The Long Awaited Post-Vacation Photo Dump

Before even MORE time elapses, I'm dumping my latest photos herein. Some are from my trip to Istanbul, Copenhagen, the Baltics and Russia, and some have been taken afterwards. Time is both, standing still, and moving too fast for me. Summer full of medical crap zapping my attention span. So without further ado. Oh yes, this post is ALL OUT OF SEQUENCE. It's not written in a linear fashion as it happened.

During our ALL-TOO-BRIEF visit to Istanbul, I was able to meet up with my friend Rengin, with whom I have been corresponding for years about our mutual love of crochet and creativity. So very blessed to have met her face to face. And so happy that technology is so advanced that we were ever able to meet in virtual reality in the first place!

We each had gifties for each other, and Rengin gave me a stunning scarf she edged in Turkish Lace/Oya, a lovely bar of lavender soap, and her mom forwarded onto me a lovely piece of lacework she made for me. And I, in turn gave several pieces/swatches of Bruges lacework I had tinkered with, I believe a bag, and some other items, and of course a small bar of sandalwood soap I had picked up in my travels to India a while back. GMTA!

On the left is a doily Rengin's mom made for me, and in the background is the scarf Rengin edged in oya for me. Both, truly beautiful items!

Istanbul was our first stop, where we were there for two days and a wake up before heading to Copenhagen for an overnight before our cruise.

I love the perspective of this photo. You get an idea of the sheer loveliness of the mosaics, without seeing the SWARMS of people around me. The place was packed, and the queue was quite long to enter the mosque. And also? Yes. That's the scarf Rengin gave me. I'll cherish it always.

While in Copenhagen (aka "Land of the $4 7-11 coffee, HOLY SHIT THINGS ARE EXPENSIVE THERE!), we ate Thai food nearly every meal (with one exception being the meal we ate at the Danish National Museum--well worth the trip!

We were in Copenhagen for an overnight before our cruise, and for an overnight after our cruise. 

Before our cruise, we visited Rosenburg Castle... here I am with my Knitty City bag :)

 And looky here... crocheted items on display! I believe this was part of the royal sleeping garments...(actually looks more like a combination of cut work and crochet...)

So we managed to visit Rosenburg Castle before our cruise, and managed to see quite a bit more of the city after our cruise. We managed to see the plaza near the City Hall, Danish National Museum, (one of the) statues of Hans Christian Andersen, as well as Tivoli. Sadly, I was not able to make a trek out to see the Little Mermaid, or to scope out a yarn store. Also during our stay in Copenhagen after our cruise, the Gumball 3000 car race was happening in the city.

 Here I am standing next to Hans Christian Andersen.

In an exhibit devoted to native and eskimo and what I guess is First Nation culture, were a few examples of fine detailed crochet work and even hairpin lace:

Souvenir bags for the two good friends with whom I meet nearly every week for our "sit and knit" get togethers. Kinder eggs and tea I picked up in Copenhagen, and Matryoshka patches I picked up in St. Petersburg, Russia.

Interestingly enough, I picked up the Kinder Eggs, some salty licorice, bottled water and a few other items at the Aldi pictured here, and also, WTF was up with that car? I still don't know what it was, other than a possible publicity stunt? I never did get around to Googling it in a timely manner. Perhaps I'll never know the genesis or meaning of WTFISUPWITHTHATCAR?

ETA: 7/17/13
Just Googled "crushed car near Aldi, Copenhagen," and this turned up:

It still doesn't detail what happened... though I haven't dug into the comments section. Perhaps a local person has commented about how this car was crushed etc.

I finished up my "Flying Diamonds" shawl, which I edged in the crochet edging from Doris Chan's "All Shawl." 

I finished Flying Diamonds by day three of our trip, just in time for our first port of call: Tallinn, Estonia.

Alexander Nevesky Cathedral (gorgeous!)

While in port, we shopped (of course) and I managed to buy a hand knit shawl, in what I believe to be a mohair blend yarn, and I also managed to buy about 200 gm of Estonian wool.

Not sure what I want to do with the wool; however, several weeks after our trip, I was in NYC and went to Kinokuniya to pick up this book, and perhaps inspiration will take the form of Estonian lace for the Estonian wool. Who knows. (Oh yes, I also managed to pick up a hairpin lace book, too. I'm on my way to a full dozen of these Japanese crochet books. Just love them. Charts are so much more comprehensible to me.)