Hyde!

The arrival of my dear friend and former roommate, Hyde, is something I had been looking forward to for quite some time. Going to the airport to meet someone rather than to leave, was an experience I welcomed happily. His flight came in shortly before midnight and we made the long journey back to Kadıköy. The city looks quite a bit different at night, but he seemed interested in many aspects of it. We discussed many things, but we were very tired.

Upon arriving at the apartment, Hyde checked in with his family and then we retired to our quarters. We were both exhausted, but Hyde especially. The following morning I, as I had been planning to do for quite sometime, woke up a little early, bought fresh fruit, dairy and veggies from local vendors and prepared a nearly-authentic Turkish breakfast on the front porch. It was most delightful. Hyde and I also split a fresh fig. It was his first time tasting one.After breakfast, we went to the park in nearby Moda. We walked along the seafront and then stopped at a çay bahçe for some Turkish tea. After that we went to Ali Usta, for some very famous ice cream. I had a scoop of almond and a scoop of kaymaklı. Both were amazing. Hyde got a raspberry scoop and a lemon scoop.
We stopped in almost every store of interest. A puzzle store, a bakery, a spice shop, a cheese shop, and so on. Each time I would explain some of the things people like to eat here or why I like these stores. In the bakery, a woman working there gave us samples of these strange and delicious apricot marmalade squares. They were so good. I think it's good that we were full before touring all those food places.
Hyde will be here for 2 weeks. We have so many plans. As I write this on Saturday afternoon, we are planning to make a night out of Taksim with 3 or 4 sets of my friends (all of whom are eager to meet my mysterious foreign friend). The moral of this post is: come visit me and you'll get to experience all this too! To hear about our adventures from Hyde's perspective, visit his blog at: http://corvik.blogspot.com/. You may also notice that I stole all his photos!