Istanbul: The Collected Traveler: An Inspired Companion Guide (Vintage Departures) - Softcover

Kerper, Barrie

 
9780307390592: Istanbul: The Collected Traveler: An Inspired Companion Guide (Vintage Departures)
Softcover
ISBN 10: 0307390594 ISBN 13: 9780307390592
Verlag: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2009

Inhaltsangabe

THE COLLECTED TRAVELER
For Travelers Who Want More Than a Guidebook

Bringing The Collected Traveler along on your trip is like having your own savvy personal tour guide who knows the place intimately. This unique guide to one of today's hottest tourist destinations combines fascinating articles by a wide variety of writers, woven throughout with the editor's own indispensable advice and opinions-providing in one package an unparalleled experience of an extraordinary place.

THIS EDITION ON ISTANBUL FEATURES:

• Seductive, colorful, and in-depth articles that illuminate the dazzling treasures and monuments of Istanbul, from the Grand Bazaar to the Sultans' palaces; the delights of Turkish cuisine; the rich pageant of Istanbul's history; and the people and personalities that define it today.

• More personal pieces that take the reader beyond the usual tourist highlights, offering intimate reports on everything from the heavenly scent (and taste) of Turkish roses to the glitzy nightlife of this city of “minarets and miniskirts” to the unusual pleasure of being pummeled to within an inch of your life in an historic Turkish bath.

• Enticing recommendations for related reading, including novels, histories, memoirs, and the most useful guidebooks.

• An A-Z Miscellany of concise and entertaining information to arm you for your trip-on everything from Alexander the Great and Ataturk to Whirling Dervishes and Turkish Wine.

• Interviews, Q & As, and commentary from visitors and residents, ranging from the 18th-century society wit Lady Mary Wortley Montague to Nobel Prize-winner Orhan Pamuk.

• Spotlights on unusual shops, restaurants, hotels, and experiences not to be missed.

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Barrie Kerper, a former journalist and avid traveler, is the editor of eight previous books in the Collected Traveler series.

Auszug. © Genehmigter Nachdruck. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

Selected Excerpts and Anecdotes from
Istanbul: The Collected Traveler
 
(Note: Excerpts are written in the first-person voice of the editor, Barrie Kerper, unless otherwise attributed.)
 
 
"This is the most mysterious city on earth. I love the houses along the Bosphorus, the dervishes, Orhan Pamuk's Istanbul, the fortune-teller who told a truth, the raucous greetings of the rug merchants ("I can take your money!"), and the fantastic Topkapý complex that looks like an ideal liberal arts college. But most of all I love the strange call of the muezzin, especially when it splits the air between dark and dawn. The voice begins with a drone, a wobbly shriek, then works up to intensity. It's old, old, primitive—it sounds like something pulled up from a deep fissure. Sometimes it sounds like an otherworldly cry from beyond, sometimes like sawing through cellophane. When I wake up hearing that call, I always get a delicious flash, I am somewhere very far from home."
 
—Frances Mayes, author of A Year in the World: Journeys of a Passionate Traveller (2007) and Under the Tuscan Sun (1997), among others
 
•
 
"Every trip is a journey, and a visit to Turkey can quickly come to seem epic. For one thing, there is your entire education spread out before you: Troy, the spot where Leander swam the Hellespont; Nicea (now Iznik), where the Catholic Church convened and produced its famous creed; Miletus, where Greek science and philosophy had their beginnings; Haghia Sofia, whose famous dome was the glory of Byzantine Christianity; and the Blue Mosque, whose equally famous dome and minarets were raised by Ottoman Mehmet II to celebrate Islam. Then there is Istanbul itself, an imperial city set on two continents on both sides of the Sea of Marmara, with a picture book castle, bazaars of all kinds—spice, fish, birds—and the Grand Bazaar with everything under the sun. A place where men in black pants run through the streets carrying slim cups of tea or coffee on brass trays swinging from a tripod of chains. In the midst of this bounty, I was lucky to have a cicerone who was himself magic. John Freely, sometimes joined by his wife, Dolores, old friends, kindly shepherded me and my nephew around the city sharing with us all kinds of historical and cultural facts.
 
"We stayed at a small, friendly establishment (which John Freely had suggested) at one end of the Hippodrome in the Sultanahmet neighborhood near Topkapý Palace and other delights. The Alzer is a simple hotel, but its location on the Hippodrome—the oval that had been laid down by Constantine for horse- racing—gave it a wonderful advantage, which it exploited by providing a breakfast room, surrounded on three sides by windows, on its top floor, the sixth, just one floor up from our own rooms.
 
"We discovered this soon-to-be-our-favorite spot on the first evening when the desk clerk suggested we could go up there to watch the sunset. When we stepped into it we realized we were essentially eyeball-to-eyeball with the dome of the Blue Mosque, with the rosy, red-orange dome of the Haghia Sofia floating slightly off in the distance, and the Sea of Marmara and a gorgeous sky behind them. It was a sight of such exoticism and beauty at every hour we saw it that we never tired of it, and we ended up going there at every opportunity—to have breakfast, to write letters, just to absorb all the fascinating new things we had seen during the day. Grand buildings always inspire, but the special gift of the room at the top of the Alzer Hotel was that it gave us an intimacy, a special feeling of ownership, even love, for these two famous landmarks, epic in their importance to art, religion, and history."
 
—Ann Close, longtime senior editor at Alfred A. Knopf, and editor of John Freely's Aladdin's Lamp: How Greek Science Came to Europe Through the Islamic World
 
•
 
Great Reads for Kids
The Turks extend a warm welcome to children and include them in nearly every event or gathering—so bring them along! The way I see it, parents can make the decision never to go anywhere and deprive both children and adults of a priceless experience, or they can plan an itinerary with kids in mind and take off on a new journey. I haven't yet found a source exclusively devoted to traveling with kids in Turkey, but parents will find some useful tips and words of advice in guidebooks. Some good tips can also be gathered from Web sites: mylifeguard-forhealth.com and travelwithyourkids.com. And for a really ambitious account, read One Year Off: Leaving It All Behind for a Round- the- World Journey with Our Children, by David Elliott Cohen (Simon & Schuster, 1999). It's always a good idea to build excitement in advance of the trip by involving kids in the planning, showing them maps and books and talking about the things you'll see and do. Below are some recommended books for reading in advance or bringing along:
 
And to Think That We Thought That We'd Never Be Friends, by Mary Ann Hoberman and illustrated by Kevin Hawkes (Dragonfly, 2003). Nothing whatsoever to do with Turkey, but I love it for its underlying message of learning about other people and celebrating the world's diversity.
 
Cybele's Secret, by Juliet Marillier (Knopf, 2008). A companion volume to Marillier's Wildwood Dancing, this book takes place in Istanbul. For ages twelve and up.
 
The Most Incredible, Outrageous, Packed-to-the-Gills, Bulging-at-the-Seams Sticker Book You've Ever Seen (Klutz Press, 1997). For ages four and up, and winner of a Parents' Choice Award, this is a lifesaver for those in- between moments in travel—at an airport, on a plane, in a hotel room, in a car. Klutz publishes many unique, fun activity packages that are also great for traveling, including Road Trip Trivia, Kids Travel, and A Super- Sneaky, Double- Crossing, Up, Down, Round & Round Maze Book; browse many more cool titles at klutz.com.
 
The Odyssey, by Adrian Mitchell and illustrated by Stuart Robertson (A Retelling for Young Readers, DK Classics, 2000). As much of the Odyssey takes place in present-day Turkey, this is a great, fully illustrated volume to bring along (and it's perfectly fine for adults, too).
 
People, by Peter Spier (Doubleday, 1988). Caldecott Medalist Spier created this wonderful picture book with a global view, depicting people in their habitats and cities on all four continents. Required reading for every American.
 
The Trojan Horse: How the Greeks Won the War, by Emily Little (Step-Into-Reading, Random House, 1988). For young kids who are reading chapter books.
 
What You Will See Inside a Mosque, by Aisha Karen Khan (Skylight Paths, 2003). Though Skylight published this for children—it follows What You Will See Inside a Synagogue (2002)—it's actually a book that is great for adults, too. (Plus, it's written by a fellow Hollins University alumna.)
 
In addition to books to read, a blank journal is great for kids of all ages, boys and girls. Let them pick out some colored pencils, pens, crayons, markers, or paints and they can begin creating a record of their trip on the first day. Encourage them to collect postcards, ticket stubs, receipts, stamps, and all kinds of paper ephemera to paste inside the journal. Give them a disposable camera and they can add their own photographs, too.
 
Lastly, it's worth mentioning a letter to the editor I read a few years ago in the travel section of The New York Times. The writer stated she felt that the author of a previously published essay...

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Verlag
Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Erscheinungsdatum
2009
Sprache
Englisch
ISBN 10 
0307390594
ISBN 13 
9780307390592
Einband
Taschenbuch
Anzahl der Seiten
625
Kontakt zum Hersteller
Nicht verfügbar
Verantwortliche Person
Buchbär
info@buchbaer.de

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