Istanbul, not Constantinople

In the weeks leading up to my trip, I made a conscious decision to harbor no expectations about what I might find upon my arrival in Turkey. Plenty of people had shared their perceptions with me that it MUST be a dangerous, backward place and I really should reconsider going "over there". But I figured since my brother lived there for the last seven years, and my 81-year old mother had been there to visit five times before me and always returned in one piece, that it must be reasonably safe. So off I went...

Now, I'm going to take a minute here to say that I'm kind of conflicted about how to proceed with this blog thing. There is no place on earth with more historical significance than Turkey in general and Istanbul in particular. Istanbul has existed in one form or another for over 3,000 years. It has been the capital of the Roman Empire, the Byzantine Empire and the Ottoman Empire. It is the only city in the world that is located on two continents; Europe and Asia. The Hagia Sophia (look it up) in Istanbul was originally an Orthodox church, converted to a Mosque by the Ottomans, and is now a museum. It has been standing, in its current form, since the year 537 AD. A mere 1,474 years. And it is STUNNING. It is as big as a basketball arena and as ornate as a doily. It will stop you in your tracks. And that is just one place. Just the tip of the proverbial iceberg.

So my dilemma is this: do I go all high school history teacher/book nerd on you and try to impart my passion for this place that knocked me out, or do I just stick to my original premise of sharing my personal experiences and hopefully amusing anecdotes?  Alright, alright, quit rolling your eyes. I'll go with the "personal experiences and amusing anecdotes" idea and maybe, hopefully, some of what I share will inspire you to do a little research on your own about this amazing place.

The Hotel

The Hotel Sisli

My tiny, tiny room. Yes, that is the ENTIRE room. I am standing
on the bed with my back against the wall to take this picture.

We stayed in the Hotel Sisli (pr.-sheeshly). The rooms were small and the showers were tiny. They were also immaculate, comfortable and $50 USD a night. Hard to beat. The hotel even provided a breakfast every morning that was excellent. 


Taksim Square

Monument of the Republic

As mentioned in a previous post, my first night in Istanbul was spent drinking and carousing. Now, one thing you should know about the Turkish people is that they love their monuments. You can't throw a stick in this country without hitting a statue of someone memorializing some event or other. This is the "Monument of the Republic" in Taksim Square. It commemorates the founding of the Turkish Republic, and was also intended as a rebuke of the muslim laws prohibiting the depiction of the human form in art. Taksim Square is also where the party district starts. Think Mardi Gras on steroids. It is several square miles of restaurants, bars, live music and generally good natured partying going on into the wee hours of the morning. Every morning. I had been awake for over twenty hours when I arrived at the hotel and was immediately persuaded to go out on the town. Amazingly, my mother and cousin went along, too.

Friday night in Istanbul, bitches!!

Party Time!!

We're going in. This was a cold, wet night and I was told
the crowds were small because of that. I'd love to see a
crowded night.

Food is everywhere in Istanbul. Great food.

Let this be a warning to you. Sleep deprivation, alcohol,
and hookah can do bad things. 

Party, party, party.

I had this guy calling everyone "amigo" before the night
was over. Hey, what can I say?
Spanish is my default second language.

Yet another street of bars and restaurants.

Mussels, cooked, spiced, stuffed with rice, drizzled with lemon.
I'll have a dozen, please. Brother Ralph and the mussel guy.

The Welcoming Committee
L to R: Randy, Cousin Cheryl, Breece (sp?),
Brother Ralph, Graham. Good times in Istanbul.

That is pretty much it for my first night in Istanbul. I partied 'til I dropped and paid the price the next day. And I wouldn't do anything differently. How many times am I going get the opportunity to kick out the jambs in Istanbul on a rainy Friday night? A good time was had by all and it was great to see my little brother for the first time in six years.

This was just the beginning of my experiences in Turkey. Our time in Istanbul was spent almost entirely on the European side, although we did manage to get over to Asia for a little while a day or two later. I will be posting again soon, and I promise there will be many more interesting things to see and read about.

Until then...

"Bu Siteye Erişim Mahkeme Kararıyla Engellenmiştir"... (WTF???)

All right, loyal readers. You are probably wondering what the heck happened to my promised blog posts updating you on my travels in Asia Minor. Well, a funny thing happened on my way to blogville....


I arrived in Istanbul after twenty-one consecutive sleepless hours either in airports or on airplanes. I then did what any sane person would do after being awake and uncomfortable for that many hours in a row. I immediately went out on the town in Istanbul with my brother and his friends and got drunk on my ass. I got back to my hotel about 2:30 in the morning. By this time I had been awake for God knows how many hours and was drooling, seeing-double drunk to boot. Soooooooo, the next morning/afternoon/night/whenever I got ambulatory again, I sat down at my computer to update my blog and let everyone know how things were going.


When I attempted to log in to my blog, I was rudely greeted by this, "Bu siteye erişim mahkeme kararıyla engellenmiştir" in bold, red letters. BIG, bold red letters. Turkish not being one of my stronger languages, I assumed it said something like, "Due to circumstances beyond our control you will not be blogging today you drunken sot". Well, as it turns out it was circumstances well within their control. In fact, it WAS their way of controlling things. After two days of being denied access in a foreign language and not understanding why, I copied and pasted the phrase into Google and this is how it translated: "This court decision blocked access to the site". Hmmmmmmmm. My momma didn't raise no dummies. I've seen "Midnight Express". I didn't want to risk upsetting the local gendarmerie by circumventing their little "court decision" (which I figured out how to do pretty quickly). So rather than risk seeing my next pair of female breasts through a plate glass window in the visitors area at the local lock-up, I decided that discretion was the better part of valor and vowed to update my blog, complete with stories and pictures, upon my return to the good ol' US of A.


So here 's my first entry: What an amazing, fascinating country. The people, the food, the history, the sights. I did not have one experience with anything or anyone that could be defined as even remotely negative. I spent the first five days in Istanbul, the sixth day I spent on a bus going to Izmir (nine hours to to the south) and the remainder of my time in Izmir. Depending on whom you ask in Turkey, the population of Istanbul is somewhere between 14- and 22-million people. I have to think the latter is closer to the truth. I've been to New York City many times. Istanbul is exponentially larger and more crowded. It is mind boggling in the truest sense of the words. On the ride down to Izmir I saw a countryside that is quite reminiscent of Southern California, and Izmir is a beautiful port city on the Aegean coast. I have enough pics and stories to keep me blogging for the next couple of weeks, give or take, so I hope you'll be following along. Some of you are facebook friends and you've seen a very small sampling of the pictures I took and read a little about what I did there. I have so much more to share.

Istanbul Exploration Party
L to R: Mom, Brother Ralph, Cousin Cheryl, Ado

I got home about thirty-six hours ago (Friday night around 9:00) after a sleepless twenty-six hour travel day and have been able to sleep only sporadically since. Jet lag is some pernicious shit, lemme tell ya. I managed to get about five hours in a row last night so I'm feeling pretty close to human today. I will be posting again in the next couple of days. I hope you'll be reading along.


Sorry for the delay. Talk to you soon.

Traveling Light; second thoughts

Sitting in the airport in San Francisco, first leg of the trip behind me. The bag is performing admirably. Even though it is packed so full that you can read the labels on the clothes inside, it is holding up like a champ. The zippers on this thing must be made of Kryptonite because they can be forced closed like no zippers I've ever seen before.

The second thought is this; next time I am going to carry a second bag (satchel, backpack, not decided yet) for all my electronics. The computer, camera, etc. are traveling well up to this point, but man they are squeezed in amongst the underwear and socks like battery toting sardines. I'm not sure cramming them in like that is such a good idea. If all I was packing was clothes and a laptop, I'd be golden. The camera, extra batteries, chargers; et al, are what's causing the majority of the potentially seam-busting, electronics busting pressure.

I'll fill you in on the other side......

Traveling Light

Anyone who really knows me can attest to the fact that I am a compulsive learner. If I am going to undertake some new activity, I'm going to read as much as I can about it and talk to as many knowledgeable people as I can to make sure I get it right. Those people who know me can also tell you I hate doing something if I'm not good at it. I think both of these traits comes from a deep seated desire to not look like a doofus. If there's one thing I hate, it's being the unintentional source of other people's amusement. Another thing I hate is trying to get through an airport with too many bags. We've all seen that person. Very "touristy" looking, he's got one bag draped over a shoulder, a roller suitcase big enough to house a third world family, a smaller bag perched atop it like some kind of oddly rectangular baby monkey hanging onto its mother's back, a coat slung over his arm, talking on his cell phone and lugging this emormous load through the airport, all the while looking like Charles Loughton in "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" (look it up). In short, a highly amusing doofus.

Here is the bag fully loaded, including computer, toiletries
an extra pair of shoes and enough clothes to get me through
the first week.  

So, back to the learning thing. I started doing research on the internet about traveling light (see previous paragraph). I found a website called "onebag.com". For anyone interested in the concept of traveling light it's a must read. On onebag.com he mentions a company called Red Oxx which is based in Montana. Red Oxx makes a bag that conforms to international carry-on standards called the "Air Boss" and it is one bad-ass piece of luggage (go to Redoxx.com and watch the video). And that is the bag I chose for my trip. The idea is to get through my two-week trip abroad with only a carry-on bag as luggage. I will be commenting in the future on the efficacy of this strategy and how it works for a two week trip to Europe. This should provide plenty of  fodder for future posts and plenty of amusement for my followers. I just hope I don't end up looking like a doofus.

Traveling Light

Anyone who really knows me can attest to the fact that I am a compulsive learner. If I am going to undertake some new activity, I'm going to read as much as I can about it and talk to as many knowledgeable people as I can to make sure I get it right. They can also tell you I hate doing something if I'm not good at it. I think both of these traits comes from a deep seated desire to not look like a doofus. If there's one thing I hate, it's being the unintentional source of other people's amusement. One other thing I hate is trying to get through an airport with too many bags. We've all seen that person. Very "touristy" looking, He's got one bag slung over his shoulder, a roller suitcase big enough to house a third world family, a smaller bag perched atop it like some kind of oddly rectangular baby monkey hanging onto its mother's back, a coat slung over his arm, talking on his cell phone and ambling through the airport looking like Charles Loughton in "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" (look it up). In short, an amusing doofus.

So, back to the learning thing. I started doing research on the internet about traveling light (see above). I found a website called

The Name

All right, then. First things first. The name is "Ado" and it rhymes with "potato". When you're born with the name Adrian, nicknames are not readily available. You walk confidently out of the womb into the world, you throw open the doors on the cupboard marked "Monikers" and.....nothing. Nada, zip, zilch. What the.....? It's not like being "Chuck" if you're Charles or "Jack" if you're John. When your name is Adrian your nickname can be anything that someone feels like plastering on you that day. They come flying out of nowhere like big, malicious industrial strength spit wads and "splat"! There's a new one for you! For the first five years of my life I thought my name was "Jocko". My dad gave me that one. He always told me it was French for "monkey". Then he'd laugh. Thanks, dad. When I started kindergarten my parents, being the brilliant life tacticians that they were, thought it would be a good idea to actually teach me my REAL name. Now there's a thought for you, huh? Anyway, it took me weeks to learn to answer to Adrian. Then the attempts at shortening my name into some catchy shorthand form began in earnest. School was fun for that because, as we all know, kids are so kind to one another. For a few years it was "Adro". I hated that one. It reminded me too much of George Jetson's dog. There were many crueler, more bizarre, more unrecognizably profane and scatological attempts to "name" me along the way (a couple of which can still get you punched in the mouth), but nothing ever really appealed to my high self esteem. Then, one fateful day, two little girls in the neighborhood were tormenting a kid named Eddie by chanting sing-song fashion, "Eddie Spaghetti, your meatballs are ready!". I idiotically wandered into the target zone just in time to get hit with "Ado Potato......" followed by a long pause and then bratty little girl laughter. They couldn't think of any words to finish their rhyme, but a nickname was born. I think I threw a rock or something at them as a way of saying thanks. So, Ado Potato it was. Through the years it got shortened to the first three letters in the title of this blog. Ado.


The name of the blog  is AdoAfield because I'm going to be using it to chronicle my peregrinations around this country and other parts of the globe for the foreseeable future. I'm new at this blogging/traveling thing, so bear with me. I'll be attempting to entertain while I share my experiences and I hope you enjoy my efforts. For the last 30 years I've been busy raising kids and working, and now it's time for me to have some fun before I shuffle off this mortal coil. I want to see the world. I've seen a lot of this country already, but there is a lot I've yet to see. I have two trips planned inside the USA for later this year and the first big trip of my life is coming up in the Spring.


In March I will be traveling to Turkey. It will be my first time traveling outside the continent of North America. My brother lives over there and it will be my first time seeing him in five and a half years (he still calls me Ado Potato). I will also be meeting my niece for the first time ever. There is much to see and do there, and I will do my best to share the experiences, sights and sounds as vividly as I can. I will be posting as frequently as I can (reasonably) and providing photographs and narratives of the experiences of a novice traveler to a far away land.  If you're reading this you obviously found me, or you're a friend or family member. In any case, I hope you enjoy reading about and seeing the pictures of my first trip.


Stay tuned...