Kale

Found myself in Van after a long day of traveling. Before that I was in Erciş. Tomorrow I will go to Malatya (I think). It's been incredible. There is so much more to tell, but so little time right now.

Hasankeyf and Tatvan

I have had the most amazing experience since Mardın. Özlem and I went to Hasankeyf, an ancient city largely composed of caves and historical constructions overlooking the Tigris river.
The next day we went to Tatvan, a largely Kurdish city on the west end of Van Lake. We went to the top of the nearby volcano, Nemrut, to catch the sunset. Curiously, the inspiration for the trip to Nemrut was a picture that has served as my laptop's desktop background for almost a year. It can be found here.
Our plans now include going to Van today and Adıyaman tomorrow. Essentially, we are criss-crossing the southeast of Turkey. In Adıyaman there is another mountain called Nemrut which has some remarkable giant statues on it and is supposedly the best place in the world to see the sunrise. Not sure if we will make it for sunrise but we will try to hike it regardless.

Checking in from the East

I have been traveling in the east part of Turkey for the last few days. I put a picture of me at an ancient monastery outside of Mardın. Right now I am in a city called Batman. My hotel overlooks the Tigris and there are cliffs dotted with caves all around. I will be in away from İstanbul for a few more days. My plans include Bitlis, Van, and Ankara. I will tell a bit more about this trip later. For now, I will say that I am well and very happy out here.

Where I've been and where I'm going

The map below shows red dots at where I live and where Bozcaada is. Pictures from that adventure below in the last post. As a result of that trip, I added the Çanakkale city-region to the map under "Where I've Been in Turkey" on the right. It is shown in a darker blue in the map below.This next map shows the trip to the East that Özlem and I are taking. To many Turkish people (and non-Turks for that matter), the east part of Turkey is not an ideal vacation spot. However, I, like some of my friends, consider the east part of Turkey to be a wonderful place to go. Özlem is one such friend and we have been talking about a trip to the East since we met. After not-much-planning (I prefer it that way), we decided to go to Diyarbakır and Mardın and other places. On the map, Purple is İstanbul, green is Diyarbakır and Mardın, darkish yellow represents the other cities we might visit on the trip (haven't decided yet), and light yellow are the cities which are sort of in the realm of not-unlikely-possibility.
The trip will last several days, and I doubt I will be online much if at all during that time. This is actually one of things that makes the trip fun. However, you can be sure I will take lots of pictures and tell you all about it upon my return.

Bozcaada

I spent the weekend in Bozcaada with friends. What can I say about Bozcaada? It is beautiful, quaint, historical, and windy. There are beaches, streets lined with small shops and cafes, white square houses with brightly painted trim and small, flower-filled balconies.

What can I say about my friends? They all rock. I was invited on this trip by Mahir, a friend of Gökhan I met during the Beşiktaş excursion and again at various gatherings. There were other familiar faces on the 7-hour bus/ferry ride. Özlem, Hasan, Erman, Dilek, to name a few. I met many others. We spent time at the beach, visited a fortress, a museum, a wind farm, and a few fish restaurants during our stay.

Anadolu Hisarı

Sorry for the long silence. I left my camera in a friend's car and I don't like to make picture-less posts.
Last week, I went for an afternoon with a friend, Özlem, to Anadolu Hisarı. It is a fortress on the Bosporus with a view. We took a nice dinner at a restaurant. The shot above is of the view from where I sat.

After dinner, we went for a walk to the seaside. Everything about it was really nice. We ate mulberries from a tree by the side of the road. We walked through narrow streets lined with rock walls with flowers growing on top. The view was so nice on the walk, that for a time, we walked backwards in order to see it. Fortunately, there weren't others around to see that.
My next post will come soon and will include pictures from my trip to Bozcaada.

The World Cup

As the world already knows, the World Cup tournament starts today.I am very excited about this because in the world of football/soccer, it never gets more political than this. The tournament has that same kind of nationalistic pride and enthusiasm that we see in the Olympics, but this is so much bigger. For one, in the the Olympics, you often already know who is going to win. For example, you know that all the winter sports will likely be won by a northern north hemisphere team. In the World Cup, it's anyone's guess.

Speaking of which, here's what I guess.

Group A: Mexico and Uruguay. This is bold and daring because in the history of the tournament, the hosts have never been eliminated in the opening round. Also, a lot of people expect France to do well, but I don't. Their team is old, they barely qualified, and the world hates them for cheating their way into the tournament (recall Henry's infamous handball).

Group B: Argentina and Nigeria. Everyone seems to expect great things from Argentina this time because they happen to have great players, but I don't see that happening. Argentina barely qualified, and despite their great players, they can't seem to play as a team. Nigeria because I really think the African nations will do well overall in this tournament. Also, they were very impressive in the Africa Cup of Nations this year.

Group C: England and the US. But really, who isn't predicting this. Actually I wouldn't be surprised if Slovenia upsets. The Brits won't shut up about how badly they're going to beat the USA on Saturday. I don't see it. I think they are a bit full of themselves. USA USA USA!

Group D: Ghana, Australia. This is my boldest prediction yet, but some big team has to be the victim of fate. I think that team will be Germany. I think this group is tougher than anyone thinks. Good luck to Germany, but watch out for Ghana and Australia.

Group E: Netherlands and Denmark. Actually I've been saying for months now that Holland will win the tournament. However, I really love the Danish side. The opening match of this group is between the two and my heart will be breaking during the whole game no matter what the outcome.

Group F: Italy and Paraguay. I don't expect Italy to go all the way, nor Paraguay. But I expect to see them make it out of the group. I also expect a lot of success from South American teams overall.

Group G: Brazil and Ivory Coast. I hate Portugal. I can't hope for them. I love that they barely qualified despite huge expectations. Once again, you have a team with amazing players who can't cooperate effectively.

Group H: Chile and Spain. Everyone in the world thinks Spain or Brazil will win it all. I think this is bogus. Watch out for Chile. They are going to win this group! I think/hope.

There you have it. Probably I will read this later and feel really embarrassed, but I don't mind that. The truth is, I love this tournament and whatever happens, I think I will be delightfully entertained. I hope you will be too. The action starts today with Mexico v. South Africa and Uruguay v. France. I'm expecting Mexico and Uruguay to be smiling the broadest at the end of the day. I wait to be embarrassed.

Anadolu Kavağı

I woke up Saturday morning surprised to discover that I was not feeling so well. I blamed it on lack of sleep and got out of bed anyway. I made it to Beşiktaş where I met up with Nayat and Sezen. We walked onto a crowded boat for a 1.5 hour ride to Anadolu Kavağı, a fortress with a view at the intersection of the Bosphorus and the Black Sea.The Bosphorus is very scenic, but the boat was overcrowded (mostly tourists) and my health was declining again. Once on land again and out in the sun, I began to feel a little better. We hiked slowly, discussing many things.At times I felt really hot and at times really cold. I was beginning to wish I had stayed home. I was starting to feel worse.As I made my way to the toilet, I paused on a stone step next to some bushes. The world was spinning and getting smaller. I was dizzy and confused. I lost perception of everything that was not immediately near me. Some tourists asked if I needed help, and Nayat explained the situation. The world got smaller. I don't know when the tourists walked on. I was vaguely aware that Nayat was behind me somewhere. The world narrowed further until just the bushes remained. I emptied the contents of my stomach into them. Though still exhausted, I immediately felt so much better. The world came back into view. Only Nayat had closely witnessed my deed. A waiter brought some juice and water. I rested for a while before we continued up the hill.

The trip was worth it.
The view was perfect. The weather was perfect. We hung out at the fortress for a while.
Once, on a narrow path, I offered the woman next to me to proceed ahead of me, by uttering a short Turkish phrase. She said "Thank you!" in an American accent. It was a strange feeling. On the boat ride home, I had a nice chat with a Canadian tourist. In addition to our experiences in Turkey, we discussed American, European, Israeli, and Turkish politics and lifestyles. I'm really starting to feel as though I am gaining a more global perspective on these matters. Just because I moved to a country 5000 miles away, doesn't mean I don't live in a bubble. In fact, I'm finding myself in a kind of Turkish/Turkish-American bubble. I found it refreshing to talk with someone on the outside of my bubble. I'm not even sure what this means, but I feel like I'm still finding myself in many ways. Of course I might look back on this in 20 years and laugh. Who completely finds themselves? And what does that feel like anyway?

A Great Day

This morning I was in a great mood. A mood that warranted the preparation of sucuklu menemen (eggs, tomato, peppers, sucuk). I had some olives on the side, and to drink I poured myself a glass of apricot juice. Additionally, I prepared a special treat: mulberries! I discovered the other day that there is a mulberry tree growing outside my apartment. The berries are starting to ripen these days. I eat a few when I leave my apartment in the morning and a few more when I return at night. This time I thought to have some with breakfast.

The weather today is perfect: sunny and 23 degrees (Celcius, b!tch). I have some emails to write, resumes to further edit, and a masters thesis to proofread. So, I walked a little farther from home to a cafe that has a high terrace with a 270 degree (degrees, b!tch) view of rooftops, streets, a plaza, and a patch of sea.I have another piece of news which is that last I played football and scored my first goal! Well, my first since I started playing with my Moda friends about 3-4 weeks ago. The closest I came before last night was a couple of own-goals that left my foot, deflected off the head or shin of a defender, and by way of luck and good fortune found its way to the back of the net. Last night's piece was a bit different. Our side had won a corner kick. Playing defense, I inched up past midfield to maybe catch a deflecting a ball and put it back into the penalty area if need be. But as Volkan was setting up the corner I noticed that a huge gap had formed in the backside of the penalty area. I burst forward toward the area, flailing my arms and looking at Volkan. He saw. The cross came curling perfectly over the heads of everyone, toward me. I look two more quick strides forward, closed my eyes tightly and connected my head with the ball. When I opened my eyes, I saw the ball drift just under the crossbar and into the back of the net. My friends all ran toward me in double-high-five mode. Of course I was elated. I thanked Volkan for the pass, and I played the rest of the game with renewed vigor.

After today's paper-filled duties, I will hang out with Nayat and Sezen in Taksim. I cannot wait until that moment when I am relaxing on the boat to Kabataş, the salty suds sometimes barely missing my outstretched feet resting on the railing as I recline. By then I will have commandeered a newspaper. Probably I will be circling words to study later with the half-sized blue pen I carry in my pocket. In anticipation of a an evening in Taksim I will be listening to Istiklal Caddesi Kadar. Oh Şebnem.