I have decided to briefly title my posts to more organized. After another wonderful breakfast at the Cinar (cooked to order omelets, full European spread of cheese, breads and meats and full Turkish spread of olives, tomatoes, cucumber, honey, jams with the bonuses of grilled mushrooms and muslis and other goodies, along with a rarity in Turkey - good brewed coffee) we made a final walk along the sea. Our animal friends were there - the well fed street cats and the big, lazy street dogs along with assorted land and sea birds. The Mamara sea is beautiful particularly in the morning with the day's new light and the many ships awaiting transit through the Bosphorus (heading north for the Black Sea).
Our car delivery man was late (the horrible Istanbul traffic) but arrived around 10:30 AM. The car is a Renault Megane which looks a little tired. Most cars in Turkey are gray or silver and this one is no exception. It has this weird key that is a plastic square with a push button start on the dashboard. No place to connect an ipod and no cruise control but it has four doors, a big trunk and automatic transmission. The super guys at the Cinar loaded all of our luggage (a tight fit) and we headed out with Clive (our invaluable GPS who is a Turkish veteran and named after Clive Owen whose voice he resembles) to guide us. It took a while to get out of Istanbul with the bridge traffic (we had the bonus of a lane closed on the bridge :-( ).
Running low on diesel fuel we found our favorite Turkish gas station (Opet) and filled up. It was well over 200 lira!! The drive was nice - Randy started falling asleep a couple hours into it so I drove for a few hours while he napped. This is our first time in Turkey in winter and the snow on the mountains is beautiful. The highway between Istanbul and Ankara is good and the traffic is not too heavy. We arrived in Ankara less than five hours later.
We got to Bilkent University where our apartment key was waiting at the security check point (there is security everywhere in Turkey) and we got to see our new home for the first time. The apartment we have is in the building next to the one we viewed last summer but the building is totally different and much nicer. Apparently the apartments are largest on campus for faculty and ours is clean and well laid out. More on Casa Smith in a later post. We couldn't work the key though and rang the neighbor's door for help. A man answered and I asked him if he spoke English, Well, duh, he did since he turned out to be a British native who teaches English at Bilkent (and is married to a Turk). We got in and unloaded all of the luggage.
We drove to the Dengiz house in Golbasi, a suburb to the south about 20 minutes away. There, Berna and Tahir greeted us with kofte, celery root salad, etc. It was so nice to be back there and visit with them. Berna was off to the States early in the morning to be with her daughter Burcin who is about to have a baby.
The next day saw us moving in at Casa Smith. With repeated calls and emails to resolve apartment issues, things happened amazingly quickly for Turkey. We got a second twin bed for the spare bedroom delivered and set up, a washing machine delivered and set up, and the internet fixed (it was not working). That evening we were invited first for a quick dinner with the Sumers who live a short five minutes away then to the Ankara Ballet with the Fulbright group. We got to meet a few other senior Fulbright scholars (I am the only one at Bilkent this year) and saw a very nice production of Harem which included traditional Ottoman music and costumes. The production was of high quality and the Opera House was a relic from the early Republic days of the 1930's.
 |
| Sunrise over Bosphorus from our room at the Cinar Hotel in Istanbul. |
 |
| Randy with some friendly and well kept street cats along the sea near the hotel. Note ships in background waiting for transit up the Bosphorus to the Black Sea. |
 |
| Berna Dengiz gets some last minute work in after dinner at the Dengiz house in Golbasi (Ankara). |
 |
| Cevahir Sumer cooked us a splendid dinner of roast meat, pureed potatoes, eggplant, celery root and her special red pepper spread, which she does the best in the world. |
 |
| Our beloved Cinar Hotel in Istanbul (yes, these are out of order again despite the fact that I upload them in order - what does Blogspot do to jumble them??) |
 |
| One of the neighborhood dogs outside of the Cinar Hotel. These Anatolia dogs are huge and they all seem docile. |
 |
| Randy in the Megane driving from Istanbul to Ankara. |
 |
| Two important things - on the left, our GPS Clive and on the right, my new Ipad mini which we used to play music as we can't bear much Turkish radio (it is really bad) and we have no hook up to hear music from an Ipad or Ipod through the car speakers. |
 |
| Alice with our friend Sofia Sahin at the Sumer house Thursday evening. |
Our day concluded with the first night spent at our new home in Turkey.
No comments:
Post a Comment