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Felix and Eric
First night in TaksimAfter many sad goodbyes we head off to find the bus that will be taking us from Thessaloniki to Istanbul, a 10 hour bus ride. We leave at 9pm expecting we will be able to sleep and wake up happily in what the Greeks still call Constantinople. Everyone seems to be full of energy on the bus, we hope they will settle down so we can get some sleep but when we arrive at the boarder at 2am everyone is still as energetic as ever. They all get off hurriedly and rush off to do some duty free shopping, getting back on with a lot of alcohol and cigarettes which they all trade to make sure they are not taking more then legally allowed. We give up on resting and arrive very sleepy in Istanbul at 7am the next day. Constantino a fun Greek guy takes us out for coffee and helps us find our way to Taksim where we will be staying for the night.
Taksim is a nice part of Istanbul with the main tourist shopping area in the middle but also lots of pretty little side streets with cafes, antique stores and all sorts of things being
sold from carts. I notice quickly that we are in a very big city but I am surprised it doesn't feel aggressive as It often feels for me when I am somewhere so populated. I find myself smiling at people often and not feeling like it is out of place. I feel sad that we will be leaving tomorrow and am looking forward to coming back.
After coffee it was late enough to wake Felix up, who we will be staying with for the night before heading to our next wwoof hosts. Felix found and previously owned Apollo, Eric´s family dog. He had found Apollo in Greece, on the street, and had taken him with him in his van during a trip around Europe. We spend the night gushing over the pictures of Apollo as a puppy, playing in Istanbul, and it´s fun to imagine Apollo´s first life.
The next morning we pack our stuff and head to the boat which will take us to Yalova.
On the boat to Yalova we really get to see how huge Istanbul is and Eric sees his first dolphins in the wild. When we arrive there are a lot of
Market Day!
Eyeing up the goodies. Marshutkas and we have to ask which one is going to Kürt Koy (wolf village). Apparently it´s not going for another two hours so we sit with the bus drivers and are offered food and shade, communicating in basic German.
With all the noise on the bus to Kürtkoy it feels like a school bus going to camp. The men sit around listening silently as the women chatter very excitedly to one another. We have no idea where to go but it seems everybody else does. Eventually they gesture for us to get off and we follow a cheerful woman down the hill where we are dropped off at the gate of our hosts. We have decided to stay here around 3 weeks as we are now passportless having sent them back to Germany to get our Chinese Visas. They will come back with Margit and Ronald when we meet them in Istanbul in a few weeks.
Our hosts are an interesting British couple. Cheverel our host mother grew up in Tanzania and has now been living in Turkey for the last twenty years, working as a landscape designer. Her partner, Alan, was a seed merchant and together
Scything
A good workout, they have created a beautiful garden with a huge variety of flora and a vegetable garden full of tasty treats to cook with. They have only owned the property for four years and in another couple of years their fruit trees should be ready for picking.
Most nights we eat artichokes from the garden as an appetizer. Eating them whole, dipping the leaves in butter, leaving the juice to run down our arms, eventually getting to the meaty stem. A bit like eating crayfish. Every Monday, Wednesday and Saturday we go to the markets to choose what we want to eat for the week. The atmosphere is fun and lively, people give us all sorts of fruits to try and It´s a great place to practice our Turkish.
The Village is small, just 400 people. Bianca, another volunteer, Eric and I are an uncommon sight and walking to the one shop to buy bread takes a while as we stop to say hello to everyone on the way. It is incredible to see how much is going on in the few streets. Men drinking tea whilst playing backgammon, Women cleaning carpets, cows being herded. I am constantly eating
Eric hoeing by sunset
trying to rid the garden of thistles. bread so I have an excuse to go to the shop and see what's going on.
One day we meet a young guy at the shop. He is the local English teacher and invites us along to help with his lessons. We end up making it more of a tandem conversation class. They can practice their English and we even start to learn a bit more Turkish. After the lesson we go to one of the three tea rooms in the village. Only for men but they insist that it is ok for me to go as I am a foreigner. I get a lot of stares the first night and feel a bit uncomfortable but am relaxed by the second night and have no problems. We quickly make friends with people in our class. Emre (the teacher) Taifun (very kind and was always baking us delicious home made bread) and Mustafa ( The village Imam).
On our last night there is a party to celebrate a little boy who will be circumcised. Only women allowed, who I so far have not met. The boys drop me off after our lesson. I am nervous, I don´t know if
Merhaba!
English/Turkish class I will be welcomed and also what to expect. As soon as I arrive an older woman pulls me into a huge bear hug and squeezes my checks. The young girls then take me to the dance floor where we dance around the newly circumcised boy who is dressed as a prince. He seems thankfully not too distressed. The girls are all full of confidence on the dance floor and are fantastic dancers. I look out of place trying to imitate them but it is a lot of fun.
A couple of weeks back we had heard about the riots back in Taksim. Constantino, who we had so recently be drinking coffee with in the middle of Taksim, was now posting on facebook hourly updates with pictures of the drama unfolding back in Istanbul. We were leaving tomorrow and were curious to hear and see what was happening.
We say goodbye to new friends we know we will see again and board the boat not knowing what is waiting for us back in the big city.......
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georgina
non-member comment
WOW!
No blog of yours can be too long.