It is more routine than you'd think.

Now that we're settled for the winter here in Marmaris, I am shocked to see just how settled we are.  We wake up at 7:30 am, have coffee and breakfast, then the kids are off to 'school' with Code. I head off for a workout (MWF is yoga; T,TH, Sa is a 10K run) and then to the library to work (or snooze, if I worked out too hard) until about 1.  We usually take a trip to town to take the kids to tennis lessons or go to the farmer's market, or we work on the boat, until dinner time.  Then we do a little more work (usually Code), read (usually me), maybe watch a movie, and that's it.  Lights out by 10-ish.  Can we be any more routine?  It is amazing how we human creatures are so habitual. 

We have established a little community here at the marina.  There's Jane, Linda, and Lillian for yoga, and Linda, Debbie, and me for running.  Monday nights are quiz night.  Thursdays are billiards.  Fridays are 'meeting days' where there are exciting topics of discussion in the bar/restaurant such as how to eliminate odors and clean your head, weather predictions, when the sauna hours are to be designated clothing optional (a hot topic, no pun intended), and where to buy bacon in a predominantly Muslim country.

If nothing else it has shown me how we organize and need eachother, and need stability.  Even a population of reputed 'nomads' need to settle down and regroup.

The last two weeks have been 'on the hard', which is, the boat has been out of the water.  It feels like land living is a nasty dirty existance.  Well, that is to say, land-living on a boat is a nasty dirty existance.  Grey water (sink water) goes on the ground and black water (the rest of it) supposedly gets drained into holding tanks which are subsequently emptied into the main sewer system.  In reality, there is no holding tank pumps, which means that you're left with a step above a privy pot, with a hose leading into an outdoor container, whose contents are destined for the toilet.  I never knew how really gross we humans are.  I dont think waste management is much better elsewhere, but I do think it is better disguised.

Out of the water also means being elevated about 10 feet in the air, supported upright on a rack and supports, with a ladder to reach the deck from the ground.  Code painted the boat bottom, replaced the zinc, and replaced through-hulls (the 'drains' where grey and black water normally exits to the ocean blue--do it wrong, and your boat sinks!), and I helped but mostly cleaned and waxed to boat bottom until my arms ached. We got a brand new dodger (aka: spray hood) and had our bashed-in transom repaired.

As clean and pretty that our boat got on land, the top and interior were neglected totally.  The marina dirt and sand got carried into our boat (despite being separated by a ladder).  Our stuff was pulled out from everywhere, as tools, electrical extension cords, clothes...everything topside was turned inside out and upside down.  We finally got splashed into the water again after two weeks of sanitation decrepitude.  The through-holds are watertight and we pull into our new slip.  The fact that our bottom is clean (nevermind the top) is all we cared about at that point.

So, who shows up?  Reuters.  As in photos, video, and interviews.  Oh, f_(#  !!!.  We're the only family in the marina, and they showed up for an interview.  It wasnt just about us...they were doing a story on sailing in Turkey, but they were looking for that typical family living aboard.  Yep, the ones with the disgustingly dirty boat.  We cleaned up (sort of) very fast:  tools and towels in the freezer, stray bundles of wire shoved through portholes, laundry (clean and dirty) in the kids bunk, Graeme's Michael Jackson poster flipped to the other side of the door.  Votive candles were lit and weren't we pretty...  We'll post the article, even if we're on the cutting room floor.   It was pretty exciting and fun, for sure. 

I suppose it is routine peppered with excitment.  Just like regular life.  Still, I much prefer it on a boat than in a house, at least for now!

A little morning buzz

The marina has a weird buzzing sound that is constant.   At first, I wondered if was powerlines (nope, checked that out), or if was somehow the sound of hundreds of halyards, shrouds, and stays vibrating at a low level (nope, the noise doesnt vary with withspeed).  There just isnt much else that the noise sounds like except buzzing bees.  It just so happens that Turkey has 5 different species of bees. These are the Anatolian bees,  Caucasian bees, Iranian bees, Syrian bees, Karniol bees.  From all those bees comes all kinds of honey.

You can find the usual flower honey or orange honey, but the variety goes much further with thyme honey, pine honey (a specialty of the Marmaris region), chestnut honey, and probably a dozen other honeys that I cant recall what they're made from. 

Honey stores are ubiquitous in town as are honey stands along the roadsides.  It seemed odd at first to see so many stores devoted exclusively to honey.  Graeme and I honey-tasted yesterday--while they all taste like honey, the varieties are subtley different, like different flavors in wines.  Turks sell honey like they're purveyors of fine wines (maybe that's because they don't have any fine wines).    The pine honey was dark colored, almost brown, but it had a delicate mossy flavor (I was expecting something more bitter, like pine resin), orange honey was bright, and flower honey was fresh and closest to what we typically find at home.  All tasted richer than your typical (even organic) honey from the US.  We didnt have a chance to try them all, but we we want to go back to the honey store, which is also seems to be unique to Turkey (I think).  They not only sell honey in all forms (from on the comb to in the jar), but they also sell bee pollen, herbs, and potions.  Honey stores are more like apothocaries, which is apropos as Turks ascribe certain health benefits for each type of honey (Thyme honey relieves asthma, treats eczema, and is good for digestion, citrus honey calms the nerves and is good for the liver, chestnut honey strenghtens the immune system).  It is a melting honey pot of goodness.

When I go out on a run, I pass cluster upon cluster of beehives, each cluster having hundreds of hives.  Sometimes there are so many bees I cover my mouth to avoid having one fly in my mouth, or they will land on me and move on, or they just bounce off my forehead.  I have never gotten stung and the bees clearly could care less about me--for them it is all about the honey. 

While it seems impossible that all that buzzing we hear is from bees, we are down in a valley surrounded by hills with probably billions of bees.  Sounds carry very well over water.  It has to be the bees.

Turkish bath: awesome! Turkish breakfast: not so much...

It was freezing in Cappadocia, much colder than on the coast.  Once the sun goes down, there isnt much to do unless you go to a Turkish bath. 

Even though the baths are heavily frequented by tourists, they are also a part of Turkish life for special occasions or for die-hard fans, just like massage studios in the States.  Us foreigners are pretty obvious, though, because we're the ones that look so clueless.  First you undress and put on your hamam towel (a giant tea towel) and head for the sauna.  Then comes the best part: you're led out to a giant 6- (or 8) sided heated marble pedestal where you lay down for a scrub (exfoliation).  Let me just say, I couldnt believe the 'exfoliate' that came off of me.  I have molted and my new skin feels amazing.  Then comes the foam scrub.  They pour mounds of lemony herby suds on you and give a massage (it is single sex, of course).  Just I was feeling pretty cooked, with the sauna and then laying on this hot marble slab, they rinse with tempid water.  After months of feeling sweaty and grimy on the boat, this was paradise.  Next, up off the table and off for a massage, where I have never been so massaged in my life.  If the massage was any firmer, I am sure I might have been disarticulated.  After all that heat, getting dressed and going back in the cold night air felt great.  That night, back in our Cappadocia cave hotel, I slept harder than ever.

I cant say as much for Turkish breakfast.  I have to say, it is healthy, but not something I would choose for a morning meal.  Feta cheese, green peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes, olives, sometimes redeemed with some plain yogurt, fresh preserves, and local honey (often with the comb included).  There is always toast (or, 'tost', which is a grilled bologna and cheese sandwich) and eggs.  It isnt that it is so bad- and it is actually more healthy and satisfying than the American sugar-on-carbohydrate combination that we're accustomed to, but you'll see the same combination for lunch, then again at dinner, albeit in different forms.  Sometimes you'll see porridge, which is great when you can find it, but that's as close as you get to Museli (which, mixed with yogurt and fruit, is my breakfast favorite at home).   You also see a lot of pomegranites and oranges, which are typically juiced.  I recommend the pomegranite-orange combination which might cost $1/glass for your anti-oxidant power boost. 

The crazy thing is about Turkey is that the topography and climate is extremely varied.  In one day, you can pass hectacres of potato growing flatlands, then you're in cotton growing country, then banana country.  In every region, you will find mountains of local produce, but only that grown in the region.  So, when in melon country, you'll see dozens of melon trucks selling melons, then in banana country you see banana sellers, and so on...  

Given great exfoliation and funky breakfasts, the Turkish people are not fat, but they do age well. 

Happy Holidays!

I really did need to get out of that marina in Marmaris to feel less ‘stuck’, and we did just that.  We rented a car in Marmaris and are now on a tour of Turkey.  Leaving Marmaris, we headed straight to Ephesus…as in the Ephesians…as in Paul’s letter to the Ephesians in the book of John.  That is pretty much where Code and I started drinking from the fire-hose trying to learn our pre-Christian, early-Christian, Byzantine, and Ottoman history.  It has been a crash course, to say the least. 

We heard people saying that Ephesus is a place not to be missed.  They were right.  At first, we thought it was just another round of seeing Greek and Roman ruins with the usual stuff…the agora, the stoas, the brothels, the amplitheaters, etc.  But as we’re walking through the site, we soon learn that the Virgin Mary lived out the rest of her days here along with the apostle John who promised Jesus to look after  his mother.   Spending the day there made me realize just how real the biblical characters are.  No matter what your beliefs, these are real people who were off trying to create a new religion at a time when your spiritual choices were pretty limited.  If you were not born Jewish, then you could partake of the pagan gods of the Romans/Greeks which really did not fulfill much in terms of real spiritual guidance, rather it was just a barter system of a sacrifice in return for favors.  The Jews weren’t totally enthralled with one of their own inviting outsiders into their clan either.  It must have been a pretty tough row to sow, and if nothing else, it is a miracle that Christianity got off the ground given the challenges faced in communication and spiritual inertia.

Troy was another eye-opener.  Given that it was one of the first walled cities of Europe, first inhabitants were around 3,000 BC, There were thousands of years of history before the Romans. All of a sudden all these Roman and Greek ruins started to not seem so old to us anymore. 

After Troy we got to Istanbul at long last.  It has been a city I have wanted to visit for most of my life.  I remember as a kid looking at pictures of sultans and the ottoman dress with a great fascination of their mystique and exotic look and live.  Harems, sabers, whirling dervishes, fezs, sultans, the foreign religion, and those crazy mustaches.  It was too foreign for me to comprehend looking at pictures in the encyclopedia as a grade school kid.  The ‘old school’ Turkey is obviously gone with the Ottoman Empire, but their descendants are a mosaic of every type of Muslim (from conservative to those who are in name only) who are well integrated with the Eastern Orthodox faith.   It is an amazing city, amazing history, beautiful, and vibrant.  I expected it to have more of a ‘crazy’ feel to it…like Rome on cheap steroids, but remarkably, it felt much like Toronto or Washington.   The city infrastructure felt orderly, functional, and clean, but definitely with a feel of a very old city that has gracefully transitioned to contemporary culture.  The skyline is filled with minarets instead of steeples, but the shops and stores in between reflect the west more than the east. 

We also met up with my friend Pam Danagher and her family, who coincidentally also are doing a sabbatical (but by plane and going around the world).  I used to work with Pam in California and I was so happy to hear that we were going to cross paths in Istanbul.  Our kids are the same age (she has three:  13, 10, and 3) and they are traveling by backpack…and I thought we had to travel light!  We adults had a ton of fun exchanging travel stories, but the kids reveled in the opportunity to play with real American kids with similar experiences.  It was so great, we stayed an extra half day just to gab and play. 

Today we spend the day in Ankara, where we visited the Citadel (built by King Midas) and castle.  There is also a beautifully restored Han (which is a ‘caravanassi’ – or a inn/market/restaurant/meet-up point for ancient traders).  The Han is now a Hotel which we had the opportunity to peek into (the Divan Cukurhan).  There is a walled citadel which uses the pieces of statues, columns, and other (probably priceless) artifacts from other ruins along with regular stones as part of their building blocks for a wall.  It is crazy. 

Afterwards, we decided to hit a fairground so the kids could have some fun.  They did the usual rides, cotton candy, but had lamb kabobs instead of hot dogs (not halal).  It happens to be a religious holiday – the day that Abraham did not have to sacrifice his son for God, but sacrificed a lamb instead.  We don’t know the name of the holiday, but we like to call it “Don’t have to kill my kid day”.  Muslims celebrate by killing sheep today, too.  Yep, there is literally blood in the streets today.  We got to see a guy skinning a, shall we say, ‘fresh’ sheep.  No…not in the countryside, but in the street outside his apartment building.  I am not sure what Hallmark has to say about this one.

Arrival in Istanbul

I suppose the cure to that awful melancholy of homesickness is a change of scenery.  Moving on gives a sense of control over my life and makes me feel better.  I suppose that feeling stuck is a big part of longing for home. 

We are doing a loop around Turkey by car for the next 2 weeks: north from Marmaris toward Ismir (to see Ephesus) then to Troy (yes, there was a wooden horse), and now Istanbul.  Travelling just 300 miles north has shown us a dramatic change in season.  Where we were wearing shorts and long-sleeve T's in Marmaris, we are more warmly dressed here as it feels much more like we're accustomed for October.  I had the kids blog about our trip to Ephesus and Troy.  Both amazing places where we have started putting the pieces of history together.  First the Greeks, then the Romans, then the Byzantinium and then the Persians who led to the Ottoman empire.  I am starting to get it.  The city of Ephesus is where the disciple John took Mary (as in the virgin) to live out the rest of her days and where he unsuccessfully prostelitized to the Ephesian masses.  Regardless of what you believe about a saviour, being here sheds light on the intellectual and spiritual development of the people at the time and it gives me a much greater appreciation of the message of Christianity.  It was a huge leap for a jewish teacher to open the gates to the masses to their re-branded version of monotheism.  That's just my take on it, but it is an amazing shift of thinking.

So, tomorrow we see the Blue Mosque (Code and the boys went today while I was taking a break).  Maybe more time in the bazaar, and then a visit to the Hagia Sophia, which is a church turned mosque turned museum.