Families Matter and my fashion statement

It's been two weeks (I think) since Meg and I left our comfortable second home in Istanbul... And still, even after nearly five weeks here, Turkey continues to suprise me. We fled snowy Istanbul in seach of, yet again, warmer weather. This time we headed to Izmir, a coastal port city on the Aegean Sea,  famous for its reception of cruise ships during the summer months and as a gateway to many beach resorts.

WE DID NOT FIND WARM WEATHER

but we found a warm house with some of the kindest people I have ever met.
We met three students from Izmir at a couchsurfing meeting and they invited us over to their family's house for breakfast on the day which was the date of birth.

We arrived the next morning, sleepy and disheveled. Disheveled tourist magnet is, I think, my most convincing fashion statement, but that is besides the point. We were shepherded, as is usually the case here, to our friend's family's house to find the most wonderul breakfast a tired, twenty one year old, traveller could hope for.

A traditionally delicious turkish breakfast with homemade everything and a birthday cake to boot! We had only met our couchsurfing friends only once before this feast, and we had never met their mother father sister or nephew, yet we were treated with all the kindness and ease of family!

Which made realize that I missed mine....Which made me cry over my turkish birthday candles....

And after that I took a nap.

- a  typo in the wallpaper of a turkish toilet at our friends fütbol game

When I awoke we went to see a professional handball game (our new friends are all athletes) and then back to the house for a spectacular dinner and another birthday candled cake, this time tiramisu!

This went on for five days...




We rotated around this small circle of close knit friends for five nights before we took our leave to pamukkale to visit the world  famous  UNESCO travertines! Before visiting the site however we thought we would couchsurf outside pamukkale in Denizli, a city of 500 000. Unfortunately our couchsituation did not work out so we spent a few hours in an internet cafe, and following that a rainy  park. There, we ate extremely salty cheese with what we thought was honey sweetened tahin but then turned out be crappy old regular tahin and the bane of my existence. After "dinner"  we went back to the internet cafe and were fınally and once agaın schlepped along by a worker at the ınternet cafe, to the the nearest hotel....

-we haggled for twenty lira per person for our "hotel room" in denizli


the next morning we found a couchsurfer and headed to pamukkale to spend the day in the sun.

-not us

-it was below zero, snowing lightly with howling wind

-we are soooo happy! in this photo you can see the time and effort I put in everyday to construct the perfect effect of the disheveled tourist statement. Made complete only by my neon green jacket.

after pamukkale we considered our options and decided to head farther south, so once again I find myself in Antalya chillin with my previous host and hanging out on the beach.
It is still cold but its aiiight.

more, later

Larissa

ps. I would really like to be driving my car right now

second hand smoking and learning to haggle

Hello from Istanbul!
Yes, I am still here. Istanbul is a wild city, and though lonely planet describes the streets in winter as "completely dead," I would strongly disagree. Everywhere you go here, the streets are busy with people, especially with the end of the snow storm. YES, it was snowing. YES, it was cold, and YES, my roommate Evie and I went to a Turkish bath, known as a hamam.

Finally, I was able to upload some photos, very slowly though so I've only included a select few which seem to represent my time thus far.

-our first night in Istabul, in the depths of second home hostel basement. we were lucky enough to be able to leave our big bags here while we traveled south

-SOUTH! we arrived in Antalya to warmth and sunshine

-our first couchsurfing experience, notice the heater....they are everywhere here

Perge, a beautifully preserved roman city

our hosts and another couchsurfer 

Olympos, and our first swim in the mediterranean. There were absolutely no people here, except for the dolmuş driver (a dolmuş is small bus-ish type thing that will take you pretty much anywhere for a small fee)

A forcibly abandoned greek town, which has remained empty since first world war. 

Near the city of Fethiye

after our hike over the mountains to the beach of ulendeniz

we had brought zero food on our 6km hike and the only thing available to us at the beach were 

overpriced, zero taste french fries. It was kind of funny. 

One of my best friends from home has now arrived and we are currently plotting our departure from Istanbul. We are staying in a restoration architect's, rad apartment with a gorgeous view of the city. I have been religiously plodding through the food markets near the place, eating fresh bread, cheese, vegetables, wrapped rice grape leaves and BAKLAVA!!!. It has been a lot of fun bargaining when I can, and the more I visit the same shops, the better deals I seem to get. I've been trying to use Turkish when I can, but it makes it difficult with a five word vocabulary.

Inevitably, it seems in Turkey, I have taken up second hand smoking. 

more, later 

Larissa