full of mistakes

Visits

Last few days were filled with city trips. We first went to the Panoramic Museum that depicts Istanbul's conquest at 1453 by Fatih Sultan Mehmet. I had seen the website and I was curious but not so impressed. Well, I was wrong. The panorama was amazing. It was in a giant dome and as you were inside, you really felt like you were standing in the battle scene. The panorama was painted in beautiful detail, the audio devices from the museum worked without even pressing buttons as you moved around the view and the panoramo itself had audio coming from different angles representing different things happening in the battlefield. Sadly, we forgot our camera. You could take photos and videos, and there were some funny people trying to take 360 degree videos walking over each other.

Yesterday, we enjoyed our local ferry line. I believe that this line is mostly for fun as it draws a zigzag on the Bosphorous and goes from the European to the Asian side with sometimes only a 5-minute ride in between two piers. We went from our Bebek pier to Cengelkoy pier on the Asian side. Cengelkoy had a cozy little downtown with lots of small produce stores selling its famous cucumber. It also had many restaurants and cafes right by the water as the waterline has a magnificient view. You can see the Bosphorous Bridge, the Old City with the Topkapi Palace and the Galata Tower. The ferries, ships go by right in front of you. We went to one of these tea places and it was packed with people many of whom had packages from the "Cengelkoy Borekcisi." We followed course and got some famous borek from there and realized that this was the tasty routine of this neighborhood! We again had forgotten our camera...

I always wondered why there were not that many places by the water in San Francisco. Just a handful in the big city. Istanbul is filled with cafes and restaurants by the water. Maybe because it is what Turkish people do better (lounging instead of working hard) or maybe because the view here is ridiculously beautiful. The old palaces, mosques, towers, bridges on land, all sorts of vehicles on water. Oh, Old Istanbul, I am getting very used to you!

Today, we visited the Sakip Sabanci Museum. The staff was super helpful to us with two kids. Only I had to go through the security (John could wait in the car with the girls), we parked right in front of the museum and we did not have to pay anything as kids are free and John and I were accompanying them! The actual museum galleries had no exhibits but Sakip Sabanci's own house is turned into a museum with a permanent calligraphy exhibit. Then we had a quick lunch at the museum restaurant and enjoyed its garden. This time we had our camera which was very lucky, the weather was gorgeous. Here are some photos:

One ship in the Bosphorous...

Then, two!

The restaurant's garden.

The tree is more exciting than anything...

Our little people and the museum house in the background.

It was one fine day here in Istanbul.

Preschool!

Lula has started school again - preschool! That she is going to preschool is an indication of how much she has grown, but recently she herself has been amazing us with her sophisticated manners and grown-up behaviour. She loves dialogue, reasoning, learning what is happening and why, recapping events that have happened. She is speaking a lot more Turkish which makes me very emotional every time (in a good way). I think that hearing my daughter speak my language after 2.5 years of not hearing much Turkish has a very special effect on me.

Her school has a uniform, as exciting as any uniform can be. Regardless, Lula is very excited to wear it (so far), but I might need to accesorize it  a lit bit.We took these photos right before we left for school,

and this one outside... Yes, on the photo, there is a centipede on the wall!

Off she goes. She has been very excited for her new school, teacher and friends. The transition time between leaving San Francisco and settling in Istanbul was close to three months and she missed her friends and network back in San Francisco very much. 

The Blue Background

For Lula's preschool application, we needed passport photos of her, John and me. At the photography studio, we decided to have some Adele shots, as well. The photos below are taken in the standard Turkish passport photo style. Fake background is added, the photo is touched according to the artists whim. Poor Adele was teething (or so we think) that day and was miserably crabby. It can be seen in the photo. Lula was in a great mood and was practicing her version of "blue steel" look for the shot. 

Arnavutkoy

Just some fun photos from our Arnavutkoy outing. These old store windows are great backgrounds.

Terzi, the tailor.

Micir and Moloz, Gravel and Rubble (or Adele and John)

and just some sweetness.

Istanbul

And we made the move. We have been living in Istanbul for a short while now. We chose a neighborhood that has nice views and is by the water, Bebek. We also lucked out and found a new, furnished apartment (with two kid rooms!) that had not been rented for a while.We wake up to see the Bosphorus with all its beauty. We see the Bosphorus Bridge, the ferries, boats, ships, tankers and all the other floating devices whose name I don't know. We eat Turkish white cheese and drink black tea for breakfast.

The only little downside is that our neighborhood, restaurants, shops and people are fancier than we expected. We still do strolls that we love doing with the girls around but we probably will not be regulars at these hip bars. Which is fine. Our plan for the year is to explore Istanbul, all the neighborhoods and their backstreets and there are many of them. Here is a photo of Lula at one of our such outings to Ortakoy: 

Right behind the mosque in this photo is Esma Sultan Yalisi where we got married 6+ years ago!

One not so exciting thing about our year in Turkey is the primitive paperwork bureaucracy we (or I) have to deal with. All the government bodies like the municipality, mayor, or even notary services  are not centralized in terms of information. They have some versions of how to do things and these don't match each others. Time is an easy thing to spend in Turkey. They are not sure what you need to change your address so they just tell you to go the the municipality and ask! You need a document from your local mayor (or some similar title) to show that you live in your house as there is no other way to prove it. These were some of things that made me not want to live here and so far it seems like they have just slightly improved. We needed a lot of paperwork to apply for Lula's preschool. At least, that process is not too competitive; we did not need to write essays or have references.