As of tonight, Ramadan has officially ended in Istanbul.

While I'm sure other parts of Turkey (and even Istanbul) saw a change during the month as people fasted, it was much more subtle in my neighborhood.  In our neighborhood, it was life as usual as most people were not fasting. But, you could see it in the slightly less crowded restauraunts; with the people napping in the park during the day, tired from fasting and heat; with the call to prayers that rang out starting at 3:30 am.

But tonight, the official end of Ramadan, we saw a change everywhere. We were shopping in the Bazaar and shops were all closing up early, ready to go celebrate with family and feast for the next 3 days. Shops were also closed up all on the streets. Families and friends gathered in parks around the mosques, eating picnics, talking, laughing and enjoying the company. At night, the mosques lit up with messages in lights.

And in my neighborhood, the restaurants were almost deserted. Everyone was capitalising on the opportunity to spend the evening with their loved ones. It reminded me a lot of Christmas Eve in the United States. While everyone may not celebrate the religious aspect of the holiday, it is the perfect opportunity to spend time with those important people in your life.

Today's Zaman

Ramazan.co.za

Just like Christmas, we get holiday here (Eid) following Ramadan. So, we're off to Italy with our friends visiting from Texas. I can't wait to feast on tons of pasta, pizza, and wine. Perfection.

I have an obsession. Okay, well I really have lots of obsessions, including (but not limited to): dark chocolate, Glee, singing aloud in the car and the Bosphorus.

As I have mentioned before, the Bosphorus is my favorite part of Istanbul. We have a fantastic view of the water from our apartment and I love seeing the different "faces" of the Bosphorus each day. Some days it is grey, some days it is blue, some days it is foggy, some days it is eerily calm.

The Bosphorus seems to me like a life line through Istanbul. It is such a huge part of people's lives. The parks on the water are always crowded with families and friends on weekends, enjoying picnics, each others companies and the view. There are fishermen off all kinds of bridges and seawalls throughout the city trying to catch something more than the usual 4 inch fishies. Ferries dart across the Bosphorus all day making it important to people going from Europe to Asia.

Other than these, my obsession with the Bosphorus comes from the effect the view has on me. No matter what mood I'm in, the views of the water are so calming. Whether its sneaking a quick glance in during the middle of my work day, or sitting outside for a drink after dinner, I always find the quiet my mind needs when I look into the beautiful blues of the Bosphorus.

Here are some of my all-time favorite "faces" of my obsession:

Everyday, sunny Bosphorus

Foggy Bosphorus

The morning after a snow Bosphorus

The Bosphorus "highway"

The stormy Bosphorus

Bosphorus at night

Just a 25 minute drive from our apartment is an oasis away from the crowded, noisy, busy streets of Istanbul.

This weekend, we took Belle for some running and playing in Belgrade Forest. This wasn't Belle's first visit - our fantastic dog trainer who watches Belle when we are out of town has taken her a few times. But I had never been and was curious to check it out and most importantly get Belle some quality off the leash time.

Driving up, you first pass through some of the cities old aqueducts from the 16th century. It still amazes me that these are regular sites which cars pass through every day, just a normal part of life.


Once we got there, we drove on the road all the way through the forest. People have pulled off to the official stops, enjoying picnics, hanging out in hammocks, grilling and enjoying time with family. People stopped just off the road and wandered to hike a bit through the forest. People were selling watermelons, vegetables and toys on the side of the road. Quite a bit of activity.

Yet, after a 2 minute walk past the picnic tables and gathered family crowds, we had the forest all to ourselves.

Belle had a ball. She'd run ahead several feet, sniff out plants and smells, trying to find a bite to eat. Just when we would think she might run off, she would stop, turn around and look at us, as if to say "Come on guys, you're slowing me down here!" We never did find the lake we were looking for, but Belle (and us) still enjoyed all the sights and smells of the forest, although maybe not the mosquitoes that come out in the summer.



I'm not sure what all there is to see here - there is a 6km trail that runs around the forest and passes by the lake where Belle usually gets to swim. There is also a beautiful arboretum with manicured lawns and lakes. We still don't know if we found the "right" place to walk around the forest, but enjoyed a couple of hours of quiet nonetheless before returning to our bustling neighborhood in urban Istanbul.

I have never kept a real bucket list. I think I have a place in my brain where I make notes of things I would like to do and places I would like to go. I also think this is the same places where I keep information like why did I just get up off the couch and walk into the bedroom?

So, if you get my point, I never really remember all of it. So, I have decided to make a formal, printed online bucket list for Turkey and then try to get as much done as I can. And yes, I'm putting things on here I have already done to make my list look like I have accomplished something. Let's be honest, we all do that sometimes, right?

Istanbul

Visit Aya Sofia









Visit the Blue Mosque









Visit Topkapi









Visit Dolmabahce Palace and check out the aviary









Visit Chora Church









Visit Suleymaniye Mosque













Climb the City Walls










Take a Bosphorus Boat Cruise









Haggle at the Grand Bazaar for a rug









Visit the Basilica Cisterns









Buy some spices from the Spice Market









 Go to a meyhane










Check out the views from the top of the Galata Tower









Take a ride from Europe to Asia
Ride a bike on one of the Princes Islands
Smoke nargile
Take a Bosphorus Boat Cruise at night
Hang among the 'glamorous' at Suada (that little island owned by Galatasaray)
Brave up and try a hamam
See the Whirling Dervishes
Roam the ruins of Rumeli Fortress
Take a trip to Asia to check out Beyberli Palace

Other parts of Turkey:
Revitalise in the springs at Pamukkale









Play among the fairy chimneys in Cappadocia









Ignore my fear of heights and take a hot air balloon ride in Cappadocia









Tour the Gallipoli Battle Grounds









Search for Brad Pitt in the ancient ruins of Troy









Relax on a boat in Bodrum









Wander the ancient ruins of Ephesus









Sate my curiosity of why men wrestling in oil is a spectacle in Edirne
Catch the sun rising over Mt. Neirut
Trekk to Trabzone and the nearby monestary
Imagine we live in old Ottoman times in Safranbolu
Soak up the sun in Oludeniz and Fetiye
Take a drive along the Lycian Way
See the dervishes in Konya

I will try to keep this as an ongoing list - adding pictures when I've knocked one off the list or found something else fabulous to add.

Other expats of and/or visitors to Turkey - what are some of your must not miss sites I should add to my list?

The first time I went to Ortaköy was before we even moved to Istanbul. I tagged along with Paul on a 48 hour visit in order to confirm that I could indeed live in Turkey. While we were here, we got in a Bosphorus boat cruise and made a pit stop in Ortaköy. We were greeted by the hustle and bustle of Istanbul on tiny streets packed with restaurants, jewellers/artists selling their goods and people taking it all in.




Since then I have been hooked and it is a favorite place to take visitors when they come into town. On the weekends, they have some great street vendors selling art, jewelry, books and more, in addition to the usual stores there.

Ortaköy also is a great place to have a meal and enjoy  the views. Whether you sit down at Mado or the House Cafe, or grab a kumpir to go and sit by the water, you won't be disappointed by the atmosphere. There's even a guy selling mussels if you want something "fresh" and slimy (I may be biased as a non-seafood eater, but there's something fishy about this).




But, like I said, the best part of it is the view. Right up on the Bosphorus and right under the Bosphorus bridge, you get a fantastic view of the ships, water, bridge, birds and everything else that makes the Bosphorus so unique.

So I think I may have jumped the gun in my earlier post about the football games that were winding up here.

This weekend was the final game of the season - there are no playoffs in the league here, league winner is the champion.

As it ended up, Galatasaray (#1) and Fenerbahçe (#2) were playing. There were separated by 1 point. If one team won, they won the league. If they had a tie, Galatasaray won by default because they had the most points. No extra time, no kick off. The end.

We went down to a restaurant in Bebek to watch the game with some friends. As we live on the European side, there tended to be more Galatasaray fans, but Paul is a Fenerbahçe supporter and I decided to cheer them on too because I always like an underdog win.

The madness is not because of the game itself - it wasn't fantastic play with lots of exciting goals and saves. In the end, no one even scored, although there was a player from each team ejected with a red card, and more yellow cards and "injuries" than I think I have ever seen in a football match before.

The real madness came after the game.

First off, the Fenerbahçe fans at the game REVOLTED. This confuses me too, because it is their own stadium, but they went crazy nonetheless. They threw things at Galatasaray players as they celebrated and exited the stadium, then they stormed the field and threw chairs, benches, trash cans and more at the riot police. I even saw one fan throwing the riot police shield back at the police. It seems more like a World Cup game than an end of the season playoff game.





Throughout the rest of Istanbul and Turkey, all the Galatasaray fans were celebrating. In Bebek, traffic was stopped with people yelling, waving flags, setting off flares, honking their horns. I think it may have been the biggest celebration I have ever seen.

Lessons learned? Turkey loves their football teams. Oh and make sure to only attend a game when you know your team will win!!

Paul requested me to write a blog (which he almost never does after the time I bugged him for weeks straight to write a guest post). The requested topic was our most recent weekend in Istanbul. This request was not because of anything too exciting. Really, to burst everyone's expat bubble, we (at least we as in me, Paul and our friends) do not spend every weekend at some ancient, awesome site in the city. Maybe dinner on the Bosphorous, of which you should be incredibly jealous because it is amazing as I recently described, but other than that, we live a similar life to what we lived in the States. Dinner with friends, watching a movie, cleaning house and even bowling, just in a much cooler, older, bigger city. So back to my opening statement, Paul asked me to write a post about our weekend because we a) went bowling (no biggie) and b) Paul got a turkey in Turkey (definition of a turkey is 3 strikes in a row). He had his all-time high score of 202. What what!  I won't even tell you about my meager score. Unfortunately for him, he took the camera with him on his trip today, which means the world will have to wait to see proof of this feat.

Now, on to the real highlight of the week/weekend in Istanbul.  Football. And for you Americans, football = soccer.

Istanbul has 3 sports teams in the city. Beşiktaş, Fenerbahçe and Galatasaray. This week were the some of the final matches between these teams and one more Turkish team in football. There was a big match up on Sunday. It was a bit of a nail biter because Fenerbahçe had to win to be able to play Galatasaray in the final, as Galatasaray is ahead by 1 game. Don't judge me for incorrectness on 'football' terms here - this may be a language I need to learn more of, but that's another day, another blog.

Oh. My. Goodness. People here love their football. I have heard it said that the best time to get around the city are during these matches because everyone is at home watching the game. They have banned opposing fans from the games due to things being thrown, general meanness towards fans and some agreement I have heard mentioned between the teams that seems odd to me. As much as we wanted to attend a game, tickets are hard to come by. Who has the hookup for next Saturdays game?

When I bought my first guide to Turkey and was looking at things to do around the country, one of the things that caught my eye was the Istanbul Tulip Festival.

First, who doesn't love tulips? They come in all shapes and sizes and colors. Maybe not ALL shapes and sizes and colors, but there is quite a large variety of different tulips out there.

Two, unlike most people think, tulips (or lale) did not come from the Netherlands, but actually originated from the Ottoman Empire (or old day Turkey).  Who woulda thunk it?

Turkey celebrates this history and the tulip every April. Tulips pop up in every park in the city and it makes for a beautiful display. We came across some of these in the park near Topkapi this weekend and had to get a photo shoot in honor of Easter.

To sum it up: Texas + Bluebonnets = Tulips + Istanbul

In Istanbul, we have so many sports teams - for example for soccer (or football as we call it here) we have Beşiktaş, Fenerbahçe and Galatasaray. Istanbul was even named the European Sports Capital for 2012.

I had been saying for months that I wanted to go to a basketball game and tonight was finally the night! Beşiktaş vs Spain in some kind of special match (no one knew what though so it mustn't have been very important!)

Let me preface this by saying that basketball here is nothing like the NBA. I would probably compare it more to basketball at a good 5A high school. The stadium only holds 3500 people. No concessions. Lax on rules (or maybe they don't even have things like a 3 second rule?) Despite all this, it was still fun. The crowd, even without alcohol, goes crazy almost the whole game with cheers and chants, reminiscent of Texas Fight in my days of UT football. And the game was actually incredibly close - Beşiktaş gave up a double digit lead to trail in the last 20 seconds, and eventually lost the game. The best part? Its not crowded, so you don't have to buy tickets in advance. Just show up and pick your own seats. Easy as pie.

Beşiktaş players and bench

Game action

After weeks of winter weather, we finally had a gorgeous weekend here which we used to our full advantage.

Saturday, after a hearty American breakfast of pancakes and the last of our contraband bacon, we decided to head down to Bebek. It's a neighborhood right on the water, an easy, albeit steep, walk down from Etiler. We also wanted to give the pup a chance for some good exercise and to see the water. We sat and enjoyed the views (Belle loved all the ducks), then wandered a bit. We found a nice, little fenced in "dog park" where you can let your dogs off their leashes. It isn't big, but it's nice so that you don't have to worry about them bothering non-dog lovers. After tiring Belle out with a new acquaintance and promises of future doggie play dates, we headed back. Man was it a rough walk back up. Istanbul is much more hilly than Texas and it will take me awhile to be in shape enough to do that climb back up without rest stops!


Good thing we worked up our appetites because Saturday night we got to do our first traditional Turkish Meyhane dinner. It's a family style meal that can last for hours - you just sit back and enjoy the food and conversation. You start off with lots of appetizers - cheese, eggplant (served hummus style), cabbage rolls, bread, and tons of other things I couldn't identify. And of course, a glass of Raki. Later you get salad, then meat (we had liver & onions and beef & potatoes), then finished up with fresh fruit for dessert. A meyhane is not complete without traditional Turkish music. The band goes from table to table playing and taking requests. All in all, we were there three hours and enjoyed ourselves, thanks to our Turkish hosts!