I am writing this while listening to my first call to prayer. Anne is in the kitchen, cleaning up from a beautiful kahvalti full of beautiful food from a konya farm to her new kitchen table in Antalya. Baba and Suha are having animated conversations in Turkish and I am sitting in the middle of it all just glowing!!
It is hot! 40 C with a breeze and Anne is about to serve Kahv…I cannot believe that 36 hours ago, I was having breakfast in my own garden with Aunt Coleen!! She dropped us off at the airport and first thing we heard was, “Suha!!” It was our friends, Asil and Sibel, on their way to Istanbul. Come to find out they were taking the same plane, layovers and everything!!
The first flight we just watched movies and slept, then a quick Starbucks stop in Amsterdam we were back on the plane. Flying into Amsterdam we saw windmills in the ocean!! Then fields as far as you could see with small canals between…I was beautiful. Amsterdam also had security at EVERY gate!! And they threw away my water so I wasn’t very happy.
One more movie later we were in Istanbul. I got my visa and met a gentleman from Texas who was going to swim the 3 miles at Bogazici (Bosphorus) between the Eastern and Western points of Europe for Zafer Bayrami. He said the race was just an excuse to travel and see Turkey. I had my first baklava and we were back on the short flight to Antalya. By now, we are both done, can’t hardly stay awake.
At the airport the tears and hugs were overwhelming, everyone was SOOO happy!! I experienced my first ride in Turkish traffic, the part where people don’t believe in lines applies to the roads too!! I’m glad I was too tired to really care cause it was a bit scary. We arrived at Suha’s parents home to a HUGE Turkish meal, It was so beautiful and so good and I felt right at home, I ate way too much which is never enough. We had fun passing out gifts, telling stories, eating watermelon and listening to the thrum of crickets on the balcony. It had cooled off to 96 degrees!! I hardly remember laying down and it was morning…
I can’t wait to see what today holds
Great post Jen, I'm so excited for you, it sounds like you are going to have an amazing time! Just smile a lot and say a few words of Turkish and everyone will love you :-)
ReplyDeleteThank you Bethany!! It has been amazing, everyone is so nice and I'm finding out my turkish isn't as bad as I thought!! The little I know, I am pronouncing and using appropriately and picking up more and more each day. Mostly I smile, nod and nudge suha, "what?" LOL
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