's web site for this day.

On this day in 1918, with Turkish forces in the final months of fighting against the Allied powers during World War I, Mohammed V, sultan of the Ottoman Empire, dies at the age of 73.

Born in 1844 in Constantinople, Mohammed ascended to the throne in 1909 after the forced abdication of his elder brother, Abdul Hamid, under pressure from the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), a rising political party known as the Young Turkey Party, or the Young Turks. Bent on modernizing the fading Ottoman Empire and stopping European powers from taking Ottoman territory, the Young Turks fomented a rebellion within the Ottoman Third Army in 1908 and forced the sultan to meet their demands and restore the Turkish constitution. The army, under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal (later known as Ataturk, he became the first president of Turkey) consolidated power for the CUP the following year, forcing the sultan to abdicate in favor of his brother Mohammed.

The leaders of the CUP, particularly Enver Pasha, effectively dictated the course of events over the next decade, as the new sultan, a gentle man, was little able to exert much of his own will on the throne. The results were not good for the empire: over the course of 1912-13, it lost virtually all of its remaining European territory during the two Balkan Wars and an unsuccessful war with Italy over Tripoli. In November 1914, Turkey entered the First World War on the side of the Central Powers, Germany and Austria-Hungary, against Britain, France and Russia. Though he had initially opposed his country’s participation in the war, Sultan Mohammed now exhorted his army–as well as all Muslims, including those living in Allied countries–to fight exhaustively against the empire’s enemies, proclaiming that “Right and loyalty are on our side, and hatred and tyranny on the side of our enemies, and therefore there is no doubt that the Divine help and assistance of the just God and the moral support of our glorious Prophet will be on our side to encourage us. I feel convinced that from this struggle we shall emerge as an empire that has made good the losses of the past and is once more glorious and powerful.”

By the time Mohammed V died, on July 3, 1918, Turkish forces had endured nearly four exhausting years of war, including a full-scale Allied land invasion of the Gallipoli Peninsula and aggressive Allied incursions into Mesopotamia, and were teetering on the brink of defeat. Within six months of the sultan’s death (he was succeeded by his brother, Mohammed VI), Constantinople itself was occupied by the Allies, and the once-great Ottoman Empire was in shambles.

On our second to last day in Istanbul, I went to the Pera Palace Hotel and viewed the room which Mustafa Kemal Ataturk used. Here is a photo I took of him as a young man. (Talk about a nice looking man...)

Assessment of the Ambulance Corps by the Commanding Officer

So much time has passed between my reports on Herb. I have lost a train of thought, I am afraid.

I missed posting this letter from July 3, 1918 I have in my possession from the National Archive in College Park, Maryland. Though I missed it chronologically with Herb's letters, at least I managed to post it 97 years to the day after it was written!

I have left it large so that it can be read. It gives a good summary of the performance of the Ambulance Division in France up to this point. Our last update about Herb can be found here. From that report it is easier to go back and see some of the other information from around this time.

Very powerful stuff, these statistics. And the battle of the Marne actually hasn't happened upon the writing of this letter.

Yildiz Palace/Şale (pronounced Chalet for those of us who don't speak Turkish) Pavilion - A review

Wonderful.

Yes, the palace itself is closed for renovations, but this pavilion and the incredibly steep park are open. Families were picnicking at the many tables in the park - plus there are at least 3 restaurants in the park, in the other pavilions. It was a nice visit.

Our friend, Nez, told us that the carpet in one of the reception halls was made by 60 or so weavers, and the the docent at the pavilion told me that it took 3 years to make. I can't imagine the size of the loom, or the room in which the loom was housed!

I wish I was able to take photographs of the carpet. I found this photograph at Turkishculture. I wish I had found a larger image. You can't possibly see the carpet.

The Şale Pavilion was built in 3 sections in the 19th century. It is very opulent and the workmanship is impressive. The carpet is a one piece Hereke carpet - 406 square meters! It is one of the largest carpets in the world and the wall had to be removed to install it.

Looking at the older two sections

The third section

The entrance to the center section

Shhhh, don't tell anyone I have this photo - of the Mother of Pearl dining hall

The only portion of the actual Palace I saw over the wall

Lots of ducks in the park

Ok, I found this photo of the carpet:



And a friendly cat I found on the street... what beautiful coloring!

Yemeni Heritage, Saudi Vandalism

I read this article in the June 27th edition of the International New York Times. This breaks my heart - especially after being absolutely amazed by the artifacts found throughout Turkey in their archaeological digs. I don't recall being so amazed by the ancient Greco-Roman artifacts we have in our American Museums, though I should take another look now that I have seen some of the actual sites where the artwork was discovered.

(Just look at the details and expressions on these ancient pieces of art. These pieces are in the Archaeology Museum in Konya, Turkey. )







I have never thought about what was found in Yemen. And it breaks my heart, I repeat myself, to think I may never see those items found from ancient civilizations.

For more than 10 years, I was one of a number of American and Yemeni archaeologists surveying and excavating sites dating to the fabled South Arabian kingdoms and beyond, to prehistoric times. We were members of the Dhamar Survey Project, started by the University of Chicago and named for a historic town in highland Yemen.

The team spent decades exploring the magnificent megalithic monuments and walled towns of a civilization that developed terraced agriculture as early as the third millennium B.C., an ancient tradition that has stunningly etched the entire surface area of the region’s steep mountains like a topographical map. The project collected thousands of artifacts from more than 400 sites, including tools, pottery, statuary and inscriptions in ancient South Arabian languages.

Saudi soldiers at a post near Dayer, on the Yemeni border. With cease-fire talks failing, analysts say Saudi Arabia appears to lack a realistic strategy to end the war.Saudi Bombing Only Fans Yemen’s FlamesJUNE 24, 2015
The site of an airstrike near the Sana airport on Thursday. Saudi Arabia and nine other countries began military operations in Yemen to counter the Houthis, who rallied against the airstrikes.Saudi Arabia Leads Air Assault in YemenMARCH 25, 2015
We ensured that all of these artifacts, evidence of ancient cultures that traded at great distances during the Neolithic period and eventually built roads to link the highland towns to major incense trade routes, were deposited in the Dhamar Regional Museum. There, they were restored and studied by foreign teams and Yemeni archaeologists, and put on display.

This museum has just been obliterated from the air. In a matter of minutes, the irreplaceable work of ancient artisans, craftsmen and scribes — not to mention the efforts of Yemeni and foreign researchers who have dedicated years of their lives to studying and preserving this legacy — were pulverized. The museum and its 12,500 artifacts were turned to rubble by Saudi bombs.

Since March, Saudi Arabia has conducted a large-scale campaign of air attacks on its neighbor with the stated purpose of driving back the Houthi rebels who have taken control of the capital Sana and large parts of the country. These aerial bombardments have not managed to reverse the gains of the rebels, but have succeeded in devastating Yemen, one of the poorest countries in the Arab world. Thousands of civilians have been killed or injured, and hundreds of thousands have been displaced, amid severe shortages of food, fuel and medical supplies.

Less reported is that these bombardments show a pattern of targeting cultural heritage sites in a country that has made extraordinary contributions to world civilization. Mohannad al-Sayani, director of Yemen’s General Organization of Antiquities and Museums, confirmed to me by email that 25 sites and monuments have been severely damaged or destroyed since the beginning of the conflict.

Thought by many to be the historic home of the Queen of Sheba, Yemen is one of the great jewels of human antiquity, with a legacy of magnificent temples, water-management projects and towering cities dating back thousands of years. This cultural wealth is not limited to ancient sites: Three of Yemen’s cities are on the Unesco World Heritage list for their breathtaking vernacular architecture.

Yemen is central to the story of mankind: Sixty thousand years ago, early man walked through Yemen along the Bab al-Mandab, one of the major out-of-Africa routes that Homo sapiens took to colonize Eurasia. Archaeologists like me have found the remnants of prehistoric cultures that navigated the Red and Arabian Seas 8,000 years ago; these early travelers and traders left behind impressive megaliths.

Then there are the prehistoric walled hilltop towns and massive cities that were ruled by the South Arabian kingdoms of the first millennium B.C. Yemen also boasts a rich Islamic heritage that includes some of the oldest, most elaborately decorated mosques in the world.

On June 12, the historic city of Sana, itself a Unesco World Heritage Site, was bombarded by the Saudis. This city, continuously inhabited for over 2,500 years, contains some of the most beautiful traditional architecture in the world. The deliberate targeting of a civilian district of the old city was inexcusable and raises serious questions about Saudi Arabia’s intentions in this conflict.

Ten other sites in Yemen are on the tentative Unesco World Heritage List. One of these, the old city of Saada, has also suffered extensive damage from air attack.

Another is the Marib Dam, one of the most renowned monuments of Yemen. Constructed no later than the first millennium B.C. and still in operation until around the sixth century A.D., this feat of engineering genius enabled the irrigation of an estimated 24,000 acres of fields by means of an elaborate system of canals. The dam, adorned with inscriptions in ancient South Arabian script, allowed the Sabaean kingdoms, famous for having controlled the incense routes, to subsist in the desert margin.

The desecration of these archaeological sites and monuments, as well as the architecture and infrastructure of Yemen’s historic cities, can be called only a targeted and systemic destruction of Yemeni world heritage. Yet it has not been named as such.

The international media has devoted extensive coverage to the barbaric destruction of museums and archaeological sites in Iraq and Syria by the Islamic State. This is not the case with the continuing aerial vandalism perpetrated in Yemen by Saudi Arabia.

The same obscurantist ideology by which the Islamic State justifies its destruction of cultural heritage sites appears to be driving the Saudis’ air war against the precious physical evidence of Yemen’s ancient civilizations. There is no other explanation for why the Saudi-led offensive should have laid waste to these irreplaceable world archaeological treasures.

In fact, several sources have confirmed that Unesco and the State Department gave the coalition a list of specific sites to avoid. But far from rebuking its ally for ignoring this advice, the United States is providing logistical, intelligence and moral support for the Saudi air campaign.

Saudi Arabia is thus responsible not only for devastating a country of 25 million impoverished people, who are now suffering from famine, deteriorating sanitary conditions and a lack of medical supplies, but also for a strategy of demolishing significant world heritage sites. This Saudi cultural vandalism is hard to distinguish from the Islamic State’s.

The United States itself has a deplorable record of protecting irreplaceable archaeological treasures during its occupation of Iraq from 2003. It could start to atone for that cultural catastrophe by reining in the regional and ideological ambitions of its Saudi partners. Only the United States has the capacity to stop the Saudis before their bombs rob the world of even more of its precious heritage.

Lamya Khalidi is an archaeologist at the French National Center for Scientific Research who has excavated mainly in Syria, Lebanon and Yemen.