Here are a few things I learned while away on my brief trip to Turkey:
1) I will go back to Turkey anytime any day.
2) To offend shop keepers and get kicked out of stores while being told you are not normal, take photos of their goods
3) They love Americans over there, especially the men. They might even offer to take you home for the night and if you let them know you are married, they will offer themselves for an hour.
4) It is very easy to be content with a donkey and a pair of salwars (aka MC Hammer Pants)
5) Fresh veggies, honey, and cheese, make my mouth water and my stomach happy…baklava too!
6) I am happier now than I was before, somehow living so simply just for ten days has made me realize not to get so worked up, it is what it is.
7) Wild Boars are almost as scary as snakes and I can now add being charged by one as crazy things that have happened to me in my lifetime.
8 ) Car seats are over rated as well as speed limits and stop signs. I saw more kids on laps with 12 year old drivers cruising at 60mph than you care to imagine.
9) Turkish baths smell a lot like Bikram yoga
10) I love climbing, it has taken me to places I never thought I would go, introduced me to amazing people, and somehow kept me semi sane for the last 8 years.
That is kind of how I feel at the moment. Waiting out a blizzard that has shut down transportation and caused all twelve of us to tromp through frozen puddles in search of the best baklava and Turkish coffee. I must say I was not that heart broken that we had to stay an extra day in one of the most amazing places I have visited. Waking up at 6 to the prayers that are blasted over loud speakers multiple times a day is quite different than my typical alarm. We have gone to The Blue Mosque, The Grand Bizarre, and The Spice Market. The spice market was so eye opening, literally. The colors and smells are indescribable! More but the battery is dying…I will have to explain “Not Normal” and how Lauren, Cynthia and I were forced to leave a store because of this.
“The unapparent connection is more powerful than the apparent one”
Why are we always searching for a better world, rather than working on our current situation? It is so easy for me to escape:climbing, loving, reading, sleeping, fussing. I find a connection through and with all of these. Are the most subtle and apparent connections those which last longest? I will have to wait and see.
If you don’t know, now you know…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heraclitus
And some music to get you through…
http://www.jango.com/stations/14010;tunein?u
