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Turkey Zoom Session - EWeek 2024

Added Sep 28, 2023 •

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congratulate so I'm going to be saying completely vapid useless things for the next 10 15 seconds so the people have time to get in here bright okay before we get started I should tell you that I have a rat infestation in my house and I have spent so far $4,000 to eradicate the rats and then two nights ago at 2:30 in the morning I discovered when I pulled stuff away cuz I heard a noise that the rest pretty much have the Ritz-Carlton of rat nests in my house like they stole all of our dog food they are watching ESPN football games while knocking back my best whiskey is pretty much a disaster in my but I'm doing the best I can to keep it together that has absolutely nothing to do with what we're going to do tonight which is talked about in for only about 15 minutes cuz you probably have a couple of other sessions you may want to attend this trip to Turkey I will tell you let me see if I can share the screen now so that you don't have to bother looking at me I'm going to go this way I've been a turkey once I was in Istanbul years ago but nine years ago with that crew kids it was part of the trip from Athens to Istanbul and it was it was really wonderful this is a different trip speaking selfishly this is kind of completing my Mediterranean Circle over the last 10 70 weeks I've I've tried to hug the Mediterranean Sea visiting all kinds of places most recently Islamic countries if you don't know why I teach Islamic history and it might not be teaching that winter so if any of your kids happen to be taking Islamic history in the winter this is going to be particularly kind of nifty and cool as I have someone introduce you my trap partner did you do what you give a wave Ginger Tanger tansy is our college counselor should be traveling with us this year also on the docket is my lovely and attractive wife Susan you'll see a photograph of her the moment but I want to tell you what we're doing this so we are take a look at that map and I hope everyone can see it on and large in a little bit I'm going to do this real low-tech we're going to fly into Instanbul we have a Non-Stop I mention that because nonstops are gnarly  groovy cool anybody who's flown where they've had to make a transfer with a three-hour layover knows that lying directly is is Grace to the energy of the will have when we live in going to be high and we'll spend two and a half days in Istanbul and then we'll do by the way Kathy would you tell me if you can see my cursor on the screen can you see if we're going we're going to fly from there down here to the southern coast of Asia Minor and Talia and then what we're going to do briefly is go over the mountains over the Taurus Mountains if you've never heard of them that's all right these places are really cool I know that from studying my ottoman history and we're going to come to the West Coast here we will visit Ephesus and a number fssp where Saint Paul came in and wrote all those letters to the Ephesians but I've been trying to see if we can nudge our way into ancient Troy. I think I'm pushing my luck and then we will fly a drive back to Izmir at the end of the trip and fly to Istanbul and then fly home that's the trip that's it right there someone made fun of me today for asking why I'm telling people that we're going to actually go to Napa to take hot air balloons we do have an option on One of These Days Inn in central turkey took to get on balloon rides it it's expensive from what I can tell it's anywhere from a hundred fifty bucks per person so I'm not sure it's a brilliant thing to do but it did make for a pretty picture this stuff here is conversations for a later day but I want to mention this if you are dead set on your kid traveling and you don't have a passport yet start the process now it is since of the are the pandemic it has taken a very long time to get your passport back you don't want to have to pay the expedited and which is as fast as Expediting used to be but if you really certain that they're going to be traveling soon get the past we can talk about all this stuff later and you'll hear more about the very bottom when it blew with behavioral expectations a little bit later so far so good just shifting I don't know if the kids are here or not but what's the weather like in Istanbul at least it'll be a little warmer when we cover a cross into Asia Minor but that's what it looks like it looks very much like the Bay Area the last time I was there this was sweater and a coat and bring an umbrella with you one of those compactable umbrellas we did not get rained on but it was not warm in Istanbul Louis mid fifties Istanbul as a sidebar is a very very modern city and a very ancient city so when you're walking down the street you'll see how people dressed in western clothes and you'll see the occasional woman and a cut it really is quite the mix of places it is a really really cool place you know it ain't even been to Rome or London or Paris I'm more familiar to us and then we love the familiarity this is as magnificent but not as familiar with the food is different and by the way the Turkish food is great but it's different and of course that the people are both Western and Eastern I hate to sound like a deal orientalist as they used to call him in in the old history days but it's it really is a Crossroads of a place you were going to be going we'll go to both of these places after we flown down this is when we're crossing the Taurus Mountains on the left and when we reach when we reach the coast of the Mediterranean Coast the Aegean Coast again and on the days I should back up you should look to see that the cost of the trip would range there depending on how many kids sign up the more the sign up the less it'll cost but generally speaking it cost somewhere in this range in addition to that there's going to be walking around money my experience has taught me that when I was thinking about walking around money I used to tell parents if you had another 20 bucks a day for 7 you carried a hundred fifty bucks your got plenty and that's true many of the kids that have traveled with me even in places like Morocco and Egypt much more money than that and end and begin shopping like it was something out of a Bravo Channel special so down here look at that 1453 the assault of Mech metal the Ottoman Empire on Constantinople which made Istanbul what did I tell you this because I'm going to do some teaching on this trip this is out of my employment history course and I'm going to back up again see that Giant Cannon there that that Cannon there was invented the seed that's that kid in there it was 27 ft long and it didn't work and usually killed more of the Ottoman Turks were firing the cannon that it did the byzantines who were firing back with what they used to call Greek fire why am I telling you all this because there's man the ancient history here is pretty cool and we're going to walk these walls if any of you ever saw the second of the three Lord of the Rings movies about Helm's Deep when the bad guy Orcs blow up what is deep and nnn take over the capitol they stole that out of the assault on Constantinople in 1453 so again this is what we're going to look at a little bit what we will do as we move forward is we're going reference the books we read over the Summers there is a chapter in The Power of geography on Turkey it is a great chapter it's dense but it's great and it talks about current events prisoners from the freshman year is is briefer but it's a nice overview of what turkeys all about and we will be able to talk about about air Dewan appreciate everyone is the prime minister you still there you playing you playing a game the poker between Putin and Biden right now because he wishes to find this middleweight the Turks under air Dewan really believe they can become a superpower because the West is fading and Russia stating China ideas will play with love this kind of stuff to skip the rest just a couple last things this is always mispronounced this to talk Papi Palace this is the Sultan's Palace on on the at the Golden Horn visit Istanbul we will tour this place it is amazing it is contained in it the Harem of Istanbul now I'm going to give you my favorite trivia piece about this the salt I had hundreds of concubines but he could only can sort with four all of them were chosen by his mother his mother was a slave all of the concubines were slaves why do they do it this way does the sultan was always the child of a slave will go into more detail about that later but it is a really wild Society we got when we get to the southern coast will go here to 1st and Talia it's a very modern port city is I believe the most tourists it in in Europe / turkey at Days Inn beats the Malaga on the Costa Del Sol in Spain it is anything in southern France there will move elsewhere I'm going to wrap it up with this back these are photographs that I took 9 years ago you can't get anything in America from Iran these days we'll go into the bazaar which is 4000 stall that used to be the horse stalls of the of the sultan on the right is the original cistern for the city of Constantinople you may notice carp swimming in that this was built by the byzantines all of those pillars were visigoth ostrica Roman Greek it is an absolutely amazing Place sidebar if you ever gone to go see a Tom Hanks playing what's all the movies with The DaVinci Code movie is there was one set here there's a couple scenes there we'll learn a little bit of all this stuff will learn a tiny bit of Turkish will learn a little Arabic will study a little bit about Islam as we go and finally look at how not gray-haired I was with that. by the way the grand Suleiman mosque in Istanbul we're going to see a couple of them of I am not an expert in Islamic history but I am educated in it except for Andrea panlilio trip to Casablanca which has the largest mosque in the world built only 25 years ago and can and can hold for prayer 20,000 people these mosques are unbelievable like Saint Peter's Andrew that's my bit for now I think I'm been told to shut the  up is in the right Kathy that is correct do we entertain

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Turkey Zoom Session - EWeek 2024

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