An American Life in Istanbul

Current Mood: Esctatic

So yeah, I had the best weekend ever. Izzy and I went with a few exchange students from Koc University (where Izzy studies) to a rock climbing festival in Olympos outside of Antalya in the south of Turkey. If you want to skip right to the pictures here is the link:

Olympos Climbing Festival

For those that are curious, here are two maps illustrating where exactly Olympus is:

Olympus is somewhere south of Antalya. It took about two hours to get there, and the bus ride to Antalya was about 12 hours or so. The bus ride down there was probably the nicest bus I have ever been on. It was extremely comfortable and I was actually able to sleep (first time I have ever done so while in transit).

Everything about this weekend was amazing. First of all the climbing festival was great. There were a lot of us in our group so we didn’t get to do too many routes, but the routes we did do were great. My last climb of the weekend was probably the most difficult climb I have ever done and took some real technique. Although scraped up quite a bit, I was extremely satisfied with myself once I reached the top. After that climb, I think I am going to buy a good pair of climbing pants to better protect my knees.

The place we stayed in was called Kadir’s Tree Houses. Olympos is an ancient city built 2000 years ago. Today the ruins are still there, surrounded by some of the best rock climbing in Turkey. Just before arriving at the ancient city, is a few blocks of cafes and tree house hotels. Since it is a historical site, only wooden buildings can be constructed, so everything has a very ramshackle feel to it. Kadir’s was one of the first one there, and was by far the best.

Kadir’s had an eclectic mix of people. There were the climbers, and there were hikers, and beach bums, and bikers, and random travelers. There were people from all over the world as well as a sizable Turkish group. My first breakfast there I sat with a Polish girl and a Hungarian guy whom were more than happy to welcome me at their table (for some reason I awoke at 630 am. Since we had been up partying until 3am, no one else was up). That was one of the really great things about the place, everyone was very approachable. Everyone took all meals together, everyone went to the club together.

The club was something else. It wasn’t like what I have typically seen here in Turkey. First of all it had no roof, so in the middle was a big bonfire. Second of all, everyone was together, layered radially around the fire. In most Turkish clubs, people come in groups and stick to their groups. Their are little dense clumps of people, dancing amongst their friends. There is very little socializing with new people from what I have seen. At Kadir’s everyone was together the entire time. Breakfast, dinner, drinking, partying, dancing, regardless of the activity everyone was friendly and open.

The place was also quite a nice escape from the hustle and bustle of Istanbul. For the most part everyone walked so there was no traffic. Everything was built amongst the trees with many animals running around (chickens apparently keep the snakes and scorpions out of the tree houses’ area). The valley was flanked on both sides by tall mountains. There was always a cool breeze coming in off the sea. It was perfect. This was definitely a place I could see myself spending many weeks in.

The bartender at the Hangar Bar (Kadir’s bar) was an American who had visited there for a few days and never left. She was on her third month there while we were there. There was a cyclist who had planned to stay only one night at Kadir’s. He was on his sixth day with no end in sight when we left. There were countless other stories of people simply not being able to leave this paradise.

The last bit about Olympos was that all along the roads in the area were small crates for collecting beer bottles. In our climbing guide book, it warned us about Olympos: “This area induces heavy drinking.” Since climbers are not big drinkers, this is a sign that this area is more than just a paradise for climbers.

For any of you who may have wondered what place I would recommend as my favorite: go to Olympos and stay at Kadir’s Tree Houses next summer. Plan to stay a short time but be warned - leaving this place will be difficult.

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 I had one heck of a weekend. Since Ramadan ended, I had a four day weekend. Thursday Izzy and I went rock climbing; we were the only ones there. Then Thursday night we took a 14 hour bus ride to the south of Turkey to a charming little diving town called Kas. The three days I spent there were relaxing and extremely fulfilling and satisfying. I am however exhausted. Anyway, I am not going to go into great detail about how things went. Instead here are some pictures:

http://picasaweb.google.com/skyblueshu/TwoWeekendsHikingDivingAndClimbing

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This entry will be mostly pictures.Well I had a busy weekend. On Friday, I got up at 6am to take a bus to Ankara where I had a meeting with one of our suppliers. After my meeting, I met with a friend of Parisa’s (one of my friends), whom lives there. I spent Friday night and Saturday morning with Gokce and her twin sister Goken. They had an impeccably clean house that was very well decorated. Each room looked like something out of catalog. They said this was a point of pride for their mother and she was pleased to hear this from me.

They had both been exchange students in the US so their English was good. Their father liked speaking English but didn’t speak perfectly. The mother only spoke a few words here and there. They were excellent hosts.

That’s me and Gokce, who was an exchange student during high school, at Parisa’s high school. The two of them kept in touch all this time. After dinner, we went with a group and played monopoly at a nargile cafe. Being the last person to go, I got my butt kicked. I hardly even had a chance to buy any property. I also got my butt kicked right before that in backgammon, by Goken’s boy friend.

This is Goken and her boy friend who’s name escapes me right now. He’s really good at backgammon.

This was one of Gokce and Goken’s friends. I like this picture for some reason.

Because of plans on Saturday afternoon, I could only stay one day. After a breakfast at TriBeCa - a decent bagel shop that has a location in Istanbul as well - I met with Kenan who was coincidently in Ankara as well. We drove back to Istanbul together. This picture is a picture from the car as we were driving. I was in a bit of a hurry to get back so we didn’t stop for any sight seeing. It’s quite an interesting drive though.

Saturday afternoon, my important event was playing Diplomacy! We were partly the same group - Izzy, Adnan, Berna and myself - plus three new players. Amber, Adnan’s girl friend played as did Erman. Izzy’s father as it turns out played Diplomacy a long time ago so he joined us. I think that most of the people that have played so far have enjoyed it quite a bit and that we will be playing again soon. I am hoping to build up a group for Diplomacy here in Istanbul, but it is a slow process. In this picture from the left you see Amber, Adnan and Izzy, trying to figure out how Adnan can fight back against the stab I had just made against him.

Sunday morning we got up early to go hiking! We drove for about four hours almost all the way to Ankara (I should have stayed there Saturday). The scenery was great and it was a lot of fun. Of the people I know, Berna, Izzy and Erman came. The other 80 or so people were mostly students at Koc university. The trip was organized by the Koc University Diving and Mountaineering club, which Izzy is the president of. It was exhausting though.

That’s Murat (Izzy’s friend, not the one I work with) heading back from peeing off the cliff. I snapped this picture about 10 seconds too late.

I like the way the colors looked in this scene. The ferns were are dead and dried out and were very read. The mountain was very gray and the sky was blue. The contrast didn’t come out as clearly as I would have liked. It looked much better in person.

Izzy and Erman. For the second half of the hike, the three of us walked in the back to make sure no stragglers got lost.

Finally, on our way back down to the lake. That’s Izzy striking a pose with the walking stick he stole from me.

There were more pictures taken, but I haven’t gotten them yet. When I do I will upload them to my Picasa webalbum and post a link here.

NEXT WEEKEND: Climbing in Ballikaylar on Thursday, and a three day diving trip Friday, Saturday, Sunday!

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Current Mood: Happy

I was supposed to diving on Saturday, but on Friday night the guy running the trip said that I couldn’t go because I was a foreigner and they needed to file some extra paper work because I was a foreigner. So at the last minute my plans changed. I ended up doing nothing on Saturday instead.

On Sunday, Izzy and I joined Cem (this is the Cem that works at the climbing wall we go to regularly) and two of his friends and went to Ballikaylar, the park we always climb at. The weather was absolutely perfect. Cool, but not so cool the rocks hurt your hands, and it was sunny. There was a refreshing breeze. We timed our climbs so that we could stay out of the direct sun light. Everything was just great.

Most of the climbs I did I climbed lead. That means the rope wasn’t set. I would climb a bit, find a comfortable place to hold on with just one hand, then use one of the clips on my harness to clip to the bolt, then run the rope through the clip. This way of climbing is more dangerous. Normally when you climb top rope, the rope is already set so that if you fall, you don’t really go anywhere. When climbing lead, if you fall right before you clip into the next bolt, you can fall down past the previous bolt and can bang yourself up a bit. I fortunately did not fall, but it was scary. On one of the routes, there was at least two meters between each bolt, so falling would have meant picking up some good speed before being jerked to a halt.

Anyway, here are some pictures. I am pretty sore still, but that won’t stop me from going indoor climbing this afternoon.

That’s me getting ready to belay one of Cem’s friends. My shoulder was killing me from a collision I had playing soccer the weekend before. I took 4 Excedrin and made sure to keep my shoulder warm all day.

It may be hard to tell, but this is the longest route I have ever climbed. It was exhausting, especially climbing it lead.

Triumphant at the top of the route from the last picture.

Izzy climbing the same route. He of course made it look easy. You can see how the rope hangs down because it’s not yet clipped into anything. The first clip is already in the bolt from when I climbed it. You can see it just above his head.

From that angle you can get a better idea of how long the route was.

This route is not one that we climbed on Sunday. I have tried it before and have gotten to about where the horizontal red line is. This is the route that Izzy says is a good measure of whether or not you are actually a climber. If you can climb this one, you are no longer a rookie. I think I will get this one next time.

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Current Mood: Cool

I had to look up Tasseography too, so I will save you the trouble and start off this entry with its definition (according to wikipedia.org):

<<

Tasseography (also known as tasseomancy or tassology) is a divination or fortune-telling method that interprets patterns in tea leaves, coffee grounds, or wine sediments.

The terms derive from the French word tasse (cup), which in turn derives from the Arabic tassa (cup), and the Greek suffixes -graph, -logy, and -mancy (divination).

>>

Before I go into what Tasseography has to do with all of this, let me tell you about Turkish coffee. Turkish coffee came to Istanbul in the middle of the 16th century. It quickly grew in popularity. By the mid 17th century, Turkish coffee had become a measure of a woman’s merits. Prospective husbands and their parents would drink coffee prepared by the potential bride as a measure of her house keeping skills. To spoil unwanted marriages, women would use salt instead of sugar, or spill the coffee intentionally. I have read that still today this is used by parents to evaluate potential wives for the sons, but I haven’t seen or heard of it before.

Turkish coffee is made by boiling finely powdered coffee beans in a pot. Without any filtering, this produces somewhat of a muddy mixture that is typically served in a small white cup similar in size to Italian espresso. The coffee has some particulate matter floating in it, but for the most part, all of the coffee power sinks to the bottom like silt in a river bed. Because of the silt at the bottom of the cup, not all of the coffee can be drunk. Coffee used to be very popular in the Ottoman empire. As a consequence, many of the former Ottoman territories drink coffee in this way - the Arabs, Greeks, and many of the Slavs. So important was the coffee in Ottoman culture, the word for breakfast, ‘kahvalt?,’ literally means before coffee. Now, Turkish tea and ‘nescafe’ have taken over as the popular drinks in Turkish culture (To read more about Turkish Coffee click here). Personally, I love Turkish coffee, especially when it is mixed with spices.

After you have finished your Turkish coffee, the cup’s saucer is placed on top of the cup, and together they are turned upside down. It is then left that way until it dries. Some of the dark coffee grinds stick to the white cup and form a pattern of light and dark. It is from this pattern that a fortune teller can tell your fortune. This practice is known as “fal” in Turkish. Last night Berna did my reading and it was quite cool. Most of it was very positive, with a few warnings. I can’t say that I believe in that sort of thing, but it was fun nonetheless.

In Turkish, Turks say, “To drink one cup of coffee together guarantees forty years of friendship”

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Ant’s Birthday was about two weeks ago, but I just got the pictures from Izzy (he was on a week long hiking trip in the south of Turkey). Still exhausted from my vacation in the US, I took a nap and showed up for the clubbing half of the night (I skipped dinner). We went to a club who’s name escapes me at the moment. The club is characterized by having waitresses and other employees that are transvestites (as you will see from the pictures) and has very live performances throughout the night. The performances were great, and the music was good. Drinks were too much, so I kept myself to two (first one was free). Overall it was a good time. Click Ant’s picture to see the photo gallery.

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I didn’t compete, but I stopped by to see what was going on. The third leg of the Istanbul wind surfing championships was held at the wind surfing club I go to, less than 2 miles from my house. So on Friday afternoon of last week, we stopped by to see how things were going. It wasn’t a very big event, but it was cool nonetheless.

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This weekend, I went to Rock’n Coke 2007 with Izzy. What’s Rock’n Coke? Rock’n Coke is an outdoor music festival sponsored by Coke, that takes place at a small air field not too far from where I live (in other words, really far from where all of my friends live). It was an all weekend two day affair with Turkish, American and English artists (I am sure there were probably others, but I didn’t notice). Since Izzy and I were staying at my place and not camping, we had the fortune to have slept through the only spot of bad weather on the whole weekend which was a torrential down pour Sunday morning. Anyway here are some pictures and a discussion following each one. Enjoy!

 First of all, on the way to the concert, we had to drive around to the other side of Buyukcekmece lake. While we were driving, Izzy commented that something didn’t seem right because he remembered driving next to the lake the previous year, and that he remembered the fair ground being next to the lake. Well in this picture you can see the fair ground if you look closely (it’s the small white buildings), and you can see the edge of the lake. In the past year, because of the drought and the drastic increase in the number of people around it, the lake has receded several hundred meters. Again, that’s only one year! Think about where it is going to be next year!

 This was the main stage on the concert grounds. There was a second stage sponsored by Burn Energy Drink, one of Red Bull’s competitors. The other tent kind of sucked though. The main stage was the place to be. There were also lots of stalls selling stuff and lots of delicious places to eat. Bambi Cafe, my favorite fast food in Turkey (they sell Turkish food) was there, so I ate a lot of that.

 This is Chris Cornell. He was ok, but I wasn’t too crazy about him. Everyone else seemed to go crazy though.

 Here are Izzy and I relaxing in the shade.

 This was my favorite band. They were called Ozlem Tekin (a Turkish band). They were somewhere in the rock-spectrum (I don’t know much about music so you’ll have to figure that out for yourself). I liked that they had 3 cellos and 3 violins in their band. That gave them a really cool sound that kind of reminded me of Nightwish, a Finnish band that I really enjoy.

 Berna dropped in on us and we hung out a bit. It was fun. I would say I hadn’t seen her in a while but that would be a lie. We had just played Diplomacy together on Thursday, during which time Izzy lied to Berna and stabbed her nearly every move of the game.

Here is Berna sitting on my shoulders during Manic Street Preachers (a Welsh rock ban), who were excellent.

 Franz Ferdinand (Scottish I think). They were pretty good. They were the last performance.

You recognize Izzy and myself in this picture. From the left is Murat Onsekiz (which literally means Murat 18 - note, not the same Murat I work with) and Cem. If you look back at the pictures from June 13th, you will recognize these two as Izzy’s climbing buddies. I can never remember the name of the other guy. This picture was taken shortly before we all decided that Izzy wanted to crowd surf. We chucked him up in the air onto a good dense spot of people which quickly became less dense and dropped Izzy. No one seemed bothered by this.

 Izzy needed a shot of himself looking really bad ass right before we left. All in all it was a pretty cool weekend. Music is not really my thing but it was a fun experience.

On another note, it was Ant’s birthday on Friday. I will post some pictures from that evening when I get the chance. I was extremely tired! I ran gaming night, then had to get up at 530 in the morning to take our Polish distributors to the airport on Friday. Friday night I was exhausted. The place we went though was pretty interesting though. The waitresses were all transvestites (in other words they were actually waiters). They had some very bizarre performances go on during the evening. It was really cool despite being so worn out.

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Current Mood: Happy

So my little boardgame project seems to be taking off. For the past few weeks I have been making an attempt (with the help of Izzy), to organize a standing weekly gaming session, and it seems to be working out. I had originally discussed the idea with Izzy and had decided to wait until his return from Scottland before making an effort. However I played a game with two of Izzy’s friends - Ali Emre and Adnan - whom prodded me to start sooner than later, so I did. The first weekend was hectic and unorganized. We have 11 people show up and most people just hung out as I was locked in a game and couldn’t help new comers.

The second week was a sad showing. We had three people. Tahsin and I, who will be regulars every week (me because I am organizing it, and Tahsin because I don’t think he has anything better to do). A friend of Izzy’s, Selim, was our third. The first week he didn’t join an game, but instead watched us play Settlers and was intrigued by the game. So the three of us played a board of Settlers of Catan which he seemed to enjoy.

Last night’s session was exactly what I envisioned it being. We were six so we played Union Pacific (a train game). Izzy and Tahsin were there. Selim came again and brought a friend. Adnan came with Izzy. Everyone arrived nearly at 8pm on the dot as anticipated. The venue we play at we chose because people game there regularly (mostly family, social and classical games), and because they have a big and interesting menu. It is also very near a big university so I am hoping we will snag a few curious onlookers and grow our group.

The game went very smoothly. I encouraged everyone just to play easy and to enjoy it because it was most people’s first time. I tried to push people away from being competitive. As I soon realized this was not possible. Izzy commented in the beginning that it’s always competitive, and then proceeded to win his first time playing the game. The other players all took great pleasure in battling each other for control of the various rail companies, ignoring the ones that were unowned in favor of fighting each other. All in all it was a fun game (I finished last) and I think everyone enjoyed it. I am hoping as people learn more games, it will become a more stable group. Between Izzy and I, we have 25 games here in Istanbul, so it shouldn’t be a problem to keep things interesting. It also helps that all the people we had last night are all intelligent, analytical and competitive; the perfect mix for a gamer. A tip of my hat to Adnan who figured out his strategy for the game after hearing the rules only once.

Afterwards we went to Tophane for Nargile and I didn’t get home until very late. I am very tired right now.

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Here are two videos I took over the weekend. One is all the Turks partying on the bus, the other is of me vaulting over the railing and plunging headfirst from the top of the boat into the water. It was a lot of fun.

jumping-off-the-boat.mov

Partying on the Bus to Cesme.MOV

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