...Our first 'blog' entry has been a long time coming but in this case fortunately no news has meant "eating continually since we've arrived." i warned Mary about the amount and frequency that we would eat in Turkey, between family, friends, and the most remarkable restaurant in Turkey (Asia...Earth...etc....) Ciya, but nothing can prepare you for the real thing. we have been staying mostly with my sister Evin and my soon to be brother-in-law Sinan. Their flat is actually quite spacious and they are, let it be known, gracious hosts. Hence we are the 4th set of guests to arrive in the past 3 weeks. The Dogu/Okan Hotel is in business.
We are in a kind of relaxing into relaxing state most of the time. To be completely and totally honest we spend over half the day finding, fixing, discussing, and of course devouring food. Mary is reading A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry recommended to me as the one fiction book i should read before going to india. I am reading Anna Karenina because i never have.
Day 1 and 2 were all in the spaces between spaces, the Barzakh of the travelling world, airports. Hail storm in New York caused delays, caused us to fear missing all fights and connections. Caused us to invent wild Plan B scenarios (involving crossing into Siberia from the Bering Straight ) . Caused me to realize I am more panicked than an epileptic cat in water and Mary the the island of calmness in such situations. I joked that india was already teaching us to have no expectations...even of getting there.
But we did arrive, safe, sound, and happy.
in İstanbul first of course.
My father and sister picked us up. We were hungry but sleep won out that night and we slept an outstanding 10 hours.
The rest of the week we did oh-so-human things: ate, slept, ate, read, ate, watched Lord of the Rings and spent a lot of time looking at the sea. My father and stepmother Emel have recently moved into the most beautiful flat I have ever seen in İstanbul. İt is mystical and enchanting and there you actually do not care what you are doing because there, in front of you, is
always the islands, always the sea.
The end of Week 1 ended in bliss when two dear friends came and spent Sunday and Monday (17th and 18th) with us before heading back to Brockwood Park, England। They came to spend 3 and 1/2 weeks near Sirince in a Mathematics Village, founded by the famed Turkish mathmatician Ali Nesin. Their stories of this place and their experiences made me all the more excited to some day visit the Matematik Köyü and all the more excited to visit the schools and creative educational centres we hope to in india. I will, inshallah, write more about this in another post.
Right now we will return to Kadikoy, home of Ciya (we cannot resist...fourth or fifth time yet?) and then to Moda. We have established a happy pattern in our carpet here.
Today it ends with tea and the sea.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment