Photos

Hola! We got our wedding pics back from our photographer, and we figured you, devoted blog readers, are probably the only people who may want to see said pics.

The pictures can be divided into two groups.... "Pre-Party"

(click to enlarge)

and "During Party"

(click to enlarge)

IF you want to see more pictures, they are posted at: http://seanflanigan.zenfolio.com/landm/ and the password is: landm

You are warned, however, that there are a zillion pictures and most of them consist of matt and I looking lovey dovey. So look at your own risk. And if you do want to look but want to cut to the fun party stuff, those start at approx #600 (it goes to #973.)

Also, we have a disc with all the files on them, but I think you can order prints if you want off of that website. Or you can just let us know what #s you want and we could send them to you (that has to wait until April though when we are back in the States though).

If you want to look at more pictures without having to cull through them yourselves, our photographer put up his fav pictures on his blog here.

By the way, our wedding was totally fun and thanks again for all of you who were able to make it.

xxx

Baba Zula

We went to go see the Turkish band "Baba Zula" on Thursday night, on the recommendation of our friend Sally.

Baba Zula calls themselves "Oriental Dub"- which is pretty accurate, seeing as the lead guy plays an electronic sitar. It was a really fun show, involving belly dancers and a 6 yr old playing a darbuka w/ his dad. If you are in the mood for some modern Turkish music, check out the video below of on of my fav songs from the concert.

Christmas in Malaysia

If you listened to the Bing Crosby Christmas Album as much as my family did growing up, then you definitely know the "Christmas in Kilarney" song. Surprisingly, substituting Malaysia for Kilarney works very well. You should try it.

Moving on. So, we spent Dec. 24-27th in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia with our friends Duffy, Carrie and Andy this year. Apparently Christmas in Turkey is just like any other day, but in Malaysia (also a predominantly Muslim Country) it is party central. A party that includes fake snow, sparkly makeup, a countdown to midnight and fireworks.

The clean up crews had their work cut out for them.

There were some innocent bystanders hit with fake snow (Sorry Carrie!).

Lest you think our Christmas was all party and no tradition, let it be known that we decorated our room in the Prince Hotel to the nines.

Two Interesting Facts about Flying in the Middle East

(1) If you are flying over Iraqi airspace (say, because you were flying from Istanbul to Dubai where you had a layover on your way to Kuala Lumpur) then you need to sit down and keep your seatbelt fastened the whole time. Even in non-turbulence. Weird, right? It was kind of disconcerting when the pilot came over the loud speaker and said that we were entering Iraq. Even if we were 35,000 feet above it.

2) The flight attendants on Emirates air wear these totally sweet hats. If I were to be a flight attendant (which I totally would except I'm deathly afraid of flying and hate dealing with obnoxious people), I would SO be an Emirates flight attendant.

Reprise

The best thing about Lucy's new hit single, "Cats on Roman Ruins," is that it is easy to reprise. For instance: Cats in the Hagia Sophia. (This used to be a Church/Mosque, but now it's run by CATS!)

Here's Lucy with this version's muse.

The lights illuminating the mihrab must put out some serious heat.

No one but cats are allowed up there.

If you look really close (like, with zoom and stuff), you can see this cat (who runs the Hagia Sophia) from really far away, like a cat beacon of light:

This view was made possible by the removal of the shameful scaffolding inside of the Hagia Sophia for the first time in 16 years (or 17 years, depending on your source). Sorry you missed it, Mom and Dad! But thanks to Carrie for giving us a reason to go there for the fourth time.

Tavuk Göğsü

On a rainy night in Istanbul, after a pretty disappointing meal at a guidebook-hyped restaurant, what would most people look for to turn their night around? That's right, chicken pudding.

Back in December, my parents, Lucy and I went to a pudding shop which came recommended from my Turkish teacher. It had about twenty different puddings on the menu, as well as other desserts. For instance, you can order a Profiterol (the one smothered in chocolate below):

Or you can order tavuk göğsü (chicken breast), which is clearly what you should be doing given that it's in the pudding section of the menu. Unlike sigara böreği, which bears only a figurative relationship to its namesake (cigarettes), chicken breast pudding actually has very thinly shredded chicken in it and (wait for it...) tastes like chicken.

Maybe it was just the place we were at, but the consistency wasn't that awesome. On a scale of "Durian Nasty" to "Bay Cities Amazing" this is somewhere in the low middle. It was probably a one-time thing.

Turkish Cats on Roman Ruins

As anyone who has spent time w/ me lately knows, "Cats on Roman Ruins" will be the name of my future band's hit single.

These guys gave me that inspiration:

Sorry Duffy if I got it stuck in your head again.

Pre-Christmas Road Trip

Hello! I know it's been a while (um, a month and a half?)... but we've been busy. John and Debbie (Matt's parents) came for a wonderful two week visit, then we headed to asia for christmas/new years/etc. I'm finally back in Istanbul and am enjoying the return to a much slower pace and can finally sort through pictures and the like.

The deTar parent visit included an epic turkish roadtrip as well as some time spent in Istanbul.

Close to our route (had a little trouble with google map swearing we had to take a ferry near the end when we clearly did not have to).

Our roadtrip included Eceabat (on the Gallipoli peninsula), Bergama, Selcuk, Pamukkale, Kutahya, and back to Istanbul. Matt was our driver, and regularly achieved speeds of 150-160 km/hr. Kind of terrifying, but when in Turkey, ya drive as the Turkish do.

Gallipoli was interesting, we ate some great food in Bergama, we stayed in an awesome hotel in Selcuk and saw amazing ruins at Efes, Pamukkale was disappointing and a lesson in what happens when tourism overtakes the environment, Kutahya gave us a sketchy hotel but a lovely visit to a beautiful mosque and an interesting ceramics museum. How's that for a one sentence review of a four day road trip?

We had an unfortunate memory card issue erase most of our pictures from the trip, but we have some from the very beginning and the very end of the deTars' visit (mostly in Istanbul).



Matt and his dad at the Blue Mosque in Istanbul.

Matt and his parents in the Basilica Sistern in Istanbul.

An Ataturk speech from Gallipoli- the site of the WWI battle.

Us each being attacked by a precocious bird in a restuarant in Bergama, Turkey.

Singing some Turkish Christmas Carols in Istanbul. Matt has been singing them ever since.

It was great to have family visit during the holidays!

No Dur

For those of you who haven't seen durian before, here it is:

Kind of a giant chestnut-looking thing. Lucy and I (and Duffy, Carrie, and Andy) saw it everywhere during Christmas in Asia (xmasia). And here's what it's like on the inside:

A mush brain or something. I'm not sure it's necessarily the taste that makes it so putrid. It's more the smell, which is something like sweet sewage. It was banned in our hotel.

But most importantly, here's what someone looks like when they eat it while we're laughing at him:

This video is courtesy of the rad HD Flip video camera Lucy got me for Christmas. More pictures of xmasia '09 will follow when Lucy comes back with the camera next week.