Two Of Us
Merhaba (hello)
I always feel a sense of ‘what just happened?’ when I’m ready for take off after a trip that was long awaited and is now over … like so much else in life. Including I imagine, life itself.
I wouldn’t have traveled to Turkey … (first the seaside town of Bodrum - last week’s blog - and this past week to Istanbul — land of the iconic Ziljian cymbal) if my dear friend hadn’t relocated to her homeland. Istanbul is dense and daunting. It speaks in a tongue I can’t comprehend a word of. Of course, as anyone should, I learned “hello,” “please” and Çok teşekkürler (“thank you”). But that’s not enough to get found if I get lost. I honestly wouldn’t have objected if Suzan put a leash around my waist so we wouldn’t get separated. Ever.
The two of us ate and laughed our way through the former Constantinople.
We Spice Marketed, Grand Bazaar’ed, Galata Towered, Blue Mosque’d and just … walked the streets — my favorite thing to do - watch the people. Dig the “scene” … and the kitties (so many kitties) that are loved, fed and cared for.
We boated to the Asian side where the only thing we bought at a market that sold tens of thousands of products (fruit, blankets, sneakers, curtains, scarves, nuts, olives) were 2 ripe juicy pears that blew our minds.
One day we checked our ‘steps’ to see how far we’d gone and although we’d been side by side for the entire day Suzan’s ❤️APP insisted she took more steps than my ❤️APP said I did. Not ok! Were our devices calibrating differently?
I came up with a theory as to why this was: my legs are longer than hers, and therefor my step length must be as well. If I understand correctly the ❤️APP is sensing strides, not measuring exact distance. So the next day just to see if my theory was sound I took itty bitty steps wherever we went. At the end of the day our step count was equal 😀. I was very proud of myself to have gotten it right although my legs were awfully tired. (Comments please!)
We must have clocked 90,000 steps in 4 days. That’s about 36 miles. We were exhausted. And dirty.
So yesterday we treated ourselves to an afternoon at a Hamam (a Turkish Bath.) I have NEVER been exfoliated quite like this … on a slab of marble, doused with warm water and scrubbed with jasmine soap by a very able and friendly Turkish woman … my arms, my hair, my everywhere.
I know what you’re thinking Los Angelenos, and yes, I’m familiar with the spas in Korea Town … Olympic, Beverly Hot Springs. But trust me … they got nothin’ on the Turks. And the bath house itself was stunningly beautiful.
And now, some fun facts:
- Surprisingly, it’s not so easy to find hummus in Istanbul! Why is that???
- Christmas is a year round event.
- There’s much about the Turkish culture to be admired. Suzan says that anyone attempting to parallel park can expect to get guidance from a passer-by.
- And that if a purse is stolen on the street a flurry of good samaritans would rush to retrieve it.
- Turkish men in particular don’t like to admit when they don’t know something. If you ask for directions they’ll tell you anything not to have to say they don’t know. I witnessed this 3 times in the last week. The final case in point was about an hour ago when the guy at the information booth at the airport gave me the wrong information!
So here I am ready to fly. No matter how wonderful a time we had, it will be a relief to come home. To get my passport stamped. To speak and be understood. To know I can find my way all by myself if I get lost. To write some songs. So I’m happy. But I’m also sad to leave my friend. Because I’ll miss her all over again.
That said we did a pretty good job of making up for what we lost over the last 24 months. We’ll meet constantly and regularly to keep picking up where we left off. Next year, we’ve already decided on Greece or Israel. Hopefully they’ll have more hummus. 😊
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