A Yalova Weekend

Peachy beach sunset, Saturday night.

Last week's busy-ness left me exhausted and battling a cold on Friday evening as I walked home from Karizma (my department's building) with Margot.  I'd survived the first week with some definite high points, i.e. when students gave me flashing "10's" when rating from 1-5 their enjoyment of activities, and the general realization that I COULD do this and that my students actually know a TON of English.  We could have listed adjectives, verbs, and types of jobs for hours.  My job is just helping students connect the dots between vocab and grammar and start speaking. Totally do-able, right? (Inshallah.)

Anyway, I got done with work Friday, ready for some serious rest, so that's what I got this weekend.  Friday night was laid-back to the max--it was rainy and windy, so we mostly stayed in, though Margot and I went out to get dinner "paket" (to go).  Once home, we watched a few episodes of our favorite show, "Gavin and Stacey,"with Clayton.  Clayton left early to got smoke nargile (aka hookah) with Gurkan, our Turkcell friend but Margot and I watched a few more, then set up the living room for our late-arriving guests, Sarah and Tas, Fulbrighters in Duzce.

For all of Friday's raininess, Saturday was beautiful. Clayton, Sarah and Tas left early in the morning for Istanbul--Margot and I slept in.  Our main adventure for the day was trekking out to Kipa--a Turksih Target of sorts, in a complex with other stores.  I made a few big purchases, including sheets that don't fit my bed and a paper lantern for my room which is purple, so makes my room dark. I'm not yet sure how to return stuff in Turkey or if that's exactly kosher, but I'm going to give it a shot...Tuesday? Maybe.

After our shopping, Margot was feeling really tired--she had
the start of my cold I'm finishing. So, she went to nap a little.
I had just just run out of internet, so I decided to walk into town
by myself to get some new stuff.  While out, I took some pictures to share with all of you.

Here is a picture of our lovely building--Mustafa Bey Kofte is our nearest restaurant and first floor neighbor. It makes delicious kofte and had such friendly employees. We always wave and say hello to each other. Our apartment is the 4th balcony up, and the door on the right is how we get in.  I love the yellow paint...doesn't it look great against that blue sky?? :-)

So, just past our turn to the apartment, there is an ATV race track which I'd never checked out before. Because it was so lovely out and I was so curious, I decided to take the opportunity to investigate.


I was so happy I did! The course looks really fun and a little dangerous since it's marbled and 7 year-olds, clearly too small to handle ATVs use it on the regular. 5 TL, or about $3 gets you 5 minutes of seaside thrill. I'm stoked. First guests to come--I'll pay for our first race.

I continued walking around past Mustafa Bey's, exploring the lovely little park that's just across the street. It's great--there's a huge play structure and a little amphitheater, football (soccer) fields and both angsty, smoking and romantic, giggling teenagers. Plus, the view's pretty great.  When I got bored/felt too creepy to keep taking pictures, I walked back toward town to do my errands.  I successfully bought my new internet time, fresh eggs, salami and I did a little accessory browsing, all using Turkish.  (Everyone is so encouraging here, and impressed that I've been in-country for such a short period of time.  The best way to get better is to be out there and using it, but it's so much harder...it's so much easier to just go with Margot to Migros (Turkish QFC), find what we want and pay for it with our Money Card discount.)  On my way home, I couldn't help but snap a few more pictures of the beautiful pink, orange sunset over the Marmara. (Top) I wish it would stay summer here forever!

Today's main event was going to Termal with Tas, Deven and Kristina (Margot went to Istanbul to see her parents one more time). The weather was amazing again and I was so excited to finally see our famous hot springs.  We took a dolmush (mini-bus) from downtown to Deven (far right) and Kristina's (far left), and then from their houses to Termal.  The whole bus ride probably took about 20 minutes--it'd probably be about 15 from my house. At left, we're checking into the spring, about to put our valuables away in the lock boxes at the bottom of the picture...but not before I snapped this quick one of the spring itself:

Okay, so to be honest, when I heard there were geothermal pools, I was imagining something more like the Oregon hot springs. But, beggars can't be choosers, and this was actually really nice.  The water here is supposed to cure everything from barrenness to "breathing diseases" to skin diseases. I wasn't really seeking any of those cures but my skin feels great and it was really nice to relax with my new friends.  We, naturally, made some friends who we didn't really want, but they were harmless and just trying to practice their English while finding out where we beautiful foreigners hailed from. ("Are you from heaven? You look like an angel."--Bazaar boy, TIME 2009)

We couldn't stay at the spa all day because Tas had to catch a bus back to "the Duz" for work tomorrow.   Deven went with her to help but Kristina and I decided to go on a little adventure.  Kristina's from downtown Vancouver, BC, so we northwesterners sought a little hill hike.  We didn't find that, exactly, but we did find a great little spice and produce bazaar...and the boutique hotel of our dreams.

Limak Thermal Boutique Hotel is probably one of the nicest hotels I've ever seen.  The building was built over a hundred years ago as the private residence of some really wealthy Ottoman, a few years ago it was bought by a Turkish hotel chain that put obviously hundreds of thousands of dollars of work into it.  Fully renovated and gorgeous, the hotel reopened just last year. Kristina and I were some of the only people there, and the hotel staff was nice enough to let us wander around to our hearts' content.  I don't know what I liked best--the spacious guest rooms with claw-footed bathtubs, the geothermal spa with silver mosaic columns and pearls hanging from the light fixtures, the gorgeous dining room with red velvet curtains and chairs, or the view. Put together, it was a fantastic combination. If I win the lottery, this is where I want to get married, and, don't worry, I'll cover all the costs of everyone who's following my blog.  I mean, really, look at this view! Don't you want to come???

When we could pull ourselves away from the luxury, Kristina and I headed back toward the dolmush.  We'd barely begun when we were able to flag one down.  Soon, I was home and enjoying another sunset on my front balcony. I made some dinner, took a picture to prove to you all that I can cook, and watched Al Jazeera international as I ate it. Now I'm finishing up this blog entry and mentally preparing to do my lesson planning for tomorrow. --Shouldn't be too bad, we're starting a new chapter tomorrow, but first are going to play jeopardy with some of the words introduced last chapter.

Love you all and, since it's still early Sunday at home, enjoy the rest of your weekend!

-Annika

p.s. My dinner tonight was bow-tie-ish pasta with a nice marinara-ish sauce. Also featured: some bread, salami, cheese, hummus, the world's saltiest olives and a glass of wine. Afiyet olsun! ("Bon appetite!")