I was totally surprised how many memories came rushing back to me while waiting outside the bus station for a smaller bus into the downtown area. Seeing all the bus traffic reminded me of how I was almost crushed by a bus that had lost it’s brakes and was careening down a hill with the passengers inside jumping out and doing a tuck and roll action. I was also reminded of waiting outside my school for a small crowded bus to appear and to struggle to be sucked into the crowd where people would be packed like sardines. There was even the familiar smell of my nose inside the armpit of sweaty non-deoderized Turkish men as they reached up their arms to hold onto the bus handle. I never dreamed that I would be returning to Bursa but it made me realize how powerful the sense of “place” can be. I dont’ think I would have ever been able to return to some of those memories without actually being in the place. I’m not going to get into much more of the sentimental stuff but all I’m saying is that I think it was important for me to return to be able to reflect on those five months and to be able to recognize the changes I’ve experienced in the past four years.

Wajdi cooked some great chicken for me as well as a special Tunisian spicy pepper oil to use for bread. It was wonderful! When I asked Wajdi how he spend his spare time he showed he began to enthusiastically open all of his cabinets for me, here is the pic:

Get the picture?

We had a great time catching up on old stories and which of our international friends we were still in contact with. I found out that there were a couple AIESEC marrıages. If any of you AIESECers are reading this I’m sure you not surprised – “AIESEC Love!”

Wajdi and I headed down to a pub called “Chaos” to meet some of the current AIESEC students and trainees. The club small,playing very bad loud music, serving expensive drinks, and the dancing was horrible. Just as I remembered it!!

We picked up Irena, a trainee from Brazil and Gustavo, a trainee from Ecuador and headed back to the house. Irene showed us how to prepare a drink called Tres Fasione (Three Phases) which is made by pouring an intial layer of thick juice, followed by a layer of wine, and then on top a final layer of vodka. The drink must be prepared very cautiously so that the the three parts to do mix. You then take the entire drink in one gulp and it is rumored to help you “catch a man or woman.”

Here is a picture of the drink preparation:

After the drinks Irene made this great chocolate fondue which we ate with bananas and grapes. So delicious!

The night was filled with cholate, sweet alochol, smoke, music, dancing and conversations that rapidly switched between English, Turksih, Portuguese and Spanish. It was wonderful!

Here I’m drinking a Tunisian speciality – Date Liquer!

Yesterday a van picked us up and took us to the ruins of the ancient city of Ephesus. Ephesus was the Asian area of the Roman Empire is the second largest ancient greek/roman ruins in the world.

At the ticket area I heard some Americans negotiating with an official guide on the price for his services.  I asked them if I could contribute to the payment and join their group and they accepted.  They were from Los Angeles and Palo Alto and had abandoned their cruise ship stringent tour plans to do their own thing for the day. 

The ruins were really amazing and turkey is pretty lax around visitors to the archaeological sites, there are no barriers or roped off areas.  You can practially throw your arms around 2,000 year old ionic column and lick it and nobody will stop you.  I was really impressed with the complexity of the ancient roman water sysem and pipes that brought fresh water from the mountains into the city.

We saw the ancient parlimentary house, terraced house of the rich, and my favorite, the group toilet area where important civil business was conducted.  If the stone seats were too cold the slaves would be sent to warm up the seats before their masters sat down, what a humiliating job!

I have some more pictures coming but I don’t have the cord to connect to my digital camera right now. 

I think this theater is in better shape than the Oakland Coliseum! 

After spending a leisurely day at home eating, drinking tea and walking along the water by Hanife’s house we decided to get dressed up and head to Taksim area for dinner.  We had fun trying on different outfits for each other and debating what to wear, well, Hanife tried on different outfits, I only have one dress so there wasn’t much debate.

Most Turkish people work a six day week so Saturday night is their only night to go out without having to work the next day.  As we drove along the Anatolian coast towards the Golden Horn we passed by dozens and dozens of families making BBQs in the parks along the water.  Most of these are the more traditional families in which the women are covered and girls my own age have two or three children.

I was clutching my seat the entire time as Hanife expertly and agressively weaved through traffic and assertively inched in front of neighboring cards at merging areas.  Taksim Square is the epicenter for the European side of Istanbul.  Unlike Sultanmehmet with it’s historic palaces, tea gardens and mosques, this part of Istanbul is young, hip and modern.  The nightlife is cenetered around Istiklal Cadessi which is pedestrian only streeting running about for about one mile and chalk full of clothing stores, music stores, bars, cafes, restaurants and street vendors selling everything from corn on the cob to super glue.  Since it was Saturday night the place was packed and it took all our strength to walk down the street without losing our purses or each other.

We had dinner at trendy “360″, a restaurant/bar on top of a building with a 360 view of the city.  It was in one of those unmarked buildings so that you feel very coy when you slip in the door, ascend in the ancient elevator and arrive in a very eloquent rooftop terrace.  We dined on Turkish wine, warm chestnut salad, duck and pad thai noodles!

During the dinner we could see fireworks erupting throughout the city aknowleding weddings and club openings.

Yikes, the tan line!

After dinner we  wound through the busy streets looking into busy cafes and bars and browsing the street vendor’s goods.  It was very strange because we passed by many bars that were full of young men, not a woman in a sight.  Hanife was not able to explain what they one single gender places.  There were plenty of young Turkish women in the streets wearing the latest cotton shirt/dresses in bright reds and greens and oranges…just not inside the bars.

Between the warm tea, ice cold beers, ice-cream, milk pudding, mussels, kebab and raki that the shops are offering it was hard to choose a place to settle.  We found a garrishly decorated type of pub where there were two musicans playing live music on top of recorded tracks.  They had a Gypsy Kings type of vibe and the crowd were “polite” people as Hanife would say.  I drank some type of cocktail advertised as a Martini that tasted more like Nestea and the moved onto the Raki, the anise flavored liquor that turns milky white when combined with water.

Hanife started dancing and showing off her Latin dancing skills  and after a couple songs of me protesting she finally got me up the dance floor.  We were whirling around and it was so much fun!  I’m usually quite shy about this kind of thing but the crowd was warm and encouaging and the bind was playing special songs just for us.  It was really exciting!!

Here is Hanife and the wonderful Turkish Breakfast that she prepared for us after our walk along the Sea of Marmara.

• Three types of cheese coatedi n olive oil
• A salad of gilled egglant, tomatoes, peppers with an olive oil/pomegrante sauce dressing.
• Eggs grilled with spicy beef sausage (no pork in Turkey!)
• Tomatoes and Cucumber Salad
• Olives
• Ayran – Salty milk drink made from a bacteria
• Bread toasted in olive oil

I headed to kebab shop to eat some meat and drink some tea. The son of the owner of the shop took it upon himself to sit with me to “practice his english” and to make sure I was being served appropriately. I guess it’s the tan but he thought I was from South America.

After leaving the restaurant I headed for the Grand Bazaar to buy some cheap clothes to “cover up”. I felt a little less exposed since I was in a more touristy area but I felt it was necessary to have at least some sleeves. As you walk through the bazaar you are hoarded byshopkeepers trying to guess your nationality and say something in your language to grab your attention. Again to my surprise I was bombarded with “Espanola”, “Hola”, “Senorita!”.

I finally navigaed to the clothing area which is mostly dominated with the long overcoats worn by the covered women and stands of colorful pajamas and underwear. I quickly realized that all the t-shirts for women come in only one size – “really tight”. The young ladies of Turkey do not wear low cut shirts because this would be too exposing but instead where incredibly skin tight shirts instead. I bought a ridicuous orange shirt with rhinetones and glitter and the words “just can’t get enough” on it but at least it was only three dollars and covered up a bit more skin.

I ended up exiting the bazaar in the Spice area where I bought the most amazing plump and juicy cherries.

Next I headed for Aya Sofia and the Blue Mosque. I sat in the gardens between the two magnificent buildings. Each time I took out my map a young Turkish man seemed to appear from nowhere offering to help me or to show me around. I know they meant no harm but this became incredibly annoying after the fifth or sixth time it happened. Hanife tells me I have to say “geet geet” to make them go away but that feels a bit demeaning. Instead my new line is “I’m waiting for my husband!”. That seemed to do the trick Perhaps my “I just can’t enough” t-shirt was misleading.

The Blue Mosque

This is the Yeni Cami (Mosque).  This was taken right as the call to prayer was being bellowed from the Mosque’s minuret.  The men are lining up outside to wash their feet before entering the mosque.  As I was walking around the city during this time there were many groups of men spilling out of mosques and sitting on rugs on the sidewalk because it was so crowded inside the mosque.

Hanife has been filling my belly with the most amazing salads, cheeses, meatballs and sweets.  I have pictures on the way!

Tonight we are heading to Taksim, the hot spot for young Istanbullus to a restaurant called 360 that supposedly has an amazing view of the city.  Can’t wait!

Funny translation story:  Hanife has two cats “Nil” and “Kitty” (whom I named four years ago).  For some reason Kitty has not gotten any bigger in the past four years so I told Hanife that she was a “runt”.  I had a hard time explaining what that word meant so Hanife looked it up in her Turkish/English dictionary.  The dictionary offered a Turkish word for runt that is literally translated as the pieces corn  that do not pop when making pop-corn.  We had a good laugh about this!

I boarded a small ferry boat bound for Ayvalik, the closest Turkish port town to Lesvos. I was getting nervous because I had bought an 11:00 bus ticket from Ayvalik to Bursa and the ferry boat was late.  We finally deboarded at 10:30am and then I had to wait in the customs line.  Last time i entered Turkey they charged Americans 100 dollars, not sure if it was different because I was arriving by sea or policies have changed but this time it was-only 20 dollars.  I met this real nice older Australian couple who were trying to catch the same bus as me.  We made it to the bus station right at 10:57 where I surprised myself by remembering enough Turkish to able to communicate that the Aussie couple needed to buy a ticket as well.

Now traveling by buses in Turkey is the way to go!  Especially if you choose a good bus company like Kamil Koc (that’s pronounced “Camel Coach” by the way).  The buses are large with luxurious seats, AC, movie, radio and a young boy attendant who brings you water, tea, sweets, juice and antibacterial towlettes throughout the journey.  The eight hours went by very quickly!

I was surprised how sentimental I felt after returning here four years after my five month English teaching stint in Bursa.  Little things came back to me that I had forgotten like how the Turkish people click their tongues and roll their eyes to express “no” and how it takes about five people to answer one question even if the first person you asked already knew the answer.

Hanife picked me up fom the main bus station and took me to her new apartment which is located in a very “Pacific Heights” area of Istanbul.  Hanife is looking as glamorous and fashionale as ever!  It’s wonderful to see her and it’s very cute the way she supplements Italian words into the conversation when she doesn’t know the English word.  As soon as we returned home she whipped up a great meal of a roasted vegetable salad, pasta with salmon and watermelon for desert.  We had a good time laughing and remembering our times in Bursa and then I go sleepy and was sent to bed….literally.

Yves LaRock – “Rise Up”

Mika – “Relax, Take it Easy” (just wait for the chorus, you’ll be humming it all day!)

Robbie Williams doing Manu Chao…yeah, it happened. Maybe Manu Chao was spending too much time se gusta marijuana to release the rights to this. Oh yeah, Lily Allen got to jump in on this one too!

Fedde Le Grand – “Put Your Hands Up For Detroit”

Alex Gaudino – “Destination Uknown”, pretty tacky video

I’m staying at this tiny little Domtia (pensione) where owner, Thalia, speaks to me in non-stop Greek. Although we suffer a language barrier I was able to pay and turn on the AC, I guess money has no language barrier. There are four rooms in the house but I haven’t seen any of the other residents.

The most striking thing about this island is that the architecture is totally different than the island in the Cyclades. Instead of the white washed homogeneous homes on Ios, Santorini and Sifnos the homes here are all colorful old mansions. I think this had to do with the Turkish influence on the island, the Turkish people used to live here. A lot of the mansions are being restored and they are really stunning to look at. It’s also refreshing to have a lit bit of color of well!

The town thrives around the u-shaped harbor where there are tons of cafes and restaurant.  The cafes all have brightly colored sofas and lounge chairs. At all hours of the day the cafes are filled with 18-22 year olds sipping frappes (whipped ice coffee), playing backgammon and generally checking each other out.  I’ve been a little turned off by the over priced coffe, bad pop music and the fact that I’m don’t know backgammon so I haven’t joined the crowd yet.  The other result of all the young people is that everyone has a scooter and walking through town is a bit trecherous because  cars and scooters have the right of way so everyone is constantly hopping on and off the fickle sidwalks to avoid being run over.

The other unique thing about this city is that there are tons of dogs sitting on every corner. They are super tame and just stare at you with adorable little bored eyes.   Why don’t they bark?  Is it a natural selection thing that the dogs who didn’t bark were more likely to pass on their genes because the barking dogs got killed off?  Here is a cute little puppy face that I shot today:

So where have all the young men gone?
Gone to internet cafes, every one.

Mytilini has a little piece of my heart because they have a crazy number of 24 hour internet cafes with all the latest equipment.  The cafes are filled with young guys playing computer games, downloading music, and instant messaging.  I’ve been going to one called Sponda a couple times a day and I seem to be the only woman here.  When I speak English 30 paris of eyes instantly leave their computer screen and turn towards me with curious shy eyes.  Only one or two can muster up the words to ask where I’m from but then they get nervous about their English and go back to World of Warcraft or whatever they are playing.  They seem totally bewildered by the fact that I’m traveling alone and they keep looking at the door as if some other American woman or man will walk in to claim me as their traveling partner.

I’m having some trouble with the pictures that I took but I hope to get them up soon.  I rented a car for the last two days so I want to write about my adventures but I’m totally exhausted so it may have to wait.

Today is the Fourth of July/My Birthday…I would say the celebration (of both) can be described as totally non-existent which sounds kind of sad but really it hasn’t made me sad. I do miss that Toot Sweets cake though!

Hope everyone has a good holiday.

I’m heading to Turkey tomorrow. I will take a boat to Ayvalik and then a bus to Istanbul where my dear friend Ms. Hanife will pick me up.