First Batch of Pictures

So I've mostly settled back in, readjusted to the local time zone - which always seems harder on the return for some reason - and gotten most of my things unpacked. Now I've begun the process of uploading and identifying all of the pictures I took on my trip. I've uploaded the first batch from Istanbul and posted on Photobucket for anyone who wishes to peruse - they can be found here:
http://s1113.photobucket.com/albums/k519/jadavisdc/Istanbul%20June%202011/

I'd love to write more today, perhaps this evening when I get home. Unfortunately today is also my first day back in the office, so I only have time for a quick batch of the first pictures and an update about that. I'd like to get a recipe posted soon and some of my experiences in the Hagia Sofia and Blue Mosque, but I think that will have to wait for after work! After being gone two weeks, I can hardly roll in late.

Enjoy and more to follow!

Home Sweet Home

Hallo and greetings from lands to the East! I'm happy to report that I have arrived safely home, a bit more bruised and battered from the first stop but with lots of time in Madrid to recover and recoup. Both conferences were extremely informative, I'm pleased to say, and since that was really the main point of the trip then that's all good!

Right now I'm jetlagged as all get out, seeing as it's just nipping on midnight for my body clock. But tomorrow I will begin the painful process of unpacking, and the more pleasant process of uploading pictures and starting to get those posted.

I did wind up keeping somewhat of a pen and paper journal while I was away in lieu of my laptop, so I will try to start adding entries to the blog and pretend like I wrote them in real time. ;)

Even better, I will try to remember and start each entry - or perhaps post intervening entries - with a recipe from the region I was visiting! (Ian and I both being huge foodies, I picked up cookbooks from both Spain and Turkey and also attended a Turkish cooking course one evening - so I have lots of material to draw on, based on the fantastic food I ate.) You'll have to provide your own wine though - and if trying a Turkish recipe, make sure to add a 250% tax to what you pay for the wine as well. That's their current solution to enforcing appropriate morality without seeming too conservative - and while I don't necessarily approve per se, I have to admit it's a fairly ingenious way of cutting down your population's drinking without actually forcing people by the use of prohibition or making wine and alcohol consumption illegal. In fact, it's mighty similar to what we do with cigarettes, now that I think about it...so who knows, as a business model it might have merit - sure beats the morality police that other countries employ.

In any case, stay tuned! The travels of the Clockwork Canard will follow soon! (And little did I know how prophetic the "travails" part of the blog header would turn out to be when I came up with it, right? Here I thought I was just being witty.)

So İ may not be blogging much after all...

Rıght then - so, had all these good intentions to write all about my travels.

But you see, this relies upon having my laptop with me. Which, as of arrival in Istanbul, I do not.

Not sure what happened - a few of us from DC arrived in Istanbul to no luggage. One of them was someone else on official travel, which may or may not be coincidence. Anyhoo - so we file reports that our luggage is missing, go to our hotels, and settle in for the night.

My luggage arrived at the hotel sometime after midnight and I got it this morning - complete with the zip ties they close your luggage with at the aırport. Except, when I unpack - I have a laptop case. I have my clothes, mostly trashed and in heaps and wrinkled balls - which is fantastic for my suits and nice shirts. But the laptop bag is now empty - no laptop, no AC adaptor.

Needless to say, I am far less than amused. But it also appears for the duration of my trip, I wıll not have easy access to log in and write what I am up to. Maybe I can do something when İ get home, otherwıse I,m going old school wıth a pen and paper journal.

Sure would like to know why my luggage got ransaked and Im missing my laptop though.

Airport and Pending Hotel

Just a quick quack before I head off.

This is the hotel I'll be staying at, the Hotel Armada. It looks to be very nice, right on the water and with fantastic views. And of course, no trip is without last minute hitches, right? Through a clerical error, the conference organizers have me staying at one hotel (which also seems very nice but doesn't meet DoD security standards or something) and then my travel office at work put me up in a second. I went to cancel the former, and they're still wanting to charge me for a night's stay! So it looks like if I can't get it sorted out, I will have successfully mastered cloning or time travel and be staying in two places at once. ARGH.

Downloaded my currency converter to my phone this morning (and set it to no dynamic updates, so I don't get a surprise cell phone bill). I've packed - though have the suitcase still hidden safely upstairs so our dog Halo doesn't do the math and become squeaktastic as she realizes we're going on a trip. I've put my Kindle (how did I ever live without that thing?) and my needlework in my carry on case, all set to go. Ian and I had a fantastic breakfast of French toast (with fresh eggs of course), and will enjoy a couple more hours together before he has to take me off to the airport.

Unfortunately, today will be the last time I see him until the end of the month! The day I arrive back in town, June 23rd, he leaves that morning to go off to Montana and participate on a cattle drive. Hmmm, maybe he can write a few entries about that here! It sounds like a fantastic trip, and I can't wait to hear about Cowboy Ian when I return. But yes, the poor timing is that he flies out the afternoon I arrive, and will be gone for a week himself. So we'll save our reunion for early July, and have lots to tell each other about our adventures when we're together again. :)

In the meantime, not at all related to my conferences or a cattle drive - but for those geeks out there, how fun does this look? (Special note to my parents, this is the singer we went to see while you were out visiting - sponsoring a cruise!)

So a bientot, and the next time I write, I'll be in Istanbul-not-Constantinople! (staying at two hotels)

Getting Off the Ground

Hello everyone, and welcome if you've stopped by! I am once again getting ready to jet-set around the world (or Europe, at least) preparing papers for conferences and taking some time out to see the sights. As many of you know, I'm not exactly the best Facebook user - for one, I'm terrible about checking in and when I do check in, I have a lot more to say than 100 characters! So I'm going to try and start blogging about my travels again, in a vain hope of sharing a more substantial accounting of where I'm off to and what I am doing, seeing, eating, or experiencing.

The Clockwork Duck comes from a couple favorite hobbies of mine. As most folks know, I do love rubber ducks - I've been collecting them off and on for the last decade or so, but pretty much every incarnation or spelling of duck (in both English and the French "canard") were already taken as blog titles. Thus, enter my other, more recent hobby - Steampunk. For those who don't know, Steampunk is a bit of a combination between science fiction and Victorian history/costuming - as Ian puts it, the future as imagined in 1900. It gives me an outlet for the historic costuming I once did through the SCA and other venues, but also allows a lot more creativity and imagination for modifications and such. Thus - the clockwork duck, duckie for the rubber ducks and clockwork for Steampunk.

In any case, feel free to poke your head in and say hello! I'm not sure if I will update this on a more regular basis, or just dust it off like a leather-bound journal when I travel to somewhere interesting and away from home. In either case - this week, I head off to Istanbul (not Constantinople) and then Madrid! So bon voyage, and I'll write more once I arrive and settle in across the Pond.

Cheers,
- Jenn