Ahoy!

"Ahoy! I'm sailing!.. Look at me, I'm a sailor!" If you can name this movie, a big props to you! I am sincerely impressed by your abilities.

On a more serious note, John and I were sailors for 7 whole days. It was spectacular. The water was so blue and clear and incredible. It was simply Beautiful. And at times Sea Sickening, of course. We kept thinking, this is really an opportunity that we were given that we will probably never be given again. Not in a were so great, look at us kind of a way but, rather a how did we get so lucky way. Let me explain...

We had planned to come to Turkey a while back and while we were making plans, Ayse was conversing with her Turkish friends and family about us coming and what we were going to do whilst being here. Two of her dearest and closest friends, Pelin and Negoti, were trying to come up with a good plan for all of us. They discussed it over with another good friend of their's named Mehmet and he suggested that we all come on his boat and sail with him for 7 days. The only thing he wanted was gas money for the boat and of course the food taken care of for the trip. Anyway, we all agreed that it would be a great experience and so we did it, we sailed.  

Basically, throughout the entire trip, we just went along the Mediterranean coast from cove to cove. We would sleep in a cove one night, wake up the next morning and eat breakfast, then go swim and then set sail to another cove. The next cove we would swim, snorkel, eat lunch and then set sail again for the cove where we would dock and eat dinner and sleep, shower, etc. 

It was so beautiful. I kept finding myself overwhelmed by how incredible this world is and how grateful I am for a loving God to give us such beauty to behold.  Hopefully, the pictures will do justice to beauty that we saw. While I was there, I kept wanting to share it with everyone I know. I wanted everyone to feel the same way about it that I did. But, I felt it was almost personal to me. Like, it was my piece of heaven that God was giving to me even though it was for everyone. I took it personally because I know he created this beauty for all of us. I guess I am just lucky I had the eyes to see it....

This will need an explanation. There were a large amount of boats docked at the Marmaris Marina from where we set sail from. All boats ranging in age, size, type. One boat that we came upon was this one. At first, we were incredibly unsure what to make of it. What was it? Did it come from outerspace? Was it for the furture? Was it a joke? and then we started observing that there was someone that was there inside... after looking at it more closely, we came to the realization that someone must live there and even more important, we think this boat was home made. I wish this photo could show true detail of what it really looked like. Just notice the details as much as you can... very very wierd.

Our boat, named Deeper Blue. Our captain (the one without the shirt)

Our sleeping quarters for the duration of the trip...

The marina...

We set sail!

Us at dinner with Pelin and Negoti.

Stray animals are everywhere! These kitties came to join us for dinner.

The litte boat we would have to take to shore sometimes.

Turkish people drink a lot of tea. Like the english. We always had tea breaks.

One of the dinner locations we ate at. I want to eat at a place like this every night.

Like I mentioned stray animals, this dog really took a liking to John... He was a handsome one.

At one of the Ports that we docked at, there was a kid going around and offering people boat rides to the dock. He was a pretty smart kid, making money off of all these people! We decided to support him and hop on for a short ride to the dock. We got on and immediately almost tipped over! I love Ayse's face in the photo below! It says how all of us were feeling!

In some of the ports and coves that we went to, there would be these islands in the middle and some of them would have old architecture castle like remains on them. This one is on top.. Look closely...

Here is another up close.

This one particular port had young kids (6-12 years of age) learning to sail in there own little boats. They were so wiggly and quick! It was so fascinating to watch them.

John got some new snorkling gear. Looks great, right??

Most of the places we docked had goats right on the shore line. Not the greatest photo but you can see them. Also, our captain took off and went on shore one afternoon and came back with a back of fresh oregano that he had been picking from the hillside. It was just growing naturally! It was so insane to me that it was growing there so freely!

The End.

Happenings...

We went to a place in Istanbul called Taxim. It is this area that is just filled with people constantly. It's busy and fun and there is a lot of good, good people watching to be had. One thing that was cool was that we walked off the bus and there was russian traditional dancing taking place in the middle of the square. They were doing snippets of their show to get people interested in coming. I love this! It really was so fun to watch!

Just the main area to walk down and shop, eat... people watch.

Soon after walking around Taxim and shopping, we hoped on a bus to get to the Airport to pick up Ross, John's dad. It was great because we got to sit front row and get a small bus tour of Istanbul. 

On our tour we saw one of the members of the Turkish Hells Angels chapter. Yeah... never ever did I imagine seeing this in turkey.

Another thing we saw was an aquaduct. A Real live Aquaduct! Still working too! Honestly, I study these in humanities and was so fascinated by them and so seeing it just part of the scenery (not touristy) was so awesome! It was beautiful too!... and massive...

We saw some super old places as well on our drive. I literally thought I would witness this one just collapse right then and there. It is so old looking and would make me nervous to live in it. haha

Love it when John makes these faces just for me.

We then traveled the next day after picking Ross up from the Airport to Marmaris. Marmaris was where we would meet up with our sailing friends and take off on the deep blue Mediterranean Sea. We stayed at a very quaint Hotel called "Otel Dost" which translates to "Hotel Friend". The man that owned it was incredibly nice. He held 2 large suitcases for us at his own home while we sailed for 7 days. Seriously a good, good man.

The room we were in. Very cute. Something that has been common here is that they don't have actual queen size beds for guests to sleep on, instead they push 2 twin size beds together... (I may have already mentioned this in a prior post, sorry).. The fact that I could nearly get the entire room in this photo says everything about its size... perspective.

The one and only night that we stayed in Marmaris was fun. The main streets are full of people and stores. Tourists come there- to the max- and the turks take advantage of the ability to make money (not in a negative way just in a touristy way)... anyway, we went into this one store where they were selling perfumes for a good price. We even smelt the tester and checked the packaging and thought they seemed pretty legit. Plus, I shop in LA all the time, I am used to this kind of selling. Anyway, we purchased 2 perfumes and 1 cologne. We were pretty excited. After about another 30 minutes of walking around we were ready to head back to the Otel. I started thinking, what if this stuff sucks and we can't do anything about it. So I suggested that we pull it out and test it. The one we chose to test was Aqua Di, a smell that I am all to familiar with (The one smell I demand John wear), and we sprayed it... and nothing. I could not smell a thing. A couple more sprays... nope. nothing. Then we thought, maybe give it a sec. Nope... nothing.. Ayse was so upset. So we set off to go back to the store. With my knowledge of LA- there is almost guarantee that we would not get out money back and I figured that was the case here. I was a little nervous. So was John. We decided to hide in a store nearby so that she could do her thing. She walked out with a smile on her face and nothing in her hands. She is good. 

We had asked her what she said. I was purely amazed. She said that she kept it simple and said to the young man that he was not honest. That the perfumes were not as he had advertised and that he needed to give her her money back. Its amazing what a small but stubborn woman can accomplish! Needless to say, I was incredibly relieved that we took care of it before it was too late.

The next morning we said our goodbyes to Marmaris and set sail for the coast of Turkey.

Hairy Cat Bum...

Turkey is fast paced.. in certain areas. Istanbul- WAY fast paced. Think of taxi's everywhere. Buses everywhere. Cars everywhere. People everywhere. Honestly it's amazing how many people live in Istanbul. Google said that there is 13.5 million people in Istanbul. Whoa. That's more than I thought. But seriously, the city is old and has so much rich history to it. Even taking a taxi is entertaining. Never a dull moment. Also, very very rich area. I would say 45% have NICE vehicles. BMW, Lamborghini, Maserati, Range Rover, Porshe, Mercedes... you name it, they are everywhere.

Then you get to the outskirts of Istanbul- the in between areas from the big cities like Istanbul and Ankara.. and its serene and quiet. Very green, very peaceful almost puts you to sleep. haha Most of the time it is really poor too. Very humble on the outskirts, houses and apartments falling apart... literally foundations disintegrating. Dirty. I enjoy being able to see both aspects of Turkey. It gives me a great perspective of how nice the nice is and how low the low is. I wouldn't have this perspective if it weren't for a MIL (mother in law) who is Turkish. It has been such a blessing to have her be able to give me the non-touristy tour. I have really been enjoying it.

It hasn't been easy. In fact, I have been really ill at one point. Luckily, not sick enough to go to the hospital, but close. Guess that comes with the territory of traveling where no tourists usually travel. Also very Luck, John was able to give me a blessing and his mom could get me turkish medicine to help me out. Boy did it work wonders! I was healed. Just. like. that. Amen.

A few things to note: I actually miss food that I am familiar with. Don't get me wrong, the food here is AMAZING. It's that- today we were at the airport to fly down to Marmaris from Istanbul, and we were hungry so the only options for food was McDonald's or Arby's (go figure). We decided on McDonald's because it was more familiar to us being in foreign countries and we were a little nervous Arby's would be too disgusting. Anyway, I'm not a cheerleader for Mickey D's but BOY! Was it ever the most delicious burger. Oh a BURGER! I decided, today, I LOVE burgers. Here they eat lamb, goat, and other weird meats. They are good, but a taste to be acquired too. Also, its like the options for food literally at every restaurant are all the same. One plate will contain Lamb meat (called Doner), an ice cream scoop of rice, 4 french fries (only 4), 1 tomato cut in half, shredded lettuce, and a hot pepper.  Also, they eat a ton of fresh fruits and veggies all the time, all day long. It's delish!

CLICK to watch the video, its the Turkish Version of a Roller Coaster haha :)

Another note: The taxi driver's are all different here. Some will be calm, taking there time, others will be insanely wild in their driving- I've gotten fairly used to feeling like I might die at any moment while in a taxi here. But none beats this one from yesterday. I felt like I was on a ride at Six Flags Magic Mountain. I was bracing myself the entire time. Bracing like one arm up on the ceiling of the car, one arm grabbing something else, feet pressing the imaginary break pedal like it was my full time job. It was crazy... The greatest part- John caught on film... see for yourself.


Please note that the song playing in the video was the same song playing in the taxi. haha

Well, we are off tomorrow to go sailing the Aegean Coast for 7 whole days! Which means, no internet. Wah, wah. But really, I'm am thrilled for this. This is a once in a life time, great opportunity. We are lucky to know someone willing to take us out on his boat for that long. I'll post about that when we get back!

P.s. I didn't know what to title this post so I asked John to give me a random name (he not knowing what for) and Hairy Cat Bum is what I got...

A few cool things, a few funny things..

Cool Things:

So they have these markets here in Turkey that they call Bazaars. Basically, it is a flea market that is on a road that has been closed off. Here at these Bazaars they sell anything from trinkets, stuff they found in their garage, to new clothing, shoes, to fresh grain, fresh tea, to fresh vegetables... etc. You can imagine all that you can find there. I was just in awe of how awesome this place was. I can just imagine how awesome it would be to walk down the street to go get freshly grown vegetables and grains. The crazy part was their cost. 7lbs of Cucumber for 2 lira- or like $.75. It is grown right near that town so it is incredibly cheap!

In order to create this bazaar, they just set up shop and put a tarp or fabric over top of them... Every one is built physically smaller than John or I (if you have met his mom, you would understand this) so the tarps were set really low. haha

Fresh lemons, tomatoes, and hot peppers...

Fresh peaches! SO rich and yummy!

John's cousin Yunis was working the peaches and fresh cherries! Here he is with Benyamin and Nebahat..

More veggies! Tomatoes, cucumber, green beans... Just Fresh veggies everywhere!

Don't these Cherries look Bomb?? And thats fresh Garlic next to it on the right.

Funny Things:

So while we were out and about, we stepped into this store that had furniture, dishware, glasses to drink out of, chairs, beds, showers.. everything very turkish, and then this decoration or a scarecrow! It was soo out of place and I suddenly felt for a moment we were in the States... It's not like they celebrate halloween here, or christmas... but a scarecrow seems soooo random. Right?? haha I definitely got a kick out of this.

In that same little market area was this place to get food. The thing is, please just look at the name. "Fast Food"... haha like it isn't obvious that is is a fast food place... then on top of that, they serve hamburgers and Pizza!!! A novelty here! So cool! haha... I just loved that it was clearly an american style place to eat and then they just called it fast food. Genius!

After I laughed at this, Ayse and I went to the restroom and as we were walking in there was a separate room with the lights out and I barely caught a glimpse of this amazing beauty! Please Look at how small this is! hahaha Its like a mini of a mini...if that makes sense. We for some reason thought this was soo funny, we almost peed our pants on our way to the restroom! haha

In case you didn't quite get the perspective of is smallness... Everything in the bathroom is of normal size, except that little toilet. haha

Daily Moments.

This is Anine or as we call her in English- Grandma Fatma. She is 70 Years old. She has survived Ovarian Cancer and is a very quiet lady. She has had no education. She has given birth to 7 children. She worked as a Janitor and is now retired. Her one dream is to have a nice home with nice furniture before she dies. She has never had that before.

This is Dede- or More commonly known as Grandpa Mustafa. He is 81 years old. Incredibly flexible from getting on the floor to eat (See previous post), and from kneeling in prayer 5 times a day. He has a very belly deriving laugh. It is very contagious. He was a road worker his whole life. He is now retired.  The hat on his head is to remind him that he is not higher than God. He was born with a birth defect on his right hand/ arm. It looks very much larger than his left hand which is normal looking. It is also purple. I don't believe he has any pain from it. He bought me an ice cream cone last night. Just he and I and $.35. He was very happy to do this for me.

Ayse being "Wild"... haha She looked at herself in the mirror an hour later with this scarf on her head and exclaimed, "Why didn't anyone tell me!?" and we all laughed because we ALL told her but she would say, "Whatever!" haha

Benyamin and Nebahat. Brother and Sister Orphans. They are being raised by Ayse's sister Hatice (ha-tig-a) who is their grandmother. Their father shot their mom- she is dead and he is in prison for life. They are simply adorable. She is my favorite. Very sweet. They LOVE when Ayse-teze (Aunt Ayse) comes to town. They get Ice cream!!

Dede and Benyamin cooking dinner in their BBQ. We had Kebab's for dinner. Sheep meat with Veggies. Not bad.

Right outside Anine and Dede's house. Look closely...

The front of their House. They share half of it with another family. Notice the Ivy looking plant on top?

The Ivy Looking plant is on most of the entry ways to the houses. I thought it was really beautiful looking.....

Then I looked closer and realized it was a Grape vine! Are you kidding me??!?! a Grape VINE??? It was awesome!

The sun was setting and there was a moment where it seemed that all stopped... it was very surreal. This is what you see when you walk through the gate to their house. It looks really nice in this photo but sadly it is fairly poor in this area.

While we were waiting for dinner, Ayse (On the left), her sister Hatice (Middle) came back from getting groceries. Check this out though, see the guy walking with a grocery cart on the right? Yeah, he was personally bringing the groceries home with them. We don't know him, he was just asked by his elders to bring the groceries home and since he respects his elders he did it. He literally dropped the groceries off at the door. It was awesome! Could you imagine that kind of service??

Oh by the way, would you like some freshly dried apricots?...

Sometimes I want to live here for a long time and learn all their cool secrets and tricks. It all seems so simple. Like last night, Ayse was telling me all these natural herb remedies that they use. Not store bought stuff, like actual bushes and herb stuff. Pretty cool.

Dede, Anine, and CAKE!

I have been trying to think of how to start blog posts and I always feel really awkward in starting one. Like, suddenly I'm having a conversation with no one. I was never one to talk to myself. Even in my personal journals, I find it hard to start writing something. I feel like it needs to be a well written introduction, like as though I am writing a school paper and I need a riveting intro with a glorious thesis in order to get anyone to read beyond the first paragraph.

Some days, I am over it and I just begin. I think today I feel awkward.

Anyway, We are still here in Karaman where Ayse was Born. I don't know if most of you have read her book "The Worth of a Soul: From Muslim to Mormon", but in her book it discusses her whole life. Where she came from, how she grew up, the trials that she faced. One thing I learned was about her family. She was born to Mustafa and Fatma Kizil. Fatma and Mustafa married when Fatma was 15 and Mustafa was 26. You see, this is a very patriarchal society. Women have some say, but not much. By the time Fatma was 19, she had had 3 children. Ayse was the 2nd child of 7; 5 children are currently living. One thing as well about this society is not only are they patriarchal, but they also respect there elders. No matter who they are. For example, we have to take mini buses every where we go (They are like a small version of a large bus but they look like those vans from the 70's.. you know what I'm talking about?) and while we are on the buses, I have witnessed so many older people tell a younger person to pay for them while handing them money. The younger people respond quickly without questioning. This isn't frustrating to anyone, it is a simple form of respect in this culture. Anyway, the whole reason I am telling this because when Ayse was a little girl, her father Mustafa's older sister Turkan could not have any children so she asked him for Ayse and he just gave her to Turkan. Ayse was young enough that she did not know that she was "adopted"(not legally) and believed that Turkan and her husband Necmi were her real blood parents while she was being raised in Istanbul (13 hours away).

When she was informed at a particular time in her life that she was "adopted", it really tore her to pieces. She struggled to forgive any of her parents. I can't imagine the difficulty she must have felt. Maybe a litte betrayal, loneliness. She was angry at Fatma and Mustafa for just giving her up like she was an object, and for Turkan and Necmi not telling her the truth. She was angry for a long time. Now in her life she has forgiven all of them. Turkan and Necmi have passed on, though Fatma and Mustafa are still here. It is really cool to see how she has forgiven them and how much they love and respect her and how much she loves are respects them.

Over the years the family has bonded well and when Ayse, Ross, and John come into town, the family takes the entire time off to just be with them to express their love. Sure there isn't perfection in their relationships but they are growing and time is healing everyone. I am so grateful I get to witness such forgiveness. Ayse is incredibly kind to her lowly and poor parents and family. They just adore her!

While we have been here, there isn't any site seeing to do so we have just been spending time together by walking around the town, getting ice cream (A very rich treat to them), eating out (another treat that only happens when Ayse comes), and just spending time at Dede's (Grandpa Mustafa) and Anine's (Grandma Fatma) home. 

On one of our walks to get a dessert we passed a Mosque (they are EVERYWHERE) and saw a Gigantic Birds nest. Seriously, look at it in comparison to the size of the Mosque. Do you see it? The dark thing in the middle? (not the best description but it will have to do)

Here is it up close. It's a STORK'S Nest!!! Crazy right??? Look how HUGE that bird is! I couldn't believe it! It was very normal to them. They often laugh at what amazes me. haha I guess I am easily entertained.

We got to the restaurant where one of John's cousins work (Fatma, the younger one) and ate a delish dessert that I don't know the name of, John just calls it his balls dessert. definitely can offer a good laugh when not expecting it.

This is Mustafa on the right, the brother to Ayse, and his son Yusuf. Yusuf is 18 years old and he is awesome with trying to teach me Turkish. Still our conversations are very "Me Tarzan, You Jane" but it gets the job done. This Mustafa LOVES John. Always wants to be near him, and always tries to put his arm around John. Now that John has a mustache, Mustafa just goes wild over it and laughs and laughs cause they are the same now. haha

Starting from the left: Nebahat (The little orphan girl), Miriam (Mustafa's wife, John's Aunt), Ayse (My MIL- duh), Yusuf, and Fatma (The younger one).

After dessert, we walked back to Dede and Anine's house and played marbles. It is very cool the games that they have come up with. They're challenging too!

After some games and just hanging out, we ate dinner. Dinner served here is not like any dinner I have been too. Food is placed on a short low to the ground table with silverware and some cups and everyone, no matter how many of you there are, will sit at the table on the ground. There is a table cloth underneath the table and that is what you use as like a place to catch the dropped food or crumbs. Usually in every, and I mean EVERY turkish meal there is a salad of greens, onion, cucumber, tomato, oil and lemon. It is DELISH and also there is always fresh loaves of bread. That white stuff is not an every meal type thing, but it is common. It is a sour yogurt of sorts to cleanse the palette. Honestly, it's absolutely disgusting. haha  Anyway, so what surprised me was that no one got their "own" bowl of food. Everyone just ate out of all the bowls. It was crazy! Kind of fun to be totally immersed into the culture. I love it! And the food was really good. Healthy, for sure.

I guess while we were playing with marbles, Yusuf had made a little surprise for John and I. They can't say my name very well. At first, they wouldn't say it at all. Then once we taught them it became "SteFONie". An emphasis was placed on the FON part of my name. Well, Yusuf didn't know how I spelt my name and he made this of mine and John's name and I thought it was so sweet how he attempted to spell it! Missing a few letters in there... just a few...

Also, they loved that I had a camera and kept asking me to pull it out. So this is one of the photos taken with Mustafa, John, Me, and Miriam at Dede's and Anine's home.

Last event of the evening was a cake- which oddly enough they call "Pasta".. both make you gain weight so... I get it... haha The great part of this is that no matter what day it is, if you bring a cake to Dede's (grandpa's) house, it is ALWAYS his birthday! So we sang grandpa Happy Birthday that night with candles and the whole shebang to end the evening! It was Perfect!