Pictures!

This is us in the Athens airport looking at some nature pictures and museum pieces!  It was interesting... :-)  and a nice way to pass some time!

The post I've been promising...

We left for the Airport on Sunday afternoon last week around 1:30.  We got our boarding passes, checked our luggage (thank goodness!) and started for security.  We went through security really quickly, and then got to ride the underground tram-ish thing to reach our boarding deck.  The flight was to Athens, Greece, and was supposed to take around 11 hours.  Eulgh.... none of us slept more than an hour.  :-)  I learned that you can hang out in the back of the plane with the flight attendants and eat!  We were up and about in between movies (which was basically all night) and there was a fantastic movie ("Leap Year") that played with Amy Adams in it.  We got to Athens around 10 in the morning, and put our carry-ons in a secure keeping place while we gallivanted around the airport.  We couldn't actually leave the airport because our connecting flight to Istanbul left in 2 hours.  We ate lunch at the airport and also spent some time in the airport museum (which was very interesting), so much that we had to run through the airport after picking up our bags so we wouldn't miss our flight!  It was close. and we got there just in time to get a good spot in line, and then rode out to the plane in a bus-ish thing.  The lunch on the plane was AMAZING!  We had already had lunch, so we weren't that hungry, but the "airplane food" was DEFINITELY not airplane food!  The flight was only about 45 minutes, and then we were in Turkey on Monday afternoon!  We went to get a Visa (for me) and then went through passport control.  Then, downstairs to pick up our baggage, and out to find our taksi-bus.  On the way out of the airport, we stopped to buy a cell-phone, and two Turkish/ European(?) plans for while we're here so the girls (Melis and I) and Aunt Sureyya both can get in touch with each other, plus Aunt Sureyya can now get in touch with her family.  It was raining in Turkey!  Apparently, it never rains in the summer, especially in June, and everyone was asking us and telling us about it!  We were like, "Yes, we see, it IS raining!" ;-)  We arrived at the apartment and walked up three flights of very small, very curly stairs to get to our flat.  Carrying 50 pound bags while doing this is not necessarily easy or fun, but the driver of the bus helped with the really big ones, so Melis and I only had a couple of bags a piece, plus the carry-ons, and then the lady we were renting from took pity on our huffing and puffing and made us cold lemonade!  :-)  That night, we stayed up as long as we could to handle jet lag, and then pretty much passed out.  

         The next day, it was still raining. Tuesday.  We got up, had some breakfast, and Meltem (Aunt Sureyya's Niece) came and picked us up at our apartment to show us her new Studio of the Arts.  She is a graduate of the Royal Academy of Dance, and teaches dance, exercise classes, culinary arts, guitar, and piano.  The new studio is her second one, and she is an Interior Designer by education, so it's beautiful.  Then we went and ate lunch (again, amazing!), and then to an amazing bakery, Konak, the BEST place in Istanbul (so I'm told, and so I've tasted) for éclairs.  After that, Meltem took us to the Akbank (one of the Turkish banks) so Aunt Sureyya could set up an account.  Then we took a taxi home, and went back out to the grocery store right up the street from us (they have grocery stores within walking distance of EVERY place here), called Migros, and bought food, and then stopped by a food place right next door that we are now calling "the amazing doma lady", a family business that apparently makes the best dolma Aunt Sureyya (and Melis and I, of course) have ever tasted!  Dolma is rice, seasoning, sometimes pine nuts, all wrapped up in delicious grape leaves soaked in some sort of seasoned liquid-y stuff that make the whole thing a pretty much crazy awesome experience!  We ate half a kilo of those things in the space of about 30 minutes - and that was trying to save some for the next day!  (that effort was a fail, by the way!)  At any rate, that day was done, and we pretty much crashed again.  The next day was also supposed to be rainy, so we planned to do indoor stuff.  Will finish later!  We're out, and my computer is almost out of battery, so... farewell until next time (tonight, maybe?)!  Love you all!

              ~Bekah

Again, in response to Comments....

Chewing gum, mom!?  What in the world?  Good luck on the chosen spot thing , though... lol... if she'll actually consent to being moved!  We went to Garipce today, which is a fishing village right om the edge of the Bosporus, Black sea side...  ate amazing fresh fish/ shrimp/ calamari and went to explore the ruin of an old castle from the Ottoman Empire, that was also used all the way up to World War II (as a defense).  There is an answering tower across the strait, so the two of them together strategically tried to block anyone from getting into the strait.  It was amazing.  Will post photos and more info soon!  Promise!  Love you guys!  
         ~Bekah

Response to my amazing friends (and my amazing sister ;-))

Thank you everyone for your comments!  Nanna, I love you, thank you for Jed's email, that was fun to read.  Margrette and Sarah: you guys make me feel loved!  ;-)  Really!  It's amazing and my feet hurt so, so bad!  But we've been amazing places!  We've already been to the Sultan Ahmet district, which is where the Aya Sofya (Hagia Sophia), the Blue Mosque, the Cistern, and Theodosius's obelisk (which I didn't much care about, really), the spice bazaar (for a few minutes), the Istiklal Caddesi in Taksim (a district of Istanbul) and a TON of amazing shops, sculptures, RESAURANTS, etc... :-)  Anyway, I'll see what I can do to fill you guys in asap on what all has happened since the flight... :-)  MUAH! :-)

Since I left my house.....

Iyi aksamlar (eeyach-sham-lar - good evening) everyone!  It's about 12-1 in the morning over here as I'm posting, but it should be around 6 or 7 your time.  Since my Uncle's internet was decidedly NOT working, I had to wait until I got to Turkey to post anything, plus I was busy helping everyone pack ;-).  I kept a little post-it note with stuff I wanted to write about, though, and so I'm working from that and my memories!

The trip down to my Uncle's house was quite lovely... Melis and I both slept most of the way, we stopped for breakfast at MacDonalds (They have amazing sausage burritos... I never knew this!!), and goofed off in the Russel Stover store in Andersonville, SC... (we played ninja, and... well... yeah... but it was worth it!)  We did not feel BAD about goofing off in said Russel Stover store because our party (names have been left out of the matter ;-) bought at least 50 dollars worth of chocolate, of not more, mostly for use as rewards in my Aunt's government -sponsored awareness workshops across the globe.

While at my Aunt's house, I discovered THE most amazing pasta ever (at least I thought so until I had this amazing Turkish pasta...) that was served with yogurt infused with garlic.  I had no idea it was going to be as good as it was!  Apparently (as I saw when I got over to Turkey), Turks eat yogurt the way we eat butter: with EVERYTHING.    The pasta was simply shell noodles, tomato paste, ground beef and some seasonings, and the yogurt was just plain yogurt with chunks (not minced - chunky) of garlic in it.  As far as the yogurt goes, all you do is chop and put in the garlic, and then the flavor leeches out of the garlic and into the yogurt.  It's not very strong, and the chunks of garlic don't actually taste like anything except for texture.  At any rate, the whole ensemble was delicious... and just an Americanized taste of real Turkish food.

While helping my cousin Melis pack, we ran across a brochure put together by high school students entitled "101 Ways to Stay Alive" (no joke).  One of them was "Don't drive if you can walk."  I stopped and said, "Almost everybody can walk, hello!"  We both cracked up.  Melis also then made the quote of the day by saying, "Well, that would severely cut down on traffic!"

I also learned that day that chain links can be turned into wire shelf hooks!  You simply take pliers and turn the top half at a 90 degree angle to the bottom half counterclockwise (so it makes kind of an s, but not all the way).  You then have hooks of all different metals (you can buy chain in about every colour), and that method is significantly cheaper than paying for weak, ugly wire shelf hangers.

One final note before I go to bed and continue the rest of this summary tomorrow night (maybe, if we're not out too late): You MUST watch The Lakehouse!  It is super twisty though (you don't know whether the guy lives or dies), and Melis and I were both dripping liberally by the end of the movie.  Even though all their technicalities as to the time difference are not worked out, it's a very good story.  So please watch it! (And tell me if you dripped too).   ;-)  Love you all!
       ~Bekah

"Cousins by blood - friends by choice." ~ Darlene Shaw

Well, I know it's been a while since I've posted anything (jet lag is a bear), but this was a beginning of a post from around May 28th:

I've been working on my Student ID (which will help with the money aspect of the trip - discounts!).  I finally finished and it looks spiffin', complete with a watermark and a barcode (no kidding!).  Anyhow, I've been thinking about Melis (my cousin) and I, and our friendship.

I guess it wasn't easy for us to be best friends, and we weren't at first.  Living a good distance away from each other, we grew up as little kids not seeing each other very much (although for both of us, we saw each otrher pretty much more than we saw any other extended family.)  We didn't click well at first, even though we could get along.  I was a little brat at the time, and Melis was a year younger, and we both got frustrated and annoyed easily.  Our differences polarized us rather than bringing us together.

Obviously, such is not the case anymore.  Especially over the past 4 or 5 years, we've both grown up a great deal, and the two of us have both taken a lot of joy and comfort in the things we share, and have been interested in each other's differences.  We have come to learn a lot from each other, and we respect each other.  We're best friends now, yes.  But it's taken shared laughter and tears, some everyday life and learning together to get us there.  We both love to learn about other cultures, are both very driven towards education, have both been exposed to a lot of different types of everything!

By blood, we're cousins.  We spent a little bit of time together growing up.  But our backgrounds were very different.  But now, we're friends... and I'm glad. :-)

Alright guys!  Hello to Hannah (my sister ;-)): I love you, take care... and to Mom and Dad the same.  I will probably post a VERY long one soon about the actual flight, etc, and all the places we've been already in Istanbul... it's been almost 5 days since we arrived!  (I still can't hardly believe it, but my feet are protesting loudly as I write, so I must not be dreaming...)  Anyway, love you all!...
        ~Bekah

Getting close!

The Hagia Sophia, Istanbul, Turkey

        
          The reality of the trip is beginning to set in, finally! Melis and Uncle Neal and my "Grandma" Frances are coming up to our house on the 28th (Friday!), and will spend a week with us, then down to theirs, and from there, we're off! Cleaning, etc, is going on, and it's marvelously exciting to get ready for people! The anticipation is so thick it can be tasted while we work, and the whole house is lit with an unmistakable glow of happy expectancy.          

          Packing (I'm ashamed to say) has not even been started, but I did manage to sort through my closet a little bit, and am getting back to practicing my Turkish.  I can say hello, goodbye, how are you, "I'm fine, thank you", excuse me, thank you, good morning/ evening/ afternoon, etc... and have started on the days of the week, a small army of animal names, and some common phrases (for example, "how do I get to...?" - although I probably won't be needing that one much!).  At any rate, I'm expecting things to speed up when Melis gets here!  (I can't wait!)  

         By the way, if you've noticed the link bar to your left, there's a link to "Free Rice".  I personally enjoy this site immensely because, 1) It supports and sends food to people who need it, 2) You can change subjects! (check out the subjects tab at the top of their webpage), 3) It's overtly educational, and I feel much smarter after spending a little time on it!  This last may be an illusion, but it's a nice illusion just the same!  

         Hannah (my little sister) is unfortunately bedridden at the moment with the ever-common crippling disease known as a fever, and is of practically no use to anyone except as entertainment (she lays on the couch and makes random noises that might have at one time been meant as comments, but are totally muffled beneath her blankey).  

         Well, nice as it is to post more muses, I must take my leave, bid you farewell, and say with Shakespeare's Celia (As You Like It), "Now go we in content/ To liberty, and not to banishment." - and also, we go to clean!  Take care...
            ~Bekah   ;-)