Messin’ with Texas

One of my first reactions after returning to New York from Istanbul was how hot it was. It felt a lot hotter than Istanbul and it was definitely more humid. I thought this could be an anomaly but I remember a friend’s mother claiming that New York is actually warmer than Istanbul, so I looked it up. Here is the average temperatures of New York and Istanbul by month (it’s in Farenheit). You will notice that Istanbul is warmer in the winters and cooler in the summers. I also confirmed that it is dryer year round than New York

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I also looked up the latitude of each city. They are nearly the same (Istanbul is actually further north than New York):

Istanbul, Turkey: 41° 1′ 6″

New York, USA: 40° 42′ 51″

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Well today’s weather was a little crazy so I took a few videos. As you will see in the videos some of the hail stones were as big as my thumb nail. It lasted about twenty minutes and it got really freaking cold during the storm. Our basement flooded (also in the video) and a bunch of branches got broken. It was pretty cool!

The first video is when it first started. It went few a few minutes, died down and then came back again.

The second video is just more like the first one. I am running around the house taking shots from different rooms. This is during the second round of hailing.

The third video has my basement flooding from a waterfall through an open window. Looks pretty cool. Made a huge mess.

In this video, the fourth video, I run outside to collect some ice pellets for gin and tonics. After all if god gives you lemons… in this case he gave us ice, and we already had the gin and tonic water.

After the hail storm, I did a bit of digging around and apparently you can buy what is called a hail cannon that is supposed to prevent hail from forming in the atmosphere. Check it out, it’s pretty cool!

http://www.hailcannon.com/

FOLLOW UP:

Later in the evening I took these photos and this video of what was a double water spout forming over Long Island Sound. A third one nearly formed but dissipated. Of course lots of idiots with boats went straight into the heart of the storm (I probably would have done the same if I had a boat).

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I was contacted by Robert and Cynthia for advice about visiting Istanbul. They found my blog online and did the right thing by asking me for advice. In return Robert offered me a brief run down of his trip to post on my blog. Hopefully Robert’s experience will be useful to other people thinking about making the same trip.

* * *

We are just finishing up our three month stay in Turkey.
We always start out with our first week in a hostel.
We chose Cordial House which was about 50 YTL
with a shared bathroom.  During this first week, we
found a realtor with which we were comfortable, then
arranged for montly rates at furnished apartments.
In this case, we also booked Cappadocia and Ephesus.
Please note that prices mentioned vary with the seasons.

We stayed the first month (June) and it cost 2500 YTL
(about 1250 Euro, or $1,800) because the Formula One
race was in town, and the only apartment we were able
to find was on the third floor in Sultanahmet overlooking
the Bosporous.  It was beautiful, but (for us) pricey.

Our second (half) month in Sultanahmet on the bottom
floor of the same housing complex, rented for only 1500
for a month (750 YTL for two weeks).  It was smaller,
but actually quite lovely, with a private garden.

After that, we took the bus from Istanbul for tours in
Cappadocia, Konya and Ephesus.  We wanted to go in
train sleeper cars, but logistics of getting from the bus
terminal to the train terminal were difficult.  Plus, there
are changes that (since we don’t speak much Turkish)
would have been problematic.

Lodging near Cappadocia, Konya and Ephesus were
double or triple that in Istanbul, because we were staying
in hotels.  Not fancy hotels, but hotels nevertheless.

Our third month was at a seaside villa in Parkkoy, Silivri.
It was also 1500, and belonged to the man from whom
we rented our first apartment.  It was bigger than our home
in Spain, but there were NO tourist facilities AT ALL,
but the bus ran frequently from Parkkoy to Silivri, which
has everything you need.

Robert and Cynthia have started a travel-writing business
together.  Their web site is http://www.OurAdventure.EU

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