Individual and Community

Gare and Erin spent much of 2009 working and travelling and playing.  The rest of the time was spent sleeping.

Erin continues teaching Sociology at Cornell College,  Department of Sociology & Anthropology.

Gare continues to settle in at his job as a senior web applications developer at the University of Iowa in the Office of Information Management . He also continues to try to resolve his interest in open source software with his love of all things Google.

And of course we continue to play lots of board games, eat out, and travel as much as possible.

Spring

• Spring was a wonderful blur of work and thaw.
• Erin got an academic article published in the spring edition of GLQ.
• Nice Visit from Buddy & Rhetta to Mount Vernon.  Buddy found a great restaurant in Dubuque, IA on the Mississippi River where we ate lunch and then went to the Mississippi River museum.

Summer

• Lee and Jacque volunteered as Camp Hosts at Bellevue State Park in Iowa during July and August.  We spent July 4 watching fireworks being shot over the Mississippi River in Bellevue.  Had great time hanging out at their campground this summer and discussing politics.
• Erin was granted tenure at Cornell College and promoted to Associate Professor of Sociology.
• Gare gets a promotion or two at work.
• We grew lots & lots of tomatoes this year in our garden.
• Erin went to Japan in late July & August to make preparations to bring a class of students over in Spring 2010.
• Bellah the cat breaks her tooth, so she has her prominent fangs removed.  Power dynamics change in the house as Emily the cat reasserts her position as supreme leader of the Davis / Calhoun household.

Fall

• After spending the summer building up his cities in the online game Evony, Gare accidentally gets locked out of the game over the weekend and returns to find his entire empire attacked and destroyed.  He then turns his energies to a new game, Immortal Cities:  Nile Online, for the rest of the year.  He also continues with regular team games of Battle for Wesnoth.
• Erin & Gare visit Germany to visit Ryan and Sonia and then travel with Ryan to Eastern Europe and Turkey.  More details of this fun trip at: http://www.individualandcommunity.org/wordpress/tag/europe/

Winter

• Our first blizzard of the season occurred early December 2009.  We got about 15 inches of snow in 24 hours.Thank goodness for telecommuting!
• In order to get out of the house during the winter months, Erin and Gare take a few dance classes in Iowa City.
• Erin and Gare visit Buddy and Rhetta and the rest of the Clio clan in South Carolina for Christmas.

We wish you all a great 2010!

Hotel Turkuaz – a great bed and breakfast type hotel in Istanbul

Great Bed and Breakfast in Istanbul

Excellent Breakfasts, service, and lodging. Was my favorite spot by far on our vacation. We found this place in a tour book, and liked it so much we stayed here for the full week in Istanbul.

Istanbul – Aftermath.

• Hotel Turkuaz – a great bed and breakfast type hotel in Istanbul. View of ocean and the blue mosque. The staff and hostess are very friendly and courteous. Morning breakfast is a veritable feast. Address: Kadirga, Cinci Meydani No: 36 Eminonu – Istanbul 528 63 42
• We bought a small rug from a very nice private carpet store called Punto of Istanbul . Ryan called his friend Pamira who got us an appointment with a nice firm that deals in rugs. They were very professional and friendly – we sat in the viewing room, served us drinks, and were very polite and made conversation despite the knowledge we only wanted 1 small rug. Our rug is supposed to have been hand woven by members of a eastern Turkish tribe.
• Freudian Slip of the Trip:
  “I want control”, says Erin while on a long hike; Erin sick with fever, and Ryan had the map, and we had been walking for a couple of hours in downtown Istanbul. She meant “I want the map”, via the slip “I want the control”. Funny, funny.

pictures coming soon.

Currency Rates

www.xe.com/ucc

http://www.xe.com/ucc/full/

Live rates at 2009.10.19 11:19:58 UTC
1.00 USD = 0.669793 EUR
United States Dollars Euro
1 USD = 0.669793 EUR 1 EUR = 1.49300 USD

Live rates at 2009.10.19 11:16:58 UTC
1.00 USD = 178.704 HUF
United States Dollars Hungary Forint
1 USD = 178.704 HUF 1 HUF = 0.00559584 USD

Live rates at 2009.10.19 11:14:58 UTC
1.00 USD = 1.30996 BGN
United States Dollars Bulgaria Leva
1 USD = 1.30996 BGN 1 BGN = 0.763384 USD

Live rates at 2009.10.19 11:20:58 UTC
1.00 USD = 1.45845 TRY
United States Dollars Turkey Lira
1 USD = 1.45845 TRY 1 TRY = 0.685661 USD

Browser based city builder:

Nile Online

fun stuff

Istanbul, Turkey
October 12 2009

erin writes:
We’ve made it to Istanbul and while the other cities were interesting and often beautiful, Istanbul is wonderful. Full of windy streets filled with children playing, merchants selling fruit and nuts, clothes, rugs,and everything imaginable, and/or mosques or historical relics. And it also a city of sounds. The prayer call is broadcast on loudspeakers 5 times a day. We have mostly just been wandering the streets. Yesterday, we were at a cafe under Galatia bridge. The bridge is constructed with the road over the top and then restaurants and cafes underneath. You can sit and look out over the water and back at the mosques and the palaces on land –so you have a mix of tourist, but also locals, many on dates. In addition there are tons of fishing lines hanging from the top portion of the bridge that fall past the bottom section and you can see the lines and the buckets being hauled up and down. During our time there we only saw one fish actually being caught and we watched the fish being hauled in. All of a sudden, when it was almost at the top of the bridge, it fell off the hook. This Turkish man, walking in a nice suit, with his date, got hit on the shoulder with the fish. There was a mad scramble for the fish. The waiters caught the fish and then gave it to the man—I guess if it hits you, it’s yours.

In the next couple of days, we’ll probably head over the the Asia side of Istanbul and spend some more time at the Grand Bazaar.

With the exception of the windy streets making it easy to get turned around, Istanbul has been fairly easy to negotiate. However, we have been lucky to have my brother with us at points. For example the street signs in Belgrade (and train announcements, etc) are written in Cyrillic script while the map was in roman lettering—not so helpful.

And, we are of course all fighting off or succumbing to various illnesses, but still managing to get out and explore.

Travel Log

2009
Saturday, September 26 – Tuesday, September 29
Germany

Mannheim, Heidelberg , Speyer
Brother-in-law Ryan and his wife Sonia live in Mannheim, Germany right now. Sonia works for BASF which is based in Mannheim where she is a product manager. Ryan is a teacher, master trip planner, and adventurer. Ryan has planned the entirety of our European trip, which will conclude in Istanbul, Turkey around October 16.

Erin and I flew in for the start of our trip into Frankfort, met Ryan, took train to Mannheim, and stayed in Mannheim with them. We have been basing our travel from there and taking really cool trams and trains to nearby towns. We take these high speed trolley cars and trains everywhere. Pedestrian Traffic, Bicycles, and Mass Transit everywhere in this part of Germany. I am keeping a list of the amazing beverages we are sampling in Europe in a separate post.

Heidelberg
Went to a Oktoberfest/ New wine celebration in Heidelberg Saturday night right when we got here. Food, beer, ‘new’ wine, which is apparently unfermented fresh from the vineyards and winepress – and champagne. Lots of food – we had fresh made crepes – some with chocolate and banana and some with french cheese and tomato like a quesadilla; and the others had sausage called bratwurst; and really good french fries; There were at least 4 outdoor bands along this long street of the festival in Heidelberg. Very, very crowded by the end of the night. At several points as we headed down the Hauptstrasse back to the tram we were surrounded by people, basically being carried along with the crowds.

WeMadeItToGermany

Sunday, we took tram from Mannheim for about 20 minutes to go to Speyer to see a Jesuit Church — a 1,000 year old church. The church had an amazing carved door at the main entrance which provided a pictorial history. There was also a crypt containing the coffins of four emperors and four kings. There is also a room with Holy Relics in it, including the gold encased Head of a pope. Then we went to the remains of an old Jewish synagogue and ritual bath. During our trip we also stopped at the Cafe Hindenburg for some spaghetti ice cream.

Mannheim

Walked & trammed around Mannheim Monday and saw the few remaining buildings that survived World War II. Had lunch with cool bunch of Europeans that we later learned were Ryan’s students.

Heidelberg

Tuesday we returned to Heidelberg during the day to see the town and the castle. Walked back along the Altstadt, a pedestrian area between the river and the castle. Visited the Heiliggeistkirche, a Gothic 14 century church, and the Jesuitenkirche. Walked the 314 steps up to Heidelberg Castle. Castle is mostly ruins, but beautiful.

Prague

4:00 am train Wednesday AM to Prague.
Wednesday, September 30

Gare sick for 2 days with a cold; Erin and Ryan toured many many places. We had most wonderful hosts who tolerated me sick in their apartment for two days.

Budapest

October 5 2009

• Hungarian Baths are amazing.
• Ryan and erin get a little sick but mainly shake it off and tour 8 hours / day.
• Find a Great turk restaurant
• we rent an apartment for three days instead of hotel room. Saturday, sunday, monday WwII apartment building.
• Gundel lunch buffet. Very good, very expensivo. Gundel is a 3star Michelin restaurant.
• McCafe – nice place to play Race For the Galaxy!!

Belgrade , Serbia

Oct 6 2009

arrive 6:30 am Belgrade. 2 passport checks in middle of night Hungary and Serbia on the train. nice but compact sleeper car.

at Hotel Royal.

Belgrade does not appear to get many tourists.

Sophia

Istanbul Turkey

Turkey Notes in next Posts

Beers and other libations found on our trip in Germany and Eastern Europe and Turkey

Germany

• Heineken
• Das Schwarze
• Beck’s Gold
• a Pils in Heidelburg Bier Garden
• a German Champagne in Heidelburg street fair
• a Pils in Mannheim at Dinner
• a white wine with dinner at Ryan’s – Edenkonber Riesling – Monday night
• a Eiswen (Ice Wine) riesling tasting at Castle Heidelburg

Prague

• Pilsner Urquell
• Budvar /Budweiser – the original Budweiser

Budapest and Istanbul

• Staro Praneer
• Jelen Pivo
• Amstel
• Efes Pilsen

View Vacation – Germany to Turkey in a larger map

Google Maps Link Here with cool list of Cities on left side

• Links to Ryan’s Map Profile and all of the “Walking Tours” we have planned??
• Ryan and Erin Used Google Documents to Plan Trip: Spreadsheet | Calendar in Document format (Ryan afraid of spreadsheets)
• Fun Notes for Erin: What to wear when visiting a mosque
  

  Things you should know : All visitors must remove their shoes in mosques.Women should cover heads;sleeveless shirts,shorts,and very short skirts are inappropriate.

• TSA 3-1-1 Air Travel Guide

• Updated:Travel Diary of our Trip Moved to this Entry

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