Social Butterflies

Saturday, the day after we moved to Sarıyer, we enjoyed a long day visiting with a variety of friends. This involved getting ourselves back to Taksim, which required a bus trip to the metro. We walked to where we thought the bus stop would be (there were two different places shown on two maps) and asked someone if this was the bus stop. He told us to go up the hill and turn right, and as we were approaching, the bus came--and we ran! The last person had just gotten on and the bus was pulling away, so I banged on the side of the bus as it was going... and it stopped for us! *phew* The trip to the metro took longer than I expected, but we got there. Then it was easy to take the metro to Taksim.
First, we met a former CESL student, Ayşe, with whom I used to meet for a language exchange. We enjoyed a nice lunch together in a terrace of a cafe.

Ayşe works as an engineer for the facilities department of Istanbul University. She mentioned an interesting website that gives panoramic views of Istanbul University. After lunch, she had to go to work to climb up a tower and figure out why the lights were out. The lights are supposed to change color to indicate the weather:

We also stopped by a nearby church, Saint Anthony of Padua, that we could see from the terrace of the cafe.

Then, we met up with a friend of Alex from Bursa, Murat, who was in Istanbul to see the Belle and Sebastian concert with his friends. We hung out for a while talking about music, history, language, and getting confused between the topics of Oprah and opera. From there, we all wound our way to a restaurant where we were to meet with two more friends from the University of Arizona, Jessie and Gail. Here's some graffiti I noticed as we walked over:

The restaurant, Adahan, was on a rooftop terrace with amazing views! Of course, the drinks and appetizers were priced to suit the view. 

But wait, there's more! After Alex's friends left to see the concert, we moved on to the Cumhuriyet meyhane, where we had mezeler (appetizers) and rakı. It's quite an experience--great food, crowded, noisy, music and cats all around! 

(Hmmm I thought there was a picture of Alex in the mix, too, but it must be on Gail's camera. I'll add it later, I guess.)
We stayed pretty late, but we had to keep in mind the trip back to Sarıyer. As usual, the metro was easy, but the bus was a no-show--or it was early. There were a number of people waiting at the stop for the same bus, all looking a bit concerned. Around midnight, Alex and I decided just to take a cab back to the apartment complex, back to our new home, that is.
Today has been mainly spent getting settled, getting basic kitchen/bath/bed stuff. We'll be able to start cooking at home soon!