amasra turkey nov 11 and 12

so i was going to go to safranbolu and see the authentically restored ottoman houses but after talking to one of kristins coworkers who recently went there i decided to head up to the black sea and visit a lil town called amasra and then go to safranbolu on the way back down to ankara. well i loved amasra so much i stayed and skipped safranbolu, decided id see plenty of ottoman houses over the course of my stay in this country. plus i dont really like turkish delight and thats another thing safranbolu is famous for.

it was a beautiful drive through changing terrain and changing fall colors. i tried taking some pics out the bus window but that didnt work out too well. it just didnt capture the amazing colors. pics 1 - 18 it was a long bus ride, once the buses get to small towns people use them as their own personal chauffeur, getting on and off where ever they want, so the bus stops like literally every 30 feet. ah-nnoying! when i was on the minibus, different than a regular bus mind you, we climbed a hill and once at the top i could see the sea! it was gorgeous. the town was beyond quaint, set into lil valleys from the mtns/large hills. the cliffs dove right into the water much like they do back home in the PNW. i was delighted! i couldnt wait to get out to the seaside. it was an overcast and sprinkly day, much like back home. i was so in my element!

i checked into my lovely lil hotel and went exploring along the small harbor. there's a small harbor and a large harbor in amasra. i had fun poking around the old boats and looking at all the gorgeous rocks, i found a carpet that had been washed up and thought to myself, hmmm wonder if i take that home and clean it real good?! ill ask kristin! i had fun taking pics and being wowed by gorgeous rocks and pebbles on the shoreline and enjoying my solitude on the sea coast. pics 19-78 they desperately need to be edited bear with the multiple shots of 'a wave' i ventured thru the little town square past all the shopping merchants and wandered into the large harbor.

by now it was definitely late afternoon. i watched the fishermen gather their nets and there were several men fishing off the dock, i stopped and watched for a while, they pulled in several fish, just from standing right there. then i headed out to walk along the pier harbor/barricade thingy. i was assuming that i could walk alongside it out and then walk on top of it back in. while i was walking along three guys asked me if i could take their picture. so i said sure.

here's the picture i took.

they asked if i was german, next thing i knew i was taking pics with them and we were walking talking along the pier together. and yes i was able to walk back to the harbor on top of the pier thingy. i, of course, had to stop often to take a picture. pics 79-113

it started raining, but oh well, thats life on the coast right? they wanted to show me 'the crying tree', i got distracted by the ridiculously gorgeous sunset, pics 114 - 128, so we watched it together. amasra has an old castle with houses and pensions and what not inside the walls, so we walked over a lil bridge, thru the old castle gates and up a huge hill... by the time we got up there is was mostly dark. i could tell there would be an amazing view if it was light. so we saw the tree. and we walked back down the hill. we laughed, we talked, we took goofy pics, the boys climbed up into the castle gate. it was fun. my rain coat was completely drenched thru - time for a new one i guess, 5 years in pdx has taken its toll.

senol, pronounced shen-ole, bought me a lil magnet with seahsells on it to remember my amasra trip. we decided we were hungry. they picked a place to eat, we had fish sandwiches (the famous turkey coastal meal) and played backgammon. its been years since i played backgammon so i was rusty, but it was so fun. we had cay, pronounced chai (which is tea) and talked and laughed.

they wanted me to go to Bartun with them where they lived, almost halfway back to where i came from, they were university students there, but i told them i already paid for my hotel, they cautioned me to NOT go outside alone at night, that i should stay in my hotel room, trust no one, be safe blah blah etc, they were so cute about it. they escorted me home when it was time for them to take the bus back to Bartun.

they took tons of pictures with me. ceyhun (jay-hoon) pronounced his love multiple times, he spoke the least english of the three, so it was funny watching him trying to express himself. caner kept telling him to say the wrong thing to embarrass himself. caner (jah-nair) got my name for facebook and he was the best at speaking english so he did most of the translation for the other two through the evening. senol was pretty good but not confident in his ability.

it was really fun, we are facebook friends now, mainly so we could get each others pictures! they had hoped to see me in ankara over bayram holiday but i was in athens.

i had a great sleep in my cozy lil hotel and when i woke i had a fantastic turkish breakfast. tomatoes ewww cucumber ewww a variety of olives yummmm a variety of cheeses yummm and bread and cay and fresh cracked walnuts yummm and some fruits i have never seen before that were really sweet and weird mushy texture. oh and a small piece of bologna and peppers. my plate looked exactly like the appetizer plate from the marine ball dinner. i ate a bit of everything, even the tomatoes and cucumbers, when in rome.

i had decided to go back and get the rug! and i wanted to go back up the castle hill to partake of the view, it was a splendid sunny morning and i had until about 2 pm till i needed to get back to the otogar bus station. yay for adventures. the rug was burned and had been torn down the middle, i didnt care, i brought it home with me, ill wash it and look into having it repaired. besides it has a fun story! the rug from the black sea, who else can say they have one of those?!

i really enjoyed seeing the castle walls and gate in the daylight and i got distracted by a lot of adorable kittens, one followed me for quite a while, moma kitten stayed close enough behind to keep tabs until we walked into another cats territory, then baby didnt know what to do once she got tired of walking and cried and cried, i felt bad but she eventually ran back thru an alley in the general direction from which we had come. she reminded me so much of my sweet baby cleo, rest in peace my angel girl, that i wondered if perhaps this was one of cleos 9 reincarnated lives. kristin said i wasnt allowed to bring any babies back to ankara. dang. ironically the picture of baby was right about when my camera battery died! curse the photography gods. my voltage converter wasnt working i think i blew it on my laptop back in ankara so i hadnt been able to recharge the night before and i was seriously bummed but also ok with it, sometimes life needs to be seen in real life and not thru the lens of the camera.

the best was certainly yet to come, i saw Ataturks face in the mtn across the harbor and when i got to the crying tree i turned left and ventured further up the hill up to the wall, up ancient pathways from who knows when. the view was beyond words.

so... the black sea is what formed during noahs flood, a small land bridge collapsed when the Mediterranean overflowed after tons of rain and the city just to the east of amasra is all under water and being excavated/archeologolized, and thats where some say the ark was built some say its where it currently resides others say its in a glacier somewheres. so there i was standing on an old ancient castle wall looking at the remnants of the great flood. awesome. breathtaking. surreal. gorgeous.

i was off the beaten path, perched on the edge of the cliff, legs dangling over the wall, which had tons of gorgeous ivy overgrowing it and pretty snails. i threw some rocks into the sea. some guy lower down laughed at my obvious glee! the sun made the water sparkle, i saw some boats go by. it was definitely time for some personal reflection. i was overcome.

facebook status when i got back to ankara:
"im standing on a castle wall, overgrown with ivy, built by ancient romans, and looking out at the black sea. i am awestruck. every choice i have made in life has led me to this moment. i am a lucky girl..." and so i cried. 11/12/09 11:10 am amasra turkey

i hiked along the wall and wandered thru the brush and continued to admire the amazing view. then, sadness- it was time to go. i did some shopping at the tiny lil shopping area and got on the minibus for the long ride back to ankara. i had called and asked what time the bus left from bartun and they told me it left 2 1/2 hours before it actually left so i had a lot of time to kill in bartun. i ate lunch at a yummy buffet but was pretty sure if i was gonna get food poisoning on this trip, that this would be the source. i didnt. miracle. it didnt just rain, it poured. so exploring bartun wasnt really an option, i just sat and read my book in the otogar. i was bummed thinking i could have spent more time exploring the cliffs of amasra but realized i really couldnt have with the torrential rain, so i didnt really miss out on anything.

i had such a great time in amasra, i just loved it and i cant wait for kristin to go up there and explore all the things that i didnt get to!

things i love about turkey

im so behind, its ridiculous. and for the next 2 weeks i wont really have any down time. let alone journal time.

so for now i want to capture some of the things i love about turkey.

i love that the sidewalks are not poured even cement like ours. dont get me wrong, its a modern day miracle every time i walk down one that i havent broken an ankle or even died. the sidewalks are stone laid and consist of marble, granite, shale, cobblestone, brick, tile, or a combination of all of the above. so much character and personality, but very hazardous to walk on as they are uneven and broken in a lot of places or loose when you step on a stone and it moves on ya. but you get used to it, and i think its awesome. there are lots and lots of pictures of various sidewalks in all my albums, some too pretty to even imagine that that is what they are, especially in classier parts of town.

i love all the stone work. its literally everywhere and everything. the things we consider luxury like granite countertops and marble staricases are just the norm here, they have a plethora of rock resources and they use them efficiently, its not a high class thing, the poorest looking slums have marble and granite and beautiful hand painted tiles... its so awesome, i love it. it can be slippery as hell when wet, but so beautiful! since when did americans decide that formica and laminate was cool to surface things with? cuz it sucks. and why did we decide to make it a luxury for only the rich? cuz were dumb that way.

i love that no one ever guesses that im american. german dutch and british are the top three guesses, in that order. so glad im american is not tattooed to my forehead. phew! i love that jaws drop when they say something to me in german or english and i respond in turkish. to me, its simply common curtousy to try to respect the local environment you are in and reach out of your comfort zone a bit, it has been my experience that most americans dont think so.

i love how friendly everyone is, even if theyre a tad too friendly. ex - hi im your new best friend cuz i went to NYC once 25 years ago, come into my silver shop and buy my pieces. i ask strangers for clarification on directions and schedules n such all the time and most go out of their way to not only tell me, show me with nearly undecipherable hand motions, and write it down, but some also guide me to the street corner i need to be at for the minibus or similar. some old turkish lady talked to me in turkish for 20 mins cuz i said tamam 2x and i kept smiling at her, tamam = ok, alright, sure, etc

i love how every single meal includes multiple forms of tomato (fresh, grilled and salsafied), cucumber, and bread. yes that was sarcastic. i dont like tomato or cucumber and im allergic to wheat. but usually its 'eat those three things or starve' so im learning to enjoy toms, cucs and trying to eat the bread sparingly. at least its really good bread.

i love that they try to put pistachios in everything, me really luvs pistachios.

i love that i have rarely seen a mcdonalds, although there is a starbucks on almost every third corner.

ntl ataturk remembrance day

tuesday nov 10th was ntl ataturk remembrance day.

i dont think theres a way to sufficiently explain how much this country loves, and still basically worships, Ataturk. he died in 1938.

at 905 am, the time he died, they played a taps-but-not-really-taps song over the mosque load speakers and people honked horns and some moron skidded his tires burning rubber up and down and the hill about 4 times, some other person did that later in the day when i was at the citadel, too. there were huge turkish flags and banners with ataturks picture on all the buildings in the city. flowers at all the ataturk statues. the people showed their remembrance and respect thats for sure!

how i spent the ntl ataturk day of death anniversary:
i rode the subway to ulus and walked up the hill towards the citadel - old city walls/fortress type of place and inside people live traditionally. that was cool to see, i guess theyre comfy with that way of living, it seems very primitive. i bought a lil present for sisty from this cute lil ole lady.

on my way to the citadel i passed an old roman theater being excavated, that was slick! pictures 22-32 (and even though it looks barricaded, it wasnt)

it was a gorgeous day, and i enjoyed the view of smoggy ankara from atop one of the old towers. this country obviously doesnt believe in barricades because there are life threatening precipices and drop offs and all that good dangerous stuff, everywhere, and there are never any barricades, hand rails or warning signs. i guess thats one way to control the population and weed out unruly children. ooops did i just say that out loud?! kinda nice that i dont have to crawl over/under the barricades like i do in the states to get the good view or the fun picture.

not to mention that barricades would protect a lot of the ancient stuff that is degrading quickly at the hands of grafittiests and littererists and basically humans in general. sad. but still cool to be able to touch and stand on these really old buildings and walls and columns and touch old sarcophagus and writing tablets.

after i felt like i had explored everything there was to explore and took a bunch of pictures of old rocks at the citadel, i headed over to the ancient civilizations anatolian museum, its world famous and if you enjoy history at all then its a shang ri lah for sure. i dont really enjoy history that much, although i do like to take pics of the old rocks, and i did plenty of that, again. i had fun with the light of the sunset but i hardly got to see any of the museum, they closed it 20 mins early and kicked me out, good thing i got the ass picture when i did, i took a ton of pics of old birthing/midwife/goddess statues cuz i think theyre awesome, and i want to be a ND midwife one day, and i wanted to show them to my midwife friends back home. theyre all dark and fuzzy though cuz the museum people turned off the lights in an attempt to get me to leave.

i thought the ancient tablet writings were cool - the letter from the queen of egypt to the queen of wherever from 1250 BC was amazing, the coins were really cool, and the detail of the jewelry was amazing considering how old all that stuff was, i mean ain-tshent old - howd they know how to do all that? and i was surprised that i could take pics at all, another huge no-no back home in the US.

i slightly wandered the shops around ulus, cool to see huge piles of raw wool in a store, but it was getting dark, id like to go back again in the daylight, i watched the sky turn pink and purple as i walked back to the subway, then hitched the bus home and that was my adventure in Ulus.
loved it.

oh and this shield was monstrous, probably a lil wider than my outstretched arm, i cant imagine holding it with two hands let alone one and fighting simultaneously, and it was thick, so imagine the thing that left that damage behind, a mighty blow fo' shizzz.

monday the 9th of november

seeing that this day was over a week ago and i have had several ridiculously fun adventures since then, i cant remember much other than the highlight of the day was translating the words on the washing machine from turkish to english- very useful for knowing which cycle to select. i wrote it all down so kristin could have permanent washing machine understanding to sell on the black market to all her other english speaking friends that teach here.

there is no dryer, so air dry on the radiator, errrr i mean back porch is the way its done. and this actually takes planning- you cant wash too much stuff at once, otherwise you wont have room to air dry it all. also, if you want something dry, like your bed sheets, then you need to plan ahead accordingly- cant wash the sheets in the afternoon and expect to sleep on them that same night.

again, having memory lapse issues, but im pretty sure this was the night i went grocery shopping all by myself! and i even spoke turkish! kristin and faruk went to dinner, i stepped out and went and bought food, i wasnt hungry anyways and they needed some couple time. plus that made it an adventure for me!

according to facebook some other highlights from this day were:
~ listening to the call to prayer as i read thru emails n such, but that happens ALL the time, i barely hear it anymore, thats old news. it sounds like a dying animal, i have it on video, but of course it wont load properly onto here
~ figuring out how to get my laptop onto the turkish internet, my compie friends would have been proud, i figured out the ISP turkey info and entered it in and viola, my macbook was online! to quote facebook: desha wood feels like an Fing GENIUS for figuring out how to get her computer to connect to the turkish internet! (and yes, its more involved than just plugging it in)

the zoo!

i love the zoo, if you know me at all you know im a total sucker for the zoo, so when uriah called and asked kristin if we wanted to go to the zoo with him and layla, I got all screechy high pitched voice and squealed yyyeeeeessssss!!!

but. were in turkey. animal rights are basically non existent, in fact the major bayram (holiday) coming up is all about slaughtering many different animals. so i knew to not be too excited about this zoo and that i needed to expect really bad animal conditions.

well, it wasnt as bad as i expected, i expected awful, when in reality only a few of the exhibits wrenched my heart out, as opposed to the every single exhibit i was expecting. i took some pics, some of which i was trying to capture how CLOSE the animals were, or how small the exhibit was.

and when i say close i mean close! as in a huge male tiger a tad further away than an arms reach behind a chain linked fence. close as in most of the animals can eat out of your hand if you let them, close as in the monkeys can take your cigarettes and smoke them, close as in not really any barriers anywhere, close as in how many people die here from being mauled by wild animals?

there were some cool and/or interesting things there.
~ the van cat is all white with short fur and has one blue and one green eye, they are basically worshiped in eastern turkey.
~the ankara cat is white with long fur, and there were kittens. yup pretty sad that a kitten was a highlight at the zoo, im such an old lady. we thought it was funny that they all had litter boxes in their cages, not sure why know we thought that, but we did. weird to see what looks like a house cat in a cage at the zoo.
~ they had a dog section, it was like going to the humane society, dalmatians, golden retrievers, hounds, terriers, german shepard, irish setter, etc. pets to us, apparently attractions to the turks. they had some of the local kengal dogs which look like huge mastifs meet st bernards, they live everywhere in the streets and are VERY big dogs. this was one of the heartbreaking parts, the dogs were not well taken care of, lived in cement pens and had the saddest eyes, a lot of them had puppies. we wondered if maybe the doges were saved from a bad place and brought to the zoo?? maybe? hopefully?
~ the peacocks were penned in. that was just weird.
~ i wanted a penis shaped balloon when we got there, kristin said we could get one on the way out, they were gone when we exited the zoo. dang you kristin!
~ 'Aslan' means 'lion' in turkish. now i know where CS lewis got the name
~ def had to get a picture of the americans in front of the turkey pen, in turkey, yeah were dumb
~ i saw a boy all dressed up as a lil sultan, later found out it means it was his circumcision day, glad i got a pic cuz thats kinda cool
~ feeding the animals is ok here. apples chucked to the bears and whatever else you wanna chuck em at, pretzels to the camels, deers, dogs, whatever else will eat them. people throw stuff to all the animals really (or hand it to them). it was a lil sad, prolly has a lot to do with the animals poor health, but then again i thought at least theyre feeding them apples and bread, it could be worse, it could be cotton candy and chocolate.
~ i wanted to feed the animals!!! when in rome right? but i didnt, i couldnt, id feel too guilty.
~ there was a lot of wasted park space for the humans, A LOT of space, like acres, why couldnt the animals have that space?
~ the chimp was captivity crazy, so sad. i hope hes old so he can die soon and be at peace. heart wrenching.
~ there were some gorgeous birds of prey, huge ones too. and they were close

it wasnt a huge zoo, not a ton of animals, and overall, it wasnt that bad, really, i mean considering all the circumstances, lets be realistic here. most of the animals looked well fed, they were pretty active - one of the lions kept roaring and one of the tigers growled a lot, a lot of them interacted with the human stimulation/disruption to their day, i think had they all been mangy and comatose then that would have been really bad/sad. it was fun to see the excitement from all the lil kids seeing these animals so close, and in reality what an amazing experience to be that close to these animals, at my zoo you need binoculars to see the bears and tigers!

zoo pics!!

the fun, the good, and a lil of the bad, i didnt take pics of the ugly. why document that?

happy berfday marines

on saturday nov 7th we went to the fancy schmazy black tie formal 4 course dinner open bar and dancing marine birthday ball.
pictures 10-106. warning there are lots of ones that need to be deleted, i was 'trying' different camera modes.

here we are with the marines, all of the active duty ones except the one who looked 12, minus their girlfriends/dates:
yeah, there wasnt very many :-( we both assumed there would be more. sigh

we decided that there werent really any stationed here in Ankara cuz
A. there isnt really a need for marines here, and
B. everyone is next door in Iraq or in Afghanistan

i had a hard time finding a wardrobe ensemble and though i ended up pretty casual, lots of people were all decked out to the fancy nines, i felt comfy with those i was there with, they were all more on the casual side too. if i had been in sistys prom dress like i originally intended i would have felt out of place at my table and too dressed up. i felt very jackie O-ish- classy, clean, straight lines, and sophisticated. plus, black and red, you cant go wrong there!

i dont feel up to going into too much detail- it was a fancy dinner, we all know how those go, plus i have all the pics of the food, the table, the 'ceremony', etc. but i will elaborate a lil about the things that stuck out to me.

~i met the US ambassador of turkey and other important dignitaries from other countries
~ceremony - there was a small ceremony and speeches from various marine people, they talked about tradition and what it means to have served in the marines, they paid tribute to the oldest and youngest marine in attendance, the youngest looked 12. serious. the oldest is in this picture.
~tribute video for fallen marines - beautiful- had to hold back the tears. the song was sung live and music was played on a guitar, it was hauntingly touching, a letter from a soldier if youre reading this, im already 'home'
~a special cake cutting tradition with the sword. the cake was kiwi banana. gross.
~the black table - pics 58-65 -to represent all those that have died in service, the purple medal of honor, the nameless dog tags, the candle, a place set for one, it was really pretty and very symbolic, and i love me some symbolic sentiments.

it was really neat to be apart of the celebration, they have a marine ball 'everywhere' there are marines/embassy, so its very cool to say that i experienced it here in turkey! i met a lot of embassy people, i wondered how many of them there were secret CIA peeps, i met a lot of the other teachers at kristins school from america and canada, erin and tim taught in longmont CO my (and kristins) hometown, at silver creek high and westview middle. crazy huh

yes there was an open bar, no i did not get drunk. dinner was pretty good, although nothing scrumptious. dancing was fun, but like all dances, after awhile they start to play the same dumb long song with the same undanceable beat over and over again. i was sad that there was no one to ballroom dance with, cuz that would have been stellar! all n all, it was a very fun night!

hamam... uh, did you really just touch me there?!

oh yes! she really did.

the hamam, turkish bath house, was.... an experience. its pretty much a teenage boys wet dream on steroids. its a bunch of naked women, all ages, all together, in pretty much one room, washing, exfoliating, shampooing, bathing- each other. yup, its an experience all right. dont get me wrong, it was fun!

pictures 1-8 are kristin and i at the hamam, of course i couldnt take any of inside the actual hamam itself, but look at the wikipedia link cuz thats exactly what it looks like. i really wanted to cuz the building inside was gorgeous, we went to a historical one and it was 'more authentic'. apparently there are modern ones that are more private and sanitary and ones where men and women can be in the same vicinity. im guessing that means you cant get naked and thats no fun. if you can then i need a bunch of hot guys to meet me there for some quality loofah time.

this google pic is really similar to what ours looked like inside,
although ours was pretty much all white/gray, no blue tiles.

a hamam is not a place for a germaphobe to go, especially with the mindset that you will leave clean from the bath. sanitation is not really something that is practiced. for example, i was exfoliated from head to foot and everywhere in between with the same loofah used on the girl before and before her and before her and it was used on the girl after me, i wonder when they actually do change out loofahs. then all the dead skin they rubbed off you, and theres tons, like huge worm shaped rolls of dead gray skin, floating around the marble thing you are laying on and they just take a lil cup of water and splash all the dead skin off onto the floor, where it eventually ends up in the 'drain', which is really a river of dead skin and soapy water running along the exterior of the room, kinda like a dead skin canal.

so here's how it worked. we walked into this really cool old looking building and thru some sort of mind reading sigh language powers told the lady we wanted to do whatever it is you do in a hamam, she said something about shampoo and we shrugged out shoulders. we got neked except panties in a lil closet room and walked out with pink clog crocodiles on our feet and a cute lil cloth wrapped around us toga style. then we were lead to a hot room, it was all steamy and there was a modern day looking jacuzzi, there was hesitation cuz werent sure where or what was going on and we got lead the rest of the way into the domed room of the hamam.

another pic from google, our hamam wasnt as elaborate but they all have domed ceilings with holes,

ventilation i suppose.

it was like walking into a sauna and my glasses immediately fogged up, so the lady stole them from me and walked away. i guess she thought i didnt need them but i was like um, i cant see. so somehow thru more mind reading powers she brought them back a few minutes later.

this is what we saw, or what i saw anyways.... white marble surface everywhere, lots of steam, shampoo smells, several women of all ages, some sitting at the lil tubs on the perimeter of the room washing themselves, some wandering around, some getting rubbed down on the marble slab in the center of the room, some doing the rubbing, some getting washed on the marble slab, some doing the washing.

we were unsure what to do, a turkish woman who knew some english asked if she could help. not really, we were just trying to go with the flow. so we sat at our assigned basin on the perimeter of the room, well first we hung up our toga cloths and then we sat, we realized we should have brought dry panties to change into, i assumed we'd be stark neked so bringing a dry pair never crossed my mind. eh well, we'll go home commando.

so we sat there, and chit chatted, and observed and wondered what we were supposed to do. we realized lots of women had brought there own shampoo and body wash, maybe thats what the lady was asking at the begining, if we had brought ours too. we watched them wash and wash and wash, maybe they were really dirty? we splashed ourselves with water from our basin, the room was super warm and steamy and so we got sweaty, and soon my glasses equalized so i could see clearly. yay. i splashed Kristin after she threatened to splash me. and we sat. and we speculated. and we sat. and we giggled. and we watched the women on the marble slab get exfoliatingly loofahed, rinsed, washed/massaged, rinsed. there were saggy turkish boobies everywhere. i wish i could know what they were saying, gossiping, complaining/sharing about their husbands, kids, housework, jobs, etc. and i was thinking what it would have been like way back when in the olden days when this was the time away spa like pamper zone, get away from it all and get clean, cuz really it was the only way they bathed way back when, and how much fun it must have been to be with just the other women.

a lady came and took kristin to the slab and i started picking at my toe cuticles with my finger nails which K has dubbed talons, and i watched K get exfoliated. after i got one foot done a lady came and took me to the slab.

the hamaming of me: the marble slab was really warm, and wet and slippery, she made me scoot forward cuz someone else was going to lay behind me, i mouthed to kristin on the other side of the slab, does it hurt? cuz we saw lots of skin coming off of the other ladies. and she mouthed back nah. it did hurt- my knees! laying on the hard surface totally killed them, i had to roll my legs in so that the pressure was on my leg and not my knees. anywhoo, the loofahing began, it was firm but not torturous and i was enjoying it immensely when she went over my itchy bee sting, when the back side was done i was instructed to roll over onto my back and the front side was done, i figured it'd hurt my nips but nope, they were fine. she did rub some extra skin off of my shins and that burned, and it was really red after the bath was over. after all my skin was gone she had me stand up and rinsed me off then barely rinsed the slab of all my skin and i laid down again for the washing.

they use lots of soap and it makes lots of bubbles. the bubbles got in my hair, up my nose, in my eyes and coated my glasses. i started on my belly again, poor knees, and whoa there was a breeze in the nether regions and, ehem, all those parts got sufficiently cleaned and then whoa a major wedgie and my ass cheeks got a good cleansing and massaging, then she decided it was a good idea to bend my heels back to my bum for a nice stretch, it wasnt a really good idea and K said shes heard of people getting acl damage before, i can certainly see why. onto my belly and my boobies got a nice sudsing, i was thinking, as i was watching the lady bathing me with her boobies hanging and bouncing in my face, that it should be a really hot man doing this. now that would have been an experience.

then i got 'massaged' she rubbed my shoulders for a minute or so, and then a rinse, and then it was time for a shampoo, i asked K f she had got one and she did, so i did too. i was taken back to our basin and she prolly used half the bottle for the amt of suds she conjured up, again, up my nose, in my eyes, down my ear canal etc. and then again, cuz doing it twice makes all the difference. and she gave my scalp a nice rub down as well. then i was done!

i sat there and splash/rinsed myself some more, i had soap still in my ears and plus i was super hot by this point so rinsing with cool water felt good. we commented to each other on being violated and then i remembered i needed to pick all the dead cuticle skin off of my other foot cant have just one pedicured foot, id be off balance. my shin was def rubbed raw and was even red and raw for a few days afterward. i def felt like my skin hadnt been this fresh since birth. but i def did not feel clean. thanks to america and their germaphobiness.

i decided i needed to hose off a lil more in the lil shower area back in the jacuzzi room, ill admit im a rinse-a-phobe, we both peed and then assumed we were supposed to go dry off and get dressed again. thats when we took all the pictures of us in the mirror, cuz were cool like that.

and then we rushed home to get ready for the marine ball later that evening.
id do it again. it wasnt a traumatic experience by any means, the word we've been using to describe it is interesting. cuz it really was.

i really liked the womanly camaraderie, the taking care of each other, the being totally comfortable with each other, being totally comfortable with yourself, it reminded me of The Red Tent, maybe cuz i was reading it on the plane out here, but it was just really nice to be together with a bunch of women and i couldnt help thinking that some of these traditions from ancient times shouldnt be swept away by modern marvels and instant gratification. i bet its safe to say that there was a lot of meaning besides just getting clean in going to the hamam every week.

catching up. anitkabir

i cant decide whether or not to play catch up from a weeks worth of awesome adventures or just start with the latest adventure since its freshest in my mind. sigh

and my shoulder hurts when i type a lot so here goes nothing i guess.

friday november 6 - my first day venturing out alone. starting with picture # 32 ~ AnitKabir.

a few highlights: 'mastering' the subway system all by myself. using turkish words to purchase a ticket, ask for directions and generally being polite. getting to and from where i needed to be successfully without getting lost. and within the general time frame of when i expected to.

so i went to the mausoleum of the great turkish leader, Ataturk. oh youve never heard of him, why am i not surprised, i never had till i came here. he really was an incredibly remarkable man. he completely revamped turkey, the language, the economy, the education system, monetary system, politics - created a democracy, etc the list is very long of what he accomplished in just a lifetime. he is basically worshiped and highly revered over here. the mausoleum is small proof of that. it is a beautiful place, tons of marble granite turquoise gold, etc. its huge too. i took tons of pics of the rock and marble designs and side walks and all that, prolly boring for most but i was having fun playing Japanese tourist. i watched a cheesy 15 min video about Ataturk, i kid you not, they specifically mention his deep blue eyes at least 7 times, and in all his pics and wax statues the blue eyes are def the focus. there was a lot of relics of his in the museum, including a pair of pajamas, and in the memorial towers were his cars, boat, the canon that carried his coffin, cool to see but i blew past most of it, im not a big museum plaque reader. the library was cool though, Ataturk was a very smart guy and very much valued literacy, he read a lot of books about as many topics as he could get his hands on.

there was something special going on there that day, lots of military troops in uniform, and some important looking people. there was some sort of ceremony taking place and the entire place came to a dead halt when the taps-but-not-really-taps song played with all the dignitaries inside the mausoleum, the song was haunting, echoing out over the landscape, beautiful. i have it on video but of course i cant get it to post.

its a miracle that i didnt break an ankle walking down the lion pathway, you are supposed to approach from this path so that you have time to reflect on Ataturk and the semblance of rounding the corner at the end and seeing the mausoleum. they purposefully paved it so that you trip every other step and have to look down while walking, making you 'walk in reverence', slow, deliberate, and head down. pretty genius.

so three big things that stuck with me about Ataturk - he did and changed a lot but three of his top priorities were 1. literacy for everyone, he created the modern day turkish language. 2. an education for everyone 3. empowering women and giving them rights, no more hiding behind a veil. its amazing to look at what has come about from these three changes for this country, in one mans adult lifetime.
4. he adopted his children :-)

it struck me as odd when i was sitting my three local men and they asked me who my favorite US leader was, and before i answered they said, did you learn about Ataturk when you were in school? and i said no. and they said we learned about all of your leaders, and i said i know you did. why dont we teach our children about great leaders like Ataturk? huh.

i enjoyed watching the changing of the guards, every hour on the hour, watching the lil school children, and watching the sunset from the mausoleum steps. and i really did enjoy learning about Ataturk. and of course i was in heaven with so much to take pics of, it was a happy day for me!

i grabbed some food to go in the tune-allee cant spell it correctly without the turkish keyboard shopping and eating district on the way home (some dish with meatballs) and enjoyed a pleasant evening feeling very proud of myself for getting around ankara all by my lonesome! if i did anything else that night i cant remember! lol

pictures!!!

http://deshasturkeypics.shutterfly.com/

here's the scoop- im posting ALL my pics but not taking the time to edit (delete bad ones) or caption them at this time. sorry. if you have any Q's about any of the pics, just leave a comment ON THAT particular pic and i'll answer it for ya, eventually i'll get them all captioned and organized, eventually. sigh

epic journaling fail

i have so much to write about with adventures from friday, sat, sun and today, mon was a low key day, but even then some fun things still happened.... and i have to go to bed now cuz im leaving first thing to catch a bus up to a small coastal town on the black sea, will be there for a couple of days and then am heading off to central anatolia. sigh. when will i find the time to journal it all? i need to though, before i forget.

i have taken hundreds and hundreds of pics. =)

i let three days go by and holy cow (thurs night synopsis)

i let three days go by and holy cow, is there a crap load to blog about!! i have had many adventures! and i have taken TONS of pictures.

thursday evening - after the bee sting drama, kristin and i went to dinner in the city, part of the purpose was for me to see the bus route, get acquainted with the surroundings, and see where the bus stops were so i could start to venture out on my own a bit. we had some traditional kebap for dinner, restaurant was called kebap 49, it was fun, we named the fish in the huge tank that we sat by and had a very pleasant time.

this tidbit wont mean much to anyone but is a huge deal for me - kristin got my attn and directed it towards, and i mostly quote.... look at that cute lil baby girl in her pink snowsuit! yup i about died. and then she continued to make cooing noises and point out specific cutenesses of this child. she was cute, and was super over dressed in a head to toe puffy pink snowsuit, kristin and i were in a light jacket and scarf, it wasnt that cold. kristin? noticing a baby/child under 18? im sure the pink sparkles helped catch her attn, but still.... im def not in 'kansas' anymore!

we window shopped a bit, and met up with faruk for dessert. i had a pistachio chocolate cake that was super yumm. pistachios are huge here, in everything and everywhere, which is fine cuz i love them!

is it awful that now (monday evening) i cant remember much else about thursday night?! ugh! this is why i need to journal regularly. pretty sure i was beyond exhausted by the time we got home, prolly even fell asleep on the bus, from the bee sting adrenaline n all that. i did some prep for my friday adventure, got directions from faruk of where to go and how to get home, he wrote the destinations in turkish and english for me so i could have a cab driver just read it, in case they couldnt understand me. i crawled into bed and slept hard, what a great sleep! and woke up with an insanely itchy bee sting! lol

a few observations for now

transportation -

~the cars are america style with the driver being on the left.
~the roads are american style with the direction the traffic goes.
~drivers typically use the lane they are supposed to be in and ive been impressed with use of signals when merging, i was expecting near death experiences like in the philippines but its been pretty uneventful, it is crazier than in the states, but not all that bad.
~hardly any bikes, no mopeds and a motorcycle here and there, again i think i was expecting more chaos like in asia, maybe in the smaller cities people ride bikes?
~the cars are small, ive been surprised at the number of fords ive seen, and the largest car ive seen is a honda CRV

food -

~pretty blah, must add seasonings like salt, crushed red pepper and oregano, onions, peppers if you want it to taste like much. granted i havent eaten much variety here yet, some meats do have lots of seasonings mixed in them, but everything is really really mild flavored.
~they love their bread in turkey
~if the menu doesnt come with english translations you may as well close your eyes and point to something, cuz theres not really any way of 'figuring out' the description of what it is
~coke light not diet coke, just like in asia

cleanliness -

not as dirty as i expected so far, havent seen a lot yet mind you and i havent been to istanbul yet, but the streets are mostly clean, everyone sets out their trash and it actually gets picked up by a garbage service type arrangement.

here's a biggie - brace yourself - i keep waking up early, on my own.
wth?! early as in btwn 6 and 730 am. gasp

more observations to come FOR SURE later on! ;-)

something just bit me!

on thursday i got stung by a bee! and it hurt! and it didnt die! oh the injustice!

i went to kristins school for lunch, cuz its free, and she gave me a lil tour of the campus, it was so fun to see! we were in her classroom standing by her desk, after lunch, all the kids had just come in from break and suddenly i felt a very painful 'bite' on my left shoulder blade, i jumped and yelled out in surprise and said something just bit me! and kristin was like what? nuh uh and looked down my shirt and a bee flew out! she said you were stung by a bee! and i was like nuh uh, im allergic! she got a wheres-your-epi-pen look of panic/teacher about to save the day and i quickly said not that kind of allergic, but i swelled up real huge last time, i need mud! so we ran outside with a water bottle and i made mud and put it on my back, and she asked a teacher friend/school nurse for some antihistamine or benadryl and then somehow we or i decided i needed an ice pack.

i sat outside for a while reapplying fresh mud every few minutes. it helped a lot and started pulling the sting sensation out, but it def was super painful all day. after i decided i was done with mud, my right arm was starting to ache from holding such a weird posittion, so i held an ice pack on there for awhile fighting the dead arm ache, then sat in a chair 'just so', so that the back of the chair would keep the icepack in place. although that did a number on my back, more pain. i took 1 benadryl cuz i didnt want to knock myself out and i wasnt sure if id swell or what all might happen, so that was the majority of the afternoon.

when i went back in the classroom after being outside mudding myself, i looked all over to make sure there wasnt a bee, i shook the curtains and checked the bookshelves, i did find one, it was on the outside of the window crawling on the glass, it was HUGE, it was yellow jacket lookingish and was prolly about 1 1/2 inches long, and its stinger was massive, i willed it with my awesome mind powers to not fly in thru the other open window and then it disappeared, i was nervous, not gonna lie.

when i decided i was done with the ice i helped Kristin laminate and cut out decimal monkeys and she did some grading. then i watched her be assistant volleyball coach, i knew if i went back to the lojman i would fall asleep and we had dinner plans, so i just hung out watching the high school girls scrimmage and play volleyball in turkish.

this morning i woke up to it itching something fierce, it was starting to itch when i went to bed, but man, all day i have had to fight with myself to not scratch, and sometimes my fingernails win the fight and give a lil scratchety scratch, man oh man does it ever itch, erghhhh!!!

so now ive been stung by a bee 2x in my entire life, the first time being back in my early/mid twenties, ah crap did i really just say that?! im getting old! although that first time i was attacked by yellow jackets and actually got about 6 stings, but i count it as 'one time'.

sorry turkey, not feelin the love from your flying insects.

home away from home

amazingness of white chocolate covered hazelnuts and toffee ness that i found in the cupboard!

the upholstery on the furniture. pretty, but not the comfiest, the pillows are super stiff

sitting on the couch looking straight across, the patio is there on the right behind the curtains

sitting on the couch in the living room looking towards the kitchen, that doorway behind the chair goes into my bedroom

the back porch aka the dryer that goes with the washer which is located downstairs in a separate area, im assuming a laundry room type place

the lil white tiled kitchen, everything but a microwave, and a baking pan

dont drink the tap water! leave this empty container outside the front door with 5 lira and the water fairy will leave a full one in its place.

cherry/apple juice, yumm yumm in my tumm tumm

local food, some sort of meatball esque thing, yummmm eeeee.

in case you couldnt tell, this is the sink area in the bathroom.

the lil white tiled bathroom, notice the odd cropping in the wall above the necklaces...

the view out the living room window

the view out the back patio window, see the bus stop?

the outside hallway into the apt lobby, i ringed the bell there on the left, its loud.

the threshold into the house and into the kitchen and bathroom, pretty pick marble.

the kitchen counter marble or maybe its granite, i dunno.

the window in the kitchen that opens to nowhere, theres one in the bathroom too (above the necklaces and also seen there across the empty space of nothingness).

there ya have it - kristin's lojman!

wed ens day

so today i woke up at 6 am. unacceptable! i peed and went back to sleep, or tried to for awhile anyways, was finally successful and slept till about 9.

it was insanely windy today. like tornado strength.

i created this blog this morning, and spent some quality time on facebook. yeah i know grief for being online constantly while im on vakay. go ahead judge me, but november is a hugley insane month for advocating one of my passions and im missing out on several big events in the states, yet still have my hands in a bit so im doing what i can from here to be involved with my commitments and all that fun stuff! and yes that was vague on purpose due to the public-ness of my journal. anywhooo

i decided to take some pics of the lojman. i took a nice long hot shower. i cooked something from nothing- a 'talent' that continually marvels kristin. todays creation was chicken carrots broccoli and salami on a bed of balsamic and garlic pasta with feta cheese on top.

when Kristin got home from school, her, Faruk and i went down the campus to a shopping area, kinda like a small mall or strip mall and had dinner. i had something that was similar in texture to a meatloaf yet it was kebap style and tasted nothing like meatloaf, it was quite yummy and had a nice spice kick to it. dinner was served with rolls and a salsa type dip and a creamy mint dill dip, i put the dill dip on my kebap thingy. my dinner had rice, a steamed tomato (yuck) yellow small peppers, onions and 2 more forms of bread and a green steamed pepper. i ate the rice and picked at the bread, im just not a straight up pepper and onion fan, if its mixed in stuff thats fine, but to just eat it like a side dish doesnt really work for me. K and i shared a lentil soup in a bread bowl, i think that makes 4 diff types of bread at dinner! the lentil soup was real smooth and creamy, almost like a squash soup, the flavor was real mild, it was yummy. after dinner we had traditional tea with sugar cubes, i luv that other countries use sugar cubes! we had nice conversationals and then kristin and i jinxed each other by asking for the check please in turkish!

after dinner we went shopping for something for me to wear on saturday. Kristin bought some sweaters, shes not used to the 'cold' coming from AZ the past 7 years. i found a shirt that could work with her black pencil skirt if we dress it up with shoes, an updo and sparkly jewelry.

then we went to the turkey version of home depot to look at paint, kristin wants me to help her paint and decorate the lojman. we admired 6000 dollar showers and bright purple tiles and over toilet shelves and other such home depot esque things, the paint selection was definitely not reminiscent of home depot.

cab ride home and some puzzle making ended the evening. oh yeah and we tried to determine how to get me to anitkabir. kristin doesnt want me to just go out into the city 'blind', apparently the bus system is not user friendly and theres no direct shot to just 'go there', so i tried for a long time to find specific directions to the mausoleum, no such luck, we studied some maps and such and talked about other things to do and places we need to find me directions to so i can start adventurizing!

my belly is full, my back is sore, im having a hard time leaving my broken retainer alone, and theres chocolate in the kitchen. and so ends wed ens day.

oh i almost forgot, i learned today that one is not sick here in turkey, one is ill, sick is a penis, i have definitely not been a penis.

monday/tuesday the 2nd and 3rd

monday and tuesday were pretty uneventful.

on monday i woke up 730 am which was very weird indeed! it was cloudy and rainy still.

i relaxed, coughed a lot from my leftover sickness, watched a movie, lemony snickets unfort events, ate leftover chicken, finished the book i had started reading on the plane - the red tent, amazing every time i read it. check it out for yourself! i also read a bunch in my turkey travel book cuz i hadnt done that at all yet. i did stuff online and then i took a nappy from 4-1130pm. lol which would have been about the same time i would sleep at home - 5 am-noonish. so i guess i didnt trick my biorythm clock all that much.

i ended up staying up all night monday night and chatted with my friends online since it was monday day for them. i also blogged a lot and took care of email stuff. kristins alarm went off at 6 am so i boiled her some water for coffee and watched the sunrise. it was really pretty and a beautiful sunny day. i spent a lot of tuesday morning trying to figure out my wardorbe dilema for the ball on saturday. online shoppping in turkish isnt all that conducive. then someone decided to paint in the apt lobby downstairs so all kinds of nasty fumage accumulated in the lojman and i got a huge headache. so i opened the windows and went to bed.

kristin got home from her midterm around 8pm and i woke up at some point after that, my headache was better but still there. i putzed around online some more and went to bed around midnight. not really all that exciting of a day!

oh sometimes i can hear what i think is the call to prayer. thats kinda exciting!

sunday nov 1st

while the rest of the world was preparing for and enjoying halloween, im 11 hours ahead of portland now, i was at the mall with kristin. we rode the bus down and met up with one of her teacher friends jacee (shes from georgia and this is hr third year in turkey). we were dress shopping for the marines birthday ball that we are attending this saturday. it was pretty much like a huge mall youd expect to see anywhere, but unlike our malls they have stores for everything- washer/dryer, tv, clothes, food, toys, etc. whereas we have bestbuy and all that for electronics, and our bestbuys arent IN the mall. oh and starbucks is everywhere, and more rain and clouds..... did i really travel halfway around the world?!

me on the skybridge walking from the bustop to the mall. buildings of ankara in the background.

the mall had displays of cars everywhere, American cars, old classic mustangs and Cadillacs, it was really funny cuz everyone was enamored and taking pictures of all the cars, i was thinking ive ridden in like half of these! i was tempted to take a pic of all the turks taking pics, but i didnt.

needless to say i didnt find a dress, kristin did though. and we hailed a cab back towards the lojman, but decided to head to real, the grocery store, first. real is pronounced ray-ahl. we got stuff to make chicken and green salad, some fresh pineapple and a few other staples like cheese and spaghetti sauce. kristin isnt very familiar with 'cooking locally' yet and everything was in turkish so unless its painfully obvious its hard to know what it is youre buying, hence the fairly american meal. we hailed a cab home and i cooked us the chicken while she prepped the salad fixings, it was a yummy dinner! after spending some quality time on facebook it was time to go to bed!

funny picture from before i left

for part of my vacation prep, before i got sick, i went swimsuit shopping, i needed a suit that fit, all my others are now too big and scuba diving with a bikini that has a knot in the back isnt comfy, so i wanted a one piece. pretty much nowhere in portland sells swimsuits in late october. so i found out i had to go to a sporting goods store, but they were full price and i wanted to pay clearance price. i decided to look at the kids sizes since womens stuff was all too big and theyre cheaper, so i really quick tried one on and made bethany take a picture. this is at dicks sporting goods in washington square mall.

beyond sexy right?! and yes i put it on OVER my jeans and my hoodie. yes its a child sized suit. yes im that skinny. but it totally makes it look like i have man junk! hahaha i ended up buying the suit in black and purple later with darcy. yay for kids swimsuits!!

the flight over

i flew to turkey on friday october 30th, departed at 4:15pm. i flew from portland oregon to san francisco california, then on to munich germany and then to ankara turkey. i arrived in turkey on oct 31st at about 11:15 pm. you can do the math. i didnt have too bad of a layover anywhere, was in SFO for about 4 hours and spent most of that time on the phone with friends or taking a nap.

that is where i ate a sandwich and broke my bonded retainer on the back of my upper front teeth. i didnt realize it was actually broken though until after i arrived in turkey. its not too big of a deal as long as it doesnt break more, knock on wood. i just need to try to find some dental wax to put over the raw metal edge so that i dont keep messing with it.

anywhoo, back to the flying part...
flying out of portland is always a treat cuz im a lover of volcanoes, once we got out of the clouds it was bright blue skies and gorgeous snow covered peaks, i saw mt hood, jefferson, sisters, etc all the way down the line. i loved it. the snow was blowing off the tops of all the peaks. it all looked so peaceful and serene!

flying into SFO was gorgeous, the sun was still pretty high but starting to set so everything was lit up all golden and bright, and it was super clear, we flew right over the oakland hills and the golden gate bridge and the city was beautiful, i saw lots of bridges that i remember driving over as a kid and i saw lots of pretty sailboats in the bay. i might have even seen my old house in fremont, but not sure on that! no i didnt take a picture, i decided to just marvel and enjoy it.

i flew over to europe on lufthansa airlines. they speak german a lot so by the end of the flight i was all sorts of Auf Wiedersehen-ing everyone. we left SFO at about 10 pm on friday so we had dinner and breakfast on the plane and i watched some movies - totally slept thru the ice age 3 movie, not sure why i cant stay awake thru those ones. the food was probably the best ever airline food ive had yet. the flight was just under 11 hours of fly time. at some point in the middle of the night i decided to open the window and take a glimpse of the moon, it was ah.maze.ing! it was huge, round and very orange. there was a cloud bank below it and the light reflected off the clouds in a very calm peaceful way, there was the planets and stars twinkling all around it as well. i decided to try to take a picture of it with mega zoom and at about that time it decided to start setting so i didnt get a great pic and of course it doesn't capture the reality of it AT ALL but you might get a tiny idea of what i saw.the next time i looked out the window it was very much day time and there was lots of clouds. i didnt really look out the window after that. i remember watching the monitor that showed our flight path and sending thoughts to my friend in Holland as i flew over Amsterdam. we landed in munich around 5pm.

my layover in munich was pretty uneventful, i was surprised at how lax security was, and everyone tried to talk german to me. i was unfortunately an ignorant american and forgot that i do know how to say hello, please and thank you in german. oh well. maybe on the way back ill be better at using my foreign language abilities. i exchanged my us dollars to euro and then to turkish lira and got some tiramisu and water for a lil treat before getting on the next plane. i contemplated the apple strudel since i was in germany n all but it looked like more of a diabetic coma then the tiramisu did. and i took another small nappy in the waiting area, i love naps. i left munich around 730 pm i believe. i was in the last row on the plane - snap! so the chair didnt recline and i was surrounded by about 15 cackling-in-turkish lady friends. not complaining, just painting the picture, i pretty much passed out and slept the whole way, i did glance out the window occasionally and saw lights of cities far below. i turned down dinner, wasnt hungry and woke up to being in rain and clouds again, huh, exactly as it was when i started out on this trip! lol the runway was like a lake and the wheels from the plane made huge sprays of water, it made me wonder if they dont get much rain here, cuz surely they would have created drainage paths for all that water. it was about 11 pm at landing time. i was of course last off the plane behind all the slow poke turkish women, and decided to pee before getting my bags. getting my 3 mos visa was extremely uneventful (and i was the only one) and going thru immigration was as well, the guy tried to pronounce my name, he wasnt very successful at it, but we exchanged smiles. then i waited for forever for the bags, hoping i wouldnt have to walk too far with them cuz kristins hockey bag was a beast! i didnt, she was right there on the other side of the sliding door and i didnt even see her at first cuz i wasnt expecting her to be right there, plus i was nursing my hand from the pain of dragging her heavy bag on top of my wheely suitcase! there wasnt very much chaos at the passenger pickup place, i wasnt sure if it was going to be more american esque (calm and organized) or asian esque (a huge mess of people and chaos), it was very american esque. kristins boyfriend Faruk was there, quick introductions, he hailed a cab and we were on our way to kristins lojman (apt).

Merhaba Ankara!!