Brunch with Egber/Selmin and Fehmi's Game

This morning we were quite tired from having got home so late last night, at least midnight, plus neither of us slept particular well especially Evie. We were to meet Ekber in Rumeli Hisar, which was a bad idea, because we were planning on walking and we were both tired so we were going to take a bus. Ekber called and said he would pick us up, which saved the day. We drove down the Bosphorus to Emirgan, where he lives and had breakfast in the Sutish, the restaurant café we so liked when we had lunch their a week ago. It’s large, vibrant, right on the street over looking the water and has been their for a long time. We shared a menemen, tea, some lavash(a flat bread), simits, cheese, and tomatoes, just right. O, yea, we had honey and kaymak, becoming my favorite. We really liked Ekber ‘s wife Selmin, a graduate of RC who he met at the 25 year reunion just after both were divorced. They got together and seem very happy which is neat. They then invited us up to their home, up the main street in Emirgan in Baliliman. It is quite an interesting place, and once belonged to Rumi or Greek fishermen. It has five floors but each floor is about 4 meters wide, though it’s length might be 50 feet. The kitchen is on the main floor, though they have a basement as well, I think. Then a bedroom for their children, then their bedroom and study, then a living room, and finally an ourdoor terrace with the best view of the water in the village, as they are up above all others. The inside of the house reminds us both of a museum, as both seem to be colletors of everything interesting and unique, much Turkish but also things picked up from their travels: paintings, puppets, beads, signs, posters, old maps, old pictures, rugs, kalims, hands, stones from various beaches, set in clay pots for decoration, turquoise beads tied to plants on their terrace, old Turkish gowns and robes hanging from walls, signs in Greek, Ottoman script framed, Ekber’s fathers diploma in Persian, antiques of any kind, fill the walls on all three floors giving the house a artsy but not cluttered look, despite the numbers of things they have hanging, on tables, what not. There upper terrace has plants, to give it a warm green look, as well as a mini kitchen, so they can warm their meals up their if they choose to eat outside and they will not have to go downstairs. We drank coffee on the terrace, went inside when the storm clouds came, talked some more, and we seemed to really enjoy each others company. Ekber is truly fun and funny and his wife is both interseted and interesting. We looked at pictures of our kids and she wants to paint the four girls sitting by the edge of the water, four fairies as she calls them. They want to take us to see the old part of the Golden Horn, which has been completely renovated, housing a unversity now, and we are going to their house for dinner on Friday, I think.

At 3:00, Fehmi picked us up and took us across the Sultan Ahmet Bridge through the Asian side, to the seaside and eventually to Kartal, where his team of juniors were playing Besiktas, coached by Hursit, a former teammate of mine. The ride was long, about an hour, but gave us an idea of how huge Istanbul has become. The entire ride, we passed huge high rise apartments on our left and right, mile after mile, as we drove, reminding me a bit of the train ride into NewYork from Darien, with the huge apartments on either side. It is shocking to see the growth on this side, literally of a population to match that of the European side. Fehmi said that many people have moved to this side to live but work on the other side though that is changing too, with lots of businesses relocating to this side. Along the seaside the city has built a huge promenade, running for at least 15-20 miles from Uskudar, well beyong Kartal, perhaps to Pendik. As we drove by, people were walking, biking, strolling, playing in the occasional kiddie part, or just enjoying the view of the Princess Islands and the Sea of Maramara. The gym was quite nice, with a a snack bar. Hursit introduced Evie and I to the team and when the game began, they all ran over to where we were sitting in the stands and applauded us. The game showed how far Turkish basketball has come, with big strong kids who know how to play. We then fought out way back through horrendous traffice, stopping at a gym to drop off balls for Fehmi’s girls team. He introduced us to them and they all came over and gave high fives to both Evie and I. They were very cute. We cut through backstreets, trying to avoid the freeway jams, and eventually got home around 8:30, again at least an hour drive. I felt sorry for Fehmi who had to drive home. I then went into the village, picked up two lamahcuns, made in front of me, and some mercimek chorba and brought it home for our dinner. It was a full day, very tiring, especailly since we had not slept well the night before.