Winsome
[WIN-suhm]
Cheerful, merry, gay, light-hearted.
Well I've been meaning to update for ages now. Just haven't gotten to it somehow. Oops. Things here have been pretty same ole, same ole. I think I've settled into a routine of sorts, if you can count every day being a bit different being a routine. Because sometimes the kids have friends over, or sometimes we go to the pool, or they have extra practice or less practice, or we go out to dinner, or to a park. So some days I have a lot of free time (like today!) and other days not so much. But I'm just rolling with it.
Sundays though are always my day off and so far Brandon and I have had some very nice Sundays.
By far my favorite part of Istanbul is the Bosphorous (surprise, surprise, right?) There's just something about bodies of water that puts me at peace, especially the ocean. So even though it's smack did in the middle of the hustle and bustle of a very, very large city it still strikes me as calm. And gorgeous. And ocean breezy (kinda).
The last two weekends we went to Taksim Square, which is this busy, store filled square/street, that's mostly really cute. There are even old fashioned metro cars, which I liked a lot.
But then, it's also packed with Burger Kings and McDonalds (but mostly Burger Kings). Brandon and I went to a Starbucks and man, was that carmel frapp delicious. Sometimes I just have to have some expensive coffee!
And in Taksim two weekends ago we got a very wonderful surprise. We ran into this enormous gay pride parade. Apparently it was celebrating gay pride week and was the end celebration for the week. It was so great to see. Especially because Istanbul is becoming more and more liberal in that regard--it was nice to see all the support!
Last weekend, Brandon and I decided to hop on a 3.5 TL ferry to the Princes' Islands. Which was basically the best choice we could have made. It was by far my favorite thing I've done here. Just being on the boat, in the sun and the breeze, surrounded by ocean, with Asia on one side and Europe on the other, felt so perfect. One of those moments that makes you think, this is what traveling is about, this is what living is about.
So after about an hour and a half we hopped off the ferry and started exploring Heybeliada, the third island. It reminded me a bit of the Galapagos-it was small and cute, with hole in the wall grocery stores and lots of tourists. No cars are allowed on the islands, so it really has a very different feel than Istanbul which is all traffic and craziness. You can even hop on a horse drawn carriage and it will take you around the island.
So we walked around the island for a bit, grabbed a cold beer and went (maybe snuck in?) to a "beach". I use beach in the loosest term of the word. It felt more like a hotel resort pool or something. I mean, there was sand...just not much of it. And a lot of beach chairs and things to lounge on. But still we put our toes in the water and enjoyed lying by the water for a bit.
Then we had to go back for a beautiful night-ish ferry ride. We didn't check what time the ferries came and went, so we ended up having to wait for one to come for like 50 minutes. Which would have been ok, but we had a bus we needed to catch (which we also didn't know the times of). I tend to not have such great luck in such matters, so I was way worried we'd miss the last bus. Especially because, with my sense of direction, I had no real idea how to get back to the bus stop. But all was well and we made it back to the bus ok. In the meantime we got to enjoy a beautiful night time ferry ride.
So all in all the last two weeks have passed rather quickly. I can't believe today is already Friday and in just a day I'll have another Sunday off!
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