Turkey, Chapter 2

As you must realize by now, it is quite difficult to keep these posts up, but i assure you i will fill in the gaps eventually.

I do not have a lot of time right now, but I will try to quickly catch you up. I went to Konya (see some friends), Aydın (for the second wedding), and then Ankara (to see some friends). Then I
did something unlike anything I have ever done. I left 2/3 of everything I brought to Turkey at a friend's house and left with just my backpack and took a night bus to the other side of Turkey.

Trabzon. A luscious green city, eyes open to the Black Sea. The city took Sunday for rest, fishing, and swimming. My bus arrived at 07:00 and the day was just starting to warm up. I walked for 2 hours all over town and finally rested by the sea. By 'rested', I mean I actually cat napped on a rock with the waves splashing softly 5 feet away. It was a nice sleep. When I awoke, I walked around and met some tourists and some locals. We went together for a swim.

I'm the guy on the right standing up, heading toward deeper water in my shorts.


I'll be sleeping under the stars tonight by the sea. But first I will go out to a fish restaurant and then find a bar.

The wonderful things that happened in İstanbul 1

I arrived in İstanbul on the morning of the 3rd of August and took a bus to Pınar's place. I was comforted by being in a familiar place, however one thing was quite different. It was really warm! The weather in Turkey now is vacation weather and so everyone from northern Europe is on vacation here. Anyway, a picture of the underside of one of the bridges that connect İstanbul:I spent a lot of time with Pınar in the first couple of days...
We went swimming. It was really enjoyble, of course. It was just us at the pool that day.
On Friday came the big day: the wedding of Kahraman and Merve
Many people I knew were there, including Bürin
I took a picture of the Moon rising over the first bridge. This is a typical view from Ortaköy.
So with that, many congratultions to Merve and Kahraman on their wedding. I am very glad that I got to be at their wedding. It was an incredibly beautiful event and a unique experience for me.

Farewell to Denmark

My last couple of days in Denmark had three major highlights. The first was my visit to Frilandmuseet, where I had conducted a school project for two months a year and a half ago. It was nice to see the place in summer. There were lots of people there and there was more going on. I saw demonstrations and entertainment for the kids happening all over the museum. I also noticed that the picnic area that was being constructed while I was there was completed. Shown below.
Being Saturday when I visited, there weren't very many of the folks I knew from the museum there. Still, it was nice to be back.

The second highlight was the RAW 2009 festival/rave. There were tons of people and the scene was just crazy. There were seven enclosures with thumping music of various sorts being scratched and mixed by some of the better Danish and Scandanavian djs. I didn't take many pictures there, and besides it wasn't very picturesque. Stig and I left early because we didn't want to be to tired the next day, which was to be my last in Denmark.

Sunday was the third highlight. During the morning and afternoon, I walked around the city to see some of the places I missed and some of the people I would miss. I said goodbye to Henrik and Tanja and thanked them for their part in making my vacation there excellent. When I left, I returned to Valby where I met Stig and we departed together in the direction of Brøndby. Our Blue and Yellow were to play FC Midtjylland for the third game of the season. Brøndby's record up until then was 0-1-1 and so they were looking for their first win of the season. Well, they won 3-1 and it was epic. You can watch the highlights of the game here.

That evening, I boarded the night plane to İstanbul, just as I did the last time I said goodbye to Denmark. Just as I did then, I wonder now when it is I will next return.

Outing

Stig, Henrik, Tanja, and Thomas, and of course myself piled into a couple of cars and drove to the other side of this island of Sjælland. That is where a lot of Danes have a summer cottage and we went to visit Henrik's and Stig's folks' summer places. Basically, throughout our time there we were either preparing food, horsing around, having a beer, sleeping, or going for a walk. Such an itinerary as that could not be beat. There were a couple of highlights among those events. One was mowing the lawn. It was just funny because while Tanja read a book, each of us had either a lawn mower, a rake, or a pair of scissors, and we were going around the yard with until the place looked like a golf green. After that we played a kind of soccer-golf game which was a lot of fun. Another highlight was on the first night when we went for a night walk to the beach. That was very relaxing and also memorable. Outside of those default things that we did, there were also a couple of highlights. We went to visit Stig's parents' place that was maybe a 15 minute drive away. We had an absolutely amazing meal of smørrebrød consisting of mackerel and these fish meatball things with all the toppings. The meal was interrupted occasionally by celebratory shots of a sweet Danish liqueur. After the meal, Stij's dad, Jorgen, took us on a walk to the beach. I really wasn't expecting anything much, but went we got there I was nearly blown away. The wind was so strong it was difficult to keep my eyes open. Also, the view was like a painting. The ocean was three or four different shades of blue. The weather was different in each direction. There were only a handful of people on the beach. Clothing was optional. The high winds made shimmering ripples of sand race along the beach, and the tall grass on the dunes waved as they passed. The air was warm, the water was cold. We lingered a bit and then walked for a ways along the beach with the wind at our face.After the beach, we returned to the house for coffee and dessert. The next day, before leaving, we went to a town called Rørvij where there was a wharf-side seafood eatery and a couple of ice cream places. After ordering the food, I walked outside and and then stopped in my tracks. Squinting for a bit, I confirmed that the guy standing near me was in fact Bernd from the boat concert. I approached him and he said "small country, eh?" I guess so.

I had a kind of fish burger that did not resemble a burger like those in the States. The fish was topped in the Danish tradition with tons of shredded lettuce and Remoulade. It was awesome. The fries were crisp, salty, and delicious. We got some ice cream and stood by the docks as a large-ish ferry came into port. The wind was relentless. As we walked back to the car, I noticed a sign that I still get a kick out of: Stop Her! heh heh

On the ride back to Copenhagen, I took a picture of some wind turbines and then I lay across the back seat and slept. When I awoke we were back in Valby, at Stig's place. As I write, it is the next day and I have several exciting things planned for these last couple of days before I leave this beautiful country (and go to yet another beautiful country).