Ron's Cruise 2009

No Floods but lots of people in Istanbul
Wednesday, September 30, 2009

We arrived back in Turkey earlier today and got partially ripped off by a cabbie.Actually, since I agreed to the price I guess it was not technically a rip off. However, I paid just about twice the price it should have been to get to our hotel. Why? Because it is the meeting place for the International Monetary Fund countries and their hangers on.Just about every hotel in the city is overbooked. I am glad I guaranteed our reservation. We are staying at the Polat Renaissance. It really is a gorgeous property even though it is a few miles from downtown. It is a business style hotel located about 3 miles from the airport. They have a shuttle but we were tired and didn't care what we paid.The view from the hotel is beautiful overlooking the sea with dozens of boats on the water.It doesn't get much better than this.We will spend a couple of more days in Istanbul and then board the Regent Voyageur of the Seas going from here to a number of Greek Islands and ending in Athens. It has been many years since I was in Greece and look forward to reporting on it soon.



What a food find in a restaurant
Thursday, October 1, 2009

We are staying at the Polat Renaissance. It is not downtown but adjacent to a very nice area of homes and apartments, so it is not at all like the commercial downtown. Just 3 blocks away we noticed a small shopping area with a few stores and restaurants.As we are walking we notice a very nice restaurant with a bunch of flowers in front...and I mean big bunches with ribbons etc. We walk by it and conclude it looks like the best place.We are seated and handed a menu with pictures of the items we can choose from which is very nice to get a sense of how they will come to us plated.The restaurant is called Rumeli kofte & Et at Sipahoglu Cad. No 13 Yesilyurt. It is a family type business full of local customers and managed by a young man by the name of Ugur Yilmaz, who is one of the partners.The meal was excellent and I recommend the restaurant for service and taste, not to mention a pleasing environment. We choose to dine on the outside as opposed to inside and it was an exceptional evening.It seems we dropped in on opening night...explaining the flowers.It was pretty much a family affair and after a half hour or so we had become one of the family. It is clear they are nice people and I wish them all the success in their new venture.This was truly an exceptional experience and if you are in that area make it a point to visit. You won't be disappointed.And tomorrow we’re trying an entirely different food experience at a place called www.cookingalaturka.com .In the morning for almost three hours we will learn how to make a five course Turkish meal by participating in creating the menu items. Then we will sit down over a couple of glasses of wine to consume our creations.Both of these are sides of Turkey we never got to experience on our first go round in this country.