Trips

Fri., 10/12/18 - Dushanbe, Tajikistan

This morning we had to deal with road closures because the PM and delegations of the countries in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization were visiting Dushanbe and touring the museum we were to visit. So we went first to meet with a faculty member of the American Council for International Education. He talked about Americans coming to learn Persian and Tajik and to learn how to live in a third world country, especially dealing with food, toilets, WiFi, and water. The council is sponsored by the US State Department and the Department of Education. There are seven Americans in Dushanbe now and some Tajiks are sent to America, mostly to small towns with a host family and they attend high school. The institute is accredited by Bryan Mawr College. It is not the same as the FLEX program. The Council operates in other countries to teach “unusual” languages.

	Another look at the huge mosque under construction
Still being flexible with our plans, we went to the Ismaili Shiite Center. There may be 15 million members of this sect of Shiism world wide and only six centers in the world, with two in Canada. The holy room was large, square with a high ceiling, and did not look like a mosque. The carpet was three-inches thick and made in Thailand. Women enter and pray on the left side, not in the balcony, and men enter and pray on the right. The imam enters from a center door. There are some chairs and benches for “elderly” around the edges.
Ismaili Shiite Center	Ismaili Shiite Center
Ismaili Shiite Center	Wall hanging in the Ismaili Shiite Center
Last stop was the National Museum of Tajikistan which opened in 2013 to house everything about the country. We had a museum guide who toured us through three of the four floors in one hour. The guide left us in the Gold Room with some gold coin, an ancient crown and decorations, and items given to the president.
Sat., 10/13/18 - Dushanbe to Istanbul, Turkey We got up at 1:10 AM, were on the bus at 2:30 AM, and in the air at 5:25 AM for the 4 hour 50 minute flight to Istanbul on Turkish Airlines. We arrived at our Istanbul “day room” hotel at 10:30 AM Turkish time. We have stayed at the Armada Hotel twice before and knew what to expect - a wonderful extended-time breakfast buffet. The only problems were: our rooms wouldn’t be ready until afternoon and a huge tour group beat us to the rooftop restaurant. Since there were no seats left inside and smokers were in the terrace, Marge and I bided our time and eventually had a nice quiet, unhurried brunch. When we were done, our room was ready, so we dropped off our luggage and went over to Topkapi Palace, one of our favorite places in Istanbul. We enjoyed just strolling around admiring the tile in the far corner - circumcision room, mosque, turban room, etc.
Flag of Turkey
Tile in Topkapi Palace	Tile in Topkapi Palace
Tile in Topkapi Palace	View of the Galata Tower and Sultanahmet area of the city from Topkapi Palace
Inlaid wood	Tile in Topkapi Palace
View of the new cable-stayed bridge we saw being built on our first trip to Istanbul	Topkapi Palace
Koran bookstand in Topkai Palace	Our OAT group was back at the hotel when we returned so we accompanied then to another favorite place: the Spice Market and then dinner. The Spice Market has been repainted with new signs above each stall, which was nice, but the action is always outside where the fish, cheese, spices, nuts, and desserts are being bought by the locals. It was Saturday and very crowded.
Sponges	Main Hall
	Olives
Tea serving sets	Serving tea to the merchants
Roasted corn on the cob and chestnuts	Cheeses
Fish	Olives and cheeses
Dinner was four yummy messas and bread and then kabobs and French fries. No one ate the lettuce, tomato, and cucumber salad. We have all fought enough diarrhea on this trip. Istanbul was a nice stop on the long journey back to the States.

Sun., 10/14/18 - Istanbul to Frankfurt to Denver

We got up at 2:15 AM to continue our flights home, this time on Lufthansa. Four of our group had a limo/van take us to the airport at 3:30 AM. Our 6:20 flight to Frankfurt was unremarkable - I sat next to a cat in a carrier that didn’t fit under the seat of the young man in charge of it - and Marge was across the aisle trying not to sneeze.

We had almost five hours to kill in Frankfurt airport. One hour was taken up because I had a “SSSS” boarding pass and Marge accompanied me as my “caregiver.” The code means I was selected for special security screening. I have had this happen to me in the US coming home from VB tournaments. We had to practically unpack our purses and backpacks and have our shoes examined and another pat-down and a test of all electronics. Oh what fun! MacDonald’s coffee and a donut helped as a reward.

This was really an unusual tour to a very interesting, somewhat out-of-the-way part of the world. It was perhaps a little more active than most of our OAT tours and featured some unusual wrinkles: like pulling your own luggage a quarter of a mile between border checkpoints. The landscape of the steppes and mountains and deserts provided constant contrast. The history of the region is fascinating and the tile work in and on the buildings is magnificent.

As always, we were very happy to arrive home. However, this time, home is homeless. We picked up the truck at US Airport Parking and spent time at our friends, Doug and Donna’s, until we got reorganized and slightly unjetlagged. Then we went up to pick up the camper in Ft. Collins and head south to Arizona and the start of the next exciting adventure!