Monday October 1st, 2007

This year for our vacation we went to Turkey, both for pleasure & work...ok I bought a ton of silver, met with lovely Glass Artists Pinar Hakim & Iknur, we made beads & I made arrangements to teach a 2 week long class next year at the Glass Furnace right outside of Istanbul...I can not even begin to tell you all of the lovely sites smells & tastes of Turkey...so much happened in two weeks that we were there...

So I am going to tell you about it a bit at a time, this way I don't have to go nuts trying to tell you all of it at once, you would not go nuts looking at the 759 photos we took and it would be a great journal for me as well...

Second Installment...10/4/07 & 10/7/07

Here are more pictures of our trip, today I am starting with the Glass Furnace and the lovely Pinar Hakim & Ilknur...

Pinar the sweetest girl around, came and picked us up at the edge of the water, then Ilknur her friend who is now also my friend met us there and we all went to the Glass Furnace...the start of an awesome day...thank you again...

my new friend at the Glass Furnace

This is one of the hot shops at the Glass Furnace in Turkey...

and here are some students & teachers making art...

This is the school shop/museum...

This is Debbie, she is one of the students of the lampworking class that was graduating, her art, only after two weeks of making beads...you too can do this, I am teaching there next year come join me...Ask me about the details...

Debbie is a silver artist to began with, this is what she did with her new art form glass, she married it with her first love silver...and the photo below is also her work...

this lovely infinity pool is where all the students display their glass art after the 2 week class...

Pinar checking out the glass beads Debbie made...

This nice man was making glass Twirling Dervishes...sadly I do not have a photo of one, I forgot to get one...

Here is Pinar on the Right with Yılmaz Yalçınkaya in the middle, he is the nice man who established the Glass Furnace which is a non profit organization & his lovely wife on the left...very nice people all the way around...PS a two week class (6 days a week from 8am to 5pm) at this lovely school, including Room & Board runs about $2000.00 maybe a bit less...the place is awesome...

 

This is the view from the Palace on the Asian side of the Istanbul...just lovely...

First installment...
 

First off, lets talk about the gorgeous city of Istanbul...it is over 5000 years old, it was at one time the Capital for both the Byzantines & Ottoman empires. It now the home to about 18 million people, in the older part of the city you can find such treasures as the Blue Mosque & St. Sophia (Haghia Sophia), Topkapi Palace, Cistern Basilica, the Grand Bazaar & Marmara Sea,  just to name a few...oh and the food is awesome...

In the more modern parts you find yourself in one of the most metropolitan cities in the world with a great night life, and so many great places to eat, so many beach views to take in, so much going on, that you really need to visit it for a few weeks, just to get the feel of it...

 

We stayed in Sultanahmet in a small boutique hotel...if I could have any complaints about Turkey, it would be the way folks drive & how pedestrians never have the right of way...I have a theory that in Turkey is the driving does not kill you, crossing the street most certainly will...here are a few photos...

view from the roof of our hotel, Blue Mosque in the Back ground.

view from the roof of our hotel of the Marmara Sea...

The inside of St. Sophia...

the outside of St. Sophia

the Blue Mosque...

Us inside of St. Sophia.

The Blue Mosque in the background, photo I took from inside of St. Sophia...

city views...

around our hotel...