11564

Today I made a portable USB DVD unit. I took an old power supply, an old DVD unit and I bought IDE 2 USB converter on Buyincoins for 2.8$.

Used components

Since the power supply doesn't work without power button I soldered green wire to black one and disconnected the fan.

Tuning the power supply

And the next step was to put things together.

"Mini" portable DVD unit

11563

Today I was searching for some flight tickets and I found a very interesting site, with many airlines.

Check it out.

http://www.euroflights.info/

And the list of the airlines:

European low cost airlines

The no-frills airlines covered by this website are listed here. Click on to view the destinations served by each airline.

• airBaltic – This Latvian based airline offer flights to many European countries from their hub in Riga. Flights to around 70 airports.
• Air Berlin – This German low cost airline fly a large number of routes between airports in Germany and destinations in Europe, northern Africa and the UK. Flights to around 136 airports.
• Air Italy – Low cost flights between destinations in northern and southern Italy. Flights to around nine airports.
• Air Southwest – UK regional airline with flights from Plymouth, Newquay, and Bristol to places like London, Glasgow, Manchester and Dublin. Flights to around 12 airports.
• Belle Air – This Albanian airline offer low cost flights between Tirana and destinations in Italy, Switzerland, Germany and Belgium. Also flights to Pristina. Flights to around 28 airports.
• Blue Air – Romanian low cost airline offering flights between Romania and other countries all over Europe. Flights to around 34 airports.
• Blu-express.com – Offers low cost flights within Italy and between Italy and Turkey. Flights to around nine airports.
• Bmibaby – British airline operating low cost flights to southern- and eastern European destinations. Flights to around 32 airports.
• Brussels Airlines – Belgian airline offering flights to many European countries from its base in Brussels, Belgium. Flights to around 58 airports.
• Cimber Sterling – Danish airline offering flights within Denmark and to many European destinations. Flights to around 51 airports.
• Condor – German low cost airline with a large route network to holiday destinations in Europe and other parts of the world. Flights to around 75 airports.
• Corendon.com – Turkish low cost airline operating flights between the Netherlands and Turkey and between Belgium and Turkey. Flights to around 23 airports.
• Easyjet – One of the original European low cost airlines with a route network spanning most of Europe. Flights to around 120 airports.
• FlyBE – Based in southern England this British discount airline operates routes between England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and southern Europe. Flights to around 71 airports.
• Germanwings – Low fare flights between Germany and destinations in most other parts of Europe. Germanwings use Cologne/Bonn, Stuttgart, Hamburg and Berlin Scönefeld as hub airports. Flights to around 76 airports.
• helvetic.com – Swiss airline offering flights between Switzerland and southern European destinations. Flights to around seven airports.
• Iceland Express – This Icelandic airline fly routes between Reykjavik and London Stansted, Copenhagen and Frankfurt Hahn airports. Flights to around 15 airports.
• Jet2 – British airline offering flights from England, Scottland and Northern Ireland to southern and central European destinations. Flights to around 57 airports.
• Meridiana – Italian airline offering flights within Italy and to European destinations. Flights to around 41 airports.
• Monarch – British low cost airline offering scheduled flights between the UK and southern Spain, the Canary Islands, Portugal and Cyprus. Flights to around 20 airports.
• Norwegian – Scandinavia's largest budget airline offering domestic flights in Norway and Sweden as well as international flights to most European countries. Flights to around 83 airports.
• Ryanair – Irish low fares airline with hubs all over Europe. Ryanair offers low cost, no-frills flights to most European countries. Flights to around 158 airports.
• SmartWings – Czech airline offering cheap flights between the Czech Republic and southern European destinations. Flights to around 38 airports.
• Transavia.com – Dutch discount airline with flights from Amsterdam and Rotterdam to European destinations. Flights to around 93 airports.
• Vueling – This Spanish low cost airline offer flights to Madrid, Barcelona, Sevilla and other popular destinations in Spain from Amsterdam, Brussels, Paris, Milan, Rome and other European cities. Flights to around 45 airports.
• Wind Jet – Italian low cost airline offering flights within Italy and to other European destinations. Flights to around 32 airports.
• Wizz Air – Offers flights between Poland, Hungary and Romania to western and northern European countries including destinations such as London, Cologne, Paris, Barcelona, Oslo and Stockholm. Flights to around 62 airports.

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Today was our flight day, so we said goodbye to Burcu and went to the Kadıköy bus station. Like always we were there just some minutes before departure. After 40 minutes we were already at the Sabiha Gökçen International Airport. Although we had more alcohol in our bags than it is allowed we passed all controls. The flight was a little bit boring and soon we landed in Vienna International Airport. No problems again. We took the train again to our car and 4h journey to Ljubljana was ahead of us. At around 18h we came to Ljubljana, and I moved to my Hyundai. It started after a week of cold and moisture without any problem. Great car. After one more hour I was at home, excited, very excited, because I had to work next day.

So another Turkey journey was behind us and again it was very good.

11552

After a long long time I was not completely destroyed on 1st of January, but I still can't decide if that is good or bad.
Since people here don't celebrate much they also worked quite normally today and also our departure day will be here soon, so we decided to do some shopping and exploring Asian side of Istanbul. First we went to local bazaar.

Stuff in the bazaar in Moda

We continued our way to confectionery Baylan, established in 1923. We had a very delicious desert, called Kup Griye.

Even I liked it

We went to the Dolmuş place and he took us to Fenerbahçe, where we had a nice walk by the sea and in some of the rich parts there.

 

 

 

 Walking in Fenerbahçe area

It was time to taste the burger in a Burger house. They are very expensive, but also very very good. For example, Chef special burger costed 22TL (11€).

 

 

 Burger in McDonalds... if you believe in fairytales

After the most expensive burger in my life we went into hamam. It's a very nice thing, since you can go to sauna, then they clean you up and massage your body.

Very old hamam

And the last thing we did in Istanbul was smoking the water pipe, called nargile in Turkish language.

Banana and coconut in milk nargile

In the evening we watched two movies. First one was The Proposal with Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds. The second one was James Cameron's Avatar.

11551

Last day of year 2010. Will it be also the end of the world? Since nobody confirmed that 100% Primož, Katarina and me decided to visit Hagia Sophia. First impression was very bad, because the entrance fee was 20TL (cca. 10€).

Former Orthodox patriarchal  basilica, later a mosque, and now a museum  in Istanbul, Hagia Sophia

It doesn't look very impressive from the outside, but from the inside it's a completely different story.

 

 

 

 

Pictures from inside

We continued our sightseeing tour to Kapalıçarşı (Grand Bazaar). It's a completely touristic place, so I prefer smaller bazaars.

Entrance to grand bazaar

 

Katarina and her shopping place

After some kilometres in the bazaar we went towards Mısır Çarşısı (Spice Bazaar). 

Spice Bazaar

 

Spices, tea and again touristic prices

After that we walked from Eminönü over Galata Bridge, which crosses Golden Horn to Kadıköy.

Galata Tower

Ships on Golden Horn (Haliç)

Fishermen on Galata bridge

On our way home, we captured a turkey for our dinner.

Our dinner, half naked

For dinner we again ate too much. If you are on the diet, just don't go to Istanbul.

Table is never empty in Turkey

And finally. Time to go out to a party. We were already late, because I couldn't decide what to wear. We took Dolmuş to Taksim Square and then we walked to our destination, bar Romeo and Juliet.

İstiklal Caddesi was very crowded

We arrived to the party place, but we were not lucky at all. Organisation of CS party was awful and we had to wait in line for a drink more than half an hour, so we spent our new year time in a queue waiting for a beer. When it was our turn to order, we ordered triple portions, so we were prepared to a toast for Slovenian new year, which is one hour later then Turkish. Party was still nothing special, so we didn't stay long. Taxi drove us back home.

Our table at the party, special reservation

Happy new year at 1 a.m.

Today's special: In a bar today, we saw a nice drawing.

I think it was even before 1862

Happy New Year everyone!

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Burcu and Katarina went to Burcu's restaurant. Their plan was to make some sarma. Since Pirgo and I were left behind we went out at around 11h. First we bought ourselves nice Simit. Then we walked through Moda Bazaar.

Then we decided it was time for a beer. Turkish people usually wait with a beer or any kind of alcohol till Allah goes to bed, but we couldn't.

 

Our waiter was Galatasaray fan

After couple of them we went to see our girls how are they doing with sarma. They had a bad day, so they were not very happy to see us.

Good girls

So we decided to go back in the house and wait there. When they finished the job and arrived home we had some preaching, but soon everything was ok.

In the evening we had a small party at our house. Some of Burcu's friends came to visit us. Faruk, Timur, Milena, Rados and Ece were our test rabbits for some slovenian pork meat food (panceta, salami, mushrooms and liver pate, all home made). We also had some Cabernet Sauvignon from Slovenia and some home made medica (honey schnapps). We also served some salami and sausages from Germany, since they were already waiting in the fridge.

Slovenian dinner

 

Our guests

And the question of the day was: Is tomato a fruit or a vegetable?

Wikipedia states that it is a fruit.

My explanation is, if you can not make schnapps out of it, then it is a vegetable.

A little bigger explanation is here:

Answer: “To really figure out if a tomato is a fruit or vegetable, you need to know what makes a fruit a fruit, and a vegetable a vegetable. The big question to ask is, DOES IT HAVE SEEDS?

If the answer is yes, then technically, you have a FRUIT. This, of course, makes your tomato a fruit. It also makes cucumbers, squash, green beans and walnuts all fruits as well. VEGETABLES such as, radishes, celery, carrots, and lettuce do NOT have seeds (that are part of what we eat) and so they are grouped as vegetables.”

By these definitions, a pumpkin is a fruit, botanically speaking. So are squash and zucchini.

Modern society commonly refers to all these fruits as vegetables:

    * Pumpkin

    * Squash

    * Tomato

    * Cucumbers

    * Green beans

    * Capsicum peppers

    * Bell peppers 

The definition of vegetable:

“Vegetable is a culinary term. Its definition has no scientific value and is somewhat arbitrary and subjective. All parts of herbaceous plants eaten as food by humans, whole or in part, are generally considered vegetables. Mushrooms, though belonging to the biological kingdom, fungi, are also commonly considered vegetables…Since ‘vegetable’ is not a botanical term, there is no contradiction in referring to a plant part as a fruit while also being considered a vegetable. Given this general rule of thumb, vegetables can include leaves (lettuce), stems (asparagus), roots (carrots), flowers (broccoli), bulbs (garlic), seeds (peas and beans) and of course the botanical fruits like cucumbers, squash, pumpkins, and capsicums.” (Wikipedia.org)

This is the correct answer for all your food trivia pursuits:

If you are speaking in a botanical, scientific context, then pumpkin, tomato, capsicum, cucumber, tomato and squash are FRUITS because they all have seeds. If you are speaking in culinary terms, they can all be properly called VEGETABLES.

Case solved, right? Not quite. The United States Supreme Court entered into this fascinating debate and gave a legal verdict on whether a tomato should be classified as a vegetable or a fruit. They decided unanimously, in Nix versus Hedden, 1883, that a tomato is a vegetable, even though it is a botanical fruit.

So, there you have the difference between fruit and vegetable and an amazing nutrition fact. A tomato is a fruit AND a vegetable. A pumpkin is a fruit AND a vegetable. The age-old question of "Is it a fruit or vegetable?" has been resolved. Next, we will tackle "Which came first - the chicken or the egg?" (You do know it was the chicken first, right?)

Source.

Live version (only people who will visit my blog or who have direct link can see it, so boys and girls don't worry, nobody will beat you up).

İSTİKLAL MARŞI

Fear not! For the red flag that proudly ripples in this glorious twilight, shall never fade,

Before the last fiery hearth that is ablaze within my nation is extinguished.

For That is the star of my nation, and it will forever shine;

It is mine; and solely belongs to my valiant nation.

Frown not, I beseech you, oh thou coy crescent,

But smile upon my heroic race! Why the anger, why the rage? ¹

Our blood which we shed for you will not be blessed otherwise;

For freedom is the absolute right of my God-worshiping nation.

I have been free since the beginning and forever will be so.

What madman shall put me in chains! I defy the very idea!

I'm like the roaring flood; powerful and independent,

I'll tear apart mountains, exceed the heavens ² and still gush out!

The lands of the West may be armored with walls of steel,

But I have borders guarded by the mighty chest of a believer.

Recognize your innate strength, my friend! And think: how can this fiery faith ever be killed,

By that battered, single-fanged monster you call "civilization"? ³

My friend! Leave not my homeland to the hands of villainous men!

Render your chest as armor and your body as trench! Stop this disgraceful rush!

For soon shall come the joyous days of divine promise...

Who knows? Perhaps tomorrow? Perhaps even sooner!

View not the soil you tread on as mere earth, recognize it!

And think about the shroudless thousands who lie so nobly beneath you.

You're the noble son of a martyr, take shame, hurt not your ancestor!

Unhand not, even when you're promised worlds, this paradise of a homeland.

What man would not die for this heavenly piece of land?

Martyrs would gush out were one to just squeeze the soil! Martyrs!

May God take all my loved ones and possessions from me if He will,

But may He not deprive me of my one true homeland for the world.

Oh glorious God, the sole wish of my pain-stricken heart is that,

No heathen's hand should ever touch the bosom of my sacred Temples.

These adhans, whose shahadahs are the foundations of my religion,

And may their noble sound last loud and wide over my eternal homeland.

For only then, shall my fatigued tombstone, if there is one, prostrate ⁴ a thousand times in ecstasy,

And tears of fiery blood shall flow out of my every wound,

And my lifeless body shall gush out from the earth like an eternal spirit,

Perhaps only then, shall I peacefully ascend and at long last reach the heavens.

So flap and wave like the bright dawning sky, oh thou glorious crescent,

So that our every last drop of blood may finally be worthy!

Neither you nor my race shall ever be extinguished!

For freedom is the absolute right of my ever-free flag;

For freedom is the absolute right of my God-worshiping nation!