A long Sunday

I got up at 6:30 to go rafting in the Sakarya province with my friend Gökhan. It was my first time rafting, and I had a great time despite the weather being off-and-on rain. The bus carried us about 2 hours east of İstanbul into the luscious green Black Sea countryside of Sakarya/Düzce.
We had a big breakfast and then the instructor gathered us around for vital instructions, in Turkish. I remember trying to link alarming phrases like "en önemli..." (the most important...) with what they described. Gökhan translated the essentials to me, though I understood 80% of it without his help. I was quickly briefed on all the command phrases the guide would give when we were out on the water. These were simple things like go forward, stop, hold on, and get down.
Out on the water, I became a quick friends with the others on the raft. I was good at following the instructions, but the guy in front of me could not always hear them. I had his back during the whole expedition. I would relay the instructions to him and once or twice, I held him in the boat when it looked like he was going to fall into the rough water. A real camaraderie developed between the 6 of us. We took turns leading the others in chants and songs. We splashed other rafters as they passed, or we passed them. We even developed our own team solute. No one in our boat fell overboard, but at one point while we were camped out in the calm water, another boat was entering the rough water nearby and lost two members. They were ok, but it was quite a sight. In the end they described it as being exhilarating.

At the end of trip, which lasted almost 2 hours, we changed out of our wetsuits and had a big lunch. We socialized for a while and relaxed. I didn't find the experience all that exhausting because the river did most of the work. Yet most of my friends we really tired. Still, I welcomed the long bus ride home as an opportunity to rest and listen to music. I got to talking with the two girls sitting behind me, who happened to be the ones who had taken a spill during the expedition. We selected some of our favorite songs and then exchanged mp3 players. This is something I like to do often with Pınar. It turns out that we (Pınar, as well as Nayat and Sezen pictured below) all have similar tastes in music. The time passed quickly yet the day felt long. In the evening, when I was back at my apartment, I gave a call to my friend Emir. We had been planning to meet for beer. We met up at a favorite location on Barlar Sokağı (the street with the bars). At one point, the power on the street and the local region went out. It was almost completely dark which was kind of nice because our conversation felt more private that way. Also, seeing Barlar Sokağı lit only by the Moon but still busy with people was a beautiful sight. For 23 minutes it was like this. A candle was brought to our table. We continued to share anecdotes and observations well into the night.

When I went to bed, it was hard to believe that this was the same day that started at 6:30 in Ataşehir and took me so many places.