<3 new blog posts!
Also <3 that gecko on Matt's shoe because they're my favoritest animals ever and so I'm very jealous!
I am also glad that you let Matt convince you to go on this trip.
Kisses from 0zmit. I forgot to mention that Sercan's mother called me today. She seemed giddy about the election outcome and before we ended our conversation, she told me "Amerika'ya öptüm," which means "I kissed America." She is adorable.
It is amazing - reading your blog and looking at the photos (I am waiting desperatly for every new entrance (!)) I miss Turkey and you guys more and more (seems a little bit like self-torturing but I like your blogging more than it hurts to miss my time there)
I hope you are enjoying Ankara/Beytepe . As I can see you are starting to discover the reasons why I liked it so much :) take care and greetings from Austria to everyone!
Fantastic Jim, Thank you for sharing this with me. What a wonderful adverture you are on. I wish you all of the peace and happiness and good friends the world has to offer you. Take care my friend.
Oh I meant the outfit, posture, etc. After all, Hitler and Charlie Chaplin had some similar appearance business going on as well.
Just remember Jima, "there were some... problems" ;p
Stalin?! I can't say that I like that comparison, Masha. Atatürk was a great man in many ways. I have nothing positive to say about Stalin no matter how far I stretch my imagination...
Per Damascus 3:
In Israel we also had guys driving around selling produce, except they drove around in pickup trucks with megaphones and yelled out the name of the fruit in as many languages as they could summon. It was kinda cool thinking back on it.
the bag... As soon as we arrived in izmit I told Sercan's mother the story and she got right on the phone with the bus company explaining the situation much better than I every could over the phone and they said that they would look for the bag and a while later she called back and they said that they had indeed found it and when we got back to istanbul it was waiting at the main terminal which is annoyingly far away on the western outskirts of the city but whatever so I got the bag back with a minimal amount of hassle and nothing seemed to be missing from it and all was happy and life went on and that's about it, Masha.
hiking... I spelled Fethiye incorrectly.
Also, Josh: If you can, GO TO HASANKEYF before they destroy it! It is an incredibly friendly place and it's quite easy to get to from Mardin or from Batman. There are some breathtaking hikes around the canyons - at least a few days worth. However, I must warn you that if you are heading there soon, the weather will be quite hot. It was 46 celcius degrees while we were there (in July). Happy travels.
tamam
Jim Kuras
From what I've heard, you could probably get a lot more technical, if you were so inclined... Thanks!