Lunch in NY, Sangria in Barcelona, Gondola ride in Venezia, all less than one euro!

2011-03-03T09:45:00.000-08:00

Recently I read an article of a Turkish travel guru, Mehmet Yasin, commenting that "travelling is not expensive all the time, you can also have a dinner about 40 euros, and a bed for 100 euros".
I thought cheap is a very relative word.
Not to discourage the ones with limited income, I decided to give some hints about 'my cheap’

Cheap Lunch in NYAlthough NY is not a very expensive city for eating, there may be need for cheap food for some. Those who don't want to pay for lunch can attend the free lunch in Episcopal Church in 9th ave. 28-29th street (Holy Apostles Episcopal Church (212) 924-0167 296 9th Ave New York, NY).
There you’ll get a full stomach, 4 kinds of meal, all served by rich old gals and guys, who are also very respectful to you.
After the lunch you can relax yourself at the park just across the street, with a 10 cents cigarette (sold at the exit of the church) with your free juice at hand.

Also free donuts and cookies (left from yesterday) are available at the exit for your dinner.

Cheap Sangria in Barcelona
Sangria is a popular and tasty Spanish drink made of red wine, sugar, fruits and ice. Especially in hot days its very refreshing , but if you take it on a cafe at Ramblas Street of Barcelona, where all the action is taking place, you can get extra hot and sweating as you see the bill .
If you want to drink cold sangria on Ramblas and have less than 1 euro, there is a way!
Just buy a liter of Sangria in Tetrapak (Its 69 cents at the supermarkets), go to the McDonalds on Ramblas, ask the cashier for some ice in a cup . They give it gratis (If you learn how to say ‘free’ in every language, you wont miss the opportunities, this one is the Spanish ‘free’)
Then pour your Sangria in the iced cup, close the top, and enjoy it at the gratis Mc Donalds tables on Ramblas, while chatting with Middle Eastern youngsters cleaning the tables part time.

Cheap Gondola Ride in Venezia
Venezia is a lovely city with all the channels, bridges and gondolas. Watching these are gratuita (check the previous paragraph)
But if you want to amaze your friends at home with a gondola photo, handsome striped t-shirt gondoliere standing behind you, and dont have enough euros; here is the way to do it for less than 1 euro:
There are shared gondolas for crossing the canal at one point, near Palazzo Pisani Moretta.
Its a 40 cents per capita convenience for those who don't want to walk all the way to the other side of the canal.
Journey lasts about a minute, so be prepared to take the first seat in front of the gondoliere, and your camera ready to shoot!

Two memoirs from Syria (1997)

2010-12-16T07:28:00.001-08:00

Thirteen years ago I spent three days in an Armanian mountain village Kasab, just on the other side of the Syrian-Turkish border.

It was Hafız Esad’s reign and I was shocked when I saw former Armenian President Levon Ter Petrosyan's big B&W portrait was on the wall of the village Mukhtar’s house which was also a home pension where I was staying.

Besides there were no Hafız Esad’s portraits in the house (hard to believe)

People were nice to me.

These Armenian fellows did not want to delve into political subjects.

Instead they told me the name of the flower at their back:

Moustache of the Admiral!

Being a doctor, I visited the local health clinic. Although he gets a very little salary, (even compared to mine) the Doctor with the spectacles was very content and happy with his life.

The health service was free.

When Mukhtar mentioned about a Turk who settled in the village and opened a restaurant, I decided to visit him.

Uncle Mehmet was from Adana. After stabbing a man, he escaped to Syria before the military coup in 1980. Since then he was living in Kasab, opened a nice restaurant named Kilikya(Cilicia,

ancient name for his hometown Adana) selling kebaps, arak and nargileh.

Despite being an untalkative guy, he insisted that I eat in his restaurant every evening with his family and elegant wife. (chicken wings grill)

One night, while I was sipping arak after the diner, he sit on my table, ordered a Turkish coffe for himself and started to talk.

He talked about his pigeons. He was the first man I knew dealing with the pigeons, so it was interesting for me to listen him.
He seemed a bit sentimental to me, as he told me that when he freed them, his pigeons were flying over Yayladağ in his homeland, where its impossible for him to visit.

It touched me to see a tough guy like him, getting emotional talking about his homeland.
Those days I was reading a newly published novel of Amin Maalouf, 'Les échelles du Levant' (Turkish title was Ports of East ).

It was about a family departing from homeland in this very same region:

Immigrating from Adana To Syria and Lebanon.

I wrote a note in the book and gave it as a present to his son Ahmet (one in the brown jacket) when leaving Kasab, but don’t think he read it yet.

Once engaged in the sentimental issues, I want to tell you about another incident that touched me in the same trip:

On a hot Summer day, I had just returned from swimming in Shat Al Azrak (Cote d'azur de Cham), the beach of Latakia.

While walking back to the hotel from the bus station, in the bazaar, a small old man, with his old grey suit and black tie, shopping bag in hand come to me and asked where I was from.

I replied without interrupting my walk.
After a small chat in his broken English-French, he suddenley asked if I wanted to come to his house which, he said, is very nearby.

Now the proposal was so strange, yet inappropriate that at first I did not understand what he was talking about.

Then I saw that he wanted this so desperately and was not insisting. I accepted to see what will happen.

We walked a while through the small streets, went into and old apartment building, and climbed up to the second floor.
Since his wifes death, he was living in this same flat that he shared with his wife, alone.

The furniture was old and covered with dust.

We entered the living room, I sat on the old, red velvet couch.
He asked if I wanted to drink something.
I asked for some cold water.

The kitchen we went together to get the water, gave the impression that it was designed by a woman's hand, but had not been touched for a long time.

After taking a glass of water, we returned to the living room, sat wordless for a while.
The old man seemed very sad.

After a small talk I stood up to leave
“Won’t you sit some more?” he asked
“I’m tired, I need to rest” I said
At the door of the apartment, gathering all his courage he asked what I was doing at night.

“I have plans!” I replied and left, leaving him hearthbroken in the empty flat.

TRAVELLING IN SANDALS

Lunch in NY, Sangria in Barcelona, Gondola ride in Venezia, all less than one euro!

Two memoirs from Syria (1997)