Turkey

Wanderlust Archives: How Turkey Rolls

On a subway from the center of Bursa. Playing peekabo with Boudreaux in the glass reflections of the Turkish night. When an older, soft-skinned man in the Turkish uniform–a tweed sport coat, knit black chemise and shiny dress shoe attire sat down next to my husband. He was looking for a little attention. Nodding. Maybe [...]

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Helga

Months ago, on our way to the “cotton castle”, in Pamukalle, Turkey, we were beckoned inside a home by a squat women, let’s call her Helga, with chapped hands and a ruthless expression of hospitality. It was something we’d seen before. Come, come, it said. Take off your shoes, it insisted. Have some tea, it [...]

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Gates of Gold & Filligree at Sunset

A photo from Turkey. . I’d forgotten all about it.

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A Little Like Homer

Back in Turkey, many falafels ago, we learned that the Turkish word for “one” was “beer”. Nice and easy to remember. In fact, we learned the numbers 1-5 by inventing a bar conversation: 1.Beer? 2/Eke (yuck) 3.Ooch (ouch! don’t insult my drink) 4.Dirt (it tastes like dirt) 5.Besha (that’s bullshit) The word for ‘beer’ in [...]

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Flashback to Turkey: The Fish

Back in Antakya with the girls, they treated us to a different restaurant each night, planning or outings as if they’d known us for years. Even when we were ready for bed, they insisted: more tea, more fatoush, more kunefe.   I never caught the name of this particular place, but I’ll never forget it. The air [...]

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You have the power.

When I was ın my slumber party phase, my friends and I played those games. You know the ones. Light as a feather, stiff as a board, quiet as a churchmouse. We choked each other to deplete the amount of oxygen traveling to our brain and passed out for seconds at a time. But most [...]

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The Will of the Collective

We are now in Syria. Although there were stories or interrogations and bright overhead lights, none of that happened. But we had our own initiation–we were taken “hostage” by an overly hospitable border family for 36 hours in what we’ve come to call the Will of the Collective. It all started when “the girls” put [...]

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Jesus Just Might Have Had Coffee Here

In Antakya, Turkey, our last planned stop before Syria, we stayed with Sakine–a friend of Fevy, our host in Antalya–and her sisters: Feygin, Jaylin (we called her JLo) and Sakine, not yet married, all lived with their mother in a large flat, where they lit a fire to take a shower and drove each other [...]

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Local Faces

Our Buying bananas straight from the plantation. Our hitchhiking host (left) along the switchbacks and dreary seacoast towns of Mediterranean Turkey.

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Day 56

We are at the end of the beginning. On the road for over fifty six days, our life is predictably unpredictable. Here’s how one day unfolded: 7:00 Michael’s watch alarm goes off. 7:25 We get up. High energy costs mean bedrooms are typically pretty cold, so unless there’s a room heater, I sleep in my [...]

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