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

About 20 km southeast of Istanbul are a series of 9 islands called Princes Islands. Or at least that's what they are called in English, in Turkish they are more commonly referred to as Adalar (the islands). I still don't quite get the disparity between works in Turkish and English (e.g. Boğaz in Turkish, Bosphorous in English). If they are proper nouns, shouldn't they be the same?

I digress.

These islands got their name as they were originally used as a place for ex-princes and monarchs - doesn't seem like too terrible of an exile to me. Later in the 19th century, they became popular as summer resorts for the wealthy. Even today, they are most popular in the summer. The popular goes from 15,000 to 100,000 in the summer as people flock from Istanbul to escape the heat, crowds, and cars. That's right, the islands have no cars, with the exceptions of emergency and city vehicles (like the always important waste trucks). Such a nice respite from the incessant honking in Istanbul.

The islands have been on my bucket list for a while, but we hadn't yet made it there. The most difficult part was that I wanted to bring Belle with us. Getting around with a dog can be troublesome in Istanbul, so perhaps I was just avoiding what I thought would be an annoying and irksome process of getting her to Princes Islands for the day.

Luckily, we got some good advice and a car lent to us from a friend. We drove to Bostanci to take the direct ferry to Büyükada, the largest of the 9 islands. Other than finding the ferry port and finding parking, it was easy, breezy with the dog. She was showing off her tricks to all the Turks and making friends. Not to mention, she LOVED the boat ride. So many fish to see in the water, birds to see in the sky and things to smell in the air! 40 minutes of pure bliss for Belle and we arrived at Büyükada.

Beautiful ferry building at Bostanci

Belle looking pretty at Princes' Islands

Waterfront restaurants from the ferry docks

Despite this being one of my bucket list items, I really hadn't planned in advance. I had heard there was a monastery on the island and that was about it. So, we spent the entire day moseying a bit.

We had lunch and worried about the impending storm blowing through. Luckily, it hit Istanbul but avoided the islands. Good luck? Absolutely.

Stormy Istanbul. Despite sports shutter speed and a couple hundred photos, I couldn't quite capture the lightening

Next we decided to try a feyton. These are the horse drawn carriages that are one of the main transports other than bikes on the island. Even Belle got to ride around. This is a great way to see the city in an hour, there aren't really major sites, but you can see some of the views and enjoy/envy the new summer homes.

Old streets lined with little shops and dondurma (Turkish ice cream restaraunts)

Our feyton carriage

Someone else's feyton carriage

While there are plenty of new summer homes in the city, it is also filled with these old, somewhat sad buildings.

View from the top of the island overlooking the other islands

After the feyton is where my lack of planning came into play. We had just missed one ferry and the next ferry wasn't for 3 hours. What were we to do? Well, after a nice stroll along the waterfront, we decided to hang out in typical Turkish fashion. We joined the locals bathing on the rocks, although Belle was the only swimmer; we enjoyed some dondurma and lokma (not to be confused with lokum/turkish delight). Once our bellies were once again full, we smoked some nargile, also on my bucket list, and taught ourselves how to play backgammon (Tawula in Turkish).

Istanbul views from the Büyükada shoreline

Everyone hanging out on the shoreline - swimming, sunbathing, eating, or my favorite pastime - people watching

Dondurma and lokma - lokma was a little sweet for my taste

Apple nargile AKA hookah

Getting there:
Check the ferry times here (fast ferry) or here (conventional ferry). You can catch the ferry from Kabataş on the European side or Bostanci on Asia side.

What to See:
- St. George Monastery - not much remains, but if you don't mind making the trekk up there, you might as well check it out
- Panoramic views - head up to the top of the island to get great views of the other islands, or check out the shoreline by the docks for great cityscapes of Istanbul
- Relaxation at work! Do as the locals do and just sit back and enjoy the quiet and sun.

In honor of last weekend's release of the Batman movie (at least in Turkey), I thought it was time to share a little bit about Turkey's own Batman.

A few months ago, Paul went on a trip for work to Diyarbakır in Southeast Turkey. While he was there, the local employees wanted to show Paul some of the history of the area and took him to the Hasankeyf Caves in the Batman region.


The city was built thousands of years ago along the Tigris River. And of course anything along the Tigris you know has to have one heck of a history. It is thought to be one of the longest consistently inhabited cities (probably right behind Damascus), with a history of longer than 10,000 years. Apparently the city was even mentioned in the Mari tablets, dating back to 1800 BC. Hasankeyf was also an important stop on the Silk Road, showing its importance at the time, even if it is a little mentioned place today.



While there are tons of important sites to visit here in one of the best preserved Medieval towns in Turkey (such as the El Rizk Mosque, Hasankeyf Castle and Zeynel Bey Mausoleum), what Paul visited were the caves. Similar to the caves in Cappadocia, there are thousands here with a picturesque view over the Tigris. Cave living is still an odd concept to me, but it must have had its appeal way back in the day for so many different people to have adopted it.




The big controversy about this area right now? No, it's not that the city is sueing the producers of Batman, although that's a true story.

It's the possible extinction of the city. People are trying to get a dam built in this very region and it threatens this historic city. While the government has offered to move some of the historic monuments (something along the line of 30) out of the city, historians are still up in arms about it. It's thousands of years of history potentially down the dam and underwater. Hopefully it turns out with a happy ending so that the history can be shared with the world for many more years to come.

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.

When we were talking about our trip to Ölüdeniz, everyone decided they were in for paragliding.  At first, I decided I wouldn't do it. I mean, as the saying goes, if all your friends jump off a cliff, are you going to jump too?

Family and friends know I am terrified of heights. Also extreme, dangerous activities, but mostly heights. When we were in Switzerland, Paul wanted to go canyoning. I vetoed and instead we went biking through the Alps (just regular old bikes, no fancy, speed increasing motors for us).

Then I thought about it some more. Read up on it online and researched the sport. I was wavering, thinking maybe, just maybe I could jump off the cliff.

Finally, Paul made a bet with me - he said he didn't think I would do it. The wager? House cleaning. You can see he was pretty positive that I would NOT jump off a cliff, or as he says it was reverse psychology at work.

And like my usual self, I had to prove him wrong.

We had a reservation to jump on our last afternoon in Ölüdeniz. After our morning trip to Fethiye, we headed back for our paragliding appointment. On the drive up to the mountain, I was anxious. The ground looked so far! The fall off the edge of the road seemed precipitous, ignoring the fact it wasn't a cliff!

Then, after a few tears and watching some others go off first, the fear vanished. I was strapped in to my guide, who was strapped into our parachute. He told me to run and I did. Straight off the edge of a cliff.

What we hoped wasn't our last picture together

Yes, you literally run off the edge. Luckily, air picks you up before you actually reach the edge, so there's no drop

Once you are up in the air, it seems like nothing. So we're 2,000 meters off the ground? No biggie. My guide put some music on mostly to entertain himself, but it also helped me to continue to feel at ease. I could literally sit back and enjoy the views.

Burak and I enjoying the ride

Hey Paul! Right before they started doing acrobatics. I wasn't quite that brave, yet

It is worth it alone for the views - the beaches are gorgeous from the ground, but from above you can really see the blue of the water, the contrast of the mountains and beaches. Depending on the wind and weather, you can be up in the air for hours if you find the right thermals (pockets of hot air).

Belcekiz Beach

Blue Lagoon

Then, just like that, we were losing altitude and flying over the city for our landing. The time literally flew by and I was wishing for just a little more time up in the air above paradise.

We're alive!