Tuzla Waterfront

Last week Tuesday our friend Keri arrived in Istanbul on her way to do research in Mardin for a few weeks. Funda and I met her at the airport (with Funda driving like a boss in Istanbul traffic!) and later that day, after dinner, we all went to Tuzla to walk along the waterfront. We weren’t the only ones with this idea… During Ramazan, many families break their fast (the iftar meal) with a picnic outside. Of course, in Tuzla, what better place to do that than in the public park on the waterfront? So, we arrived just as the sun set, had a little adventure with parking, and then entered the park that was overflowing with elaborate picnic setups—grills, little stoves for tea, blankets, and pillows. Children were playing and running everywhere, and there were cats—millions and billions and trillions of cats! Ege headed straight for the playground, and was not at all interested in walking along the waterfront, so Keri and I went ahead and made a vague plan to meet Tolga, Funda and Ege on the path a little later. (You can probably guess what happened…) We walked, talked, took some photos and then realized that we hadn’t seen the others yet. So began the “how do you find your friends in the dark when you don’t have a cell phone yet in a place you don’t know at all” part of this story. We went back to the park, we went back to the waterfront path, I stayed on the path and Keri went back to the park, and then… I saw them! Huzzah! In the end, we all had a very nice walk, separately. Finally, it was treat time for Ege, which meant going to Burger King for a milkshake. There, he found the kiddie play area, and firmly made his case for playing there. When we were on the road back home, we made some ambitious plans to make mercimek köftesi that same night, but everyone promptly collapsed into sleep once we got there. 

Exploring Kadıköy

My friends, Tolga and Funda, had to work on Monday, and little Ege went off to preschool. So I decided to be a tourist. Of course, most museums (especially the ones I want to see) are closed on Mondays. In any case, everything is new enough that my plan was just to walk around and see what I could see. To get to Kadıköy from Sabancı University, I took the student shuttle bus which runs every few hours and takes about an hour one way. Since I don't have a Sabancı ID, I needed to tell the shuttle bus driver that I'm a guest. Now, for everyone else, this shuttle kind of expensive, but the drivers no longer accept cash, they just scan the ID cards. Therefore, I got to ride for free! A moment before the bus started, someone came up to me--believe it or not, it was a friend from the University of Arizona! It was so nice to chat on the ride to the city. Plus, he helped me figure out where to catch the shuttle on the way back. Then he was on his way to do some research at the Ottoman Archives in another part of town. On my own, I walked and walked and walked, enjoyed tea by the ferry boats, walked some more, enjoyed some street music, kept walking, and finally found my way back to the shuttle bus stop, caught the bus, and headed back to Sabancı. As you'll see from the photos below, it was a beautiful day--sunny, warm, and windy.

From Asia to Europe

The recently retired train terminal, Haydarpaşa

The pink building is Aya Sofya

The obligatory old and new juxtaposition

A church behind barbed wire

Afternoon Stroll around Sabancı University

I took a walk around Sabancı University on a very quiet Sunday afternoon.

Above is Tolga and Funda's apartment building on campus. Here's what I saw on my walk:

And here's a peek at the industrial area which pretty much surrounds the campus:

A Year in Turkey! Getting there...

I'm here--it's real! Lucky me, it was a surprisingly easy trip here... and I don't seem to be keeling over from jetlag (knock on wood). The day before my flight, we stopped by the Ann Arbor Art Festival, where we got to spend the afternoon with Margaret and melt in the hot, hot, humidity. Margaret was helping her friend, Jenny, with her booth at the fair. (Congrats on your Award of Excellence, Jenny!!)

On Friday, we got to the Detroit airport nice and early, I checked in, and then we decided to hang out together, maybe get some coffee or tea, but the airport is designed to thwart such farewells--no cafes outside of security! Well then, I guess a photo in the lobby will do. It's been pointed out by Becky Schweig that our expressions are quite different, but I assure you, we were all teary at the real good-bye.

I'm staying with our friends Tolga, Funda and their little boy, Ege, who live on the Sabancı University campus (find the A on the lower right of the map). Three cheers to Tolga for driving more than four hours round trip to fetch me from the airport!!! Saturday we took a nice trip to Kadıköy to go to a Lego store (Ege got a set of Animal Hospital Duplos), coffee, and a view of the Marmara Sea.

More pictures and updates are coming soon! Feel free to post comments and ask questions, too...

Sonuncu günleri: The last days

Even though Istanbul is bursting with people, action, commerce, and drama, I wanted to end these posts with images of calm. During our last full day, we pushed ourselves to shop, pack, and see a little of what we had missed in two months of living in Turkey. It was so hard to say goodbye to the city. We both wanted to revisit Rüstem Paşa Camii which we had seen in 1999. It is one of the smaller mosques designed by Mimar Sinan in the early 1560s. Alex remembered where it was, more or less. So, we walked in the general direction, took a few turns out of curiosity for other buildings and streets, and randomly ended on a downhill street. It was pretty narrow and crowded with merchants selling a variety of toys and plastic thingies. When we heard a police siren behind us, we backed up to the building to get out of the way. Then, we noticed everyone grabbing their stuff and scurrying behind doors (and we happened to be standing in front of a door, oops!) The police didn't stop or shout anything over the loudspeaker; they just drove slowly down the street. I guess they got the effect they wanted! As we approached the end of the street at the bottom of the hill, I glanced up to see the very mosque we had been looking for!
To get inside, we entered an arched stairwell that lead to a second floor courtyard above the market. Suddenly it was much calmer. In the courtyard, there was the guardian of the mosque and a couple of people who were leaving. Inside, we were the only people, and we sat there for a long time just to take in the beauty of the scene and the quiet of the place.

We knew we couldn't stay forever.

Katmerli tarih: Layered history

This building looks pretty old, right? Right, it was built in the 4th century AD. But more than that, it has served as a tomb, a church, a mosque, and now a church plus museum. Attached to the rotunda, you can see the apse with buttresses that were added in the Christian era.On the other side, there is a reconstructed minaret from the time it was converted to a mosque in 1590.

In the garden, there is the old ablutions fountain.

Inside, there is the altar of the current church.