OFF TO TURKEY -- PART TWO

The first informational meeting for the May trip to Turkey went well. There are about 18 people in the group, some of whom had traveled together on other UVM-sponsored trips. Nobody is a kid. There are three people, counting me, over 75. My concern about being too old is resolved.

The long agenda was covered cheerfully and confidently by the two trip organizers. I like the relaxed atmosphere and the enthusiasm. Everyone seems prepared to be flexible and once details about a Turkish visa and various phone and currency items, websites for hotels, health, etc., were covered, the ambitious itinerary begins to look exciting and doable. It turns out there is a woman from Turkey going along and she is helpful about what to expect.

Luggage: one carry-on bag plus a rucksack or tote. Packing for this trip will be fun. I am a minimalist packer anyway. Worries right now? Not so many and I take back what I said about being wrong to want to be part of a local local group. That was right thinking and I see it will be very good to be with people from close to home. We all start from the same place and somehow, we'll go to and from Boston and Istanbul together. 

More later about the Turkey trip  -- probably in February, 2015.

OFF TO TURKEY -- Part One

November 06, 2014

My husband died four months ago and as a challenge to my
newfound independence and a means of getting off the end of the couch, I signed up for a trip to Turkey sponsored by our local university.

I didn't especially want to go to Turkey. I'd rather be off to Spain
or Scotland or on a trip to Holland in tulip time. But this trip is
local and I thought I'd rather be with a group of Vermonters than
with alumni from, say, my Ivy League university. This thinking was
so wrong. The Vermonters, though neighbors, will also be strangers. I'll be just as much an outsider with them as I'd be
in any other travel group.

I've looked at maps and weather charts and researched a phone call app for my iphone. On line, I look at Today's Zaman, the English-language newspaper published in Istanbul. I read about the Kurds. I'll read Orhan Pamuk.

As suggested by the tour planners at UVM, I ordered plane tickets
via a local travel agent. There is a direct flight to Istanbul from Boston and group transportation will be arranged from here to there.

All of this sounds easy and for a day or so, I felt better about the trip. Then I got email from one of the planners strongly suggesting I get travel insurance which I always do anyway. I called the agent and she made me understand that because I am so old, the insurance is going to cost a lot. No pre-existing conditions, she stressed.

Then there came another email from a planner saying I definitely should have medical evacuation insurance. OK. The travel agent will take care of it. "Just do what you need to do, you've got my credit card," I told her. OK. All this insurance will cost just about what the air ticket costs.

I slowly understood what was going on. By May, when the trip
happens, I will be 81. There is nothing, nothing that can slow
down an ambitious trip more than having to wait for some
geriatric crock to catch up. These people must be having fits
about me being with them. What if she can't do stairs?  What if she can't deal with her own luggage, can't walk a block, can't, can't, can't? The poor things. I understand their concerns and I begin to
feel defensive and unsettled.  

Of course, nobody has actually said anything. They'll get a chance to meet me next Wednesday at our first group meeting when we
hand over our passports for Turkish visas to be arranged. What if the Turks won't give me a visa because I am so old?

AIN'T NO GRAPES AND AIN'T NO NUTS

A friend talked wistfully about Grape-Nuts (notice the hyphen?) Pudding, made via a recipe on the Post cereal box. I haven't had Grape-Nuts in the house for a while so I'll get some and make a batch of pudding for his birthday.

I can't think where I've seen this custard-like dessert on a menu.  Diners sometimes have it but it is rare to come across and is mostly a New England comfort food.  Grape-Nuts, developed in 1897 by C. W. Post, then marketed as a kind of health food, isn't always on today's cereal shelves and may be headed the way of Maypo -- "I want my Maypo!"and Maltex.

Here is a Grape-Nuts Pudding recipe from an old Yankee magazine:

Ingredients:

• 1 quart milk, scalded
• 1 cup Grape-Nuts cereal
• 4 large eggs
• scant 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 tablespoon vanilla
• Pinch of salt
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter (approx.)
• Whole nutmeg
• Water

Instructions:

Heat oven to 350°. In a medium-size bowl, pour scalded milk over Grape-Nuts and let sit 5 minutes. In a second medium-size bowl, beat eggs, sugar, vanilla, and salt. Add egg mixture to milk and Grape-Nuts and stir well. Pour into a buttered 2-quart casserole dish. Generously grate nutmeg over the top. Place the casserole into a deep roasting pan. Place in the oven and pour water into the roasting pan, enough to reach halfway up the side of the casserole. Bake 45 to 60 minutes, until almost set in the center (very slight jiggle).

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The Post cereal company has a website https://www.postfoods.com with lore about Grape-Nuts. The copy is straight from the 1950s:

 In 1933, Post Grape-Nuts sponsored Sir Admiral Byrd’s expedition to Antarctica, where the first two-way radio transmission occurred. At the time, maps of the expedition even appeared on Grape-Nuts boxes. This was a huge milestone in the scientific community, and Grape-Nuts helped make it possible!

• During World War II operations before 1944, Grape-Nuts was part of the Jungle rations that helped fuel US and Allied forces on extended missions to Panama and other tropical parts of the world. (To Panama? WHAT are they talking about?)
• In 1953, New Zealand explorer Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay took Grape-Nuts with them for efficient, nutritious energy as they trekked to the top of Mount Everest, becoming the first climbers in history to reach the summit. It is the ultimate example of man’s persistence in the face of the seemingly impossible feat, and Grape-Nuts was there for every high-altitude step along the way.
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What's in this cereal that has no grapes and no nuts? (Thank you, Kurt Vonnegut) Mainly wheat and barley with some yeast, salt and malt. Straight from the box, Grape-nuts is bizarrely crunchy, so unchewable, in fact, I let it soak in milk a few minutes before I go near it.

Should the above be enticing, you will be so delighted when I tell you there is Grape-Nuts ice cream.
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