Izmir

Maunder

\MON-duhr\

To wander aimlessly.

Okay, so I'm jetting back in time a bit to talk about traveling to Izmir which happened...about 3 weeks ago or so. Oops.

Izmir was actually a little tricky to get to from Foca. I took a bus, then a really long metro, then another metro. Even though it only takes about 45 minutes by car it took me almost 2 hours. Because you know, there's a lot of waiting time involved in public transit. But I had my ipod (which I've know lost!, I'm so sad) so the trip was peaceful.

After wandering around looking for a map and trying to find 2 tourist informations (which turned out to actually be complete fabrications, the only tourist info center is eons away at the airport), I decided just to wander around the coast, which was beautiful.

Izmir is the third largest city in Turkey and is a coastal city.

Today it's most well known for its clock tower, which has become the symbol of the city. It is in Konak Square (the main city square) and was built in 1901 as a gift from Sultan Abdulhamid.

Having no map, and no real sense where anything was, I just wandered around, enjoying the ocean air and keeping cool with some delicious vanilla/chocolate/strawberry ice cream. I found Kemer Alta, which is a big shopping district, with everything from street vendors selling cheap knock offs, to high end stores with legitimate name brand stuff. I didn't need to buy anything, so I just window shopped, but the whole vibe there was really great. It was super bustling and lively, with all sorts of people.

Other than walking a lot in the city center, I didn't do much else. I found a cute restaurant and ate outside by the water and did some reading. I had this very good albeit a little strange "mushroom crepe" which was more like a inverted fluffy pizza or something. But still, delish.

A skeleton-like hull of a ship? It was pretty cool looking though.

Right by the clock tower in Konak Square.

Apparently a ship sank and I think they were dealing with some oil clean-up issues because of it.

Frolicking in Foca

Empyrean

\em-py-REE-uhn; -PEER-ee-\

The highest heaven; in ancient belief usually thought to be pure fire or light. Paradise.

So I’ve spent most of the last week in Foca, which is about 7-8 hours south of Istanbul, along the coast in Western Turkey. It’s a small fishing village that’s popular among vacationers and retirees. I thought it was absolutely charming and had such a great time here.

Some days I spent the majority of my time at the beach. The beach here isn’t really sandy, more pebbly and rocky and there aren’t really waves, but the water was clear, bright blue and just the right temperature. So all day I would basically swim, sun bathe, fall asleep in the shade and read. So relaxing.

What a view, right?

At the beach I met some people. I met Aylin’s brother’s wife’s friend, who was an English teacher. She was super sweet and told me how to get to Izmir and helped me communicate with Aylin’s parents, who I’m staying with. We talked about all sorts of things and it was interesting to hear her perspective on the US, foreign countries and Turkey. For instance, she said she went to England and stayed with a friend of a friend who was a psychiatrist (so an educated dude). And he was convinced that all women in Turkey wore headscarves and emphatically told her that she had just taken hers off while she was in England. He wouldn’t believe her that she normally didn’t wear one. Though some women here definitely do wear headscarves, I’d say more than half don’t. Certainly no one in Kemer Country (the neighborhood where the Ozadams, my family, lives) does.

I also met one of Aylin’s old school friends, and her two kids who were lovely. I definitely helped them build a sand castle and talked about creative writing to the eldest, who was 9.

Foca the city is absolutely gorgeous. It’s small, not too touristy and has this great Mediterranean vibe to it. It’s name is derived from Fok (sp?) which means seal in Turkish. It’s home to the endangered Mediterranean Monk seal. Although sadly I didn’t see any because they are pretty scared of people and hide.

I spent a few days wandering around the city center, which is small, but along the ocean and absolutely packed with cool things to see.

Some of the really cute architecture of the houses.

Here are some of the cool things I saw.

The Rampart and Beskapilar (Five Gates) was part of the boathouse section of an Ottoman period castle. They aren’t quite sure how far back it dates, but it was restored back in 1538-1539 and then again in 1983.

Fatih Mosque: the most important Turkish building in Foca. It was constructed under Sultan Mehmet the Conqueror who (unsurprisingly) conquered Foca in 1531. It was redone by Sultan Suleyman the Magnificant in 1569. Not sure who this dude was (other than the sultan), but he seems to pop up a lot in the history here, and judging by his name, I’d say he did some pretty cool stuff. Sadly my pic of this didn't turn out.

The Open Air Temple: dates to around 580s BC and has statues and relics of Goddess Cybele in five niches around it. The temple of Athena is also situated in this temple.

Lover’s Road: I can’t find the origin of this walkway but it connect the Five Gates and the Open Air Temple and is right on the ocean. It is such a wonderful place to walk.

Travels

Propitious

[pruh-pish-uhs]

Presenting favorable conditions; favorable (a little redundant there dictionary.com)

So this last Tuesday my Turkish family headed towards Tampa Florida, which means I get 11 days off! So midnight on Tuesday I caught a midnight bus to Izmir. Aylin’s parents were so kind and said I could stay with them for a week in this little fishing village outside of Izmir called Foca. The plan for the trip couldn’t have been any easier; the family’s driver would drive me to the bus stop in Istanbul, then I would hop on the bus and get picked up by Aylin’s parents at the bus stop. Easy right?

Well it sure sounded that way…

Ok so I forgot to take any photos on the trip, so this is from the internet (http://0.tqn.com/w/experts/Turkey-207/2009/09/bus-trip-kusadasi.jpg) and isn't exactly what my bus looked like. But it's pretty close. Swanky isn't it?

I was supposed to arrive to Izmir at 8:30, but there were other stops along the way. So when we arrived to this whole in the wall gas station at 8:00 I figured this wasn’t my stop. Because Izmir is the third largest city in Turkey; I figured the Izmir stop would be at some big bus station like in Istanbul. So I stayed on the bus, but eventually the driver came up to me and was like, “Izmir?” and I nodded and he told me that this stop was Izmir. A little weird, but whatever.

So I got off the bus, got my bag and some guy told me I had to take a free shuttle to Izmir. I tried to say no, that someone was supposed to pick me up at the bus stop, but they shook there heads and some guy said “no, no one stays here”. So one of the helper guys grabbed my bag and pointed and started running towards the shuttle. So I had no choice but to follow him.

So I got on the free shuttle, awkwardly sat down and the driver asked, “where to?”. I said Izmir, at the bus stop, and he looked at me a little confused, but luckily someone on the bus spoke English and all seemed to be all right. So I just hoped this was what I was supposed to be doing. It was also now that I realized I didn’t have the phone number of Aylin’s parents and I had forgotten their names….

I get off the bus with the guy who speaks English and I ask him if the bus station is close. Then he tells me there is no bus station, that this is Izmir’s biggest hotel. So I’m thinking, gee great, I’m lost in a city I know nothing about, in who knows what area of the city. But then the guy points to this travel agency and says, “go stand there, they’ll pick you up there.” So I’m standing in the middle of nowhere outside of this tiny travel agency and it’s like 8:45. So I’m pretty positive all hope is lost and I’m going have to try to find a cheap hotel for the night or something. So I wander back towards the guy who speaks English and say, “Uh, what am I supposed to do?”. I’m sure he was thinking I was a stupid American, but he smiled and told me that Aylin’s parents (he said their names) were coming to pick me up right here. Apparently they had called the bus station or something.

Well, phew. And sure enough within a couple of minutes they drove up and we exchanged awkward hellos (they don’t speak really any English) and they drove me to Foca.

Why is my Foca picture so much smaller than my ugly bus picture. Well that's a very good question and only blogger has the answer. :(

A Brief Tour

Peregrination

[per-i-gruh-ney-shuhn]

To travel from one place to another, especially on foot

Well this post is long in coming...I've been meaning to do it for ages. Uh, sorry this took so long, Dad. :)

So let me take you on a metaphoric walk around the family's house here in Istanbul.

Let's start in my room....

That's Turkish Monopoly on the floor--the kids and I had just played. But this is it in its normal state: a little messy. But you should see it right now! Gulizar just cleaned it and it looks ridiculously clean. The missing wall here has a really nice book case in it, with some English and some Turkish books. I like it.

Next stop...the area right outside my room. Like a family room, I guess.

The couches are super comfy and face towards a TV. They have a projection screen too, but we can only use it at night because it's too bright during the day. Outside of this room is the "garden" (the backyard) I posted pics of earlier. It's small but has a very nice view.

So if we walk up the stairs to what I call the main floor (it's the floor you walk in on if you go through the front door) you get to the kitchen and the living room...

Very elegant and ornate. There's even a tv hidden in what looks like a mirror. It's a mirror, with a fancy gold gilded frame, but then if you press on on the remote it's a tv screen. Pretty cool. There's Dilara's piano in the background. I tried playing it but it sounded wonky and off tune, but somehow it sounds beautiful when she plays (I suppose, it's a testament to my piano skills!)

This is the mantle in the living room--you can see some of the Muslim influence here. Really pretty.

And then if you walk up the stairs again, that's where the kids' rooms are and such. No pics, because that's weird. But I did take a picture from the top of the twisting wood staircase....

And that's about it. There's a dining room next to the living room that has a nice view but I couldn't get a good photo of it because the sun was too bright. Plus the kitchen, but that's pretty standard.

So I guess I'm signing out for now!

And Tomorrow it Ends

Rara avis

\RAIR-uh-AY-vis\

A rare or unique person or thing.

June 13th in Turkey. June 15th most other places. Yup, that's right, it's the day the last HP movies comes out. I'm foregoing the midnight showing here (because it would have been essentially impossible) but am seeing the movie at 9 pm tomorrow (the 14th). A little bummed about missing the midnight showing, but okay with it considering I'm seeing it 13 hours before I would if I were home. Yup, that's right, 13 HOURS!

But I thought the end of such a fantastic series deserved a little mention. Sure the last book was a MUCH bigger deal. But my panic that the last book was coming out was slightly assuaged by the fact that there were still movies to come. Because seeing it is different than reading it. Albeit, almost always worse than reading it, but powerful in it's own way. And I'll be the first to admit the movies aren't perfect. I think Steve Klove's work on the screen play hasn't ever fully captured the true magic of the stories (or even come close) and Michael Gambdon's Dumbledore lacks the warmth and charm of Rowling's version. But I also think the movies are...well, truly wonderful. The trio is great, Radcliffe grew up into a gifted actor and some of the scenes will really stick with me: Harry bringing Cedric back from the graveyard and his dad yelling "my boy, my boy", Harry being possessed in OotP in the Ministry, Snape yelling "don't call me a coward" in HBP, Hedwig and Dobby dying in Part 1 of DH.

So the movies are important, and are part of this wonderful series. Which means, this is the end of an era. And really feels like a big end to my childhood. Sure I've been an adult for awhile, technically, but being in college still felt a bit like being a kid. I graduate high school, the last HP book comes out, I graduate college and the last movie comes out. The End. Appropriate, but also frightening.

And, well...Harry Potter has been a big part of my life. When I was 9 or 10, I read the first book and essentially grew up with Harry. I remember reading the graveyard scene alone in my sister's room at night and being scared half to death, and trying to stop crying so I could continue reading when Sirius died. All the waiting for new books and midnight premieres and staying up 'til 6 am reading and re-reading and theorizing was such a big and wonderful part of growing up for me. So, Harry Potter just feels like home and always will. Like JK said during her speech at the London premiere, Hogwarts is home. And it will continue to be home as long as people remember it...but in a different way now that everything is done.

So really, what I'd just like to say is thank you, JK Rowling for being so fantastic and changing my life in the best of ways.

Let's hope this last movie is everything we want it to be.

A Rudimentary Routine

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!

An Update in 10 Photos

Breviloquence

Bre*vil"o*quence

A brief mode of speaking.

So I haven't updated in awhile. But I have a semi-legitimate excuse. I've been busy and with my free time I've been writing (curse you MFA writing sample!). And by writing I mean staring at my computer screen, pacing around my room and cursing. But I have made some progress.

So instead of a long winded post that brings you all up to date with my oh so fascinating life (I kid, I kid) I thought I would just bring you a post through pictures. And yes, there will be ducks

A typical Turkish breakfast. Cake, coffee, tee, watermelon, peaches from Firat's garden, cheeses, olives, tomatoes in olive oil and eggs. The housekeeper,( no idea how to spell her name but is sounds like Goo-lee-zar) set everything on the table to be brought outside to the garden so we could eat outside. Lovely.

I found ducklings! Underneath this beautiful weeping willow tree.

I've always loved the grungier side of cities. This is taken from a street we walked down in downtown Istanbul.

We ran into a pigeon lady. LOVE.

How beautiful are these handpainted bowls? We ran into this fabulous mini bazar. It was just a street but there were so many pretty and colorful things! Bowls, plates, crystal hanging lamps and even felted hats!

The buildings here are so bright and refreshing. It makes me so cheery.

Topkapi Palace. And me. And a fountain. (Just in case you couldn't tell)

Hagia Sophia

The famous Bosphorous. Hey look, it's Asia! (On the other side)

While Barkan plays tennis, I spend my mornings laying out by this pool. It's beyond beautiful. There's a main swimming part, and two bridges. If you swim under one you find this narrow little waterway that overlooks tennis courts. If you swim under the other, it opens up to a smaller main pool area, that is surrounded by forest. So peaceful.