Two weeks in review

Since my arrival in Istanbul two weeks ago, I've moved three times. While I appreciate the convenience of rolling suitcases, I'm happy that my days as a wanderer (Anatolian nomad?) are over. I'm finally settled in at the consulate apartments in Etiler, the same neighborhood I lived last summer.

When I tell people you could fit my Austin apartment in the kitchen of this unit, I'm only exaggerating a little. I once read that Hitler's office in the Fuhrerbau was so big that it took five minutes for a person to walk from the door to his desk. Hitler's office and my living room have this in common -- the room is big enough to roller skate in. Since I left my roller skates at home, I'm thinking it's a perfect place for a dance party. There are five more rooms, three baths and two patios that face the Bosporus. The family who lived here was recently transferred to a different post, which means I get to squat in this enormous unit until the next family arrives (conveniently several days after my departure for the states).

View from my kitchen porch. Appreciate your tax dollars at work -- the USG pays over $100,000 a year to rent a single unit at this property.

Before dragging my belongings to my current manse, I stayed a week with the brother ["The Engineer"] of a Turkish friend I met in Austin. The Engineer has a small apartment in Şişli and was kind enough to provide me with a place to sleep until the consulate found me earth-quake safe housing. He's also a great host -- last Saturday we spent a lovely day walking around Ortaköy and Üsküdar before eating an amazing meal on the Bosporus. I had never eaten in a restaurant so nice that even the lemons got dressed up.

Mr. and Mrs. Lemon, the wedding

The dramatic Ortaköy mosque

Yeni Valide Mosque (1710), Üsküdar

Yesterday, the Engineer took me to Kelios, a town on the Black Sea (unfortunately, there are no pictures from yesterday owing to the abundance of camera destroying elements at the beach). Some of you may remember my unfortunate experiences with sand-less Turkish beaches, but yesterday was perfect. The Black Sea is clear and cold. The sand it orangey-brown, littered with rocks and shells. Ships waiting to pass through the Bosporus -- almost 30 of them -- filled the horizon. And the food was amazing: an open buffet composed almost entirely of my favorite Turkish foods. We left the beach in the early evening and wandered through Yeniköy, a Bosporus side neighborhood. The day ended on the Marmara Sea in Kadaköy. For the record, that's every body of water in the Istanbul area.

Adventures in Asia, Part II

Sunset, taken from Kadaköy facing the European side.

I rode a city bus for 45 minutes in Friday afternoon traffic for baklava today. The city's finest mind you -- you won't find me sweating on a fetid, loaded bus for just any baklava. There's a bakery across the street from Superdorm after all. This baklava was special though. Aside from the sheer variety of baklava-esque desserts available, this bakery also sells various toppings, just in case there aren't enough calories on your plate already. I have never seen cream quite like this: solid, white globs the size of golf balls. Despite my naïveté in this area of dairy products I had a pretty good idea what the cream would do to my stomach and was therefore unwilling to do more than admire it.

Desert was followed by another ferry ride to the Asian side of the city. I really love the ferry -- I consider it more as a cruise across the Bosporus than a necessary evil of travel (such as the bus).

Man selling kitchen knives on the ferry... "you can buy two packs of cigarettes of 10 knives and a knife bloc". He sold all of his sets before we landed.

Kadaköy train station, taken from the ferry.

Ilyana, Kari and me returning from our Asian adventure.

The ferry landed in Kadaköy, another one of Istanbul's many "villages". Kadaköy is known for it's Tuesday/Friday market and is generally considered a hip place to wander around. It also has a great restaurant district -- tonight's traditional Anatolian fare was the Turkish equivalent of comfort food. It's typical for restaurants to welcome new customers with free food. Tonight that translated into a place of "meat stewed with oats" (think chicken and dumplings only more oatmealy), desert (sweetened bulgar wheat and a firm cinnamon-vanilla custard) and tea. The wait staff was in such a state of disbelief that we spoke Turkish that all of the restaurant waiters stopped by, just to see the foreign, Turkish-speaking women for themselves.

Dinner and a show.