Here's how it begins...

Greetings, friends & family, and welcome to our blog. Gozer and my husband & I were transferred to Istanbul due to a new job (the hubby's, not mine). In order to stay in touch with all of you--and to share our adventures--and because I'm a full-time housewife--I've set up this site. My somewhat ambitious plan is to post at least every other day, even if it's just a picture and a description. Istanbul is home to almost 14 million people, and the possibilities for exploring are endless. In each post, I hope to share with you what I learn about Turkish language and culture, and, of course, about its people. I'll also be telling you what the weather is like, and contrasting it with Chicago (sorry Chicago peeps, I wish I could say I'm not rubbing it in but that would be a lie).

I've got a bit of catching up to do, so let me tell you how it's gone since I arrived a week ago. My DH (dear husband) met us at the airport. Poor Gozer had been stuffed in a bag under the seat (with mesh, people, not a plastic one) for 11 hours, and I had been unable to sleep since my seat was directly in front of the bathroom, and for some reason my arm rest signalled to everyone who was in line that they should just plop their butts down on my arm. Seriously. But at least the plane was clean and the food was decent and the flight attendants didn't yell at anyone. Needless to say, my DH was a sight for sore eyes, since it had been almost a month since he preceded us to Istanbul. It's been a few years since I went to a place where I didn't speak the language, and boy did I feel intimidated that first day. I think it's hard, too, when you don't want to seem like a tourist, but you don't even know how to say "I would like this or that"...so I was grateful that DH had figured some of this stuff out. In order to cram 14 million people into the city, Istanbullus have built up--so, you seldom see a building with fewer than four floors, which is the reason my DH rented us a beautiful place that has 72 steps leading up to it. Yep. 72.

But, as one of my sisters pointed out, that basically means I'll have great legs without really having to work at it. Istanbul is also full of hills. Have you ever been to San Francisco? It's something like that; you can get seriously winded from walking a few blocks, and, to make it confusing, everyone in this town smokes. I swear I saw a kid who was no older than 13 light up the minute he got off the metro. But back to the apartment--our view is unbelievable. On the bedroom side we face the street that we live on...well, it's not a street, it's more of an alley the length of four apartment buildings. There are lots of these in our neighborhood, and elsewhere in Istanbul, I presume. The view from that side really reminds me of Paris. On the other side, we have a view of the Golden Horn (Haliç), which is the inlet that divides our section of Istanbul in half. If you want to know more about it, you can read the wikipedia page here. Even better, we have floor to ceiling windows that open up...and because it has been a comfortable 80 degrees since I got here, I get up in the morning, open the windows, make my coffee, and watch the boats go from one side to the other.

We also have rooftop, and from there we can see Galata Kulesi (Galata Tower), which was built by the Genoese in the 1300s. It's beautiful, and apparently you can climb to the top and take pictures from there--the view of the city is so good, that for a long time they used the Tower to spot fires. The apartment is also located very close to Istiklal Caddesi (Independence Street), which is a pedestrian street that connects to a funicular on one end and Taksim Meydani (Taksim Square), which is Istanbul's version of Times Square. Except there are buses, a metro, trams, and a four lane highway. A note on walking in Istanbul--cars will not stop for you. Coming from the third world, I'm used to this. But, despite the obvious possibility of death, Istanbullus just throw themselves into the street, and magically drivers manage not to kill anyone. Another note on Istanbul walking--there is a severe traffic problem in this town, and there is also a severe lack of parking.

Which leads desperate drivers to park on the "sidewalks", which I put in quotes because most of the time you can only walk single file, and you have to watch for where there are entrances to basements, since they aren't marked. Due to the habit of sidewalk parking, the city has put up barriers to prevent people from parking. You can see these in the picture to the right. So, drivers just end up parking in the street, which results in a lot of honking and what I can only assume is a lot of swearing. The first few days I was pretty nervous about cooking, since I found three or four small stores but nothing you could call a proper supermarket. I have some pictures to post, but they are still on the camera and my DH is out of town. With the camera. So, instead, I'll show you what a Turkish breakfast looks like. It includes tomatoes, cucumbers, at least three different types of cheese, jam, honey, butter, and olives.(For some reason, Blogger does not like my Turkish breakfast picture. So I'll have to show you next time.Sorry!). And, of course, çay (tea) and kahve (coffee). It's quite funny that the first words you learn when living in a foreign country are the ones for food. Another one that I like: peynir, which means cheese. And if you've ever eaten Indian food, you know their word for cheese is paneer. Neat, huh? The most amazing thing about Turkish is how it's been influenced by every language you can think of. But more on the Turkish language later. For now, I leave you with some pictures I took while exploring...note the laundry hanging between the buildings, the ruggedness of some of the buildings, and the beauty of the different types of architecture. Until next time...xoxo.