Far from the Madding Crowd

I had to Google the title just now to check the spelling. In Thomas Hardy's days they obviously didn't use" maddening". I wonder why ?

Anyway, yesterday we went to the Princes Islands just off the Istanbul coast. There are 4 larger islands - the largest one nearest Asia - Buyukada - which is the one most people visit on the public transport ferry. The 3rd largest is Burgazada - where Caglan's in-laws have lived all their lives, and not a lot of tourists go there. It's about 90 mins on the ferry from Yesilkoy. The ferry only goes once a day - leaves at 9am, back at 6pm - so it's a proper day out. We had expected to do a lot of walking on our own (well, not that much really as Burgazada is only 5km squared) and just meet Caglan for a coffee. But he had other ideas.

He booked us into a restaurant for breakfast on the seafront, took us to meet his in-laws and his dogs, went for a hike over the top of the island, and then a trip around the island in his cousin's boat. So we got a great taster of island life. The only thing we didn't do was a horse-drawn carriage ride around the island - which we will save for the parental visit.

Breakfast was lovely - a "Full Turkish" - so lots of bread, cheese and salad. And the usual array of cats lurking around. An observation about all the stray animals we have encountered in Turkey - dogs, cats, seagulls, etc - none of them are aggressive or bother people. And they even mingle with each other. Its weird not seeing dogs chase cats, or cats chase birds. I guess the cats chase mice though as we still haven't seen one.

It was great to meet Caglan's wife and in-laws. They live high on the hill overlooking Istanbul. Amazing to think that 20 years ago the view you can see in the background was mostly green hillside. Istanbul has expanded at a huge rate in a very short space of time apparently.

I took this as an opportunity to practice my Turkish. I was able to tell Ali (father-in-law) that Ffion is 25 and is visiting on Monday, and Catrin is 22 and is visiting in October. I guess I must be learning something after all ! (More on the Turkish lessons later)

It was a lovely day out - the weather was great, there weren't too many people - but it was getting crowded when we left as it's still the public holiday weekend - the ferry ride was very scenic and relaxing, we met some new people, ate some great food, and found a new place to take (or send) Summer visitors.

The only dampener on the day was when we got back. We decided to cap it off nicely with an early dinner in "Food Street". We thought we would try a new restaurant - and were doing pretty well on the ordering front. Just a few hot meze dishes, a salad and a Sea-bass. We aren't drinking alcohol at the moment on account of having far too much over the previous weeks, and putting on several kilos apiece since we've been here, so the bill should have been far cheaper than normal. I knew a kilo of Sea-bass was 80 lira. So how come one small sea-bass between 2 of us was 90 lira ? I'm off to the balikci (fishmonger) later to weigh one !!! Once again another example of how they like to rip-off the yabanci (foreigner).

Still - lets not dwell on that - we got back home to catch up on some BBC-iplayer stuff - before having an early night.

Changing the subject - one little irritant we have around here is mosquitoes. There's no weekly fogging as in Singapore (not that poor Singapore has needed fogging in the last few weeks, but I did hear that the PSI was back to below 100 today - finally), and the mossies are tenacious little buggers. I have never used mossie spray - never really needed it - but now I'm covered in bites. The one who buzzed around my head at 5am this morning wasn't very welcomed either !  So - potential visitors - please be warned about the mossies.

And I said I would mention Turkish lessons - it is so so so difficult learning this language. The other 3 ladies in my weekly class have (as it turns out) had several stabs at learning this - one lady is on her 3rd set of lessons - no wonder I feel so inadequate. I'm getting to the point when I am thinking about dropping the group sessions and having private one-on-one lessons. I'll wait for Paul to get his first proper salary in first though. That pay-packet is being promised to so many things !!!! Or perhaps I'm displaying my usual impatience, and expecting to be able to run before I can walk - or being me - sprint before I can crawl !!!

Off to the gym now - a very quiet weekend lined up before the madness of next week arrives - shipment delivery (hopefully), new shower installation (hopefully), Ffion's arrival on Monday, and booking my parents' visit subject to furniture being here. The possibilities of something going wrong with that plan are quite high methinks ! Lets keep our fingers crossed for a great outcome.

FOOTNOTE - I've just remembered a story Caglan told us yesterday about his first experience of London when he was a 19 year old student. Someone showed him a furnished flat, got him to sign a huge contract, took £1000 off him and gave him the keys. When he went to move in a week later, the real tenants were there and called the police. It turns out that some scheming a'hole had broken into the flat, copied the keys, rented it out to an unsuspecting Turkish student, and ran off with £1000 - which Caglan never saw again. It made us feel pretty ashamed that this happened in our home nation actually. I guess a rip-off of 40 lira for a fish isn't so bad after all !