Leaving Istanbul, Arriving in Izmir! Day 2

 

Kindergarten Art work - innocent enough but sure to have a photo of Ataturk himself (he is explained below). The First President of Turkey/Founder of Turkey and worshipped the country over.

On our first evening in Izmir, Vickie walked us the two blocks to the school where she works! Quite the commute. She is an international school guidance counselor for high school students at this elite private school in Izmir. They have students from age 3 through 18 and she works with the older students to help them get accepted to international colleges. One perk of the job is that she has private access to the school campus at any time, which includes a couple playgrounds. It just so happens, Norah prefers her playgrounds private and free of other children. (it's something we're working on)

Turkish Kindergarten art. Love that.

Turkish blackberries and white mulberries! I actually eat dried mulberries every single day in our porridge but I never knew what they looked like ripe! Who knew? They're essentially white blackberries. (bit blurry)

 Their corner produce stand, about 500 yards from their apartment.

Everyone, I mean everyone, displays their Turkish flag on their homes. If you're looking at an apartment building with 15 balconies, I'd say at least 8 of them will be displaying a Turkish flag with Ataturk's face on it (Ataturk means "Father of Turkey", the 1st president of Turkey and credited with being the Founder of the country. He is revered. In many Turks' eyes, he is God-like and revered as such. To blaspheme him is a serious crime.)

 All day vendors walk up and down their street (this is outside their apartment). This man is selling Givrik's (which are like sesame encrusted bagels). (or are they Bovrik's you guys?)

 The amount of stray cats & dogs in Turkey was shocking to us! In the one block walk to their corner store, you could see as many as 10 stray cats and dogs. At night there are even more.

A produce truck

What most streets look like in Izmir - with 4 million people in a relatively small area, it feels like every square inch is covered in apartment buildings.

On day 2 in Izmir, Pete took us into town to their main Bazaar. This is the famous clock tower in Izmir and poor beet-faced Norah in the humidity.

Climbing on the clock tower

Norah's just trying to keep her body temperature in check and Reese is just cool and composed. And such a little camera ham - this girl can strike a pose.

Loved this old record player and radio.

 Isn't this amazing? You could tune into "the Vatikan", "Prag", Roma, Budapeste, Belgrad, "Viyana", Paris. Zefir Oriental. What I would do to own this thing.

The Izmir Market

Entrance to a Mosque

Later that day, we returned to this market while Pete stayed at home with Norah and Reese. (Since shopping with two toddlers in a bazaar is an oxymoron) So we made the trip back with Vickie and were able to get some souvenirs for family. Dad, if you see this, I bought your present in this very shop. One shop over, we spent a lot of time chatting with the owner and Vickie bartered for some time. Well, he decided he liked us and asked us to stay for tea and Turkish coffee. So he brought out tiny stools and we sat and had our cai (pronounced Chai) and Wayne had his first Turkish coffee (kahve).

They have countless stores selling dresses like these and an equal amount selling the fabric in bulk. If you need fabric for a Meixican wedding or Quinceanera, Turkey is the place to go.

LINK: Nazar Buncuk

Pronounced, loosely, Nazaar Boon-juk

You see this absolutely everywhere in Turkey and it is taken very seriously. The easiest way to describe it is as a superstition about "bad energy" coming from other people and you use the "evil eye" to reflect it back to them. So the Evil Eye (Nazar buncuk, protects you from Nazar, which is this "bad energy"). People have them in their homes, you pin tiny blue eyes on babies, its in jewelry, on buses, cars, ferry boats, etc. Or here, cemented into the ground of the bazaar.

Vickie told us about a time she had an eye infection and her coworker told her, very seriously, it was because she was not wearing her Nazar buncuk. This coworker said, very matter-of-factly that the eye infection happened because someone was envious of Vickie's blue eyes and therefore, directed nazar at her.

Yes, those are my feet. 

 You'll never guess what these outfits are. The mannequins are the stuff of nightmarish horror films but the reason for the outfits is stranger still. These are circumcision costumes for when boys go through this "rite of passage" in Turkey. Not only do they wear the marching-band-esque outfit but they are then paraded around the neighborhood sitting in the back of a souped-up low-rider car, complete with rims and hydraulics. I'm not kidding. I mean, the same car you would see in a bad stereotype video of gangsters in Tijuana, Mexico in a parade.

Waiting for the bus on a hot, humid Izmir Day. Everyone stands in the middle of the immensely busy road, checking on their bus. Speaking of... this bus ride was when we had our most interesting Turkish cultural experience. First, Turkish people believe that cold air will make you sick. They don't do air conditioning (unless it's sweltering hot), and they don't do ice. Even though it's 85 degrees outside, with 90% humidity, if you go into a corner store for water, it will be sitting in fridges but will feel nearly room-temperature. Most places don't even have the fridges on. They believe ice cold beverages will "freeze your organs" and make you sick. If there is a bottle of water with ice in it, they'll set it on the window sill to 'warm it up' before drinking it.

So, we're on the bus, it's worse humidity that Pete has felt in Izmir and Norah has melted into a pile of goo in my arms. The bus is absolutely body to body and I'm dripping sweat - I mean, dripping sweat down my face. Well this bus was slightly newer and had air conditioning! Yes! Or so I thought. Someone had given up their seat for me to sit with Norah (as happens immediately if you're with a baby or young child). So, I reach up to open the air vent and feel some relief. The old woman in the seat next to me gestures "No, no", while pointing at Norah, and reaching up to close the vent. She meant, "No, the cold air is bad for her and it will make her sick" (because she's covered in sweat). Also since it was so humid, the day looked almost overcast and in their minds, this equals "Cold" (despite the 85 degree/90% humidity thing).

So instead she pulls tissues out of her purse and lays them on Norah's arms and legs. (Norah is passed out in my arms by now and slipping off my arm from the amount of sweat on her head and legs) The old woman gives up her seat next to me to another mother with a 4 year old. This mother sits down next to me and proceeds to lay an extra t-shirt she had, on top of Norah (like a flippin' blanket!). I thank her in Turkish and gesture that we're very hot. She just pats the t-shirt laying on Norah and smiles. I'm dying so I reach up again and open the air vent. They both gesture "no, no" and reach up and close the vent again, handing me more tissues to "protect" Norah. Thank goodness this bus ride was only 20 minutes or else I may have perished from fluid loss.

Love these

This was hilarious. They're demolishing the ferry terminal but are still using it. So, while demolishing half the structure, we're sitting in the terminal, separated only by 15 feet and a red, mesh "fencing". In the time we were there they busted out these windows (complete with shards of glass flying), sledge-hammered that black frame off the main structure of the building (all while wearing no safety gear), and then started to pry that main wall out from under the roof. It was all a little scary and made us oddly thankful for U.S. OSHA standards. Sarah, you would have been gasping at the safety violations!

We had taken the bus back to the Bazaar with Vickie and given that Izmir is sort of a U-shaped bay, we could either take a ferry back, or the bus. It was the same price to take the ferry (about $1.25) so we opted for that option.

Izmir is a city of 4 million and this is what every square inch of it looks like.

outside our bedroom window at Vickie & Pete's house.

Norah and Reese having breakfast. Norah likes to wear all her jewelry at 8 am- she's not a barbarian! A lady is always a lady. 

Vendors selling beans out front.

This girl naps....hard!

Sidewalk Chalk in Izmir. This was so beautiful because it started out with us 4 and the 2 girls but within 10 minutes there were 15 or more kids writing in chalk. Sidewalk chalk transcends all language and cultural barriers. :)



This pre-teen boy knew very little English but he could say "Zombay" meaning he had drawn a Zombie.  These boys were all very "tough" for being 13 (smoking cigarettes in the park) but that didn't stop them from joining in the sidewalk chalk frenzy and turning into little boys again. That was, until they started drawing...um... penises everywhere and we had to non-chalantly collect the sidewalk chalk.

Eight MASSIVE Turkish Military ships seemingly guarding the bay in Izmir. These were all nearly larger than cruise ships and nearly the size of aircraft carriers (shown several miles off shore)

The Izmir waterfront, 6 small blocks from Vickie & Pete's apartment