Travelin' North, Travelin' North to Find You...

How is it possible that I have abandoned my real-time documentation of my Turkish life for so very long?! I apologize to those followers who hang on my every word...the suspense must have been killing you, wondering about my absence. Ok, I doubt that's the case, but take this more as an apology to myself for abandoning a project I had so willfully intended to maintain. 

I suppose my next few posts will be in reverse, then, traveling backwards (and sometimes forwards again) from today to the past five months or so (gasp!). Let's begin...

Very very very early this morning (to me, 1:00 am still counts as "the night before"--semantics schemantics), I was dutifully dropped at the bus station to board the red-eye bus to my beloved Istanbul. For those unfamiliar with Turkish travel, I'd venture to say a good majority of it is via bus. We 'mericans often snub our noses at bus travel (except the few of us brave souls who appreciate NY-DC Chinatown busses!), as being a dirty, inconvenient and slow mode of transport (and yes, sometimes Chinatown busses are all of the above). However, in Turkey, buses are quite luxurious, and at times even more comfortable than airlines. Today is a perfect example of that. The Ankara to Istanbul route is 6 hours, including one 30 minute stop at a strategically located "bus mall" (my invented word...maybe it's correct, maybe not). 

Seating on the busses is assigned most often according to gender--so there are no worries about the occasional pervert copping a feel (or three) on a long journey and being trapped next to him (or her, I suppose) for the next howevermany hours. I was fortunate enough to be seated (very comfortably--plenty of leg room) next to a very very kind lady from Trabzon named Alemtac (a beautiful name meaning "crown of flames"). We developed as much of a friendship as one can make over a six hour journey, which unfortunately meant very little shut-eye for me. On the other hand, I loved hearing her stories so much that I didn't mind. We laughed about the amount of garbage we had amassed on the table in front of us from cups of coffee and snacks and breakfast (yes, breakfast!) that was served. (Side note: the most adorable part of the breakfast for me was the miniature package of three green and three black olives vacuum sealed in a jelly-size packet--PRECIOUS!) 

Knowing from previous trans-Turkey bus trips that some "bus malls" aren't always perfectly maintained (though most are), I was prepared with my own toiletpaper, hand sanitizer, and small change to pay for the use of the toilet, which sometimes is NOT alafranga style, rather alaturka style--meaning you exercise those thigh muscles and squat over a hole. I was amazed to enter the bus mall to find an uber modern, shopping mall-esque building, and a spacious, spectacularly clean restroom--much cleaner than some malls in the United States--and entirely non-squatting toilets. Victory! I had also packed a disposable travel toothbrush, but stood corrected when I saw a vending machine in the restroom where I could buy one for just one lira. 

I suppose I should have included the following song lyrics in a post about my most recent trip to Istanbul, but it would be inaccurate, seeing that I discovered this cute masterpiece the last time I was here. In spite of my accolades to bus travel, when traveling to Istanbul from Ankara, I prefer the train. I prefer train travel over any other mode in general, but specifically that route (more to come in another post). Anyway, this song, performed by Feist and Ben Gibbard, is more appropriate for train travel, but the fact that I see this song as being a love song from me to my Istanbul, I have made it my anthem for my journeys here. Obviously it's a person-to-person love song, but in my case, I dedicate it to my favorite city.

Travelling north, travelling north to find you
Train wheels beating, the wind in my eyes
Don't even know what I'll find when I get to you
Call out your name love, don't be surprised

It's so many miles and so long since I've left you
Don't even know what I'll find when I get to you
But suddenly now, I know where I belong
It's many hundred miles and it won't be long

Nothing at all, in my head, to say to you
Only the beat of the train I'm on
Nothing I've learned all my life on the way to you
One day our love was over and gone

It's so many miles and so long since I've met you
Don't even know what I'll say when I get to you
But suddenly now, I know where I belong
It's many hundred miles and it won't be long

What will I do if there's someone there with you
Maybe someone you've always known
How do I know I can come and give to you
Love with no warning and find you alone

It's so many miles and so long since I've met you
Don't even know what I'll find when I get to you
But suddenly now, I know where I belong
It's many hundred miles and it won't be long

It won't be long
It won't be long
It won't be long 

So here I sit for the past 1 ½ hours at my favorite café (after a short walk around my favorite neighborhood waiting for this very café to open). From here, I can see the end of the Tunel-Taksim tram as they change the tracks to switch directions. I can hear the multitude of Istanbul cats, mimicking the cries that they have learned from children. At this café, I can sit for hours…watching people, type type typing at my computer, surfing the internet, or on the rare and fortunate occasion, chatting with friends (or family!).

And I do plan to introduce another friend and her family to this café this weekend. The reason for this recent excursion to my favorite city is to briefly welcome a friend of mine from Washington and her family to Istanbul. I won’t be able to spend as much time with them, or with my city, as I would have preferred, but I have planned an entire itinerary for them that I hope they enjoy. I love introducing Turkey to people, showing them the small oddities about this crazy place that made me fall so in love with it. Before that itinerary begins, I plan on spending countless hours here at this café, and in this neighborhood, writing and researching…for my next project, which I hope to pour more dedication into and spend less time away from than I have with this blog.