Istanbul to New York

We are sitting at a large restaurant, overlooking the airport, where Evie got us tea, simit and cheese. We sat down at Gloria Jeans, but the service was so snotty that we decided to leave…the first time I ever felt this way in Turkey. We were up at 5:00, had packed the night before, so we did not have much to do, only organize a bit. We left at 7:00 for the airport though our flight is not till 10:30 and took the sea road, my request. Traffic was amazingly light, so we said good by to Ortakoy, Besiktas, the Galata Bridge, the city walls, the new apartments. As we crossed the Galata Bridge, there were still at least 50-75 fishmen, dangling their lines over the edge. One wonders if they ever leave, if they ever sleep. It is really relaxing sitting her, sipping tea in an airy restaurant, in no hurry, waiting for our flight, so much better than waiting at home, wondering if you will be on time. Our tickets, by the way, are the emergency row: somehow Agop managed to get them reserved for us, something unheard of but he did it. What a man, what a country, one where anything is possible.
We spent a lot of time in the airport shops, as we wanted to stock up on a few more Turkish objects, so we ended up buying a four foot chain of beads and evil eyes for around 40 bucks, no deal I am sure. I got a BJK hat and key chain, just in case I need it. Evie really didn’t seem interested in much of anything, as we already had lots of everything one could imagine. It was a busy place, with lots of people stocking up on things before leaving for outside the country. Unfortunately, our flight was close to two hours late, so we had to kill time shopping. The trip was fine, especially since we had emergency row seats, the meals fine, and though I hardly slept, I did watch two or three movies, as our plane was the new 787, or something like that, with an amazing array of options for music, video, tv shows, almost asnything you might want, all for free. The only down side was the guy who sat behind us coughed incessantly, then would move up, and kind of cough on us, something that made the journey less enjoyable then it might have been. The flight was very easy, little turbulence, and the guy who sat next to me was a Russian Jew, who grew up in the US, and had just returned from Uzbekistan, where he, like us, had friends who took care of his needs every day. It sounds like it might have been mostly eating and drinking, in enormous amounts, which he said he need a few days to recover from. He seems to import jewelery to the US, maybe even diamonds, things like that, and offered to take care of us if we ever wanted something.
We arrived around 4:30, two hours late, breezed through customs, though they checked our bas when we said we had spices, but it took a second. Our driver was waiting for us, and since traffic was light, despite the time, rush hour, we made it to Darien easily, though it cost us 170 bucks. The end of a wonderful trip.

Final Day in Istanbul

We woke up a bit loggy from the previous night and decided we wanted to go down the Bosphorus, so we took a bus to Rumli Hisar because it was raining. We went to a different tea shop, ordered menemens but Evie started to feel nauseaous, partly from cigarette smoke, and perhaps something else. WE did not stay long and ended up walking back to our apartment, about a 45 minute walk. Fortunately, we missed the rain, stopped by a tea house where I was short of money, gave them the liras, though they did not want it and went home to relax, work on my journal, Evie worked on the pictures. We did not do much the rest of the day. Sami called to wish us a bon voyage; he is now in Bodrum with friends, then on to Ankara, then home then London to see his daughter. He did leave some evil eye hangings for us, along with assorted knick knacks to put on our refrigerator. They are fun and very thoughtful of him. I went to Migros, bought some yogurt and sutlac, then to the village for some mercimec chorba. We both were very tired, but had a couple of gin and tonics, to watch the Bosphorus one more time, then ate, watched tv and went to bed by 9:30

Tom Davis Day

We were to be picked up at 12:30 by Ates so we had a free morning, which sounded good. I did not feel like sitting around till we left, so we decided to take a bus to Ortakoy, ab out five or ten minutes away by bus, just to walk around. We ended up stopping in the first shop we came across, one which looked much nicer than most, and ended up buying quite a bit, from cotton beach towels, to tee shirts, to some evil eyes. The owner was quite nice, giving us quite a few baubles as we left for our grandchildren. We ten sat down at a little alley kiosk and ordered Avalike toast, large slices of bread with cheese, tomatoes, and socuk. A young man sat down next to us, and as I went to get money changed, he and Evie struck up a conversation. He lives with an American girl friend, is a financial advisor, and he was fun to talk to. He talked about Turkis hospitality, how no one in Turkey splits the check, how one usually just pays…it’s the custom. He ended up saying good by and buying or tost sandwich and tea. Another great Turkish Experience.
Ates and Mine were waiting for us at the gate, raring to get going. We headed up to the Besiktas Sports Club, basically a huge complex that houses the team’s gymnasium, where the basketball and volleyball teams practice and have their matches. It seats somewhere around 3000 people, which seems small but just recently they passed a rule that opposing spectators were not allowed in the gym because of the altercations during and after the matches. A different world from the seventies. We met the Ass. Director or basketball, Metay, and he took us around showed us the facilities, teamrooms, training room, lounges and the Basketball Hall of Fame Room. In it were numerous photos from the past BJK teams but our team and pictures of all of us dominated all the walls. They had Battal’s shoes, Unal’s jersey, things like that, so it was fun to see. Numerous pictures of our team and individuals were on the wall. Then, we went out and two photographers took 30-40 pictures of me alone, in various poses, for the BJK magazine, but also pictures of me with the team, with Evie, and so forth. I have never been photographed so much in my life…I quite enjoyed being the center of attention, as would anyone, I guess. We then went to a different part of the complex, where there was the BJK Club proper, with lovely cafes serving Starbucks, work out rooms, spas, tennis courts, two swimming pools outside, one inside, numerous shops, and a fancy bar and restaurant, all for BJK club members. I assume the fee is pretty steep to belong, but there were all kinds of wealthy people, working out, or with their families, just enjoying the being there and taking in the scene. It’s nicer than most clubs I have seen in the states, and always in use. We went into the restaurant bar and I was interviewed for about 30 minutes by two women from the BJK magazine. While I was interviewed, Ates was very antsy, and I later surmised he was dying to be included, which he was at the end. I tried to be sure to mention all the players, why we were so good, and how talented each was, but I fear in the translation and writing of the article, I may appear in a different light, perhaps talking too much about myself. I hope not. They also asked Evie questions about our family, took more pictures, and I promised to send them a couple of our entire family with grandchildren, in case they wanted it for the article. They were very interested in the changes, in why we came to Istanbul, why we left, and a lot about our family and kids which was neat.
After the intereview, we jumped into our cars; Faruk was the only player to be at the complex and on the way, I began to figure out there was some kind of rift between BJK and the rest of the players, or the way Ates handled the setting up of the event. I am still not sure; Ates seems to have wanted to control things, to take us everywhere, and some of the other players may have resented this, thus only Faruk showing up. We went, of course, the the classist place in Istanbul, the top terrace of the Istinye Park Mall, where all the rich and famous hang out, to be seen or to see. It’s called Masa, and it and indoor/outdoor restaurant surrouned by Louis Vitton and the likes. We walked through the outer patio, stood around for a bit, as there were lots of people in line; they were starting to set up a table inside when the head of Besiktas basketball arrived; he snapped his fingers, the maitre de appeared, and within two minutes we had a table outside, the way power and presitige and love of sports work in Istanbul. I have never seen so many people so dressed, especially the women, who go out of their way to look like something over a Parsian run way. We felt like tramps. It turns out the BJK top guy lived in the US for 12 years, went to Monclair State in Jersey, played some football and baseball, his two loves. He said he prefers New York to Istanbul though his power seems pretty strong. I have no ideas what he does other than control some of the programs. The assistant’s wife had high heeled boots, a diamond in her nose, animal print dress, huge necklaces and rings, one about an inch high, and she seemed nice. She was dressed typically for her class, I suppose. The tables were often made up of 6-8 women or 6-8 men along with some familes, some couples, but everyone seemed to want to be seen. I loved the men, taking calls by walking off standing out in the courtyard looking important. We all ordered what ever, from an extensive menu, from steak, to pasta, to fish, to appetizers, to whatever. I got sea bass, fried, on top of a borek and it was as good a fish as I have had. Evie got a caesar salad, which was routine, nothing special, with iceberg lettuce, the wrong thing to get. Most of the group got what I did, but Faruk orderd a steak. Just before we left, we were invited as guests to the Heads box for the soccer game that evening. It sounded like a real honor, we thought about it a bit, and said yes, a big mistake, as we lter had to excuse ourselves as the rest of the team did not want to go. Ates and Mine, however, really wanted to go and thought it was an honor, and we were being ungrateful by refusing. I don’t think the Head could have cared less, but it was un uncomfortable five minutes. All this went on, by the way, at the end of the game, with Mine refusing to go to a restaurant, the team cajoling her to come, but she wanted nothing of it…she wanted to go to the game or home. As Faruk said, “Watching Mine makes me tired.”” Eventually, she gave in and we ended up going to a restaurant. When we left, it was close to game and we had a difficulty not only finding the gym, but finding a place to park. Finally, after a couple of round abouts, we found a place to park and hurried into the gym. It ws a decent gym, but not many fans, and the ones that we there were middle school age.
We ended up being rushed into the gym though the ceremony was to take place at halftime. We were taken into the stands, ushered around my Ates, introduced to all the big wigs, and then strangely, took seats down at one end, away from most of the Besiktas players, as if Ates wanted us all to himself. It was very uncomfortable and eventually Evie went down to sit with Fehmi and the rest of the team: Battal, Faruk, and Ahmet.
I was taken down on to the court, so they could take pictures of me, one with the present coach, which appeared in the next day’s newspaper. I then went up in the stands, watched the first half, and at half time, I was introduced by Bulent ??, a buddy of Battal’s and went out on to the center of the court and waved to the few fans in the stands, mostly the old guard, who might have recognized me. The Head of Besiktas basketball came out and presented me with a BJK jersey with my name on the back. Then, the head of the Turkish Basketball Federation came out and gave me an inscribed silver plate, recognizing my contribution to Turkish Basketball. After the applause, I went into the stands and, with the team and Evie, had pictures taken, the ones that appeared in the next day’s newspaper. I was glad that the team was included in this and was very uncomfortable getting all the accolades. We sat with Fehmi, Faruk, Battal and Ahmet the second half and it was much better. For some reason, there seemd to be a rift between Ates and the team, but by the time we left, it seemed to be settled.
We went to a restaurant run by one of Fehmi’s older players, Hayal Devran, who actually remembers me. It’s called the Hillside Club and it’s located on the top floor of the Instinye Park Mall It seems to be a new concept for Turkey, a combination restaurant, bar, disco and workout/sauna club, all combinedin one. Because it was noisy in the bar, we sat outside overlooking the arched roof of the mall, and had a dinner of various mezzes and pizza. We talked, took pictures, ate, and I got to know not only Hayal about her good friend, Canan Inanc, who conincidentally, because she comes from Kusadasi, mentioned Janet Crisler, the women who is head of the Crisler Foundation in Selcuk. It ends up she is good friends not only with Janet but with Muahrrem, a small world of connections. She was very personable, friended me the next day as did Hayal, and was going off to Tampa in five days to visit her old flame from high school who she had not seen in 25 years. She obviosly is a bit nervous about this but deserves cred it for being so willing to take a chance. I don’t think she has ever been married; she runs her father’s hotel called the Royal in Kusadasi, but it sounds like it may have seen its days with all the new hotels in town, so they are trying to turn it into condos, apartments, and long term rentals. She mentined Mardin to me, a place she was born, but had not been to since her birth. She told me all about its uniqueness, housing Chrisitian, Jew and Muslim, together for centuries, without much trouble. And I guess all the medieval buildings are in tact. I think this may be a must the next time I am in Turkey. We stayed till about 10:30, then said our good byes to the team, with Evie in tears. It was a very emotional moment for us, as we had enjoyed the team so much, had been together numerous times, and new we might not see they again for quite awhile. Ates took us home through winding streets, into Bebek, and we said our good byes. It was hard. We went to bed exhausted but happy.

Lunch with Roni Danon, Dinner with Fehmi and Ahmet

I met with John Chandler at 8:00 to say good by and thank you; we ended up talking quite a bit about politics and he seemed very satisfied with my lack of effort at RC.

At 12:30, we had lunch with Ronnie Danon, 74, at Happily Ever After, a new restaurant in Bebek; Ronnie had made reservations so we sat at the table right on the water. It’s a very modern, almost Americanize restaurant, with mostly American food, from pancakes, to hamburgers, to pizza, but really well done. It was full of women at lunch time, having a meal, talking, and women were waiters, which was unusual. He imports wool from all over the world and has offices in London and in Istanbul, where he seems to spend half his time. I taught him as a Lise III student, and as he recalled those days, he had tears in his eyes, as Evie recalls. He was dressed immaculately, with a red silk hankerchief in his pocket, which was quite different from the dress of most of our acquaintances. He has two children, a son in college in the UK, and a daughter who went to Cambridge and now works for an agency or group that works with Christian/Muslims/Jews in the schools in UK, with the goal being learning to live together in a diverse world. He is very proud of her, rightly so, and sent me her website which I found interesting. As he recalls, he took 4 years to get through RC, but he has good memories, of riding his motorbike to school, of listening to music with his friends, of spending a couple of summers on kibbutzs in Israel though he mentioned the whole idea of the kibbutz has disappeared in the New Israel of land speculation and profit. It sounds like his wife spends a good deal of time there, either because her parents live there or else I am not sure. We left in a rainstorm with a promise to get together next time we are in Istanbul. He was really quite charming and interested…he took a course through Yale about a few years ago, got interested in psychology and philosophy, became so involved with a few others that one of they, a famous physicist from Yale, invited him and a few others to his reunion at Yale. Ronnie spent a week there celebrating with his friend and loved it. Currently, he is reading Ayn Rand, which seemed abit strange but it might indicate his politics, because he talked about Reagan being a great president. He clearly picked up that I was not a fan, like many Turks, and started prefacing his remarks with “In my opinion.”

Fehmi picked us up at 7:00, though he had to fight traffic once again, to get us. We are really beginning to feel a burden to people, as they feel the obligation to pick us up. We went to Gokturk, to Ahmet’s restaurant called Balikci, where we ate our second night in Istanbul. Ahmet, Nikki, Florette and Fehmi and us were the only ones this time. For some reason, Ates did not come. We had a great not at the restaurant, marvelous mezze, lots of wine, good conversation, as Fehmi got drunk on wine and spent the last hour singing old tunes, mostly Beatles, calling friends on his phone to find out what Ann Murrays song, Save the Last Dance, sounded like. He was able to find a couple versions on his phone but could not find the right one. Florette and Nikki talked most of the time which is too bad because I would liked to have talked with Nikki a bit more. She seems neat. Florette is very different though pleasant. Ahmet realized that Fehmi was a bit drunk so he ordered us a car, which took us home. The next day Fehmi said that he slept all the way home as Florette ended up driving. Our Turkish friends are very conscious of drinking and driving and make sure someone doesn’t drink or that they come to an event in a taxi so they can get a safe ride home. Later, Fehmi told me he slept till 4:00, couldn’t sleep and got up and went on Facebook. I wondered because when I was on in the morning I saw Fehmi was playing this game of coffee shop at 4:00. Another great night.

Ephesus

We were picked up by a German scholar at 9:00 and were taken to the Church of St. John, just a short walk from our apartment in the Crisler Foundation in Selcuk. The disciple John is supposedly buried in this church, thus its significance. It mostly a ruins, though you can see what a massive church it once was, and why all the pilgrimages would come here to pray. What’s neat about it is the view of the mountains and valley; you can see where the water came, how the church was literarlly built on a hill just above the water. Now it’ five or six miles to the sea. Off in the distance, you can see where Ephesus sits, how the water once, too, came up the the city. The speaker emphasize how almost every site in the area had roots 4 or 5 thousand years ago; then came the Minoans, the Lycians, Greeks, the Byzantines, Selcuks, Ottomans, and modern Turkey. Pagan sites were turned into Greek temples; which were turned into churches, then finally, mosques. It was a beautiful morning, and we enjoyed walking through the standing columns, some of the walls, the arch, and the baptismal font which was set in the ground, like a mini rectangular swimming pool. And the views in all directions gave us a sense of the strategic location of both the church, the town and Ephesus. We then walked down and into the mosque, in Syrian style I think; it was wider than it was long, so it had a different feel to it. The floor was covered with carpets and outside there was a lovely, cool courtyard where our guide said she often spends the early evening, in the cool of the courtyard, listening to the prayers in the mosque. It would be wonderful.

About 11:00, we headed off to Ephesus, on a warm, sunny day. We got off at the upper end of Ephesus, and our driver was to meet us in a couple of hours at the other end. The ruins are both Greek and Roman, mostly Roman remain as the city has been rebuilt numerous times because of earthquakes. We started down one of the major streets which culminates in the most spectacularly reconstructed part of the city, the library, a two story wonder. You do get a feel for what the streets were like, lined with either temples a small theater like area for senators to legislate; then numerous temples to various Roman emperors liked Hadrian and Trajan; various kinds of shops and businesses, and behind and above would have been the homes. We walked through baths, and mostly viewed the ruins from the street. The most interesting part was an in process excavation of a view homes of the wealthy. It’s covered and you go in side and can see the reconstructed or excavated rooms, of two or three floors, complete with mosaics and frescoes; there are actually men working in some of the areas so you can see how the fit the pieces together. The floor and walls of the walkway are all glass, so as you walk over certain portions of the building, you can look down and see the mosaics. It’s really an interesting walk and reminds me of Pompeii in many respects. It’s very civilized and comfortable, with toilets as well as baths. We then walked to the library, through a bath with a area for numerous toilets or holes in the stone bench, and walked down Marble Way to the 25,000 seat amphitheater, again one of the marvels of Emphesus. There was also the harbor road that led up to it where we got the best pictures. We then drove to Mary’s Home, which was up a moutain road, in a lovely area, with a beautiful stone walk, wooded and impressive leading up to her small stone house. You could walk in, see a statute of Mary, go the right, see an ikon and then out. I was not even sure this was the house of veneration until I saw we were at the end of the walk. The surroundins were, to me, more impressive than the actual house. There was a nun sitting inside doing embroidery, as tourists walked in, venerated and left. We had lunch at a local place, with quite nice food, but I had mostly yogurt and rice. We ended our tour with a brief visit to the Ephesus museum, where one finds many of the artifacts that were once part of the city. Mostly busts and parts of the friezes, it was a small but interesting place to visit, as it took us about a half an hour to tour. We then went back to the Cristler Foundation, relaxed for an hour, were picked up by our driver at 4:00, dropped off at the airport at 5:00, caught our flight at 6:00 and met Ates about 7:15…no glitches and a great day even though I was a bit under the weather.

We arrived in Istanbul about 7:00, were picked up by Ates, Mine, and Lara, and dispite our protestations, we went off to another mall to eat Chinese food. We fought traffice the entire way as Ates talked non stop. We walked the mall, enjoyed our Chinese food somewhat, as we were still uneasy, but there was no saying NO to Ates. After walking around a bit, we found our car in the garage, and he drove us home, and we arrived abou 10:00, quite tired and happy to be back in Istanbul and our apartment.

Soke//Selcuk/Crisler Foundation

I had a bad night with Turkish tummy, so it made for a difficult day. We were up and ready to leave by about 8:50 as Muharrem’s driver was picking us up at 9:00 and driving us to Soke, where his factory Soktas was located, about an hour and half a way. We arrived at the factory around 10:00 and Muharrem was in a meeting but came out right away to greet us, and welcome us to his office, which is a virtual museum, with artifacts from the area sitting around the walls of his office and cooridoors, some behind class enclosures, some on desks, some decorating the walls. It’s an amazing place, with a 15 food desk dominating the room with a large couch and table in front for people to sit around and relax. He went back briefly, so we were able to sit, relax, and get on line. They he came to talk abit and tell us about the plan. We were going off to Didyma and Miletus, then staying at the Crisler Foundation in Selcuk, a foundation founded in honor of biblical scholar and archaelogist Cobbey Crisler by his wife Janet, a viviacious ball of fire, who sold everything in her Carmel home to come to Selcuk to set up the foundation, dedicated to scholarship, learning, and archaelogy. Muharrem helped her get a building, an abandoned camel barn, then helped her with the building; in fact, the conference room is named after him. Scholars and archaelogists from all over come to study her, to teach, and they invite studetns from all over the world to attend week long seminars. We stayed upstairs, in a lovely room, and had the place to our selves.
Back to the plant, Soktas. Muharrem took us through the plant and it was really a revelation, to see how he takes Egyptian cotton, washes it, dries it, begins to turn it into yarn on huge machines; then once he has yard, it’s sent to other areas to be further refined and check, eventually fed into a machine with a digitial number which combines the various yarns and makes a pattered cloth. The textile industry, a main stay in Turkey from the seventies to nineties is now almost gone, because of China and India. In fact, M. has set up a 40,000,00 dollar plant in India, just outside of Mumbai. He also took us into the design room where art majors, I assume, are coming up with new patterns, new colors, new designs for the cloth. It’s an amazing process to watch and he knows it inside and out. He has also started a dairy farm, of 3000 cows, as he wants to be prepared for the future. In Turkey, a good businessman must be nimble, ready to move in different directions. He wants to keep the factory going, but wants to also not keep all his eggs in one basket. His cloth is the highest quality only, the kind that goes into a 500 dollar shirt. The Gap quality he cannot compete, so he had let that part of the business go. I was impressed by the efficiency of the business, the cleanliness, the professionalism; they even pick up and take home their workers, who work in three shifts. Obviously, the plant is doing well enough and he is probably the main reason, with his intelligence, wit, charm, hard work, and knowledge of working in other cultures. He is a very impressive man, the kind one would have confidence in, whether running a company or a state, actually, though he has no such aspirations, I don’t think.
We then went to Didyma and were impressed by the size of the temple, especially the columns, though today, as I write, I don’t remember much more to discuss. It was a warm day, and our guide was hard to understand, and seemed to go into esoteric kinds of stuff. We spent about an hour there, which was about right, then went off to lunch. I forgot to mention the tourists…at least 20 buses sat outside the temple, filling the sight with gobs of tourists, most seemingly European, or at least that’s how it seemed. We were able to avoid the large groups and wind our way through the temple to whatever interested us. After lunch, we drove to Miletus, which was much more interesting, as it had not only a city but a theater. What was most impressive was various layers of culture that underlie almost every site, starting back perhaps 5000 years ago, moving to the Ionians, perhaps Minoas beore that, then the Hellenistic age, the Romans, the Byzantines, then the Selcuk tribes, and finally the Ottoman empire. Of great interest was a mosque that was being restored right next to Miletus, financed actually by Muharrem. It’s a really interesting mosque, just the right size, with neat surrounding buildings, from a hamam to a medresse. A man, probably the contractor, took us around, let us peak in areas we shouldn’t have, all because we mentioned Muharrem’s name. We then went to Miletus and were most impressed by the theater. We both remember our kids sitting in the kings seats in the orchestra area. It was later in the afternoon, the colors were nice, and it was not too hot.

We then drove back to Soke, where Muharrem was waiting, and his driver took us to the Crisler Foundation, which I mentioned, settled in and came down to a lovely dinner of mezze and Palestinian chicken, with pilav. We spent about an hour and a half eating and talking and it was interesting to hear M’s read on politics. He is not a fan of Erdogan, in fact he went so far as to say he hates. A pretty strong statement.

Alacati/windsurfers/Cesme swim

We woke to a bit of an overcast morning, had a great breakfast served by the couple of tomatoes, a couple kinds of cheese, cucumbers, toast and a menemen with socuk which we are both beginning to really like, very spicy and when its fried, it really brings out the flavor. After breakfast, we took a walk up to the top of the moutains filled with olive trees behind Sami’s house, and explored the property and took in the various vistas, in all directions, as we walked. The dogs accompanied us and it was really energizing to be up in the morning, walking in the moutains, enjoying the company of Sami. He said we were the only guests he has had that asked to walk in the mountains, in fact, the only ones other than he and his caretaker that have been up here. C learly, he enjoyed the fact that we wanted to do it and took great pleasure in our walk. We took all kinds of pictures but because it was a bit overcast, I am not sure they will be as good as we would like. We walked for about an hour, dressed, and headed off in the late morning. We first went to the famous Windsurfer Beach, renowned world wide for its great winds and the Worlds were held here this past summer. It was a windy gray day, but there were perhaps 40-50 windsurfers out in the bay, fighting the erratic winds. We sat in what looked liked the windsurfer sanctuary, where they kept all their boards and sails. There were lots of tents, campers, and a couple of cafes and restaurants right there on the beach, so we sat and had tea or ayran for about an hour, watching them surf. Like the US, windsurfres have become like a life for many of the young, they live here, surf every day, hang out with each other, go to the restaurants and clubs at night in Alacati. They seemed mostly northern European though Sami said there were a lot of Turks as well. We then went to lunch at Sami’s favorite family restaurant, had tarhana soup, some salad, an eggplant dish with cheese, and it was all delicious, just the kind of place we like, with the food all set out for you to see. All you do is tell the cooks what they want and they serve it up on a plate and a waiter brings it to your table. We then went for a ride, and Sami, because it was getting nice, took us along the best beach, which leads to the Sheridan Hotel. We decided to go for one last swim in the Aegean, parked the car, and basically had this mile long beach to our selves. Off in the distance, perahps a quarater mile away, were a few people walking, but other than that, it was ours. We changed in the lockers on the beach, picked out some chairs and went for a walk, followed by some of the local dogs, who loved having sticks thrown into the water. We walked past the Sheridan, as far as we could go, then back, to our chairs. We then swam for about 15 minutes; there was a neat sand bar, so you could walk out quite a ways and not be in water over your head, We came in and Sami had cotton towels for us, very light, but just right for drying off. Sami and I sat and talked, as Evie took a walk. We then changed, and walked back to the car, and continued our tour of the area. Sami took us to a few other coves where there were neat houses and hotels, and we eventually walked around both Alacati, which was mostly closed, so we headed to Cesme, more of a shopping area, where we were hit by a bit of rain, though it did not bother us much. We walked the streets, had some apple chai, went to a mavi jeans store, but were running out of energy so we headed back in late afternoon. We relaxed for a bit, took pictures, talked, then around 7:00 we had dinner, fixed by the caretakes, some specialities from Adana. It was not our favorite meal but nice, with rocket salad and something can Incli kofte, a speciality of Adana, where a ground lamb ball is covered with a wheat like bulgar, then fried, then put in a sauce. For dessert, we had bowls of pomegranite seeds, so large we could hardly finish. It was a great day, obviously, and we really enjoy Sami’s company and he seems to really enjoy ours. Neither of us seems to be in much of a hurry; we enjoy the same things, and enjoy being with each other. Sami usually rides his bike to the beaches or the restaurants, which must be a strange sight because he is probably the only one around who rides his bike. He seems to really enjoy the solitude of the farm, then the gregariousness and busyness of the the towns.

Alacati/Cesme

We lazyed around our hotel till about 11:00, having leisurely breakfast of cheese, olives, tomatoes, and tea, went for a swim, and since it was a beautiful day, we took our time packing and heading South. Sami took us to the North end of the island, where we got stuck briefly on the rocky and dirt road. We left and headed South to Alcatepi, after deciding it made more sense to be leisurely, drive along the coast, rather than taking another two or three hours to go to Pergamum. Sami had done a lot of driving and we knew it was at least 5 hours to Cesme. So, we took coastal roads, winding our way along the long, long coast, pass various configurations of developments, then fairly nice waterfront homes, to chai houses and restaurants, to parts that were undeveloped. There were very few towns, mostly just small villages that might be near a development. On the road side, the mountains and pines dominated, with occasion rocky hillsides. It took quite awhile to get close to Izmir, but it gave us a real feel for the coast, for the kind terrain and fauna that filled it. When we got near Izmir, we stopped at a truck stop Sami knew that had wonderful lential soup, served with red pepper in melted butter. The cook was a huge guy who told us how to make the soup up to a point, when he smiled, and said the rest is a secret. The ride to Cesme was a breeze, as the new highway which takes you around Izmir was open, and the road from Izmir to Cesme is three lanes, with almost no traffic.

When we got off the highway, we were stopped and checked by the army, to, as Sami said, make sure no terrorists were getting to the major tourist areas. We then drove into town, then started heading up into the mountains, through olive groves, eventually winding our way up rocky roads to Sami’s house, a stone structure, with great terraces and landscaping. His property is surrounded by hills, or small typical Aegean moutains, covered with scrub and mostly olive trees. He planted over 1500 this past year and he already had mountains full of them. It is an isolated place, in a very chic area just ten minutes away by car. Clearly, this area is dedicated to olives as almost all of the farms nearby are growing them. Sami bought this farm about seven years ago, and the house was basically destroyed. He had it torn down and designed it with a friend. It has two bedrooms, a bathroom, kitchen and living room, with an outdoor courtyard which connects the guet bedroom where we stayed with the bathroom and the rest of the house. He is having it covered, in fact, as we leave to create a bit more space. Like all the houses, this one is made of huge stones quarried in the area. The stones are larger and more regular than Hasan’s house in Gocek, which seems to be the style in this area. The living room is comfortable but a bit dark, suggesting they spend most of their time on the two terraces, one which looks south, the other east. The one, the largest, has couches and lounges and chairs, the other has a long dining room table, and it looks over a heavily landscapted yard, with a pond, various trees and flowers, leading to a gazebo like structure. The yard is surrounded by walls, though the views from the porches is obsructed by the foliage from the trees and plantings. Obviously, Sami likes the trees. He has two spirted dogs, Bonchuck and Balim(my honey) who chase and follow his car each time we arrive at the farm. Balim jumps up on the stone walls, runs along it, as we drive to the house. Sami also has a donkey, just for fun, who seems to roam the acreage, my guest would be 3-4 hundred acres. He has a family of five living on the property in a tiny little one room cabin, which he is also expanding this month, something the need. They take care of the farm when he is not there, and of him, when he’s there. They cooked breaksfast and a dinner for us, and generally our his staff when he’s there. They seem competent and as is the case, Sami is very nice to them, but they are very subservient, as most Turkish peasants are to their bosses. After a walk around, we took a late afternoon drive around both Cesme, the largest town which has lovely villa line streets, an enormous Sheraton Hotel, and great beaches, the best in the area. We then went to the Alacati area, which seems to be the in place, as it’s a stone village, obviously Greek at one time, that over the past ten years has been renovated and become the place to be, with its cosy streets, boutique hotels, interesting restaurants and shops, though it seemed larger the Cunda. It was dark as we roamed, Sami saying hi to friends, and since it was off season, many of the shops and restaurants and hotels were closed for the winter. We stopped in one hotel, owned by a woman, RC graduate, who Sami credits with starting this area. She buiilt the first boutique hotel, people loved it and others followed. It has a lovely inner courtyard, lanscapted professionally, with a swimming pool. In fact, this is the way many of the other hotels in the town are organized, six to ten rooms, with inner courtyard. We looked for a restaurant that Sami liked but it was closed so we ended up going to one called Ahtapot. It was tiny, with about four tables inside, decorated with all kinds of chandileers from the ceiling, typical Turkish bulbs, and posters and artifacts on the walls, a really quaint place. The chef/owner stood behind a stone bar, about ten feet long and cooked on a two burner stove. We sat outside, had a great time, talked, ate, watched the cats play in the streets, as motorbikes raced by about five feet away because the alleys were so narrow. We had sardines grilled octopus that was so tender, clams, fava beans, eggplant puree and a white wine fish stew that was perfect. We all loved the food, the ambience, the garcon, and got some interesting pictures. We started talking about ice cream so Sami ordered some from the little vender on the street who makes his own…I loved the lemon and Evie the razzberry. We walked back throug through deserte streets, though some of the eczanes and tailor shop and chai houses were still open on the main square, as was a barber. We drove home through a pitch black night, to the farm, and an amazing sky of stars, though no moon. It was a great day.

Cunda and Ayvalik explored

We woke around 7:00 and slept pretty well considering the fact that we did not get home until 12:30. I got Evie three nescafes and I had two, so we felt pretty good despite the time. I wnet down and started writing in my journal about yesterday but then decided it was too nice not to go for a swim Evie had just finished showering but she wanted to go as well, so we went down, and the water was perfect. WE floated around for at least 15 minutes when Sami came out on his pation and waved to us. We went in, got cleaned up and around 10:00, went into town along the beach. The town was busy as it was a Sunday and lots of people were enjoying there breakfast along the promenade. Sami told us about the speciality, Avalik tost, so we sat down and had some with tea. It’s two large pieces of bread, gilled with a cheese that melts nicely, socuk or salami of some kind, tomatoes and II think a tomato sauce or paste of some kind. The key is to use lots of butter and melt it slowly. It was wonderful nd filling, just the perfect breakfast. We then walked all around the town, getting a feel for it, much like a Greek village, narrow, cobblestoned streets but most of the houses were made of stone, had a more Italianate feel than the white washed plaster of a Greek village. The house are really interesting and ornate, much more sophisticated architecturally than a Greek village. We visited an antique shop filled with intersting things, the type Sami might put in his house. He wanted to buy us a huge, tin cooking pot but we talked him out of it so he bought it for himself. We walked some more, visited thechurch right next to his deacpms house and its being reconstruted, the first church to be renovated by the government. Around noon his architect came, and we were able to go into his three story stone villa. Under construction now two years, it should be done by the beginning of the year. It is going to be an unbelievable place, with a large garden, an outer building he is turning into a guest house, and his house, the first floor living quarters for help, a kitchen, and a hamam, the second floor guest bedrooms, a dining room, a bathroom, another bedroom, and the third floor, bedrrom, living room, guest rooms, and bathroom. The views are spectacular, of the church one way, of the tops of buildings and the water the other. The ceilings are 13 feet high except or the first floor, the yard overgrown for now, but he hope to put in a garden. He has kept everything the same, from the built in cupboards in the bedrooms, to the fireplace and stone sinks in the kitchen. He has a terrace in the back balconies in the front and back living rooms, and a side covered area which has two outdoor ovens, which musth ave been ued for bread making. The stone work is amazing, as is the renovation. He brought in steel beams around the roof to ensure the stability of the whole and the mortar work on the outside, the cleaning of the stone around the windowsn and doors is extraordinary. It’s a bit off the main promenade, which is nice, and once done, it will be one of the most pleasing homes on the island.
Later in the afternoon, Sami took us in to Avalik, a Greek town like much of this coast, until the 1920’s exchange with Turkey, which is the major town on the mainland, just off the cause way to Cunda. It’s where Sami’s parents took him when he was young, so he has really good feelings about the waterfront, some restaurants, and a patisserie, which we went to and had his favorite, a Lor cheese dessert. We also took a picture of him in front of it. The waterfront is very busy, an olive oil center, filled with large boats. It’s much busier than Cunda, which only had small gemi boats, about 15 feet long. Here, in Avalik, they are much larger, a larger port. From a brief look, the city does not seem that interesting, but once you begin to walk it, the streets are all narrow, filled with shops and cobble stones and stone buildings, and the waterfront area, is especially cool, filled with alleys, restauratns of all kinds, tea houses, giving it a neat feel. He then took us out of the city, up into the mountain, to a wonderfu spot called the Devil’s Table, which gave you a wonderful view of the various islands and peninsulas, a magnificent place, with tea houses, and views in all directions, out towards the islands, especially Mytilene. It is hard to figure out the geography here, because the peninsulas look like islands, the islands peninuslas. As we drove, I was struck the the various developments, almost everywhere, of cookie cutter condos, much like any other areas in Turkey or the states for that matter. We had tea, talked, and enjoyed the cool breeze before heading back to get clean up for dinner. Sami and I went in to get his large pot, came back and picked up Evie, then headed into the waterfront, filled with people, though not as much. We got a table near the water, at the Deniz restaurants, had a feast of mezze, some much different from the night before, which is interesting. We had pastirma boreks, cheese boreks, rocket salad with tomatoes and green onion, and some just raw, then had two different fish, cut up and served for us by the garcon. We ended it with a treat of lor cheese, some what the consistency of ricotta, mixed with a cherry jam. It was marvelous, a slight cheese taste, a bit sour, combined with the cherries. As usual we ended with a Turkish coffee, the drove home, went to bed after another great day.

Cannakale/Assos/Cunda Drive with Sami

We started the day with breakfast with our downstairs neighbor Lale and her husband, who know Sami quite well, in fact, he was the architect for Sami’s two houses in Rumeli Hisar. We drove by his two houses, both red and somewhat yali modern, and hit the road for the South. It was wonderful once we got out of the city but it seemed forever, as the city seemed to stretch forever, with apartments and little genci kondu going on forever. We got past the airport and things began to widen, though there were an amazing amount of factories as we traveled all through Thrace. We went on a major highway for the first hour, mostly away from the sea, trying to avoid the vacation traffic, finally heading down towards the water after Tekirdag. Sami knows the route well, and we enjoyed the most flat landscape, treeless with many farms, and small villages, as we passed on our way. Outside of Kesan, one of the inland vilages, where we began to head south to the Gallipoli peninsula. We at at a little restaurant, just off the road that Sami knew, one you would easily pass if you did not know it. It was lovely, shaded groves of trees, a nice breeze, and it actually became busy as we were leaving with locals coming to celebrate. The lunch, as usual, was interesting, the most intersting being the satir(an instrument which beats the meat in ground lamb)`` kofte, large rectangular lamb hamburgers, roughly 4” by 6” inches, about a ½ to ¾ inch thick, grilled. They had a wonderful taste and texture, somewhat like the organic burgers we had in Darien, a bit loosely put together. Sami and I put oregano and red pepper(madras) on it and we also had salad, bread, and ayran. A wonderful lunch before heading to the Straits. As we got to the straights, which are now a national park, we were struck by the beauty of the mountains and a canopy like pine tree as we neared Gallipoli. The entire battlefield area is a park, and most of the monuments were on the other side of the peninsula, so we did not see much, as we arrived at the ferry boat harbor, parked an the boat, had a couple of teas as we crossed over, on windy seas, to Cannakale, a fairly modern town, though it still looks like it might have in the 70’s, as there is little if any new building on the waterfront, though quite busy. It was a thrill to be in this area, to know about the battles, the history of the Dardanelles, going back thousands of years, and seeing boats, singular and lonely, plying their cargoes, either towards the Bosphorus or out to the Aegean sea. We worked our way through the busy streets of Cannakale, not much to sea, and began our journey south, staying on the highway for a bit, but spending most of our time driving near the sea. The landscape suddenly seemed to become very medieterran though it might have been just in my mind. Lovely hills, almost mountains, lined the coast either covered with pines or sometimes a kind of scrub. It seems almost uninhabited inland from the coast, but there are also areas around the coast that have little or no development. This was especially true of the southern coast of the Dardanelles that reach out to the Aegean. Gradually, we began to see unattractive sets of cheap apartments, with no charm, landscaping, set out in the middle of an open field, though quite near the sea of actually on it. Much of our journey was through vast olive tree groves, some having been there for 50 years of more, some having been planted a few years ago. Sami drove us past a couple of villages south of Cannakale, he called them his villages, because he had bought near by, planted 1500 pomegranite trees a couple of years ago but because of a drought, he lost them all. The village is very remote, with hardly more than a few buildings, though the chai house has roman column bases, as do some of the other chai houses. He took us on back roads, not quite dirt, to an unbelieveable sight, probably not on any tourist map, where huge mounds of rocks and columns sit, un touched no doubt since Roman days. We speculated that this area, full of granite mines even today, was a prime area for finding the kind of granite need ed for columns. There were at least 8-10 laying around, some as wide as 4 or 5 feet, as tall as 25-30 feet, set among huge builders, some 20 feet high. It was an intersting place to walk, no one with in miles, the seas perhaps ten miles to the West.We speculated how they could have ever cut these columns out of the side of the mountain, shaped them, and then transported them down the mountain to the sea. Amazing. Next we stopped in a village famous for its yogurt callec Excine, a place Sami always passes. We sat down again, in a tree shaded squared, ordered yogurt, thick and almost c utable and helva with cheese, a delicacy of the area. Sami bought two huge containers of yogurt to take with us, and we moved on, about 4:30 in the afternoon We then wound our way through Greek villages, the ones which were abandoned in the 1923 migration East and West, the buildings recognizable for their stone exteriors, one piled on another, shaped so that the outside was smooth, the kind actually that is copied on Hasan’s house…these are 100’s of years old. One village after another, in the late afternoon sun, golden and picturesque, led us to Assos, the sight of Aristotle’s philosophy school.

Assos is actually a Greek temple set up on a spectaculary promontory, perhaps a quarter to a half mile above its harbor, comprised of the ruins of Athena’s temple, various buildings including a Greek church, and at one time, it must have also been a small village, because the area is quite large, with stone walls, and lots of ruins indicating a much larger areas of living than I thought. The view from the top, with three columns now having been resurrected, in all directions, especially at this hour as the son was setting, was amazing, a word I am starting to use too much. Evie took mega pictures of the sun set, and we scrammbled around the ruins, enjoying mostly the view. There is a village just below the sight, quite picturesque, with tea shops, restaurants and shops, with a cobblestone road that leads from the village up to the ruins. Clearly, most of the villagers leave on this promontory, in old stone houses and probably have since the 1920’s, or their families had. There was also a wedding going on in the village, and when we arrived, a group of 8-9 men were sitting in the middle of the road, of the village, banging on the ground and playing ethic music to celebrate the marriage. Sami said he had never seen anything like this nor had we. And we heard music being played as we walked the ruins, and as we left, we looked down the village, and the courtyard was filled with 50-75 people, all dressed up celebrating the day. Assos was our last stop before heading to Avalik or Cunde, the island off of Avalik where Sami has a house being renovated. The ride was long, along the shore, mostly homes and some hotels, that seemed to go on forever, and it took us close to an hour an a half to get to our hotel, around 8:30 at night, after having started around 9:30 in the morning. We stayed in the Panorama Hotel, not much inside, but with a lovely swimming pool and terrace overlooking the harbor, looking across the water towards Avalik.
I am now sitting down by the pool, looking bac toward Cunda, as the sun lits it up ealry in the morning. Evie is up showering, though the electricity has gone off. Getting back to yesterday evening, about 9:00 we walked into the old part of Cunda, seeingly quiet until we rounded the corner to the harbor to find it filled with waterside restaurants, one after anotherr, with awnings over them and on the other side of the walkway, were the actual restaurants, many in amazing stone buildings, built who knows how long ago. For me, this is as close to a Greek village as I have ever seen in Turkey; narrow streets, unique and classic stone builds, with an actual plan to it in some ways. We sat down at a restaurant. Nero’s, Sami knew and enjoyed the evening, after going in the restaurant, picking out our mezze, our fish, which we decided to have in a fish stew, with tomatoes, garlic, and mushrooms. It was lovely. They did not seem to have their wine chilled, so we wait for it, as we ate a mezze of boreks, potato and cheese croquets, rocket, tomato and onion salad, eggplant salad, green means, a bitter tasting almost sea weed like green unique to the area, green beans, and toasted brown bread. We talked quite a while as the stew took a long time, as the fishing boats rocked in the night, a couple went out with their chug chug chug into the dark.
We talked about relgion, guilt, the catholic church, how we both don’t like ‘progress’ or ‘modernization’ or ‘development’ of any kind. Sami dislikes anything which means an increase in population of an area. Chautauqua should pay attention to this, especially North Harmony. We talked about books we liked and one of Sami’s is Zorba, like me. He reads quite a bit, almost one a week, in either Turkish or English an he feels very comfortable in English. I mentioned both Compications and Outliers as two good reads. He is a very thoughtful guy, no doubt a good businessman, who sees the uncertainty and chaos in the world and markets and has experienced much of the decline personally, as he was forced to close down his business in China because of quotas in Europe didn’t allow him to make any money. He seems happy sort of retired, though he owns a media company but lets his partner run it. He keeps his hand in developing, buying homes here or there, as well as property, which was a good strategy: when he made money, he put it into real estate which has paid off, whereas many of his friends didn’t’, and they are distressed now because of the economy’s collapse a year ago. We both wonder how people survive, with their enormous debts out there, and neither of us is sanguine about the future; we think it’s going to be a changed world economically, and not for the better. The wealth and money that was accumulated over the years was mostly a result of huge debts, mostly government or business, and now they are being forced to pay it back. We agree that most of capitalism is a form of a ponzi scheem.
The fish stew arrived and it was lovely, tomatoey and garlicy, with large hunks of white fish and mushrooms. We ate it quickly with bread doused in the broth. For desssert, with had figs and a special cheese that is covered with syrup and I think baked, served in a small round cake( Lor cheese, flour, baked with syrup.. It was really good, something we had never had before, a speciality of the area. We then walked back through the pictuesque old town, wonderfully narrow streets, cobblestones, tavernas and eaterys made of stone, very ethinic and pictuesque, reminding me the most of Greece. There were many tavernas around, playing Greek music, which made it even more like Greece. We returned to the hotel around 12:30, exhuasted with such a full day.

Rumeli Kavagi and Dinner with Serdar/Sami/Ekber in Yenikoy

We left around 9:45 for Eminonu, took the bus to Kabatas, the tram to Eminonu, meeting one of the same students we had met the other day, at least one who had listened to our conversation. He was very pleasant and fun to talk to. We decided to get on the ferry boat early, about 45 minutes before it was to leave because it was already getting full and I had read about the crowded ferries, that we should get there early. It was a beautiful day, clear skies, not too warm, and we had good seats, so with chai and tost, we enjoyed the ride which took about one and a half hours. We had great view of the European side mostly, stopped in five different villages, ended up at Rumeli Kavagi, with its view of the Black Sea. We loved the village of Rumeli Kavagi, as it was not too big, with some character, though their were lots of fish restaurants on the water, though most were empty. We thought of calling Hasan to find out his faovrite restaurant but the phone was not working. We ended up eating at a little kiosk right on the water…had salty calamari but quite good hamsi or sardines. We then walked around the town, caught a mini bus to Sariyer, where we looked for a phone store but they could not help us. We then got on the bus, and it took almost an hour to get back to our village, with traffic terrible through various little towns, especailly Sariyer, Yenikoy, and Bebek. Hot and tired, we relaxed, took a walk and are now waiting for Ekber and Selmin to pick us up for dinner and take us to Yenikoy, a beautiful old yali invested village on the Bosphorus. We did get a walk in before showing, so we feel pretty good.

Because of terrible traffice, we waited for an hour for Ek ber to pick us up, so we did not get to the restaurant in Yenikoy until 8:30 alas. Sami and Selmin were waiting for us, then Serdar and his wife Zeynep came and, as usual, we had the typical Turkish dinner of mezze, followed by lufer, followed by dessert with, most certainly, sweets with kaymak, in this case sweetened pumpkin, but also pears, grapes, and quince…interesting with kamak. The amazing thing about the restaurant was the hundreds of fish, some as large as six or seven inches, swimming just below the window where we were eating. I guess it’s one of the draws of this particular restaurant, one of Yenikoy’s most famous, though it burned down a few years ago. These two couples and Sami have known each other for a long time but our coming has brought them together, which is kind of neat. Serdar is charming, has lived all over the world, seems to be doing very well in commodities as well as the importer of Vespas, from Italy. He knows Russia really well and feels as if it’s the key to the world…the US has a chance to work with Russia and will not be able to accomplish anything without it. He feels they are the most dominant force in Europe, perhaps the middle east because of their, Europes, dependence on Russia for oil and gas. He has houses in Istanbul, London, and Bodrum, where he goes each weekend and competes in sailing races. He desperately wants us to come visit…he is no doubt sincere and loves the area in the winter, when its cool, perhaps in the 30’s and no one else is there. He sounds like a kindred soul. His wife, Zeynep, knew Sami’s sister well, so he has known her forever. She is a marathoner, has run in NYC, Tokyo, Boston and London, though her knees are bad now, so she rides her bike everywhere, a health fanatic, I suppose but fun to talk to and very demonstrative. Once again we talked about the good old days at RC, Ekber’s divorces and how lucky he is to have found Selmin; Sami is very quiet on the matter and says little about his family. Selmin wants me to write a book about my experiences with Besiktas and in Istanbul in the good old days, but I don’t know how much I could remember, as I did not keep a journal and have only slides, which might trigger memories but who knows. It’s a thought. We are hoping to get together next Thursday with other RC graduates, which Serdar will arrange. Fortunately, when Sami drove us home, the traffic was not too bad. We are leaving for Cannakele and Avalik tomorrow at 9:00, will spend a night in a hotel in Ayvalik because Sami’s home is not finished, then head to Cesme where he has a home. We are going to see Muhararem on Tuesday, perhaps Sivan if he is not in jail.

Ekber's Bookstore in Beyoglu

Evie had a bad night, not sleeping well so we are taking our time this morning. I wrote to Hasan and Agop, thanking them for a fine evening and sending them my airline ticket information. They are going to try and reserve us seats in the bulkhead so I can stretch my legs. I went to Migros early, picked up melon and bananas for breakfast and a few fresh rolls from a bakkal, the kind I remember eating in the old days, flaky when you take a bit.
I took the bus in alone because Evie had not been sleeping well and did not feel up to a trip to the city. Strangely, it took little time, as traffic was easy, so I was at Taksim by 10:30. As usual, it’s a mad house of people, buses, cars, taxis, and vendors, all vying for a spot or place in this dodge’em. I walked a bit, then headed down Istiklal, the major street heading towards Pera or Galata, the area where all the foreigners were allowed to live: Italians, Greek, French, Armenians, Jews, as well as British later on. That’s one of the reason there’s only one mosque in the Beyoglu area. I am surprised by the number of people but shouldn’t be; clearly there are tourists but mostly Istanbulis, shopping, chatting, walking and eating. Ekber’s shop is clearly a popular place, one of a kind if you are interested in prints, maps, antique books, anything having to do with the city. The main floor is the book store, where tourist brouse and buy old prints, lots of maps, some books, postcards, almost anything from the Ottoman eras. There are two stores above where there are young people working on computers, cataloguing what they have and corresponding with people who are interested in their stuff. The store belongs to a cooperative, which allows people from all over the world to search and find things…if Ekber’s bookstore has it, the buyer will be directed to them. While I was there, people came in to sell things, some to buy, some to just look, and some were collectors of a sort, either buying or selling. The bookstore prints a few books and they are putting together I wonderful coffee table book called the maps of Istanbul. I saw a galley copy and thought it looked really good, worth having if you were a lover of maps or Istanbul. Many of them were of the Bosphorus, of course, as well as the city. Ekber showed me a map of the United States with Arabic script and he was able to read it and pick out Ohio. He insisted on giving me a similar map, dates in 1926, along with some other book marks and things. We went out to a small lokanta, very popular, because the food is cheap and excellent. There’s a newspaper article on the way saying the owner ought to be arrested for selling such good food so cheaply. After lunch, we walked around some of the back roads, had coffee on the terrace of the Tom Tom hotel, just next to the Italian embassy. We walked through the alleys of the French and Dutch embassies, as well before returning to the store, where I picked up my package and was one my way.
I arrived home to find out our dinner at Ahmet’s had been canceled. There was some miscommunication and a number of players thought I was going to Ayvalik today and couldn’t make the dinner. They tried to call but either Evie’s cell was not working or we were not home for the apartment. We felt terribel, for Ahmet and his wife, but fortunately, he understood and said, hey, it’s Besiktas. I went into to the village, bought kofte, spinach and cheese, some rice, for dinner. The kofte were not very good so we ended up eating mostly salad, spinach, and rice. Evie still is really tired, though she spent the day at home, hoping to sleep a bit.

Kapali Carsi and Dinner with Hasan and Alican at Kosebasi

We are sitting around getting organized, trying to decide what to do. We have dinner with Hasan this evening but that’s about it. We just returned from the Kapali Carsi, and it’s about 2:30, having left around 10:00. Traffic was terrible going, as we sat and sat, especially between Ortakoy and Kabatas for some reason. It took us about 45 minutes to get to Kabatas. Then, the tram, which is usually reliable and quick, stopped in Kadikoy. We talked with some cute students, and it appeared we were going to have to get off because of an emergency; we all starting getting off, then they announced no problem, so got back on and made it finally to the Bazaar. It was much more fun this time, as we seemed more relaxed and interested in shopping and moving around. We picked up our rings from The Brothers, had a cup of tea and went shopping. If you show any hesitation, the totes stop you, want you to come in for coffee, and see their wares. We did find a shop that had the dervishes we had admired at Ates’s house and ended up getting three for $20.00 a piece and we also picked up some boxes for the girls. We also bought an evil eye tee shirt…we will have to see what it looks like after washing. We then shopped a bit more but were worried about traffic coming home, as the IMF or some version of it is in town, causing traffic problems as well. We stopped at a little lokanta off the main street, used mostly by locals because the prices were good, had some lentil soup, rice, and eggplant stew, all three which we quite good. Forunately, the buses and trams, were easy, so we got home much earlier than expected, around 2:30. When we arrived, I called Umran about the TV and a repair man was her within ten minutes at the most. We are going to relax this afternoon, take a walk around 4:30 and get ready for our dinner with Hasan, who will pick us up around 7:15.
About 3:30 we walked to Bebek, as it was a beautiful clear day, windy, so everything was clear and precise, perfect for taking pictures. We had tea in the famous Bebek coffee house, right on the water, a hang out for students, the famous, the rich forever. We had the ubiquitous tost sandwich and tea, then walked back to the village, and stopped at another café, just on the village side of the road, so as you sat, you looked out over the highway and promenade to the water. Interestingly, there is water between the highway and the café, so the highway much be above the water on pylons. There we a number of men playing tavla, sipping tea, and we liked the place. We headed home about 5:00 in time to get ready for dinner at 7:15. It is supposed to be the best iskender kebab place, according to Hasan. Faruk called, to say hi, and wants us to call him when we get back from our trip so we can get together again. What a guy.
Hasan and Agop, two RC students class of 73’ and took us to Hasan’s favorite restaurant called Kosebasi, a very class restaurant in Levent, perhaps the best we have visited. From the moment we arrived, we were treated like royalty, with the waiters and manager hovering over us, making sure everything was to our liking, ensuring that they had a surprise for us. Hasan had obvioulsy called ahead, reserved a good table, and told them what we wanted. It was a meal to remember, no doubt, beginning with various mezze, as usual: eggplant salad, a wonderful salad of mint/parsley/tomatoes with pomergranite vinegar liberally used as well as olive oil; mini lamachuns, with seasoned tomatoes and onions with red pepper, the cig kofte, a combination of raw meat, bulgar, and red pepper; we wrapped each kofte in lettuce leaves; next was hummus with strips of fried pasiirma(a dried meat); next, slices of doner served alone and hot…Hasan said it’s the best anywhere, so eat it while it’s hot; next were little pieces of shish kebab grilled and served on pide; next medallions of the lamb loin, and we ended up with Hasan’s surprise: grilled chicken wings. Wow…what a feast. We then had desserts, the best ever, a kadiife called Konife(shredded wheat with cheese in the middle covered with sugar syrup) and then a dollop a kaymak is added on top. We then had a small cake we shared of semolina helva with ice cream---wonderful. We ended with fruit…pomegranite seeds, pears, peaches, apples and black grapes. We finished with cappucino. As we were drinking up, I noticed the waiter hovering by the table, want to talk with Hasan; he finally got Hasan’s attention to tell him the meal was on the house. It must have been at least 2-3 hundred dollars, with wine, and everything. Hasan merely said he and the owners were very good friends, and that he had helped them with some ‘things.’ I don’t think I have ever felt so full and I know Evie felt the same way. We rolled home around 10:30 and watched some CNN before falling into bed, stuffed still and exhausted. It’s tough leading such a ‘good life.’

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.

Day Trip with Sami to Bazaar and Asmanli Restaurant with RC grads

We are getting a slow start this morning, as I was up early, around 5:00 but we have been lazing around, trying to figure out what to do, as I meet with an RC student, Buse, at 1:00, and with Sami in the afternoon. After some yogurt and bananas, I went for a 15 minute walk towards Kurucesme while Evie worked on pictures. We headed towards Rumeli Hisar, to the Kale Cay Bahcisi, a waterside café we ate at last week. It took us about 45 minutes to walk here from the village, mostly along the sea with the exception of Bebek, where you must squeeze your way through the town. We both ordered menemens, mine perynirly, with cheese, and it was great. We cannot figure out how they make them, as they are served in small frying pans, bubbling, with cheese melted on top. We ate them with simits, digging out the egg with pieces of the simit. Yum. I could eat these every day. I did talk to the cook, who seems very friendly, so the next time we go there for breakfast, I am going to watch him make them. I a sure he will be thrilled.
I met with a representative of the Bosphorus Chronicle, a senior named Buse, who interviewed me for the school newspaper. She was a delight to talk to, spoke very good English, and understood our conversation easily, laughing along with me at many things. I spent a half hour with her, came bac k, relaxed until Sami picked us up at 5:00

Sami drove us down to the Sultan Ahmet area during rush hour, taking about an hour, as we fought through tangled, thick traffic, especially around the Galata Bridge. We parked and walked along the main road from Sultan Ahmet towards the Bazaar, a very lively and interesting area, filled with tourists and every kind of shop imaginable. He pointed out some of the major monuments, as he is very intersted in history and knows quite a bit about Turkish, Ottoman history, and seems to read quite a bit too. We stopped at tea shop/hookah bar, just next to a mosque, or a medhrrdin, some thing to that spelling, which was filled with mostly Turks smoking narghiles. It was an inner courtyard, open aired, with vines and trees, surrounded by covered areas as well, and there most have been 50-100 people drinking tea and smoking narghiles. It was surrounded by small shops, but had all kinds of lighted globes decorating and illuminating the area. Sami had a good friend who owns a carpet shop, so we stopped int and looked at carpets because Sami needed a couple for a renovated stone house he is building in Avalik on the Aegean coast. We looked at many carpets and, and as we feared, Sami asked us which one we liked because he wanted to buy one for our house in Chautauqua; we tried as best we could to say no and I think we were able to dissuade him but who knows until we leave the country what he has done.

We then drove back to the Beyoglu area, where Sami lives, which is hopping with outdoor restaurants filled with mostly Turks, as I mentioned from our previous dinner with RC graduates. We at upstairs at the Asmanli Restaurant, an older, famous place, with dark wood wainscoating and photographs all over the walls. We had a table for five, set by a small open balcony, for air and a view. We had a typical Turkish dinner of various mezzes and ended with fish. We got there about 7:30 or 8:00 and did not leave till midnight, so it was a long night, of stories, laughter, and fun. Egber told an unbelieveable story about a 71’ RC graduate who happened into his store the day before. They had not seen each other in years, and for some reason, the grad told him about an escapade to steal a history exam; they snuck up to the school offices, somehow opened the safe, and in it was a pile of money, with a note that said Transfer money for Tom Davis, Besiktas player. Supposedly, they pushed the money aside and took the exam. After hearing the story, Egber told the grad that you are not going to believe this, but I am going to have dinner with Tom Davis tomorrow night. Egber also told an amusing story about helping me to drop off my van on my trip to India; I gave him some turkish lira to return to my wife, he went back to the college, found no one home, and left a note and the money outside a door of what he thought was our Barton Hall apartment. He asked if we ever got the money; of course, Evie doesn’t remember getting any money so we all had a good laugh. Serdal also told some funny stories about the RC days, especially a couple about Refik Soyer, who they all think of with affectionate. They all seem very successful and have worked all over the world. Serdar has had mines in South Africa, has lived in London for over ten years, has a home also in Istanbul and Bodrum, land in Ayvalik. Egber lives in Emirgan, but has worked in all kinds of areas, some in Africa as well, though he now owns an antique book and map store on Istiklal Cad…he seems to specialize in hard to find items like old maps and books. Sami has had numerous businesses, the last being a textile company in China but because the EU put quotas on goods from China, his business has evaporated or was too much trouble so now he seems to be retired, or has left it in others hands to take care of. He also owns a multimedia couple of some sort, which is involved in setting up kiosks for tourists to learn about the various highlights. Istanbul has been named Cultural Capital for 2010. He mentioned John Julius Norwich, the famous historian who has been involved with him in the project but he has since died, leaving a huge hold in the project. Sami also seems to have homes in Cannakalee, where his olive orchards are, Cesme and now on a small island off the coast of Ayvalik, which we will be visiting. His stone house sounds amazing, and was once, he thinks, the residence of the priest or bishop from the famous Orthodox Church next to his house. He seems really excited about taking trip with us to these areas; as he said to Evie, “It’s a pleasure to be able to travel or share with someone else my travels. I am usually alone.” Fortunately, we were able to get a cab home with both Serdar and Egber, who lives in Emirgan, so Sami did not have to drive us home. We came home exhausted, slept somewhat fitfully, and do not feel very refreshed this morning, though we are to meet Egber for breakfast with his wife at 9:30 in the morning. Our days are awfully full and interesting but also very tiring. We have think way ahead to say we are busy so we have time to ourselves. Every night this week, for example, we are going out with someone. Time to shower and get ready to head to Emirgan for breakfast with Egber and his wife.

Brunch with Faruk at Armada Hotel

We slept in a little this morning, as we got back late last night from Fehmi’s house. I walked to Bebek and back around 9:30, a bit overcast, with at least 125 fishermen manning the walls, which I decided to count, just to see how many there were. Most were situated just before the point of Arnavutkoy, less crowded then between there and Bebek. It rained slightly, I bought some kasar for later as well crackers. Ates called from the gate at 11:00, a half hour earlier then expected and I was in the shower. I hurried up, dressed and we were in his car within ten minutes, heading to the Sultan Ahmet area to eat at the Armada Hotel, one which I had never heard of. Faruk met us in the lobby and we went up to the terrace, with a wonderful view of the Sea of Marmara, the Asian side, and the Princess Islands. Also, there were at least 50 small fishing boats, slowly trolling or fishing for lufer and palamut. We were pratically the only ones in the restaurant, so we got great service, though it was mostly a buffet of everything Turkish imaginable, or as Faruk said, genuine Ottoman food. At the one end was spices, cheeses, olives, jams, helvah, kaymak, butter, things like that. In the middle were fruits and vegetables, of any kind, and towards the end were omelettes and three or four different boreks, our favorite being the kol boreck, one of I am not sure of . The beyaz peynir was either in olive oil or pepper oil, or plain. The jams were various, apricot, rose, ect. We did not have melon, at least I don’t remember seeing it. As we sat and ate and talked for at least three hours, we also were served tea in a samovar in the middle of our table. Faruk ordered a couple of menemens, and two small frying pans, of eggs with socuk, the other with pastirma, which we loved. They cook the meat separately and when the eggs are done, they throw it and cook it a bit. The bread was supposedly a peasant bread, from Trabazon, and was delicious toasted. We sipped tea, ate kaymak and honey, dipped our bread in the eggs, had more tea, took pictures, and finished everything with Turkish coffee, some water, orange juice, and a final tea before leaving. It really was a great place to eat and stay, if you want to be in the Sultan Ahmet side of the city, where most of the monuments are. It has a neat feel to it, clean but old, with a wonderful Radio Bar, made up of many old radios from the old days as decoration. Faruk and his wife, Aydan, were wonderful hosts and all six of us (Ates and Mine) had a good time telling stories and laughing about the exploits and travels on the b ball team.

We then headed to the Besiktas Complex near Taksim. I am still not sure what it is…a complex of buildings and apartmetns built where they used to have a practice soccer field. I assume the club built the complex, and earns money from rents from businesses and apartment renters. The top of the building ,the Vogue, has a modernistic bar, and some of the best views in town. It was a bit overcast but still memorable. We then went down to the Citi Mall, in Nisantas, the newest and the least successful for some reason. Lots of boarded up shop fronts and it’s only two years old. We went to Mavi jeans…made the mistake of wanting to buy something and Faruk insiste on buying both Evie and me a tee shirt. So, we caved in, as it’s impossible to say no. We ended up going to the top of the mall, enjoying the views, then left to go have a final coffe at the Nero coffee bar in Nisantas. A very hip and busy European style coffee bar, it had an outdoor smoking area in the back , as well as other rooms towards the front. We had a couple of lattes, listened to Ates complain about the heat and being tired, then finally headed up through a tangle of traffic to our apartment. It took us at least a half an hour to get home and of course, as we were winding our way down the hill in Arnavutkoy, Ates ran in to a doctor friend whom he had not seen in years. This always happens when we are out with Ates. His last words were to let me know your program, and inside joke, as we always seem to be making plans for the next day or two. Once again, we are overwhelmed by the kindness and generosity of Turks, in this case Faruk and Aydan. He took care of everything, the buffet, the tee shirts, and wants us to come to Nisantas sometime next week to eat ‘real iskender kebab.’ He was the youngest on our team, a real charmer, a playboy, and often silly and he remains quite funny, fun to be with. He has been all over the states on business, really seems to have liked it, and may come to the US in late January or early February, to see New York city and LA for sure. His wife, Aydan, is a music teacher in a Turkish school, about the same age as Beth. She seems very nice and they seem to get along well. She is either Faruk’s second or third wife, Ates is not sure since they hardly see each other. My coming to Istanbul has prompted the reconnection of many of my teammates which is kind of neat. We are getting addresses from everyone, as well as phone numbers and emails and are giving ours out as well. We would love to see any of our Turkish friends when they come to the states but are a bit worried about how to entertain them in a style they are used to. For example, if Faruk and Aydan came to the lake in February, it would be cold and snowy with little to do or see other than going to the Seezurn for lunch or dinner, unless they enjoy walking or cross country skiing. We will worry about that when we have visitors.

Ortakoy and Dinner at Fehmi's

After a busy and long day with Ates yesterday, which included the morning at RC, we decided to take it easy on Saturday and not get an early start. So, we relaxed a bit and around 9:00, we took our usual walk to Bebek and back. There, we stopped at a bookstore/giftshop and ended up buying another hanging evil eye ornament for our kitchen. We are obsessed with evil eyes for some reason, though we found later that Fehmi’s house was full of various evil eyes as well. The walk is an endless panoply of characters, usually fishermen and this time we were not disappointed. One of them had decide to swim, and we watched, as he put on his fins, then his rubber hat, then goggles, and finally, a pair of plastic gloves. After he was set, his buddies pushed him in over the side wall, and he dove in, coming up laughing. We went on but when we returned, it looked like he may have actually gone mussel hunting, as it appeared there were a bunch of them in a basket. It was a gray/sunny day, for our walk, still warm, and we had to take showers when we returend. As I am writing this, on Sunday morning, it just tarted to pour outside; I sudddenly heard the rain hitting the trees and looked up and it was raining. Anyways, we then decided to walk to Ortakoy for the afternoon, making sure we were home by 4:00 to get ready for dinner at Fehmi’s. It took little over thirty minutes to get there, a picturesque little village on the sea, with cafes and restaurants surrounding an old mosque. This has become a tourist haunt, as well as for Turks, with its narrow streets, lined with shops selling mostly jewelery, kind of the type hippies might want, as well as evil eyes and some painted Turkish plates, a typical gift from Turkey. We mostly browsed, ended up at a chai house on the water, and had our first baked potato, the speciaiity of this areas, as there must be tend to fifteen stands selling these for around 8-10 liras, depending on which stand you go to. They usually look like an ice cream stand, but they have huge pounds of toppings in front, things like onions, sour cream, pickled beets, peas, spiced bulger, etc. The potatos are huge…they open them up, more or less mash the inside, add butter, then top it with whatever you wish. We split the potato and we happy with it, enough easily for two. Everyone around us was eating the same thing so I assume you go to Ortakoy for this delight. We browsed abit more as we left, filled up both our phone and Akbill card with units and tokens, and walked back to our apartment, briefly stopping at Migros for food, buying flowers for Florette at a stand outside of the market. We then relaxed until Fehmi picked us up, around 7:00

As we went to Fehmi’s, the roads were packed with cars as usual, so he took the backroads through the villages, litterally alleys, hardly wide enough for two small cars to pass. We waited with hordes of cars to get on the Sultan Mehmet the Conqueror Bridge, which goes from about 16 lanes/toll booths, to fourlanes, so you can imagine the scrabble and confusion. We then came to the Asian side, and drove to Rumeli Hisar, where Fehmi has lived for the past 19 years. It’s a luxurious gated community of ten or eleven homes, with two shared swimming pools, a huge one for adults, smaller one for children, hot tub, and tennis courts below. As you sit by the pool, you look out over the Bosphorus, as nice of view as I have seen yet. Fehmi’s house sits above the pool, as do most of the homes, and it tropically landscapted, or so it seems, with terraces, outside gardens, and a lovely table, set beneath the trees where we ate our dinner under a full moon. We sat on the porch for drinks, with a low wall covered with cushions in front of our chairs. The view, again, is spectacular, as we look back towards the city, with the 1st Bosphorus Bridge’s lights blinking as we see the lights of the city, the boats on the Bosphorus, and the moonlight on the water. We had simple mezze, more like American, mostly three kinds of cheese, one brie, and a spread for crackers. We sat out on the porch, then the terrace, with the lights of the city blinking behind us, then Florette called us in for dinner. It was served buffet style, so we each picked up our plates and silverware, and helped ourselves to food, a leg of lamb, lettuce salad with dressing, pilav, and a cheesy squash casserole, which was quite nice. We ate outside on the terrace, talked, and enjoyed the night. At the end of dinner, the women cleared the table and disappeared into the house. Fehmi, Ahmet and I stayed outside and talked basketball mostly of the old days, but Fehmi also diagrammed his offenses for me, one he calls the butterfly which he is very proud of developing. I forget to mention that Nikki and Ahmet also came, bringing their friend Yasemin, I guess a friend of Florette’s as well. She was very nice and spoke excellent English, as she and her husband have a business importing laser surgery devices to Turkey from the States as well as Europe. We had Turkish coffee, but not dessert, perhaps they forgot becasuse the women has some inside. AS we were about to leave, about 11:30, Fehmi’s oldest daughter returned, so we got to meet Neslihan, who seems very successful and well spoken. She’s very cute, confident, and could speak pasable English. She worked for CNN for a number of years and now seems to merchandisng head for Steppe carpets, a high end carpet store in all the malls. The complex where they live houses not only Fehmi and Florette, but his mother, his two daughters, and I think his brother lives next store. The house itself is a bit small, with a downstairs made up of two bedrooms, the upstairs includes a narrow galley kitchen, a study with livng room combination, with a dining room off it. The outside terraces certainly create a lot more space when the weathr is warm. It’s the nicest house we’ve seen in Istanbul, much more warm and inviting then Ates more formal apartment, with it’s Turkish decorations, wall of books, warm woods and colors, as opposed to Ates’s white walls, sparse decoration, formal looking couches and chairs, two very different styles. Fehmi’s view and outside terraces and landscaping give it the major advantage, a view to rival any into Istanbul I would say, whereas Ates looks out on other apartments. I hardly talked with any of the women, though we tried early with Florette but we were both frustrated with our inability to express ourselves. Fehmi wants me to see his team play, so Tuesday he will pick us up at 3:00 and take us to his game with Hursit’s Besiktas team at 5:00. And Nikki and Ahmet want us to come to their house, so we will go there on Thursday evening. I feel guilty about our lack of car, as we impose on all of them, when we need rides. Ahmet and Nikki, for example, drove us home from Fehmi’s. And they will have to pick us up and take us home on Thursday. We have offered to take taxis but they won’t hear of it. And a bus or ferry seems out of the question…it’s not something their class would do anymore. We didn’t get to bed until 12:30, after a traffic filled ride home, as the city and its suburbs never seems to sleep. I woke at the call of the muezzin, around six, but went back to sleep until 7:15. As I write this, it’s now 8:40 and Evie is still sleeping, which is great because she has not been sleeping well the last couple of nights. It just started to rain again, though the sun continues to play hide and seek across the waterway. The next few days look like they may bring some bad weather each day. It was a full day, one we will remember always, especially for the moonlit dinner at Fehmi’s, with the view of the Bosphorus and bridge and city.

Robert College visit

We spent the morning on the RC campus, attended two morning meetings, were introduced twice, once to 9 and 10the graders, the other to upper classmen. We talked with John Chandler, who seems very laid back and has little or any expectations for my stay, which is good. Visit classes, come and go as you wish, and perhaps give him some feedback at the end. Two changes in the school will be effecting faculty, no longer will they be paid for extracurriculars, rather all wil be expected to do things and their will good teachers will be recognized by in they paycheck After the meeting, we talked with Johh, then went off and visited with Umran in the business office, quite a professsional, serious, friendly, and knowledgeable; I can see why everyone likes her, appreciates her work. She knows Hasan well, and talked about him, as they have socialized together. She was extremely helpful, wants to make sure we have a ride to the airport on the 19th of October, which is great. We then walked up to Barton Hall, took pictures, the Cedar of Lebanon was still there, as were the column bottoms which we had used to create a patio. After walking a bit, we stopped into the Alumni office to visit with Leyla, who also was fun to talk with. She knows everyone, took our picture, and wrote some notes for an rticle in the RC Quarterly, or one of he magazines. We had a nice chat, went to the library for a bit, looked at yearbooks, from Hasan’s year and remarked on how he was on almost every page. We also sat in the faculty room for about 15 minutes, talked with a couple of newer Turkish literature teachers; interestingly, the American faculty had little interest in us. I ended up introducing myself to Phil Espositio, the English Chair, and as we talked, one of my students from 72’ came up to say hi, named Neserin. Also, on our ride up the hill, we sat next to Phillips, a black gym teacher, who also played for Besiktas for a few years…he referred to me as the legend, and seemed to be a really good guy. He came in 78’ and has stayed all these years, obviously loving the life and getting along well with everyone.
Friday Oct 2: Sat in on Phil Esposito’s senior elective, discussed Montana 1948 and Mr. Gee’s science Fiction Elective, where a student gave a power point on the Voyager, as they are studying Neuroman by Phillip Gibson, the writer who influenced the making of Matrix, things like that.

Ferryboat Ride Up the Bosphorus

We caught the 9:35 ferry to Istiney in the village; it makes six stops, three on the Asia side, so it’s a lvoely way to spend a morning. It’s sunny, a bit hazy, with a nice breeze, and we ended up in Istinye around 10:15. We found a tea house right on the water, with nice shade, and this is where I am sitting as I write this, and recollect last night’s dinner with Muharrem et al. We walked into Emirgan, following the water when possible; Istinye was not much, with little charm, mostly a harbor with larger types of boats, a fish market. We the went to the Sabanci Museum in Emirgan, where we saw a exhibition of Joseph Boeey’s works, not much to our taste really, but some interesting things by his contemporaries. Lots of sketches, lithographs, and very few paintings. We did like one painting called Nightmare, of a women’s head, part of which was a stairs with figures walking up it. Unbelievabe colors, a chartreuse, I think. We spent about an hour, bought a print and are now eating at the hot spot in Emirgan, an outdoor café packed with at least a hundred people called Sutis. I am sure it’s been here for quite awhile, as I remember the location at least from the old days. I am getting my usual, a menemen, and Eive is getting lentil soup. A very modern, hip crowd, one wonders when anyone works around here. We walked up the village a bit, the main street lined with shaded restaurants and tea house for about 50 yards and then it opened up to a typical village like street, sunny and uninteresting. We then walked down the road, braving traffice in areas where there is not promendade, and have stopped at another café on the called the Oba Park Café, right on the water’s edge; we literaally on sitting at a table where we could be fishing. The area is called Bataliman . It is lovely just

Dinner with RC Grads at Richmond Hotel

We are beginning to get used to the luxury of a car, as we were picked up by a driver at 8:00 and driven downtonw to the Istiklal area, through backstreets and alleys, a way we could hever have known or followed. We ended up at the Richmond Hotel, right in the center of Beyoglu, about a quarter to half mile from Taksim. We ate at the rooftop restaurant, with a great view of the city, though the food was somewhat pedestrian, American style really, It was great to see eveyone: Muharrem, Sami, Agop. Tayfur, Egber An, and Serdal Aral. All played basketball except for Tayfur who was a soccer capatain. It was an easy night because all of them spoke good English, so we talked of RC days mostly, but also of politics, and especially of the marriages and divorces of Agop, who said he got out of prison after 22 years of marriage. I spent most of the time talking with Sami and Muharrem, mostly because they were sitting near me. They both were very intersted in our family; what they were doing, where they were living and they seemed to remember them. Muharrem has a daughter at Columbia grad school, a son working for Coke Cola in Toronto. Interstingly, he mentioned how hard it is for a Turk to get a job in the US after 9/11. We had heard this once before from a guy we met on the bus, who lost his job after 9/11. Also, it seems as though no one will hire an engineer in any of the critical areas, like defense or the miitary industial complex if they a Turkish or muslim. Sami’s 18 year old daugher is starting school in London; Agop’s son is at USC, as an electrical engineering student. Tayfur has lived with a women for 24 years but never married. Egber has a 12 year old son and lives in Emirgan, runs an antique bookstore on Istiklal Caddesi. He wants us to stop by next week, so we can go out, have lunch or head back to Emirgan, where he lives. He is as inconocluastic as ever, never fitting in, the round shape in a square holed world. He is a delight, remembers trying to help me get my car through customs: I kept saying, “Tell them I play for Besiktas.” As he said, that might have made a difference in a fish market, but here you had to be Fener or Galatasaray. What was really amazing was the walk to and from the restaurant, the latter around 11:30, though narrow streets packed with people eating outside, mostly Turks, mostly young, eating, drinking, having a good time. The alleys and streets of people seemed to go on and on, as if all of Istanbu was up, having a wonderful time. Sami lives in this district, says it is always like this, kind of the in place for Turks, though tourists are starting to discover it. I can see why. Sami says he bought a couple buildings in this area about ten years ago for a pittance and now they are worth quite a bit. At the end of dinner, Sami and Muharrem said they were going to make plans for us to go to Izmir and Cesme, where they both have homes on the sea. We will see what happens…I know they are serious so if it works out, we may drive there with Sami, through various sites, visit Ephesus, stay with Muharrem one night, Sami another, then head back, I assume. Or we might fly down, I’m not sure. They are both very successful business man; in fact, Muhareem has just opened up a 40 million dollar factory in India, and Sami, according to Hasan, has made a bundle in buying real estate; He also supposedly has 100’s of acres of olive trees in the Izmir area. Both are was to talk to, have a very liberal and secular attitude, and we think pretty much the same way about the world, which is nice. In fact, all the Turks I’ve met are very sophisticated in their thinking, knowledgeable about the world in a way much Americans aren’t. They all speak two or three or four languages, have traveled and done business all over the world and have a pretty good fix on the States, who they criticize mostly for supporting the current govt, which many feel is just a few steps away from becoming something like Iran. The US supports them for now because Turkey gives them what they want; an the govt gets legitimacy from of the US which is what they want(since they are moving towards a semi theocracy), not a democracy. That seems to be the fear, though most are optimistic that it won’t happen. Muharrem sees the worst development being the split that is cleaving Turkey, between the Ataturk democrats, secular and open minded, and the religious, more close minded conservative movement of Erdogan. I guess I would say the US is looking at short terms gains but in the long run, they may rue their support of the Turkish government, especially if it becomes more intolerant of debate and freedom, which seems to be the case as they are harasssing and closing some newspapers that are critical of govt pollicies. I suppose it’s a tough rope to balance, to get what you want yet be critical of a government; you cannot do both and, as usual, we think short term.