This "Mediterranean" lifestyle is very much in harmony with my natural rhythms, and I can already see a vacation to Italy and/or Greece in my future at some point... There is a warmth and a friendliness here that is very embraceable...
This is a quick photo of my roommate Patricia and me. Just a quick commercial... I truly lucked out on roomates! She is a wonderful human being with a marvelous wit and a great sense of adventure. She, too, has four children, so we have many "mom" stories to swap...Found out this evening, while drinking hazlenut frappes and watermelon smoothies, that she has been involved in college and community theatre, too. While she played the mom in several children's theatre productions, largely because she was tall, I played the "b" Inez in Sartre's No Exit. We can make each other laugh through camera failures, internet frenzy, and not being able to get in or out of our hotel room. By the way, we were a bit stalked by a man who claimed to be a look alike for George Clooney here in Istanbul... Our continued watchword is "tomorrow" as we move on down the cobblestone road...
I've slept three hours last night and about two the night before, so my eyeballs are aching like the dickens... So, I will share today's many adventures in tomorrow's blog. Just to whet your reading appetite, here was our agenda today:
*visit Hagia Sophia
*visit Byzantine Cistern
*Sulyman Mosque, cemetary, grounds...
*hunt for a new camera to replace (hopefully temporary) SLR camera I usually use... an adventure into the bowels of the city, which included more uphill walking than I thought physically possible
*Grand Bazaar
*Spice Bazaar
*walking across famous bridge that used to be chain links designed by the Byzantines to keep the Ottoman Turks from entering the Golden Horn
*observing the city's many skylines at dusk and at nightfall
*riding on tram, train, and subway
I will elaborate on each of the above tomorrow! Oh, by the way, while waiting in heavy traffic, our van was hit by a train.... no injuries, just a jarring smack, and the train kept on going...
And the proverb for the day celebrates the magical nature of friendship, I believe...
"No camel route is long with good company." -Turkish Proverb
Many thanks to all the members of this Fulbright... and a special thanks to Gottfried, our calm-demeanored leader, who is an amazing wealth of knowledge, insight, and information. He is our hero, our shining star, our noble tour guide, our scholar in residence...
Namaste,
Marianne
Your accounts of the people, food, and atmosphere of Turkey make me want to live there too (though I could land a little farther east).
ReplyDeleteThanks for taking the time to share your journey with us. I posted a link to your blog on the Red Cedar Writing Project blog so the folks at the Summer Institute could read about and see your trip too. It's at http://rcwp.edublogs.org/ if you're interested.
I haven't commented on all the posts, but I am reading them. The poem about the man playing the accordion was beautiful. Thanks for the photos too (though I think a few may not have loaded...I couldn't see anything from the "More Encounters in Istanbul" posts). Thanks again.