Rewind to the Black Sea

The week before Megan showed up, we all piled up into Buddha, and journeyed North to the Black Sea. I'd never been before, and Khadijah had worked out a camping spot right next to the beach. It was still hot in Ankara, and so we were looking for an excuse to get out of town. Four hours North, we pulled up to Amasra, the biggest town on the coast near us. And a little ways down the beach, we found our camping spot in the cute little town of Cakraz. The camping was little more than a parking lot, but, it was directly in front of the beach, so we couldn't argue too much with the location.

It was our friend Layla's first time camping, and so we had a good time teasing her about bears and making smores over the campstove. One highlight of the weekend was how much sea glass was in the water. Erin spent most of the weekend collecting it, and came away with a huge bagfull. I wonder what she'll do with it? Another highlight happened while Erin was getting something out of the car. She heard Uriah's voice coming out of the car, and realized it was his girlfriend's phone--which had an automatic alarm recording of Uriah's voice set to go off every morning. I can't remember the exact recording, but it was sufficiently embarrassing, and went something like "It's time to wake up and kiss your husband sweetie pie!"

Anyway, good stuff. Great weekend. I highly recommend the Black Sea, just watch out for the jellyfish.

A Marathon of a weekend in Istanbul

Friday, September 3
8:00 to 4:00 Work
4:00 grab taxi to bus station
4:15 grab shuttle bus to airport
5:00 arrive at airport, consume beer
6:00 leave for Istanbul
7:00 arrive in Istanbul
7:30 take bus to city center
9:00 arrive in city center
9:30 drink cocktails with my sister, who arrived 3 hours earlier from Washington D.C.
11:00 Turkish appetizers on Istikal Street
1:00 Go to bed

Saturday, September 4
9:00 to 12:00 Tour Cistern, tour Haghia Sophia Church, drink beer, eat lunch in Turkish "diner" tour Grand Bazar, walk to Golden Horn Bridge, drink beer, visit Spice Bazar, eat Ramazan Bread, drink beer, talk to pilot about flying Jackie O. in the 60's, learn how to play Backgammon, get beat by Megan, walk back to hotel, take tram to Ortakoy, have dinner at fancy organic restaurant, take bus to Taksim Square, end up at Cuba Bar salsa dancing at midnight, back to hotel

Sunday, September 5
9:00 Wake up to rain, tour Topkapi Palace in the rain, have lunch, depart for airport, say goodbye to Megan, will see her again in 24 hours...
3:00 Save dumb tourists from going to the wrong airport for their flight to Bangkok
3:15 Private taxi to airport
6:00 Fly back to Ankara
7:00 Arrive in Ankara
8:00 Arrive home, eat take-out Chinese with wife

Monday, September 6
8:00 to 4:00 Work at school
4:00 grab taxi back to bus station
4:15 grab shuttle bus back to airport
5:00 arrive back at airport, consume more beer, this time with wife and friends: Uriah and Layla
6:45 leave again for Istanbul
7:00 arrive back in Istanbul, this time at Ataturk Airport
7:30 begin taxi ride from hell to U2 Concert
9:00 exit taxi in gridlock and walk the last 2km
9:45 find seats, missed opening act (Snow Patrol)
10:00 U2 takes the state
11:40 decide to leave before encore to avoid traffic, must make 1AM bus back to work...
11:55 hire Itallian Race-car driver to drive us to the bus station
11:56 arrive at bus station in record time
1:00AM board bus back to Ankara, this time, with Megan who me us at bus station
7:00 AM, Tuesday, arrive in Ankara take quick shower
8:15 AM, Begin work
4:00 PM, Begin vacation

Wed - Sun to follow in another, perhaps more descriptive, post.

Whew.

Photos should speak to the above madness :)

Working on some photos and stories for the blog....

Here's a little idea of what's coming up. Two big items happened this month. Megan, my sister visited us in Turkey. And, she brought me a new 50mm 1.8 prime lens. Very cool on both accounts. More to come soon.