Since you been gone...

SO! As you probably guessed, we have been back in the United States for (almost) two months now. Here's a brief rundown on our final days in turkey and what we've been up to since.

We went on a Southeastern Turkey trip for 9 days in March, right before we came home. We flew into Gaziantep and out of Van, Turkey. Other places visited included Sanliurfa, Harran, Mardin and Diyarbakir. Just north of the Syrian, Iraqi and Iranian border.



Highlights include:





- The most delicious food ever in Gaziantep.












- The most gracious hosts in Urfa (our Kurdish friends Aziz and Farida), who took us to their extended family's house to learn how to make real cig kofte (raw meat meatballs).



- Very cool beehive houses in Harran













- A sweet Ataturk parade in Mardin













- Amazing medieval castle walls in Diyarbakir, still used for goat transport.















- And an incredible Armenian Church on Akdamar Island (where the Armenian Prince was exiled for many years) and a really sweet Persian Castle (Ishak Pasha Palace), near Mt. Ararat (where Noah's Ark is fabled to have landed).

Southeastern Turkey was seriously amazing and we definitely recommend anyone going that has a chance. We felt safe the whole time (days of PKK bombings seem to be in the past), and we rarely ran into other tourists the whole time we were down there. I was grateful for Matt's Turkish- most people don't speak English, and some don't even speak Turkish! (Kurdish is the predominant language down there). And the food has lots more spice in it, something that Matt and I gladly welcomed.

So, with that, we came home! And since then we have gone to three amazing weddings, moved into our new (old) apartment, and are enjoying Chicago again.

And thus our Turkish adventure is over! Which now begs the question- do we continue this blog? Do we abandon it? Do we find a new purpose for it?

Your suggestions, please...

Love Letter: Old Turkish Men

For last six-ish months, since we moved here in October, I've been following a fairly regular yoga schedule. (Side note: Cihangir Yoga could get a love letter all its own, but there is just too much to love in Istanbul so it can only get a side note.) Which means I walk the same route at the same time every other day to get to my yoga studio. Which means I encounter the same people on this walk.

Right when I moved here, I noticed that at one of the corner mosques on my route there were three old men (70+) who sat on a corner with their dogs, rain or shine. They would often say things to me in Turkish, and I would just smile and say "Merhaba" (hello) and move right on along to yoga.

This continued for a couple months, and my vocabulary increased to such advanced phrases such as "Gunaydin" (good morning) and "Iyi Gunler" (good day). The men would always talk to me in full Turkish sentences, I never really understood what was going on, but I always enjoyed our encounters.

Over the last couple months, whenever I would see any of them around the neighborhood we would stop and do our chatting (which wasn't chatting at all since my Turkish is still pretty abysmal and their English is nonexistent.) It mostly just included a lot of smiling and nodding. Once I was sitting at a cafe drinking tea with Matt when one of them came up to us and gave me a bouquet of flowers out of a garbage bag. Matt was kind of weirded out by this but I explained he was just my old Turkish man friend, so no worries.

Then we were sitting drinking beer outside of a bar a couple weeks ago and one walked by us. He came back and gave me another bouquet of flowers that had clearly just come out of a garbage bag. He explained to Matt in Turkish that I was his friend from the Cihangir neighborhood so he wanted to give me flowers.

Finally, yesterday, on my last day of yoga in Istanbul, I said my goodbyes and was given another bouquet of flowers that had just come out of a garbage bag.

It's weird having friends who are fifty years older than you, don't speak your language, and like to give you gifts out of trash bags. Weird but good.

(Note: First two pictures are not mine, but from google image searching. I've never gotten up the guts to ask my friends for pictures.)

Love Letter: Turkish Street Food

Street food is kind of amazing wherever you travel, but we've particularly loved it here in the 'Bul. Istanbul is known for its Donor Kebab stands, but there is a lot more than that. The food stands are out 24 hrs a day, and you can get anything from french fries to meat pastries to Kokorec (sheep intestine) burritos.

Some of our favorites:

1) Simit. It's like a pretzel covered in sesame. 50 cents, soft and chewy. Perfect.

2) Fruit covered with chocolate from a chocolate fountain. On the street! If any of you have ever met Carrie Neill, you know this is her definition of pure bliss.

3) Matt's favorite, the wet hamburger. Matt describes it as a hamburger doused in a tangy sloppy joe sauce and then left in a steamy chamber so the sauce infuses everything. Steamy burger chamber below.

And Matt enjoying a wet hamburger below.

He can't really resist if we are ever walking past the wet hamburger stand post 11pm (apparently they are only acceptable to be eaten after that time). Luckily we are moving back to Chicago where there is some passable late night street food (Weiner Circle! Burritos as Big as your Head!), but we'll definitely be missing the diverse and plentiful street food scene here.

Love Letter: Istanbul Sunsets

Growing up in a Corvallis, we would occasionally get beautiful sunset colors. Due to the fact that we were situated within a valley, however, the sunsets themselves were usually nothing to write home about. In Chicago, if you happened to be in a west-facing office you could watch the sunset over the west urban sprawl, but again- nothing spectacular. LA Sunsets definitely can be epic, but you have to get pretty close to (if not actualy on) the beach to really appreciate them.

One of my favorite things about our time here in Istanbul has been the sunsets. They are spectacular, and they color the sidewalks where ever you happen to be in the city.

The sunset looks amazing from our apartment, which always makes me want to be home in the evening so I can properly take them in.

If you happen to be on a ferry around sunset time it is particularly stunning, but even just walking around in our neighborhood everything looks golden.

Throughout this post have been some of my favorite Istanbul sunset pictures, but I don't think the pictures really do the sunsets justice.

Love Letter: Kaymak

Our time left in Istanbul is dwindling quickly. We have nine days left in Istanbul, then eight days on a Southeastern Turkey trip, then we head back to the States. The time has gone by WAY too fast and we are both starting to get really sad about leaving this amazing city.

So, as we end our time here, I thought I'd try and look on the positive side, and write every day about my favorite things about this city. (I realize I haven't finished blogging about my Japan trip, but that seems so far away now... I promise I'll bore you with pictures from Japan when I return if you ask nicely).

Without further ado, my first installment of love letters to Istanbul: KAYMAK.

Kaymak is, according to Wikipedia, "a creamy dairy product, similar to clotted cream, made in the Balkans, Turkey, Middle East, Central Asia, Iran, Afghanistan and India." It's made by boiling buffalo milk until a thick foam appears on top, then it is allowed to cool and is rolled into tiny logs. Turks usually serve it at breakfast w/ the traditional turkish breakfast ingredients (olives, tomatoes, cucumber, bread and white cheese).

According to the author of the excellent food blog Istanbul Eats, Kaymak is the "only food served in Heaven" and the "crack cocaine of Dairy Products."

That is in NO WAY an exaggeration. Seriously, it is the most glorious thing I have ever eaten. It is slighty sweet and unbelievably creamy and light at the same time. Like butter mixed with whipped cream mixed with british clotted cream mixed with cream cheese mixed with the foam at the top of a latte. But actually just having a totally unique taste that nothing else has. It is usually served with Honeycomb, which adds an amazing texture to the already incredible taste.

Our favorite places to get Kaymak in Istanbul are Van Kahvalti Evi (our favorite Kurdish breakfast place) and Kaymak Pando in Besiktas (which is where these pictures were taken). I've heard that there is a "Kaymak man" who walks around our neighborhood selling Kaymak from his wheelbarrow, but I have never run into this glorious man of legend. Probably good for him, because I'd try and run away with his wheelbarrow filled with creamy delicious dairy heaven.

Unfortunately, I can't bring any back for you all to try- Kaymak isn't refrigerated and usually only lasts a day or two before spoiling. But if you are ever in this part of the world, you need to seek it out. Please. Seriously. It's that good. I might even advocate a trip somewhere around here solely for the Kaymak.

Galatasaray-Beşiktaş

On Sunday Lucy and I went to one of the biggest cross-town rivalry soccer games in Istanbul, Galatasaray-Beşiktaş. This was the first soccer game I've been to outside the US, and it was at BJK İnönü Stadium which Pelé called the most beautiful place to watch a game in the world, so I was stoked. After we bought tickets we were told by a Turk not to go this game unless we took a Turk who knew the stadium and the scene -- I guess it's usually out of control. Naturally, we decided to f that and go by ourselves. And really, with a 1:5 police to crowd ratio, what could go wrong? (That's not foreshadowing, so don't get your hopes up.)

Lucy went as a Beşiktaş fan since the game was on their turf. I was too wussy to do anything but play it neutral. Turns out that the only people brave enough to wear Galatasaray colors in İnönü Stadium were seated in a special section that's walled off from the rest of the stadium, surrounded by police in riot gear, and covered with a net. So I clearly should have worn black.
One thing I knew before we went was that the Beşiktaş mascot is an eagle.

One thing I didn't know is that eagles are somehow related to slippers. But the eagle redeemed itself at kickoff when everyone put their wing-talons in the air and yelled. Like so:

By halftime things were getting pretty cold and rainy. Fortunately there was tea, and fortunately we both had waterproof coats unlike Mr Newspaper Rain Hat behind me.

The game was totally awesome, nonstop chanting and yelling, even though it ended in a tie. My favorite Beşiktaş song was (what I'll call) the FU Galatasaray March, where Galatasaray and its fans get told off in three verses.

But at GOAL time, none of that matters...

Japan: Cool Stuff in Kyoto

After spending a couple days in Kudumatsu and an afternoon in Hiroshima, I headed to Kyoto. Gohmann and Chris had to work, so I was flying solo. Which meant I had all the time in the world to check out all these cool things at the Kyoto market:

Chopstick Colored Pencils. Or Colored Pencil Chopsticks?

Japanese Pickles.

Octopus!

The most stylish swine flu masks ever.

Uluwatu, Bali: Where Monkeys Mean Business

The events transpire as follows: First, a monkey sits on the edge of an amazing cliffside temple and pretends to be interested in what's going on to his left.

Second, Duffy is all, "Go sit by the monkey so I can take your picture." Obviously, this is a good idea, so I do it.
Third, the monkey, becoming interested in what's going on his right, decides to improve his ability to see distances.

Next, a heated exchange ensues. I think retrieval of my glasses is worth a certain amount less than the woman who will retrieve my glasses thinks it is worth. We negotiate a price. Meanwhile, the monkey gnaws on his new glasses. Once we agree on a price, the woman throws the monkey a piece of fruit so that he will release the glasses.

The monkey releases the glasses. Unfortunately, as previously mentioned, the monkey is sitting on the edge of an amazing cliffside temple. The glasses go over the edge.

While everyone visiting the temple looks on, a man produces a wooden pole with a hook on it and somehow manages to retrieve the glasses from the brambles below. The monkey takes this opportunity to steal an earring out of a woman's ear nearby. Total retrieval costs run me like 60k Indonesian monopoly money, or about $7. And FYI: when a monkey looks to be casually gnawing on plastic glasses, it is actually eating them. The glasses are worse for wear.

[Note: If I had a picture of it, this would be the point in the post where I would show the sign at the entrance to the temple that warns against wearing jewelry, watches, hats, glasses, or anything else removable, due to aggressive monkeys. Bummer.]

Gohmann: Then and Now

Gohmann circa winter 2009:

Gohmann circa winter 2010:

Japan: Okonomiyaki

I don't really have anything else to add, except, um, DELICIOUS.

Japan: Miyajima

So after our adventures in Hong Kong, Matt headed back to Istanbul to continue his work here, and I headed to Japan for a week with Sarah and Chris.

The GohCotts are living in the town of Kudumatsu, in the Yamaguchi Prefecture of Japan. We flew into Osaka, and then drove (on the wrong side of the road!) to Kudumatsu and their lovely apartment. Where they once saw a Mukade Centipede. Which they promised me had been exterminated.

I should first start by saying that I hadn't really held any lifelong dreams about visiting Japan, but since my friends were living there I thought I should check it out. To my surprise, I fell completely in love with what I saw of it during my time there. It was beautiful, the people were incredibly friendly (to make a gross generalization about an entire nation), the food was great, and I felt like I learned a lot. It is a place with a lot of interesting cultural norms, many of which Chris & Sarah have noted on their blog (and which Chrystal & Ben discussed as well during their time there), which could make it difficult to live there, but as a visitor I was totally entranced.

ANYWAY.

Sarah and I headed to Miyajima on my first day there. Miyajima is an lovely island with docile deer and water shrines.

One of my favorite things about Japan was the beautiful packaging they use. I don't know what was in these bottles (probably sake?) but I wanted to buy all of them.

Same with these. So pretty!

This was the first of many beautiful Japanese shrines I would see on my trip.

Sarah and I hiked around the peak on the Island, where there were some incredible foggy views of the surrounding area.

Hopefully this sign didn't contain any important information.