Home for a Year

Alex and I packed our bags once again and said goodbye to our hosts (both human and cat) in Gümüşsuyu. Around 1:30 in the afternoon, we carefully dragged our luggage downhill toward Kabataş to get a taxi to take us all the way up north to Koç University. Before we got to the bottom of the hill, we flagged down an empty taxi, and the driver agreed to take us there (although he did have to call his dispatcher to get directions). Once we got on campus, we found the housing office where we filled out a couple of forms, they handed us a key, and called us another cab. The apartment is not on campus, but in a nearby complex called Sinpaş Boğaziçi Malikaneleri. Here are a few photos of how the apartment looked when we arrived:

Ooops, the mattress for the double bed is missing... but that was delivered later! 

 This is the view from our balcony, and now you know exactly what our building looks like outside.

There are no pots, plates, utensils right now. So, we have to do some strategic shopping. We took a dolmuş* down to the Sarıyer waterfront and enjoyed a nice dinner and walk there. Now we're relaxing in our own space... not bad for one day!

*This is a kind of shared taxi--a minivan with few seats and the rest is SRO. It's very cheap and a bit of an adventure. When it gets crowded, passengers pass their fares up to the front, and their change gets passed back. Oh, and the driver doesn't always bother to close the side door. Thrills!