too long
since which...
turkey.
it was a frieking triiip and there was literally nothing about it that was normal/expected.
. . . i have never ever ever ever ever been so surprised by a place in my entire life (and on SO many different levels). ever.
prior to leaving i will admit that i knew (next to) nothing about turkey (except)
- my bizarre common knowledge of some of the uglier history (mostly in regrards to the armenians and the kurds)
** in knowing these things turkey has never been somewhere i wanted to visit and therefore i was barely excited about getting to visit. haaaa.
- it being a predominantly muslim country which i automatically associated with indonesia which i figured would mean having to dress extra conservative all the time, not really being allowed to look males in the eyes, being so limited in where we could go and what we could do, feeling weird about being a female/the call to prayer again etc etc
-it wanting to become part of the eu (which i, in my very limited knowledge and perhaps ignorance, think is ridiculous because greece is definitelyyy pushing it by being part of "europe." in which case, turkey is out of the question so i thought that as a country it was extra stupid that they would try to join something that the geography/culture does not match. at all).
- the whirling dervishes (ok, their one cool asset).
that was pretty much it. when i added these things up the sum was less than desirable and i was certain there were a number of other places close by that were much more worthy of my time. (haaaa).
AND the extra weird thing is that i am the queen of research before i visit a place (any place) but i thought that turkey was going to be whack no matter what so i did zero research.
(** i knew the trip wasn't going to suck, my peeps are way too awesomeee and i knew we were going to have a fantastic time no matter what but i wasn't holding my breath that that would happen because of where we were going to be. also, in truth i was a little excited about getting to leave paros for awhile. and, the trip was dirt cheap which was why i definitely could not deny it).
we left paros at 11:30pm on the 15th and arrived in samos (one of the islands about an hour away from kusadasi, one of the main ports in turkey) at around 4am. after a long and comical stint and a random coffee shop we ended up with breakfast at hotel samos. (also comical. we were sooo tired!)
we arrived in kusadasi around noon and were met at the port by some guys from the hotel who took us to selcuk (town we stayed in, like 20 mins. from kusadasi)
when we arrived at the hotel. . .
- potentially very cute boy working at reception
- (sacntity of) room 401: tej tej + britts + me = OWNED. not only do i love these girls and not only was our room perfectly coloured/cozy/condusive to sleep but we had a sick view of the most precious park and the old part of selcuk. a really sick view.
- everyone went out that afternoon but i stayed back to take a shower and indulge in the most delicious nap of life. unfortunately i was rudely awaken after a couple hours by the call to prayer which i was pretty sure began with 'O-BA-MAAAA.' it didn't but it was still really, weird.
- that night we all went out to dinner which was fun and hilariiious and also weird and maybe made me a little skeptical
at the end of the day, i was glad i had come to turkey but also had no idea what the heck was going on. it was weird and also wonderful.
on our first full day in selcuk we spent the morning at the bazaar which was so cool and so much fun! we had a blast wandering around, trying different things, buying the coolest stuff ever and being exposed to turkish baklava : the most delicious thing in the whole world.
howeverrr. . . in general, i haaate not being able to communicate (even if it's the smallest things like basic phrases and numbers) with people in their own language. after several hours i started to feel lame about it so i went back to the hotel figuring that maybe someone there would teach me some turkish. . .
when i got back, who else would be working but potentially cute guy? ohh right.
when i asked him if he would help me he agreed and then he ROLLED HIS EYES AT ME but i was undeterred. i was going to learn some turkish and he was going to teach me, even he was weird.
his (western) name is adam, his real name is harun.
we sat and drank tea and he taught me the basics and then he needed to take some papers over to another hotel so i went with him and as it turned out, he was not weird at all.
after he dropped the papers off we ended up at a cafe in a park drinking lemon soda and talking about life. sitting in the park turned into ending up at the temple of artemis (one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, i had no idea it even existed. good job, amy) which furthermore resulted in wandering around in a blossoming peach tree orchard on the way to some old roman ruins. . . he was an excellent guide and we had a lot of fun.
later we were sitting on a bench and as he was telling me about ararat, which is where he's from, i was trying to devise the most inconspicuous way to find out if (being from so far east...) he was actually turkish or something else (armenian?! georgian?! the possibilities were endless) as it turns out he is actually
kurdish. (!!!!!)
i died.
to get to talk with someone who is kurdish about kurdish people and kurdish issues and relations with turkey was seriously the best thing that could have happened. ever.
it was quite the afternoon and made for a perfect rest of the week.
that night i went out for turkish pizza with a few peeps and it was one of the best dinners of life. we laughed SO hard anddd our waiter was kurdish and filled us in on some of the more recent developments in regards to kurds in turkey. he was happy to share that things are improving.
later a bunch of us sat on the roof and smoked shisha for a long time. it was excellent.
and after all that, i really had no choice but to love turkey.
as the rest of the week went on. . .
- we visited a some reallyyy cool places!
ephesus : for reasons which go without explanation
pammukale : calcium baths, roman ruins, endless fields, the coolest pool i have ever swam in and good exploration
sirince : a little hill town famous for its fruit wine. the main part of town was kind of touristy but it was beautiful and we had fun so i'll take it
- i took one of the funniest/one of my fave photos i have ever taken. it still kills me!
- there was lots of silliness and we all loved all of it.
- room 401 always had good morning stories
- we got turkish baths : ah ha ha, it was TOO good. there were like 11 of us and the whole time we were just like, 'whaaat the heck. . .' ah ha, it was quite the experience.
adam and i also ended getting to spend quite a bit of time together which included. . .
- a few double dates with tej tej and mehmet (the owner of the hotel who totally had the hots for my girl) at gypsy camp restaurant
- late night walks in the old part of the city
- sitting around and drinking tea. lots of tea.
- one of the best night everrr which involved a kebap/baklava date, hanging out with some of my friends at a shisha bar and drinking efes and then hopping a fence to climb the steps of an ottoman castle so we could look out over the city
- dinner on the roof
- cruising around selcuk on a scooter that refused not to stall
- exploring st. john's basilica
so, that was good.
it was basically the perfect week and has probably (to some degree) ruined every other awesome place that i will ever visit. it was that excellent.
since then...
-marina and vale came to visit at the beginning of the month!
it was sooo much fun having them here! we had a blast.
-it has gotten SO FRIEKING HOT. beach day every day. pretty literally.
it honestly went from steady to mid-60s to steady mid-80s pretty much overnight. it is SO wonderful. i die of happiness a little bit everyday.
+ the water is DIVINE. it is so good!
-went to santorini a few weeks ago and it was SO MUCH FUN! we all stayed in fira for two nights and then two of my friends, allie and sam, and i stayed a 3rd night in oia.
-went to RHODES with tej tej last weekend. favourite place ever. maybe someday i will write a post about it but also maybe not.
-we had our art show the 28th/29th and it was really good but also insane because we ARE emotional beings. (mostly it was really good and we were also emotional and there was just a lottt going on).
a lot of people left today so last night we all went out to dinner and then sat on the beach drinking wine and trying to get all we could out of being together for the last time.
it was the perfect ending.
today was ridic b/c the majority of the peeps left so mars and i shopped forever and then sam and i were at the beach (which just KEEPS getting better. it is incrediiiible!) and THEN mars, sam, j. kirk, her mom and i all went to levantis for dinner and suddenly everything had come full circle.
i have been wanting to eat there since finals week and it did not disappoint.
tomorrow.
i leave. wtfrick.
but first: there will be morning homemade lattes, muchhh beach time and then seeing MY MOTHER.
life is so good, and mostly really cool. also, so frieking strange.
later days, paros.
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