The Home Stretch

We're counting down to our last few days in Istanbul, before a short Blue Cruise, before heading home (yay!) The movers came the other day, whirling through here like a tornado, shoving our clothes and everything that wasn't tied down into boxes that all seemed to be for

"knicknacks."

If the movers' exuberance and lack of English speaking skills weren't enough, I stepped out onto the balcony to check out our moving truck, where I immediately noticed that it was similar (identical) to the trucks that bring fruit and veg to our Monday market. The picture below left is one of our belongings, the one below right is of our street as I am writing (as it is Monday) - notice the similarities for yourselves.

We are both excited to come home and then move on to our next adventure, but a little bit sad to leave such a unique and interesting home. The other morning, quite unusually, I woke up with the 4:20 am call to prayer. The call to prayer is the sound that initially terrified me about moving to such a 'foreign place' when heard incongruously in my Greenwich apartment through the a telephone call with Chris, and the sound that now is so normal that it can fade into the background of our lives here, but can also be a main focus, depending on the day/time (ie if you wake up at 4:20 in the morning from the sound.) It is something that if we ever hear outside of Istanbul will immediately transport us back here.

One thing we are going to miss is the great feeling we get when actually making ourselves understood in Turkish. Living in an expat-free neighborhood (with the exception of the 10 -15 of Chris' coworkers who also live in our building or surrounding blocks) you really get a chance to practice your Turkish, and today I actually made 2(!!) appointments over the telephone, completely in Turkish. I was so proud of myself, I had to call Chris immediately and tell him (update to follow on whether the appointments I THINK I made, were actually made...) Of course this progress is all just in time for us to leave.

I thought, as I'm a little hopped up on caffeine and I have all day to finish packing, I would make a quick list of top things I am going to miss and not miss about this place (I haven't yet decided how long each list will be...)

Top Things I Will Miss:

Lahmacun - As I have only discovered this fine culinary treat recently, I feel I have to eat it as often as possible..Once a week? Definitely not enough! We will be eating this tonight...

Inexpensive and quality beauty treatments and other services: Hemmed pants (original hem), 3$! A suit jacket and trousers for Chris, completely taken apart and taken in, 45$! Eyebrow threading, 6$! It's amazing...

The thrill of making myself understood in Turkish (on the rare occasions it happens)

Travelling in Turkey: Cappodocia, wow.

Ciya

The unique and extreme friendliness, helpfulness and hospitality of the Turkish people (with the possible exception of taxi drivers)

Crossing the Bospohorus on the ferry

Top Things I Won't Miss:

The amount of paperwork and silly things necessary in order to get things done (Chris is currently on full day 3, in attempt to get ownership of his car removed from his passport)

The bizarre rules that accompany much of your daily life ("Yes, you can put more money into your savings account. But you must wait until the day of the following month that is the same as the original day you opened the account or you will miss a full month's interest." Um, what?)

The dirt. Never before have I been a "take my shoes off as I walk in the door" kind of person. But I can't bear to wear shoes that have been on the stray-dog strewn streets in here.

The smoke. Everyone smokes. Everywhere.

Being stared at incessantly, every time I leave the house, unless I am in a full turtleneck/long pants combination.

Being screwed over by nearly every taxi driver in the city.

Crossing the Bosphorus (or going anywhere on) the bus: Hot, windows closed, armpits everywhere. It's not nice.

In that vein, this is my all-time favorite Time Out Istanbul article. It perfectly sums up public transportation here. Before you read it: A dolmus (pronounced domush) is a van that seats about 8 or 9 people and follows a loop all day/night. They are very convenient, as you never have to wait long for a bus, and they are cheap, less than $1 for a ride, but as you'll see, the dolmus, and really you can substitute any regular bus, are not always the plush, relaxing ride you might hope.

After re-reading my list of the things I won't miss, I realize I probably sound negative about Istanbul. I don't feel that way, it's an amazing place, but you definitely have to take the good with the bad!

Tonight, however, I'm going for some inexpensive beauty treatments, going out for Ciya and Lahmacun and then taking the seabus (fast ferry) out to the airport to meet Chris' friend Jessica, our final visitor, so it should be the perfect Istanbul night. Let's just hope our taxi ride home doesn't screw it up!

Unrelated:

I didn't get a lot of responses for what to re-name this blog when we move (next week.) If I don't get any more ideas, I will have to go with my father's suggestion: http://www.jennaandchrislivinginsin(gapore).com/ and we all know I don't want to do that :)