A Chrome Kind of Day

 The Lake Mirror car show is held annually in Lakeland.  This is the first year that the Turk and I attended, and we went with Dad and Tim.  What impressed me - the amount and assortment of cars from the early years to today;  the attention to detail for the renovated cars;  the enthusiasm of the owners and the admirers of these cars, the well laid out event setting.
I was fascinated with the details - mostly in chrome.  Hood ornaments were a complete study by themselves.
The weather was perfect and the string quartet added the personalized touch.

Dad, Tim and Mark in the background

 

Essence of sleek speed

 

Hello New York

I got a call on Sunday that I needed to be in NYC Monday night for 3 days. GREAT! I raced to the closet to check my clothes, knowing I would be having meetings in the SoHo and Greenwich Village neighborhoods with marketing folks and agencies.  I needed to dress appropriately - I currently work from home and haven't really done face to face meetings the past couple of years.  I tried on all the long pants in my closet....none fit.  That is good news because I lost weight, but it is bad news on a Sunday when you leave Monday and are expected to wear clothes!  
In a panic, I contacted 'cousin' O'Leary who assured me between her daughters and herself that I would have something to wear.  I went over for my fittings and discovered some fashionable tops and jackets. Then off to the mall for a pair of black pants.  Whew!  Packing on Monday, I realized I didnt have closed toe black shoes that I can actually walk in...so open toe it is - with Mark's black socks.


It was an arduous trip, a 2 1/2 hr flight that ended up taking 6 hours due to weather in NY. We ended up in Baltimore for a large part of the night. Waiting in the long cab line at LaGuardia, I heard 'the airport is now closed. All passengers must leave the building'.  It was 1:30am and the airport was full of people just arriving after the delays.   But I finally got to my funky SoHo hotel (over $400/night) a few hours before I needed to get up again.
 
 I raced back after work each evening so that I could explore. Wow, SoHo has definately changed since I lived over here.

Here's what I found:
- Shops, bars and restaurants every where.  The neighborhood is no longer edgy, but upscale gentrified.  I walked to the Bowery which used to be walking to the edge of hell - but there I was with well dressed young people walking on the sidewalk.  Granted, there were some very dark, scary men standing in the doorway of what looked like a club with no windows, lights or name. I didn't hang around to investigate.
- A restaurant that sells only rice pudding, in different flavors like coconut, almond, chocolate, raspberry.
- Streets busy with mostly young people...in their 20's. Where do they get the money to live or even eat here?
- A shop of chocolate powders from all over the world.
- my taxi driver helping out another driver who was lost by telling her to follow him as he led her part of the way to her destination...on my fare
- The owner of a bakery handing out free pastries when a customer didnt pick up their purchase
- A shop called 'the worlds best chocolate cake' which is about 10ft wide and serves...chocolate cake (milk and dark) and coffee.Not a heavy chocolate cake - its 3 layers of baked meringue-like chocolate with chocolate mousse fillings and chocolate ganache topping.
- An elegant young woman riding her bike to work in the morning in black slacks and a short sleeved lined white lace top. She slides off her bike to walk it into her office when I notice her stunning blouse is...inside out with the tag waving in the breeze.
- Restaurant gave me free glass of wine when the bottle was empty before the glass was fully filled.
- Tried Pinkberry frozen yogurt - always wondered about them after their american express small business ads
- Many non-native speaking people, mostly from Europe (the value of the Euro brings them in) and from Russia.  Did Russia kick out their twenty-somethings to the US?  What is going on with Russia?
- Very personable and friendly people - like you'd expect to find in a small town, not a big city
- Cab drivers were friendly and not wierd.
- JFK requires you to check your bags up to 1 hour before the flight, or else you can't check your bag!

The End of Our Journey

BabaAna's favorite spot

It is always sad to say 'farewell'. To send us on our way home, the family stayed up most of the night just talking.  Gradually, each person fell asleep where they sat (some did manage to get to their homes).
 We were up at 5am for the hour drive to Izmir to catch our flight for Istanbul.  After getting to Istanbul, we found out our flight to the US was canceled until the next morning, and there were no hotel rooms available in Istanbul.  We ended up in a small town on Marmara Sea in a beautiful hotel.  Delta woke us up at 3 for our trip back to Istanbul airport.We finally arrived after 28 'awake' hours of traveling.

Aysa listens intently

What will I miss?  Of course the family. Even though it was 12 years since I last saw everyone, once you arrive, it is as if no time has passed, except the kids are grown! I relaxed and enjoyed the Turkish pace, which is slow and unexpecting. They don't expect things to be on time, they don't expect things to always work out, they just live through the experience and enjoy what they can. 

Minaver is thinking, 'you've got to be kidding'

Ibo full of mischief

Zeynep ready to get the tea

Fatima always laughing

The Turks are welcoming people and are excited that you are visiting their country. Our visit was made even more special by the experiences we had with individuals who went out of their way to help us have a great trip.  I'll miss dancing to Turkish music on the boat or on the street at family festivities...Eating everything from the rich yogurt, grilled peppers, Ramadan bread, kizartma with eggplant and yogurt, grilled fish, home made baklava, fresh figs, thirst quenching Efes beer,  turkish pizza (pida).....   and my new food love - Magnum double chocolate ice cream bars (which are not sold in the US).  I'll miss the casualness of getting ready for the day - no real prep required...the amazing turquoise waters of the Mediterranean Sea... how old things are...sunsets...walking everywhere..the exotic look and feel of Istanbul...and more and more.

But, we are happy to be home to our own wonderful beaches, Mark's great cooking (his Turkish food is even better than a lot of what we ate), our friends and my family.  Mark will always be torn between both countries and I plan to enjoy the opportunities to experience 'his' side as often as I can.

Food Production with the Family

Olive oil distribution facility - the kitchen

Adnan got an order for olive oil that the family has made from their olive farm. He, with the help of Fatima and Aysha, is bottling up 52 5 liter containers to sell.  The olive oil is stored next to the refrigerator, in a container that holds over 200 liters. 

 Another evening of grilling on the roof.  This time, Mark introduced pork ribs to the family.  The women squirmed and said they couldnt imaging eating pork.  They grew up with cultural beliefs that pork was an unhealthy food.  This pig was killed by a family friend who shared it with us - and it was delicious!   Adnan is the grill master in training, but is also grilling chicken pieces for the squeamish of the family. 

Mark is helping to make pepper paste.  It is the pepper version of tomato paste and starts with the peppers the family picks in their pepper field.  The peppers are cut up and seeded, then boiled.  The cooked peppers are then broken down with an industrial strength food processes (rotor blade hooked up to the drill in a paint bucket).  

Once the pepper sauce is smooth, momma squeezes the pepper through a colander to remove the remaining skin and seeds.  What is left is a wet pepper sauce is placed in a cotton cloth bag for a couple of days to drain most of the liquid.  Once drained, the wet paste is spread on a tray and placed in the sun (sun-dried) to remove more liquid.  Note that there is no cover on the tray.  I realized this while I was brushing my hair in the morning, causing me to move to another location to prevent my hair from joining the paste for a whole new dimension of pepper paste.   The paste is then ready to store...and for us to take home!

Behind the Scenes at Ephesus

A trip to Ephesus is always interesting, especially when Mark’s youngest brother manages all of the workers who work for the archeologists which provides us complete access to anything we want to see. The archeologists tell Ibo what they need, and he gets it done.
The primary archeological team is from Austria who has funded research in Turkey for over 100 years except during the world wars. There is now also a team from Italy helping them.  We had access to the archeologists as well as the federal head of Turkey’s archeology program for the Efes (Turkish spelling) who was visiting this day and who is Ibo's boss.  All were more than excited to tell us what they were finding and the stories of Efes and its people.

photo shot from the crane

Efes was initially built in the years before Christ and became the largest and most important city in the western world with over 250,000 citizens. To compare, today’s city of Selcuk, located outside of Efes has approximately 27,000 population, which has grown from 8000 since mark left here in the 1980’s.

 The port town was full of merchants who traded across the Mediterranean into Africa and across the silk route to China.  The wealthy residents’ homes reflect this with marble from various worldwide locations. Since marble is prevalent in Turkey (you see it in even the poorest homes today), it was prestigious to show you had marble from other countries.

After Christ’s death, St Paul and other apostles as well as Jesus’ mother Mary came to Efes. The apostles to spread Christianity amongst the residents who believed in multiple gods (Artemis Temple was located across a hillside from Efes) and Mary to a nearby hillside to live her final days. (you can visit her home which is a short drive from Efes).

see the water pipe on right side of wall

The city had everything you expect in a city today – shopping centers, main streets paved in marble with columns that held lanterns at night, public baths and toilets, brothel, marble cutters and tradesmen, large and small amphitheaters, but no churches/mosques initially as there was no organized religion.  There was even a water/sewage system complete with pipes to the homes (of the wealthy) to service their toilets, sinks and bathtubs.  These homes also had saunas and water ran under main rooms to cool them in the summer.  Like today, there were often theatre rooms too, though I saw no large screen TVs.

Looking down on main room -which had open roof - and surrounding hallways to other rooms. All with mosaic floors

rooms of 1 house with mosaic floors and frescoed walls. Rooms with no windows surround the open roofed central room which provides the ventilation and light.

fresco from the theatre room

In the 3^rd century, there was a major earthquake which destroyed much of Efes with collapsing walls and fires.  On one marble floor, we found the imprint of melted coins. It is guessed that the resident grabbed his coins during the earthquake while he ran out of his home. The coins that dropped to the floor were melted in the fires.

round gray marks are melted coins

neptune in floor mosaic

After the collapse of Efes, the Byzantines (Christians) moved into the area and salvaged from the destroyed buildings to build their own buildings – mills, churches and homes.  You can see pieces of columns or carved marble used as building materials in these walls.  Alas, another major earthquake struck the area in this time which caused the death of the city. The harbor had begun filling in with silt from the surrounding hillsides which rendered the port useless.  There was no longer a reason for Efes to exist, so it lay in ruin with dirt filling in the spaces over the centuries…preserving what was there.  Mark played here as a kid, but there are now fences around most of the city boundaries, jendarmes guarding it day and night, and large fees to see the site.  But there is a lot of restoration and excavation work going on, as I could compare with 12 years ago when I last visited.

glass mosaic ceiling

Yes, they had naked women, and men, on their walls

Ibo and I get ready for the lift

The 7 hillside homes of the wealthy were still being excavated back then, and today they are available for viewing under the protection of a building.  The largest project currently in progress is the restoration of the large amphitheater. The side walls have collapsed through the years and the rear stairway entrance/exists had been covered with the hillside. These access ways are now excavated and the side walls are being worked on.

This is where I was given a special tour via the 20 story(?) crane.  I got into the basket with Ibo and we were lifted above Efes for a birds eye view – truly an amazing experience.  Mark’s fear of heights kept him in the amphitheatre waving furiously at me and hoping I didn’t fall out.

looking across to what is holding me up over the amphitheater

We climbed one of the hillsides to view a cave that was recently rediscovered.  It is from Byzantine times and you can see fresco paintings from the Old Testament as well as the new.  The archeologists told us that they have found up to 5 layers of paintings and are trying to learn from each layer without removing it.  The cave was somewhat known, but the interior was painted white.  While looking around the cave, one of the archeologists realized there was color behind the whitewash.  And that was the discovery.  They think the white wash happened in the 1800’s by locals (Muslims) who didn’t want to see Christian images.  They also know that Greeks from nearby Sirince (about 9 kilometers away) would make annual pilgrimages to this cave the Friday after Easter each year. But they don’t know why. A professor was in the cave recording the Greek writing etched on the walls so that it could be translated. 

St Paul and Mary painted in the cave

We had lunch with the crew near the hillside homes, and later, tea with the folks at the amphitheatre. I found out that one full time job with these crews is that of tea maker! This also includes cleaning up after tea, but keeps them busy the full day. 

mark and his other brother Adnan who's working on the amphitheater

A visit is not complete without visiting the necropolis since I love cemeteries. Efes had their own sarcophagus style which included garland around the box.  We noticed angels on one which would indicate a Byzantine era.

I think that to be a typical archeologist in turkey, one must be a woman with beautiful skin and eyes, great patience, and a slight build.  The women we met definitely fit this description!  The men were a tad geeky. They live from the spring to fall in Selcuk where they can work at Efes on their projects. When winter comes, they return to their base which can be Istanbul or even back to Austria where they conduct research on what they found over the summer. I met one woman who I remember showed us around 12 years ago - so they stay with their project a long time, perhaps their career.

Sites Along the Turquoise Coast

Mark directs us to sea

Captain Umut plots our course

Our boat is based on the Turkish fishing boat called a gulet. We are at a dock in Kerkova, a Greek town without streets...and without Greeks since the Exchange in the 1920's. (Exchange is when Turkey united to become a country after WWI, and 'requested' the Greeks to go to their own country).    

you never knew who would show up in a boat and try to sell us something!

Byzantine castle at top, no streets...or even concrete in the town. tombs EVERYWHERE including the water

Tomb is the house-like stone in the water. Water has risen since it was placed. Ancient communities in this area have been destroyed many times by earthquakes.  There is even a sunken city due to one.

tombs, tombs everywhere - alot of dead people from early Greek period

One of our swimming coves guarded by a goat

Arts and crafts time..between swimming, beers and raki.

We came upon Kumal Ataturk's boat from post WWI which he used to rally the people to form a new country. It is now privately owned, and is very well cared for. Captain Umut played the Turkish national anthem as we sailed past. Turks are nothing if not nationalistic!

approaching pirates cave

Swimming, illegally,in the cave. I am the middle one with waving arm.