Commissioned vs Street Art

Look!  Proof that we were not in a ghost town!  See that guy in the left corner?  Sadly the lighting doesn't show off his orange army pants.

This is the street art around the city.
The ones on the right are the "non-commissioned" pieces. 

Souvenirs from the edge

When we went to the candy shop with my friend who lives in Istanbul. We picked up the traditional Lokum (Turkish Delights) and he picked up a box of these.

piz-mahn-ee

So, of course, we bought some too.
It's a sesame-based cotton candy wrapped tightly and covered in chocolate.
 They're weird.  It's a confusing texture and strange flavor.  I can't quite explain it, but I'm addicted to them and I can't even decide if I actually like them. 

Think circus peanuts.

Languages

Do you get anything from this?  

Sometimes I hear other languages and if I listen really hard I hear the root of a word I know.
Other times I listen really hard and I hear Charlie Brown's mom: "wah wah wah".

It gets worse when you actually see the words.  Like when I was in Slovakia and I asked for the word that means "ice cream". After I said "What?" for the 5th time (ice cream is important), they handed me a paper with this: 

ZMRZLINA

And I said "That's not funny. Words need vowels." 



Some languages have grunty/growly noises.  Some languages have gutteral sounds that make you think someone is clearing their throat. 
Some languages make a word for ice cream that sounds like a bee murmuring. 
Turkish, is actually quite nice.  During my stay I found out that the Turks used to use a dialect of Arab for over 1,000 years.  But it wasn't able to accurately make the sounds of the language. "Whereas Arabic is rich in consonants but poor in vowels, Turkish is exactly the opposite." In 1929 they established an adapted latin alphabet.

The Eyup cemetary.  Because cemetaries are cool. 

So you still see Arabic in places and then you see Turkish (like the cemetary).  

And then oddly enough there is English smattered about.  Like our friend's apartment complex. 

 To be fair - he does have a swimming pool.

Yet, so hot in Turkey

It was snowing the first 2 days in Turkey, but I was hot with a capital "H"
b was kind enough to take a stealthy photo of my hotness
Do you like my legwarmers + baskets (tennis shoes)?

cold Turkey?

It is even cold in Turkey

I love Turkey.  

I love that all these different countries are so close together.

I love the moment after you arrive somewhere when you realize you are someplace totally new and things are different.  

My first moment was here at a restaurant, fresh off the plane:

In Frantasyland there are a lot of rules around the table - when you eat, who gets served first, when you can actually get your waiter to come back to your table to order your entrée, plat, fromage/dessert. Dinner takes a long time.

Here, we sat down and 9 plates of different food were instantly laid out in front of us, family style.  And there were at least 4 people moving around our table - pouring water, serving melted cheese on bread and meatballs, taking our meat order.  

Meat order?  Yes, because everyone needs 9 different dishes + meat + dessert.

And then the dramatic change in skyline.  From 10-story buildings(i.e. tall) and catholic cathedrals every 100 feet to a colorful patchwork of 5-story buildings, mosques and minarets.  

The minarets look like lost castle parts.  Don't you think?

And then the call to prayer

5 times a day.

 I thought, it would kill me to live next to a mosque - that noise 5 times EVERY DAY

and then I had to change the idea of noise

I'm not all that romantic about god

but I thought, for them, god sings 5 times a day to come and chat

It echoes softly off all the concrete buildings.  

Ok it was romantic on Saturday morning  when we were walking to the store in the sun 

to get eggs for a lazy breakfast. 

I wish I had a clip of it

My truck-stop, gift-buying sister took one when we first visited Turkey 6 years ago.  

One last big moment that couldn't stop repeating itself - people are nice.  

Some people want to sell you things, but most people don't.  Our last night we got stuck on the wrong side after the last boat to the other side had left (Turkey has 2 sides - 1 is attached to Europe, the other is attached to Asia).  This young guy not only walked us back to help us find out about other boats, but then walked us to the metro and was ready to walk us to the boat. 

And then the older businessman that invited* us for coffee after he heard b & I speaking French on the boat, and then tour guided us for the next 2 hours.

*to invite (and to offer) mean to pay for the other person in French (and my stupid english)

I like Turkey.  Even cold Turkey.  

Best. New Years. Ever.

Hotel Pullman Versailles

Steam room and sauna
Food on command
Cheers in bed at midnight.
No crowds.  No people having an overly good time and punching eachother.  No messy transportation. No lack of fireworks (Paris had no program this year hoping to dissuade the turblions and fauteurs de trouble -agitators and trouble-makers- from burning cars) 


Hotel room in a nice, quiet neighborhood?  Best. New Years. Ever. 

Americans are clever

Clever is one of those British words that I've adopted. People here say "clever" when they speak in English and I want to correct them and say that it hasn't been used in 60 years or so. Except that I like the word. And the U.S. isn't the center of the universe and so doesn't make up all the language rules.
(sidenote: apparently the center of the universe is in the U.S. though. Who knew?)

And it is the way I started my marathon vacation with b. At my sister's new apartment looking for a wireless line I could tap into.

Clever apologizing Americans.