Country hoppin

Hello to everyone and sorry for the delay in posting, the last post about the wedding took a long time because I needed help from my friends here to get all the traditions right.  I promise it wont happen again! I promise! 

Life here is getting better every day, probably because the weather is getting warmer which means summer is almost here!  As many of you know, I am on a tourist visa here which allows me to stay for the stay of 90 days at a time.  What does this mean? it means that I have to leave the country every 90 days and come back.  I consider this to be a treat!  I love turkey, but I also love traveling, and what better way to get away from it all for a day than to take a day trip to Greece!  You would think that this might be a difficult thing to have to do every 90 days, but in fact, its quite nice!  Staring out in Izmir, you hop on a bus from the station going to a city called Cesme.  It is a very lovely coastal city of Turkey, where many Turks and Europeans come to spend a wonderful vacation, so i hear.  From there, you walk a minute to the port and hop on one of the many many ferries that go across to Chios.

Castle in Cesme

The ferry cost approx. 40 euros round trip, which is not too bad.  From the Turkish coast you can see very clearly and easily Chios.  It looks like it is only five minutes away, but in fact it takes around one hour.  When you get there you have to go through customs to get your passport stamped and all that, then you get to head out into the city.  This was my second time in Chios, the first time was when my brother, Jonathan, and I took a ferry from Bari, Italy (where we were visiting Federica! one of my friends from Study abroad in Poland) to Chios, then Chios to Turkey, for our first visit to Turkey.  Unfortunately when Jonathan and I went there it was super early in the morning and all we wanted to do was sleep.  We only had an hour or two before we had to leave anyways.  This time, I got to see more of the island than just some pizza place and the bus stop.

I started out by going and getting a map to figure out where the stuff I wanted to see was.  They told me a few places and how much the taxi would cost to each of them and I headed out.  I started out in an area that was some sort of castle/fort from a while back, now its mostly the wall around it and houses are built inside, so it was an interesting place.  Many small streets and old houses.  From there I headed to the center where there was a big park and a shopping street.  I was looking to find me some tasty Greek food!  I walked around for a bit but there actually were not too many places to eat, or maybe I just didn't know where to look.  I went in one that was right near the park that looked a bit like a fast food style gyros place.  I went in and ordered a gyros, not sure what I would be getting.  I sat down and started eating and it was AMAZING!!!  It was a thick pita bread with lots of veggies, chicken, and a white cucumber yogurt sauce inside.  Looking back on it i wish I had eaten 20 of them instead of just one.

After I finished my delicious meal I proceeded to wander around the center area around the park just to see what was around, check out some of the architecture and such.  I also was scoping out a grocery store to buy some stuff that I cant get in Turkey, but we will get back to that later.

I had a few options of how to spend my day.  I could visit an old village called Kambos, go to a Monastery (Nea Moni), or just hang out and eat and drink by the sea.  I decided I would go visit Kambos.  It was relatively close to the center of the city compared to the Monastery, and it sounded like it would have some interesting houses and such.  I hopped into a taxi, a Mercedes Benz (yeah, that island is super rich)  and headed off to Kambos.  We got there and i was pretty much just in a very narrow street with old stone walls on each side.  My driver said, go down this road and you can take pretty much any right to get to the main road to get a taxi from there.  I should emphasize here that I was really in the middle of nowhere, or so I felt.  I wondered, should I have really come here? Everywhere around me was small streets and fields.  I decided to start walking, being that there was no one, no cars, or any other life in sight.  I started down the street he pointed me in and soon realized why it is one of the top tourist attractions on the island.  The houses were all very large stone houses, varying through 6 different architectural periods.  Each house had a large citrus orchard where they grew and sold citrus fruit.  The houses were all beautiful as were the gardens.  Some were relatively simple, some were very decorated, quite tastefully of course.  As I walked through the narrow streets I would stop to admire each house, and its garden/orchard.  This old village fills the valley between two mountain ranges, creating a very open and beautiful surrounding. It is difficult to understand the size of the area because it is very flat, maybe if you climbed one of the mountains you would get a good view of it, maybe next time.

After a bit more walking around and checking out the cool houses, I started back towards the center of the city.  It was about 5 Kilometers but i though, what the heck, I have time, I will walk.  I did not know exactly how to get there so I figured I would just walk towards the sea and then towards the port.  I managed to go the correct direction, but a very long way of getting there.  After two hours I was about half way there because of my extra long route, so I decided to snag a taxi for the rest of the way.  From there we only drove about ten minutes and I was back by the sea.  At this point I had two more things on my agenda, buy pork products! and drink a beer (a beer i cant get in turkey) by the sea.  I went to the grocery store i had found earlier that day and loaded up with three thick packs of bacon to turn into breakfast and to put on my cheese burgers!  I packed up my bag and headed down to the water to grab me a seat by the window at one of the bars.  I found a nice place with Amstel and had me a sit.  Funny thing; they were showing a Wake Forrest basketball game (for those of you who don't know that's a team in North Carolina where I am from!).  From there I hoped to get some more tasty Greek food, but I had to get back to the ferry.  I headed back through the customs, bought me some duty free Baileys (Turkey imposes a huge tax on alcohol) and got back to my home.  I am happy to take a day trip anytime!!!  On my way back I knew I would be anxiously awaiting the next trip!  Sorry for the extreme delay on this.... this is back three months.  I am leaving in two days for that next trip!

Last section, the big news folks, I WILL BE HERE FOR ONE MORE YEAR MINIMUM!!!! learn more next time.

All of the pictures after the gyros picture are from the small town I walked around in.  Houses, streets, and the wheels, which I am not sure what they were used for.

Two Turkeys get married

(Me teaching)

Life here is going very well these days. I am really enjoying my time here and I feel like I know my way around the city well. It is good to finally feel confident when I am going somewhere, even somewhere new! I understand how to get mostly anywhere in the city and what bus to take, even without knowing the exact number every time. I am lucky that my work is only two blocks away from Kordon (the area by the sea). Many days when I have extra time before or after work I walk to the park that goes along the sea and take a stroll. It is one of my new favorite things to do! As I have mentioned before I am working for a place called British Culture as an English teacher. I have been working there now, just over a month! As with the city, I feel more comfortable teaching English and knowing what the students may have trouble or not with. One of the biggest perks of the job is my relationship with my students. My students have reacted very very well to me, which is great and makes me happy to come to work every day, minus the waking up early part. One thing that I have found to be very difficult is that each lesson is for four hours. The lessons are strongly focused on conversation so that means four hours of conversation. Four hours of conversation is hard even with a friend, so with an intermediate English speaker, it can be very very difficult. I have to really encourage them to talk and try to come up with new things to talk about that they really will enjoy. Luckily my classes are happy and confident and are comfortable with me, so they are always talking and have new things to tell me all the time. One of my classes is really like a family; they all know each other and all about each other’s lives, hobbies, interests, and like to hang out with each other outside class.

On Monday I went to a city called Denizli with British Culture to speak with a company about signing a contract, it was not a very beautiful city but I really enjoyed the drive there and back, this part of Turkey has mountains everywhere so we were driving along the mountain ranges the whole time.  It was a good time hanging out with Johnny, one of the other Americans at British Culture; and my director, Elvan.


So talk about this being a small world, I was taking a walk in Kordon one day because I had some time before I was going to meet Ebru, and I saw a few young guys who were wearing sunglasses with Croakies and T-shirts. I immediately thought, these guys must be from North Carolina, and my suspicion was confirmed when I saw he was wearing a T-shirt with all the pirate flags from NC. Those of you from NC have seen them sold at the coast I am sure. I stopped them and said, "Hey, are you all from NC???" I addressed the question to one of the girls with them and she looked shocked! She said "no but I went to UNC!". The guys chimed in now and said, "hey! we are from NC!" I couldn’t believe it! I told them, "me too, I am from Raleigh". And yes folks, it gets even more amazing. One of the guys then said, "hey me to! what high school did you graduate from". I proudly said, "Broughton". Guess where he graduated,! Broughton!. So that’s right, I ran into another Broughton High School graduate in Izmir, Turkey! Can you believe it? I was really excited. I have to follow this story up with yet another story of coincidence because this one is just as crazy.

A few years ago Ebru and I spent Christmas in Budapest, Hungary while we were studying abroad. We met some Americans at our hostel and spent some time with them just hanging out and kind of were all each other’s family for Christmas, a really nice experience. After Christmas had come and gone we all parted ways and extended our final goodbyes (when you stay in hostels you meet people that are like your family for a week, and you know that you probably won’t ever see them again; it is a very strange yet amazing experience). So back to the story, over a year later, I was on a trip to visit a friend from Singapore who was working in NJ, with my good friend John Williams. We were at Six Flags in NJ riding roller coasters one day and I saw one of the American guys we met in Budapest! We couldn’t believe that we saw each other again. Even wilder is that he was also not from NJ but just visiting as I was, so both times we met we were a long way from home, but twice in the same part of the world together. So that is the other story of amazing coincidence!

(Donkey cart on my street, haha)

Well I guess I should get back to life here in Izmir. I have a second roommate now and he lives in our living room. It is cool because it makes the rent cheaper for all of us of course, and he just got a 3 month old Red Doberman. The dog is sweet and playful, but not trained, his name is Buz. In English it means ice. Unfortunately he had a bit of an accident in my room which I came to find last night... Luckily I love dogs and have enjoyed helping to train him. He is a very smart dog and is beginning to understand commands after just two days! He has been a bit wild though, chewing up one pair of slippers, and my roommate’s camera chord. He even got a bit of my roommates hand by accident, when you are holding food you have to watch out for a hungry puppy or they will try to get to the food through your hand!



As some of you know I went to a Turkish wedding this past weekend. Ebru's sister, Oznur got married on Saturday here in Izmir to a very nice guy named Arda. Oznur is a Math teacher at the same school that Ebru teaches English and Arda works for the beer company Tuborg/Carlsberg.



Hello! I'm Ebru. As the bride who was getting married was my sister we thought it would be better if I told you the rest of this blog. I'd like to apologize for the mistakes I might make in advance:)

                                               (Baha and Derin, Ebrus' neice and nephew)

Now I'll try to talk about wedding traditions in Turkey although they change according to the part you live in. In some parts a wedding lasts for a week with different celebrations. In some parts you can see a bride riding a horse. I think it would be quite challenging to ride a horse with that huge dress. But there is one tradition that never changes: henna night. It's a night when all the women come together, eat, drink, dance, sing some traditional songs and paint henna on their palms. Of course it depends how much henna you want. If any of you has smelled henna before I'm sure you would just want none.

Now, It's time to talk about my sister's wedding. As you might know I live in the west part of Turkey, in a city called Izmir. Apart from henna night we don't really have any other tradition.

First of course my sister got engaged. That did not technically happen when the guy proposed, it was when the two families came together and had an engagement party. Close friends and family came to this.
       
 (oznur in her traditional dress)

Since my sister decided to get married she kept saying she did not want anything extravagant; not a dinner after the ceremony, henna night, not even a huge, shining dress. Who believes that? Well, I don't anymore since most of the brides I have talked to say the same. Somehow my sister decided to have a henna night, something small in my house. She invited some of her friends. We had some delicious food my and groom's mum cooked, we sang songs and danced. Before we got some henna my sister changed her dress and put on a very traditional dress. And we started singing the henna song which talks about how the bride feels before she leaves her house and how much she misses her family. It's kind of a sad song and as a bride my sister was supposed to cry.. But she was not in the mood and we tried hard to make her cry. Eventually she started crying after she saw groom's mum cry. We made a circle and my sister sat in the front so the groom's mum could paint the palm of one of her hands. But as a result of tradition she did not open her hand. Groom's mum gave a piece of gold then my sister opened her hand. We kept eating, drinking, singing and dancing for the rest of the night. It was a fun night.
                                                                              
                                                                               (Oznur in traditional dress, her mom, and her grandma)

Next comes the wedding day. Usually it happens the next day but as we did not have any days off we gave a day break. We spent the wedding morning at the hairdresser. When we came back to our house outside of the house we had loud music played by some musicians on a drum and a type of recorder type instrument. The neighbours were all out in the street along with family, friends and anyone else who wanted to join. There was dancing, singing, and lots of smiles. Inside the house were many more people including the bride (Oznur) and the groom (Arda). That day Austin got to meet most of my relatives. They were really curious about him and even though there was no communication going on they loved him. Everyone got ready to go to the wedding place. Before we left the house my father tied a red ribbon around my sister which meant purity.


                                                                                                               (Wedding room)

After this we all headed out to the wedding in a bunch of cars with a small towel tied to the car to show the wedding party. On the way, small kids, mostly gypsy kids, will stand in front of your car until you give them money, it’s a tradition that does not seem to be loved by the people, but it’s a tradition all the same. We were lucky and very few kids stopped the car. Unfortunately, the traffic that day was very bad and after a bit of driving, my sister realized she did not bring her bouquet of flowers! This caused a bit of a panic through the family as you would imagine. Our car turned around and got it for her but after a few minutes we realized we could not get it and get to the wedding in time, so we turned back. Oznur bought a new bouquet at a wedding store near the place of the wedding.

                       (Ebru's family)

The place the wedding held was a nice place by the sea, really, it just looked like a small auditorium from the inside. The ceremony was very short. They went to the front and sat at a table with the witness, usually an older man from their family (my older sister's husband), and the person who legal married them. This person was not a religious figure. They said they wanted to marry, the witnesses said they approved, and they signed. All in all it took only ten minutes for the actual ceremony, if even that. After that the bride and groom waited in the next room and everyone came to put either gold or money on the bride and groom. They put them with pins on a piece of fabric they were both put on for this. After some pictures, lots of hellos, and hopefully lots of gold and money, everyone stood out in the area outside for the bride to throw her bouquet and to give their final congrats.

I was also ready there to get the bouquet but then I realized that there were some other girls who were older than me and let one of them get it.

                                                                              (the lovely Bozkurt women)

Between the ceremony and dinner we had a few hours so we went to my sister's house to spend some time till the dinner. We had some drinks and relaxed. Finally we were on the boat where we were going to have dinner. It was a cool boat which stayed near the port for two hours and then it went around the bay. The dinner was a three course meal, with the main course being chicken. It was a very tasty meal which included a few drinks. The dinner took approximately 3 hours, which is not abnormal for a big Turkish dinner. After eating there was live music and everyone was dancing. We carried on for a few hours, just dancing, talking, and celebrating. There was another bridal party sharing 'the boat with us that night and they pretty much sat in their seats looking scared of our group. The bride was maybe 35 and the groom looked to be around 65, kind of funny! After a long night of dancing, eating, and mingling, we left the boat. As we were leaving the bride informed us that we were going to go to a bar, just the young people. It was already midnight at this point and I had to drag Austin there because he had work the next day, but still, the party went on. At the bar we stood around and talked and did a little dancing. By the time we finally left it was 2:00am and we were ready to get some sleep.

(Arda and I)

                                                        

Back to Austin! The whole day was a great experience. I got to see a wedding in another country, which I have never seen before. I enjoyed seeing what all was similar, and what was different. I really enjoyed the experience and hope I will get to do more things like this in the future. Sorry again for not posting in so long, I will have another ready soon! I miss everyone!

(Ebru, Oznur, and Me)

The deep south pt. 2. Antalya and Aspendos

(Ebru, Me, and Suna at the turkish music bar)

In the last post I told you about the first half of the trip to visit Suna, well here is part 2. On the second day we got up and had a nice breakfast on Suna's balcony in the warm sun. This is where I will add how horribly slow Turkish people are getting out of the house in the morning! Ebru will kill me for writing this I am sure. They like to wake up late and eat breakfast for one, two, maybe three hours. After getting dressed, showered and brushing of teeth it can easily reach 3pm before you are actually out and ready to go. Good for a lazy Sunday, bad for a restless American who wants to do some sightseeing! That day however we did not leave too late!  

We hopped on a bus to Antalya because it was approximately one hour and some change away and paid six or eight lira for the ride (5 dollars). Upon arrival we headed to one of the most famous parts of Antalya, the beach. The beach is around a kilometer or two long, just guessing. It is set in a beautiful surrounding. One side connects to a mountain range, the other side to cliffs over the Mediterranean. The beach is overly touristy. It has a park on the side opposite the sea with a small carnival setup, lots of souvenir type shops, and a few random nightclubs set up on the beach. No serenity at this beach, but certainly touristic. All the same, it is a nice place and being that I was there in the winter, obviously the off season, it was relatively deserted and we could enjoy the scenery.

(A view over the old town at sunset)

By this point it was late lunch/dinner time (yes already, remember the slow to get going part) and we ventured up the side where the cliffs are to find a place to eat. We found a place that had a porch built right on the edge of the cliffs which curved slightly out at this point, giving us a view down the cliff, to the beach, to the mountains. It was a great view. Of course off to the other side we had the beautifully blue Mediterranean. We had a nice meal; I got mine free on account of a hair in it... gross. In fact the meal was not that good, but I can’t complain when it was free and it was worth the view! We sat there until the sun set over the mountains, the second day watching the sunset over the Mediterranean in a row! then headed off to explore the old town.

(A street in the old town at night)

We walked to a nice area that overlooked the old town which is in fact where a castle used to stand. The outer wall of the castle still has many parts intact. From where we were standing you could see all the old Turkish architecture and the terracotta red roofs. The old town slopes down to the sea, giving yet again a spectacular view. We wondered down into the old town, checking out architecture and random souvenirs. Now it was nighttime and many of the places were closing up, so we found our way down to the sea, and from there went to find a cafe or bar to have a drink. In fact we ended up just wandering more which was totally fine with me, because I just enjoyed all the old houses. We found a place that was going to have live traditional Turkish music later that night so we decided after some time that we would go and listen. While we waited we enjoyed a beer at a restaurant, yet again overlooking the water!

We came back to the bar for the Turkish music and found a seat. The crowd there was extremely hippie, down to the long dreadlocks. I didn’t even know there were Turkish hippies, who knew? The band started playing, the music was kind of cool, it was a hammer dulcimer, a string bass, some drums, and occasionally some other things. The band would play for about five minutes then stop. Their friend went to the hospital sick, so they said they were worried, which they explained to us every time they stopped (via translation from Ebru). They soon found out their friend was fine, but continued to play very short songs, then take at least a 20 or 30 minute break. Overall, I think they played for 15 minutes total over two or three hours. I think they were not so much worried about their friend as just lazy, it seemed to be the general opinion. This would not be such a problem if we did not have to pay to listen to the music, but what can you do?  I told you Turkish people tend to be kind of lazy! (Ebru also will kill me for saying that).

Either way we had fun just hanging out; Suna and her boyfriend, Ebru and I, and Suna's flat mate and her boyfriend, were all together so it was not a problem. From there we piled into the car, dropped the flat mate and boyfriend off somewhere in Antalya, then the remaining four headed back to Manavgat (where Suna lives). We got home around 2 or 3 am because of some interesting directional choices by the guy driving, and just all fell asleep almost immediately.

The next day we got up around 12:00... yeah, late again, and headed off to see Aspendos.  Aspendos is what I wanted to see most on this trip and was most excited about and would not rest until we found a way to go there! We got Suna's boyfriend to come and drive us there because catching a bus was not going to be easy. Aspendos is approximately 45 minutes away from Manavgat, maybe even closer, so not a very long drive. We drove a bit further so we could go to a farm owned by a Turkish actor and have breakfast there. The place we ate was a small room perched a bit precariously on the side of a river. Unfortunately the weather was not so nice this day, mostly rain. We had the usual long breakfast which was of course, very delicious, but time consuming. The rain had really started to pour down now and I was getting worried that the day would be a wash out; sorry for the pun there. We drove up to the area where Aspendos is, which begins with a view of a nice old bridge. We decided to come back and look at it after the main attraction, the theater!

(The Theater)

I had seen the theater in travel books and it looked amazing. As you drive towards it you are surrounded by ruin after ruin along the road. Finally you come around a turn in the road and there it is, a massive theater from the Roman times, almost completely intact. We parked and I dragged Ebru as fast as I could to go buy tickets. We paid around 10 or 15 Lira and headed inside. You walk in to the ground level and all around you is a towering theater. I was taken back by how amazing this place really was. Aspendos theater holds approximately 15000 people and still they have shows there to this day. The decoration on the facade of the theater was a bit broken, but that was to be expected. For a while I just stood down on the ground looking at all that was around me, trying not to miss any detail of it. From there I ventured behind the stage to see what was behind, but nothing really was back there. There is not really a back stage, more just a open area behind the three entrances (The three doors entering the stage was the traditional setup of a Roman theater; thank you classics class at ECU). From there I followed Ebru and the others up the steps of the seating area. Halfway up was a break between the levels with a small walkway under the second level, and I mean very small. After a quick look in I continued my accent up to the top. Around the top was an arched walkway wrapping from one end to the other. From there you got the full view of the theater and how big it really was. I slowly made my way around the top and enjoyed the view and taking some photos. The others were a bit quicker than me but I wanted to stay as long as possible, I was really amazed by this place. After a few more pictures and Ebru telling me to hurry up a few more times, we headed out of the theater.  One other thing I want to add about the theater is that if you made noise or talked loudly, you could hear it all around the theater very easily, the accoustics were outstanding!

I saw in the brochure, to the dismay of the others, that there were more ruins around the theater, where the rest of the city had stood so long ago. I had unfortunately just been informed that our driver had to leave soon and we had very little time, so I ran off to see all I could in the remaining ten minutes. There was an old coliseum that was reduced to nearly nothing to start, and that’s where the others stayed. I ventured on to see a few more things, including the old town market and what was believed to be the old mint. Luckily it was not too far before I found them. The town market was mostly gone, though the shape of it was still obvious. A large rectangle surrounded by columns and on one side a very well intact facade, similar to the styling of the one in the theater. The mint pretty much just looked like an old square building, not much to see, but the walls were still there. It was still cool to look at. Unfortunately they did not have any coins there to see from the mint, maybe there are some in other museums around turkey. This mint, though small, produced coins for the entire region that it was in.

Unfortunately at this point I could not make them wait any longer and had to leave. From there we went to a nearby mall so that Ebru could search for a dress for her sister's wedding, then we went back to Manavgat to get ready to depart for home.

(The walkway around the top of the theater)

I will point out that it was Sunday night and we were going to take the bus all night and Ebru would arrive back in the morning and go straight to school. We knew that Monday would be a long day for her. After a quick dinner with Suna we headed off to the bus station. We found our bus, sadly not the cool one we took to Antalya, and headed off to Izmir. Things went smoothly for the first few hours, I watched the original Casino Royale, which was much stranger than I had expected. If I am not mistaken I think it had Peter Sellers in it. I had noticed that it had started to snow lightly, which was cool because I had no expectations to see snow during my winter in Turkey. As we drove on the snow would start and stop, until about 3am when the snow picked up to a heavy and thick snow. We continued slowly on in the snow until we got to a hill. In the distance we saw some flashing lights that as we got closer, turned out to be another tour bus that had gotten stuck on the way up. Unfortunately instead of going around our driver stopped behind him. As any of you know who have driven in snow, when you stop on a hill, you don’t start again. If you have not gathered by now, we were stuck. The snow continued to come down in big fluffy pieces as our bus driver, who probably had driven in the snow very few times before, and the other employees tried putting chains on the tires, get traction, or do anything they could to get moving. We can just say that they were not very successful at this. The time was hitting around 5:30 am by now and we finally started moving a little bit, but our bus driver yet again stopped, this time it seemed like he could not decide whether to go to one side of the road or the other, ended up waiting too long and having a sign in front of him... and having to stop. Along with this about 6 guys thought it was a good idea to watch from outside to see if it got traction, then we had to wait for them to get on... so we had to stop.  That's right, stuck again. Again the people got off, chains were fiddled with, and an hour or two later, again we started going. This time they were smart enough not to watch from outside. Only one guy stayed outside I guess to make sure that the chains stayed on, then he hopped on the bus, as we continued moving slowly, third time is a charm I guess, and we were off.  Once they figured out the not stopping thing we were good to go!  From there we had no more problems, and rolled on through to Izmir. Now if you do the math, leave at 10:00 pm, 9 hour trip, 3 hours plus stuck in snow, which means that it is around 10:00 am upon arrival and school has started, so Ebru went as fast as possible to a bus and headed off to school. I headed to her home, exhausted from the bus ride. Through we spent 12 hours on the bus, I only had maybe 2 hours of sleep, so I quickly passed out until afternoon.

So that was the grand trip to the Antalya area. Filled with beautiful scenery, amazing history, and getting to see Suna! It was overall a really fun time and I hope we will end up back there again this summer.  Also the comment section is fixed so any one can now post a comment!

(me in the theater!)                                   

Everything in ruins, in a good way! The waterfall and Side

(me at the temple of Apollo)

     A few weekends ago Ebru and I ventured off to the south of Turkey to visit her friend Suna. The part that I live in is considered Aegean Turkey; the part we went to is the Mediterranean part of Turkey. Her friend lived in a small city named Manavgat, which is approximately one hour by bus from a more popular tourist spot, Antalya. I was lucky to find out that not only was it close to Antalya, but some other amazing cities, which had some of the coolest roman ruins I have ever seen. We were not sure where to go exactly to start out with; the trip meant two overnight bus rides, the second one putting Ebru back in Izmir with just enough time to get to work on Monday morning. As you know, or those of you who have traveled overnight, it is not the most comfortable thing ever, turns out that was the least of our troubles, but I will get into that later!

 

(View from the theater)

We left Izmir on Friday night around 8:00. We first met at the bus company port near Ebru's house to take a small bus to the bus station. Once we got to the bus station we hopped on what turned out to be one of the coolest busses of all times, and headed off to Antalya. You may be wondering "how cool can a bus be?" the answer is freakin cool. This bus, aside from being relatively comfortable, had a TV where you could watch live TV, a list of movies you could watch (even some in English) and had a USB port where you could plug in and charge various electronics in the back of every seat. I used it to keep my ITouch charged. This bus, among all these other great features, had free wireless internet! This was pretty great, I even chatted with some of you probably reading this on Skype from the bus, so if you are one of them, congratulations. The ride there was fine. We were tired still upon arrival because for one, it was around 7:00 am, and two, you can only sleep so much on a bus. Suna met us and we headed back to her house to catch a quick nap then off to see some tourist spots.

(flooded walkway at the waterfall)

Our first day included a "waterfall" and another small town named Side. To start out the story of this day I will explain why I put the waterfall in quotation marks. First reason is that it was only maybe six feet high at most, so not really what I think of when I think waterfall, and two, and the biggest reason, is that the rain and melting snow from the mountains changed it from a waterfall into a rapid! I will post a picture of this to give you a visual of what I mean, but a quick description is that there was so much more water than usual trying to go over the waterfall that instead of falling from one level to another, it created more of a hill of water, or rapid. This excessive amount of water also meant that the entire area around the waterfall was completely flooded. There is a viewing area by the river that you go to see the waterfall, it was sadly under water, and however, you could not get anywhere near even the viewing area because the water came so far up. We had to stand approximately 150 feet away from the river because it was flooded that far back, included all viewing areas, and tourist gift shops. We went up into the restaurant which was on stilts (finally some architectural foresight) to get the only real view of the river possible. It was pretty cool just because it was all flooded, I may have been less interested if it was normal.

After this we headed to Side. The great thing about where we were was it was so close to travel between these various locations, so getting there took us only 20 minutes. The ride there was great also. Along the way you already got to see ruins along the sides of the road, buried under some dirt, in someone’s backyard, or anywhere else around you. This area has so many that they are just there, not part of a tourist attraction, not owned by the state necessarily, just part of the scenery. For me it was really cool. Once we got to Side I had some surprises. One was the great amount of ruins around to see, and two the long sand area leading up to the beach. One thing that made this area unique was that many of the ruins were in the sand leading up to the beach, which made for an interesting sight. The ruins and the ocean came together in a way that you could imagine how it may have looked when it was inhabited.

We started out by just walking along and looking at the first area of ruins, some random parts of what used to be a city. First some city wall, then a town square, then a market area. We made our way up the sand bank there you had a nice view of the various ruins, the old theater, and the ocean. We decided first we would walk down to the coastline and enjoy the view of the Mediterranean. Along the way we encountered some old buildings half buried in the sand, including what seemed to be an old church, and an ancient hospital (according to the signs). From the coastline itself you could not see too much because the sand bank dropped down again the regular beach area, but it was still a nice view of the sea.

We now decided to make our way towards the first big attraction, the theater. Along the way we found what I think was an old market area, if I remember correctly. This area was really cool because the facade of the old market was relatively well intact and you could find columns and old sculptures half buried in the sand and lying around. It was like something from a movie. It looked very untouched since the day it was still used. If something had fallen down, there it would lie, if the wind blew, the sand covered it. It was a great sight.

From there we got to the theater. This theater overlooked an old market square which still had many of its columns around the square still standing. The whole area was still together enough that you could understand a little bit about its old organization. The theater was not what it used to be, but from the first level down, it was still nearly perfect. The second level had been destroyed by the elements, and various earthquakes, which left parts of it, but not too much. The bottom half was great though, down to the ground. The backdrop was only half there anymore, most of it had fallen down, but still there was maybe 20 feet tall’s worth of it. When you looked closely you could see the various bits of art carved into the walls. I was lucky there; I was the only one in the theater and had a great view. It was all mine to enjoy. Ebru didn’t come in because she is a jive turkey, and is not as interested in that kind of stuff as me. haha. Either way, to stand in somewhere like that alone, is really a wild experience. From the top of the first level you also have a great view out across the ruins and the sea. This view was one of the coolest views of all the places I have been.

(The temple of Apollo)

Next we walked through the current market streets past all the fake purse, lacost, and genuine fake watch shops. We were heading to the most popular attraction of Side, the Temple of Apollo. Not too much of the temple is left these days but there is one side of it where the four columns are all still standing with the roof area all together. You get a good feel how the rest looked from this part, and the type of artwork that surrounded the top of the temple. It is surrounded by ruins all over the ground, ruins of another in fact larger temple, a church, and some other various things. This all sits right beside the sea, giving yet again, an amazing view of the ruins along the coast. We spent the remainder of the day watching the sunset over the water, and the mountain range that curled around into the Mediterranean, off in the distance. It was a great day of sightseeing! From there we walked back to the bus stop and met Suna for a drink or two then to sleep, so we could get up the next day and head to Antalya

(sunset over the Mediterranean)

Every kind of ham, except one actually made from a pig

So I am a bit more settled in these days. I finally have my flat all settled down. I have a new bed, it’s just on the floor with a carpet under it, but I really feel cozy at home. You can buy these cool wardrobes that are just a frame and some cloth over them very cheap, so I got one for myself and am finally moved out of my suitcases!!! I live in a part of town called Bornova now, it is a very student oriented part of town, where a big university called Ege University (where Ebru graduated:) that creates the student atmosphere here. I am really lucky that my good friend Oktay lives right across the road from me, and I have a bus back to Buca, where Ebru lives, and a bus to the area I work, Alsancak!

So Indeed I have started work. I work at a very cool place called British Culture. I am teaching what they call lower intermediate English to approximately four to nine students. I am only working 12 hours on the weekends right now, but it should increase. My students range from 15 years old up to 41 years old, which is difficult to cater to, but provides a great variety of stories, thoughts and abilities. They all seem like they want to learn and are having a good time with me in class; I am having a great time with them! The view from my classroom is really wonderful; you can see the sea and all around the city. On the days we are lucky we can go through the classroom beside us onto the balcony on the roof and spend our break enjoying the view!

The animals around here are really great. There are stray dogs and cats absolutely everywhere, as I may have mentioned before. They are all super friendly, at least the dogs anyways, and are always happy to have a quick scratch behind the ears or a stomach rub. There is one puppy who lives near Ebru's house which I like to think of as my adopted puppy! He is always excited to see me and me him. Even some of the cats here are nice! usually they hate everyone. If you sit near them, they will jump into your lap and curl up.

I am starting to find some favorite places around town, which include a restaurant named Mandolin Cafe, which is right on the sea and serves the best roast beef sandwich I have ever had! There is a waiter there who speaks really good English and always has time to come talk for a few minutes with me when I am there. Ebru and I spent a very nice valentine’s day there last night having some wonderful Turkish wine and food.

Unfortunately my Turkish has not improved very much so far. I am always with people who speak both English and Turkish so I am rarely forced to speak Turkish. One fun experience I had recently was searching out real pork in Izmir. We searched all over and finally found some salami and deli sliced ham.... unfortunately it cost 125 lira for one kilo! That translates to approximately 70 cents per slice! The reason I decided to put "every kind of ham, except one actually made from a pig" is that you can buy turkey pork, beef pork, chicken pork, and anything else you can think of, just not pork pork! It is pretty amusing. After when we went to buy bread we found bacon! We all went back to Oktay's house and I cooked the bacon up and made some turkey, bacon, lettuce, tomatoes and cheese sandwiches. They really loved them! There first experience with bacon was a good one. Maybe next time I will make bacon egg and cheese biscuits for them!

Ebru's family, and especially Ebru have taken really good care of me here. I have an open invitation at their house for any meals, and a place to stay any night I want. I taught them how to play dominoes, which is a favorite of my family back in the US. Her mom is a great player. She will pick up a tile, if it is too high of a number, she will show you and say something like "too much" in Turkish, put it back, and pick something else up! haha.

Ebru took me to a really cool hotel where they have a big, heated, outdoor pool where you can go at night a pay around 6 dollars and swim as long as you want! It’s a really relaxing place where you can spend a few hours under the stars in a nice warm pool. You have to go through a crazy "car wash" when you leave the changing rooms. It is just a small passage way with a bunch of water sprayers in every direction that you have to walk through to get to the pool. It really feels like u are walking through a car wash! I think we will go again tomorrow night!

I have found a new bakery that I can spend less than 1 lira on breakfast and have some really amazing pastries. My favorite is called pogaca, filled with cheese. It is relatively sweet bread with cheese of other fillings and it is really amazing when it is hot!

My favorite Turkish food here is still Manti, it is similar to a tortellini, but filled with meet. You cover it with a plain yogurt (essentially something like sour cream) and a tomatoes sauce. It is really really delicious.

One thing that is very odd is that in a tree on my way to Kucuk park (the street with all the cafes) there are around 12 bright green parakeets. I do not think they are native to turkey, or are natural, so I am curious where they came from. I thought they could have escaped from a house close to there, but that many? They have a home in the tree and live there. Maybe I can research and find out from Google if they are native. They are too far away for a picture as of now, so maybe I can add one next time.

I took a trip to a city called Didim with the lovely Ebru, and our friends Cagin and Hakan. Hakan’s parents live there now in a nice little town home. We stopped in some beautiful beach and port towns along the way to take pictures, and buy some fish for dinner. We ended up with an entire sword fish and an octopus. We got to Didim and walked along the beach, then went to prepare dinner. We had a huge dinner of the fish, an octopus salad (Ebru's favorite) and some vegetables. It was a nice meal. His parents smoked more than any other people I have met in my life though! Didim is a beautiful city, with beautiful beaches and some great historical places, sadly it was pouring down rain the next day and we could not really do anything but drive home. I think we will return in the summer when we can see more. I already knew Didim from house hunters international when my mom, dad, and I watched that episode before I came.

The weather here is warming up a little bit already and Spring is on the horizon. My next post I will update everyone on my trip to Antalya with Ebru and our adventures there(including awesome pictures)!

I still miss everyone back home alot and hope you will come for a visit!

The first few weeks in Izmir

The first few weeks here in Izmir have been a blur! They have gone by very very quickly.

I arrived and celebrated new years with Ebru, Cagin, and Hakan... sorry for any misspellings, I also do not have any of the extra keys that Turkish keyboards have. Anyways, one new tradition I learned is that in Turkey it is good luck to wear red underwear on New Years eve! haha. So luckily my friends were nice enough to have bought me a pair for that day! I have one year of good luck coming my way!

Pretty quickly after I got here i began my job search. I am mostly looking for jobs with English teaching schools... they generally work with young adults, seems like the average is 25-40 years old. There seem to be too many of them here but at least it gives me some options. I have had good response from two. Address and British Culture. I did some observations with Address so far and they were fairly enjoyable... kinda boring. I also talked with one high school about teaching a literature class. For those of you who know me, you know reading is not my favorite thing in the world, so it might be a bad fit... its my last ditch idea. So now I am going to do a few observations at British Culture, see what they both offer me, and make my decision. I hopefully also can find some private lessons... they pay goooooooood.

So non work related life, I have found some guys to play soccer with which is pretty awesome, unfortunately the field we play on is a AstroTurf field which is built on a concrete base, so the ground is like a rock! not good for a goalie to have to dive on. It is also inlaid with small rubber particles that tear your skin up... but at least I'm playing! I am also going to the studio to play music with some guys I met here, nothing serious, just playing some awesome classic rock with some really talented guys... to bad none of us can sing or we would be famous! haha.

I have been living with Ebru's family since I got here, but just moved into a flat today. My roommate is a Turkish guy who works at the University teaching beginners English. Staying with Ebru's family really provided me with some interesting challenges. For starters, i do not speak Turkish and they do not speak English. This can be overcome with lots and lots of pointing and confusion. I now understand how to say breakfast (kavalte) and tea (chay). Her mom makes me a great Turkish breakfast every morning, which is definitely a very lucky thing for me. Turkish breakfast usually consists of a few kinds of cheese, pretty strong salty cheese; a beef sausage called sucuk, some bread which can vary from just a regular loaf of bread, to simit (a donut shaped bread with sesami seeds) or something called boyos, which you can only get in Izmir! tomatoes, cucumber, black and green olives, and some various jams, jellies, and honey. Breakfast here takes usually at least one hour to eat because you sit, take a bite, then talk for a while. You drink a few cups of tea, then after the meal, you make Turkish coffee. This is served in a small cup, like and espresso cup, and is made with a grainy coffee ground. You end up with a thick but of coffee and grain at the bottom of your cup. Its a great tradition, but very time consuming to go through this every day.

I am starting to get used to hearing the call to prayer five times a day every day now, but it still seems very exotic to me. It is really beautiful to see all the mosques along the hillsides here. At dusk when the sun is going down over the mountains and you see all the silhouettes it is a really awesome view. I am lucky to be surrounded by mountains and right on the Aegean all at once.

From Ebru's house it takes me an hour to get most anywhere, in fact, it seems like no matter where you go in this city, regardless of where you started, everything takes an hour. I do not think that has any logic, but I am pretty sure its true!

I will get more into culture here and talk more about my city in my next post, but hope this was a good start for everyone! I miss everyone and of course, you are all welcome here!