On the plane somewhere above middle-Canada, with 2 ¾ hours to go …

(Frankfurt time - 11:05pm)

Well friends, here I am again. On a plane, just a few more hours until I set foot on U.S. soil again. Taking off from Frankfurt was surprisingly easy this time. Maybe I’m just still in emotional denial… I almost always cry or at least tear-up when I leave Europe, but alas, I haven’t choked up yet at all on this flight. I did go all soft when Morgan and his cousin dropped me off at the train station as I headed south to Rome…

Earlier this morning (whatever time that was by now/however many hours ago/whatever day we’re on at this point), I woke up in an all-female hostel in Rome at 6am, made sure all the straps on my 65L backpack were tightened and tucked in, and hastily made my way to the bus stop. My last meal the evening before was a doner kebab from “Istanbul Express” just outside the hostel (hey, you can’t say no to a whole meal for 3.50€ in Rome, and I even got to use a little Turkish), and of course, a bottle of the cheapest Chianti I could find (that could still kick the ass of any red wine that inexpensive in the states). With my fabulous travelers’ luck, my bus to the airport was late and both planes I had to take were delayed and completely packed with people(I’ve just spent the last 9 hours sitting next to a very cute but very wriggly 6 year old French boy).

So, we’re nearly there now. Just another few more hours to go, and then I’ll be standing in lines at Sea-Tac and seeing downtown Seattle from the LightRail as I make my way into town. Here’s to hoping that I find some work quickly in Seattle and can figure out housing situation as well…

- nova.

Catching my breath...

It’s already been nearly a month since my last update! It seems that despite my best intentions, I just can’t stay on top of this darn blog… :)

Since I wrote last, we’ve had a few more adventures. We took a 3-day trip up to Florence to give our hosts a break (our hostess can’t help herself – even if we insist we cook dinner that night or that she should get some rest or take care of her own stuff, she still cooks/hosts/entertains us non-stop! A true Italian Mama…). Florence was as brutally hot as Rome and, unfortunately, as crowded. Morgan and I spent our time in air-conditioned museums, walking around green, hilly areas with amazing views of the city, sitting in front of the massive and painfully beautiful duomo, and cooking simple dinners in the evenings at the flat we had rented a room in. We were ready to come back to peaceful, simple Agello as soon as we left.

Morgan has some Czech-jew in his blood a couple generations back and my dear friend in Prague had been asking me to visit her since she heard I was back in Europe last spring, so after we returned from Florence I looked up bus tickets. We found an overnight 13-hour bus from Venice, staying in Prague for just about a week and a half – plenty of time to even do another quickie trip to another major city nearby. Getting up to Venice on an overnight train from Chuisi (the stop near Agello) was an ordeal in itself – it was standing room only and though we snagged some seats a couple hours in, we had to move three times as more folks got on at various stops to claim their reserved seats. Around 7am I groggily looked out the window and saw mountains. We were NOT in Venice, or even close! I immediately asked a train-person where we were and what had happened. Apparently we were supposed to have been sitting on the car behind ours, which had disconnected from the main train about an hour before… Which of course, no one had told us (no one checked our tickets the entire night, actually), nor was it indicated on the ticket in any way. What a fiasco! But we did finally get into Venice and find the bus stop for our next overnight journey. We even got a glimpse of the Alps by night as we drove through determinedly tunneled mountains, a reminder of man’s feeble attempts to conquer nature…

Prague was lovely. My dear friend picked us up at the bus station and the fun immediately began! I had a great time walking around my old ‘stomping grounds’ with Morgan, and my friend kept us entertained and in fits of laughter non-stop. I finally got a chance to do the synagogue tour in Prague, which was really beautiful. They really do hold such strong energies… The Old Cemetery was particularly moving and it happened to lightly rain just as we were walking around it, so the gravestones and mosses/plant life around the rocks were glistening and appropriately somber.

We all decided to go to Budapest as well, for about 3 days. It was a 6-hour bus ride and tickets were cheap so we thought ‘why not?’! Another buddy that lives in Prague joined us too and we paired off for most of our time there. Our two friends spent more time just outside the city limits in more rural areas and Morgan and I tromped all through center of the city for the most part. It worked out well – we had very well-rounded photos of Budapest between all 4 of us! The Buda side was elegant, classy, and rich-feeling. Pest was bustling, alive, and wonderfully diverse. Everywhere people were friendly and helpful (we realized the evening we arrived that none of us knew a single word in Hungarian, or even how to say ‘thank you’). The citizens there have done an amazing job of prioritizing the integrity of their older buildings… The architecture everywhere was really to die for (and that’s saying something after going there right after beautiful Praha!) and I couldn’t take enough pictures to do anything justice. Too, I saw the Danube river for the first time in my life… A moving experience for Morgan as well, who uses water as inspiration in most of his visual-art work – throughout our time in Europe he has been documenting in particular how certain bodies of water in specific cities act and behave.

After a few more days in Prague to check off a few last-minute things on the list (eat goulash, buy souvenirs/presents, have a picnic in the park at sunset), re-group and have a proper farewell with my friends, we got back on another overnight bus back to Venice. Again, we spent an entire day and evening in Venice waiting for our next overnight mode of transportation, trying to not spend money and stay out of the way of the unending, thick crowds of tourists... But this time it was 104⁰F and unbelievably humid. As soon as I stepped off the bus at 6:30am, I felt like I had walked into a sauna. And it just got worse throughout the day. By 1pm I had a wrist cramp from fanning myself so furiously for the previous six hours!

And finally, we made it back to Agello. We’ve been ‘home’ for a few days now and I’m realizing how soon I’m going back to the states... Which is always depressing. (At least it’s a much more reasonable temperature up here in the hills.) For now, I’m trying to soak up as much as I can in my last few days with Morgan’s wonderful family here, our delicious vegetarian cuisine, this landscape that continues to take my breath away every morning I wake up to it, the last olive trees I’ll see for a long time, and being surrounded by the music of Italian in every conversation...

- nova.

Agello.

This place is unending joy. Pure food, rich landscape, warmth and love from everyone I've met. Being here is one of the best gifts the Universe has ever given me. Every day I witness an unending swath of clouds at play, dancing over these gentle green hills and valleys of sunflowers. Each mildly terrifying trip up and down from the village via skinny, sharply-curved roads (at 100km/hour) is a refreshing twist to our otherwise relaxing, slow-paced days of talking with friends, eating massive salads and dishes of fresh pasta... I am continually humbled by how gracious our hosts and new friends have been. Still very limited internet access here, so I'll try to catch everyone up a bit better soon, but for now I'm enjoying my technological inaccessibility and immersion in village life. :)

- nova.

The village with no internet.

Well friends, it’s taken me a few days to find an internet connection here! There is one small café in the village with a dinosaur-speed computer, that is only open for a few hours a day (but not the same hours every day, that’d be too predictable!) and I’ve barely been able to catch. Most people don’t have internet in their homes, and I haven’t been able to pick up a wireless signal anywhere here.

But anyway, here’s the update! This place is absolutely lovely. The air is so fresh and cool, the cloud formations that have been happening the last few days are totally out of this world, and our hosts are completely fabulous and have been so generous with us. The day is generally relaxed, filled with beautiful vegan food and great conversation.

Agello is on top of a small mountain/large hill, with a spectacular view of the valleys and other small mountains below. Giant patches of golden yellow sunflower fields and green crops, silver lines of olive trees, and terra-cotta tiled roofs of tiny houses down below dance together to weave a soft landscape your eyes just long to drink in for hours. There is also a large lake nearby, Trasimeno, where we took a lovely walk the other day as the wind whipped up some teeny whitecaps for show. Our hosts’ house is a beautiful, modest structure that is nearly a thousand years old (and I was just informed that some say it’s even older). Every square inch of this abode is filled with love, art, attention to detail, and notably skilled carpentry/structural additions. It is a soul-safe place, much like the house of my Karma-Mom back in Seattle. I’m so thankful I’m here.

- nova.

P.S. Pictures from Roma and Agello to come soon!

On the train to Castiglione del Largo…

We are out of Roma and on our way to Agello, where Morgan has some long-time family friends we’ll be able to stay with for a little while. Agello is in the Umbria region of Italy, close to the larger towns of Perugia and Assisi, and is just a small village with a population of about 1500 people. As we chug along on the train we pass beautiful, thickly packed fields of sunflowers growing as high as 6 feet and softly rolling green hills lined with the unmistakable silver-gray-green of olive trees…

Rome was what we both remembered it to be from our previous visits there: crowded, impressive, and full of masculine energy. We spent a day in Vatican City, walking around the museums there and absorbing all the [slightly creepy and sadist/masochistic] Catholic art. The Sistine Chapel was a particularly comical point of the day – Morgan continues to randomly shout in serene moments now, “NO PHOTO! NO PHOTO!! SILENCIO!” mimicking the guards who yelled that at the top of their lungs about every 15 seconds or so to the crowded mass of people all craning their heads upwards to see the famous ultimate work of Michelangelo. After shuffling along through the museums for about 4 hours, we also managed to get to St. Peter’s cathedral, though my feet were screaming in protest (too much time laying around in the sun on the beach in Crete made my tootsies forget I ran around a restaurant 60+ hours a week last year!) and I was tired of fighting through the never-ending stampede of tour groups just to be able to have a spiritual moment anywhere.

St. Peters was massive, dark, moody, and full of hidden pagan and mythological imagery. I continue to find it interesting that though the Catholic church claims to be so purist and original as a religion (or at least, never wants to even acknowledge their basic roots in Judaism let alone say that anyone else has ever influenced the Church), despite the fact that it’s early founders borrowed heavily from other religions and ways of thought. Later, they forced the followers of those influential beliefs into conversion or murdered them en masse. Or both. In St. Peter’s there were quite a few hidden dragons, Athena’s, and protective animal spirits amongst the impossibly massive statues lined with equally impossibly beautiful pieces of marble. In the Vatican’s collection of art I distinctly remember seeing Hera and her peacocks decorating the side of a large tapestry of a saint, as well as some fauns and centaurs bordering another large wall-hanging with Christ in the center.

During the week we were there, we mostly just walked all over Rome. The Vatican and St. Peter’s cathedral were the main things on our agenda there (we’d already done the Coloseum and stuff like that on our own previous trips to Rome), and after we’d checked that off the list we just wanted to wander the city. Rome is surprisingly small – after a full day of walking you’ve sort of seen the major stuff to see. What continues to be present about that city for me is the very strong masculine energy I feel radiating out of every giant columned building I see there. Huge phallic monuments, obelisks, muscley (and very homoerotic) statues and fountains, the obsession with power and dominance, and the cookie-cutter way most of their important/large buildings seem to be stamped from the same mould… A big contrast to where we have just been for a month in Crete, and where we are headed now into Umbria. I think I was more in tuned with my soul on top of the mountain in Polyrrinia, watching the sunset and feeling the wind fly 360 degrees around me than I was in the Vatican or St. Peter’s, looking at busts of popes or heavily guarded and poorly displayed pieces by Michelangelo.

So, I think we are ready to shift gears again and experience a different pace. I want to feel my heart in my chest again, that sensation that calmed me in Crete after those months in Turkey, and what this summer is really about for me in general. Last year, though I was able to squeeze in a few trips here and there, I worked too much and too hard with not enough heart-in-chest moments to keep me sane. Now, I’m trying to make it up to myself to I can return to Seattle with a level head and a solid game plan for this next upcoming year. I need to have more of those moments of soul-recognition and celebration.

Also, Rome has been oppressively hot. I’m longing for our ultra-luxury air conditioning unit we had in Greece! We’re now headed to the top of a small mountain, so I have a feeling the temperature-situation will be a bit more bearable. And Morgan is missing the guitar he had been able to borrow from our expat friends during our stay in Chania. Here’s to hoping our new hosts will have a spare instrument or two…

- nova.

Greetings from under the stairs…

Well friends, we are finally on our way to Athens after an amazing and magical month in Crete! I am so completely overwhelmed with gratitude towards the people that made our trip so special… It was really great to meet Morgan’s super kind and generous family in Chania (who put us up in total style right in the heart of the old-town area, in their beautiful 16^th century duplex) and also to make fabulous expat-friends as well. I am already missing the midnight jam-sessions on the beach with our English buddies, the local mezithra cheese that melts in your mouth the moment it touches your lips, the heart-of-gold owners of Café Vafe who were instant life-long inspirations, our de-LISH and beautifully laid family feasts at Aunt Cake’s, the endless view of ancient (500+ years old!) olive trees gently caressing every foothill and slope of the Cretan mountains… I could go on! This month in Crete has possibly been one of the best 4-week periods of my life.

And it wasn’t just that Crete itself is just soooo super fab (but yes, it totally is!)… It was that I needed a break, and the Universe gave it to me. I needed re-coop time after a strange quarter-year in Turkey, constantly struggling and on guard. And before I left for Turkey, I had been struggling at home too -- in 2010 I was homeless for 11 months, staying with friends or couch-surfing and living out of a suitcase, while working 60+ hour weeks in the food service industry to save money, pay off debt, and get back to Europe. I was physically, mentally, emotionally, and even spiritually exhausted. By the time this June rolled around, all I wanted was to lay on a beach, and be wrapped up in the arms of the wind and sea and sand, with no agenda and no pressure to do anything else but heal my soul at my own pace. And that is exactly what I got! This may be the clearest, most accurate manifestation I’ve ever been able to muster! Of all places to go, of all people to meet and stay with, living in Chania, Crete for 4 weeks with Morgan’s family and our other expat-friends was the best possible blend of circumstances, energy, love, and inspiration to help me rebuild myself after feeling so broken and tired for so long.

Though a bit weary of returning to the “real” world out there (i.e. places other than the laid-back/safe/easy going shores of Crete!), I do feel ready to take on the rest of my summer/fall. There have been some recent financial complications and I may not be able to stay in Europe as long as I’d originally planned… Yet again, my well-thought-out-and-laid plans have taken a drastic turn, but I’m no stranger to staying on my toes and improvising! This trip may be cut a month or two short, depending on where our journey leads us over the next few weeks, so I’m trying not to stress out about money and just go with the flow. The Universe knows what it’s doing, and if I’m meant to stay abroad a little longer it will happen. So in the meantime, I’ll be doing my best to travel wisely and frugally. At the moment, I’m writing from “under the stairs” on the overnight ferry from Crete to Athens – Morgan and I went for the cheapest ‘deck’ ticket option (i.e. we didn’t pay for a cabin with beds), so we found a carpeted area and are camped out with the other roomless folks, with our bags tucked away under a large spiral staircase. We pulled the same move on our ferry from Athens to Crete as well; definitely worth the +25E per person we are saving! Tomorrow we fly to Italy…

So my friends, there’s the report for now. I’m feeling refreshed, adventurous, and open to the Universe. Next stop, Rome!! :)

- nova.

Time: That swift, sneaky bastard...

Well friends! It seems that despite my best intentions, another near-month has gone by since my last post!! Currently, I'm relaxing in the home of dear friends on the island of Crete, watching my partner-in-crime paint for the first time with the new paper we bought yesterday, as I drink the last of my coffee from breakfast an hour ago (and yes, 1pm is breakfast time here) and try to recap everything that has happened in the last three weeks...

I needed a break from Istanbul (again), after my trip to Samsun ... So a few days later I booked a cheap-o flight to Sofia, Bulgaria! I spent three days eating cheese and wandering around the city on my own. I spent a few hours praying/thinking/sitting in the St. Alexander Nevsky cathedral and lit a candle. Talk about soul-healing! I had not been that still in months... Maybe not since well before my 25th birthday in Seattle this year, for that matter. I stayed with a very sweet friend who even gave me some of her spices to take home -- instant bff-for-life move! The best part though, was eating fresh баница ("banitsa") from a tiny old woman's bakery in the city center (yes, she was actually tiny, maybe 4'5" and totally hunched over with the most beautiful leathery hands I think I've ever seen): a flaky phyllo treat filled with Bulgarian feta cheese, butter, and a little spinach. YUM!

I returned to Istanbul with 5 days left. Just 5 days! I had already been couch-surfing with friends before I went to Sofia, since my lease had expired on my rented room in mid-May. I tried my best to kill time as quickly as possible before my big fly-out day (June 3rd!), but of course watching the clock just made it seem to tick by more slowly. I ate my favorite Turkish dishes, spent a day in the Blue Mosque praying/writing/reflecting, and tried to quiet my mind from the constant 120-decibel noise that seemed to be permanently installed behind my eyeballs since arriving in Istanbul. Turkey, though I had initially been excited and curious to begin my adventure there, had worn out its' welcome in my heart. I was tired - completely emotionally and physically exhausted from Istanbul - and all I could think of was the moment I would finally be in a different country, surrounded by different culture/language/food/scenery, with the anticipated friendly face from home I'd been longing to see for months just waiting to meet me in a few more days...

So I said goodbye to Istanbul. Of course, the Turks had to fuck me over one last time and I was charged over 200TL just to exit the country at the airport - I was two days over my 90-day tourist visa, and though I had previously asked multiple airport personnel about this (on my way back from Paris and from Sofia), they said as a first-timer in Turkey (and especially as an American), I was allowed a 14-day grace period on my tourist visa, and I would not need to purchase an additional 90-day visa if I was only going to be in Turkey for a total of 92 days. "Don't worry" the officers had said upon my re-entry to Turkey from Sofia, just days before I would fly out again, "no one will bother you and you can just go right through. It will be O.K." Well, that was not the case apparently, and I spent my last couple of hours in Turkey extremely stressed out, running all over the airport to various offices and specific-currency ATMs, and panicking about whether or not I'd be able to catch my plane to Greece so I could just get the hell out of that country already!

But thankfully, I made it and arrived in Athens in one piece, all my luggage in tow, tired and haggard after my final Turkish ordeal in the airport... But so happy I couldn't stop smiling. I found my way into the city center, and a friend picked me up. The next few days were a blur of sheer joy -- a combination of total bliss that involved swimming in the Mediterranean for the first time in my life, eating some seriously fantastic cheeses, feeling my chest clear from the pollution of Istanbul (yes, Athens is a bit polluted as well but much less so than Istanbul!), and the biggest relief: I was finally out of Turkey.

I managed to see a fair bit of Athens in just a few days... I even got to witness some of the huge political protest currently going on -- the entire Syntagma Square has been filled for a couple weeks now with banners, posters, political art, tent-campers, and plenty of folks (young and old) making their voices heard. I went with my friends Sunday night, and by the time we got there the crowd had been halved to about 50,000. Very cool.

But don't let me forget the real best part! My best friend, 'partner-in-crime', fellow performer and artist, had agreed to meet me in Athens a few days after I had landed there myself. What a relief to see his friendly face at the airport terminal!! It was as though a sweet, fresh gust of air had entered my tattered little lungs and I could feel in a moment, everything is going to be ok. We made our way back to the room I'd rented for us in a quiet, cute part of Athens and collapsed in fits of sighs and giggles and the comfort of each others' familiar faces. How soothing it can be to spend such long-awaited moments with those people that know you - those dear friends that you never need to exchange a single word with, but yet you can't help gabbing on with for hours...!

Over the next couple of days, my dear friend Morgan adjusted to the time zone and new country. We spent an entire day wandering through the Acropolis, a very significant historical site for us both. The weather was amazing, the stones were prolific, and being there together was super healing after a difficult few months on both our ends - he had been working 7 days a week since March on a number of equally complicated and extensive projects, all with deadlines just before his arrival in Athens, and of course, dear friends, you know my story for the past three months...

We only had a limited window of time to spend in Athens, before Morgan's family would be expecting us in Crete. So we hopped on a boat last Saturday night and arrived in Chania Sunday morning. What a sweet, quaint little town this is! The 'fam' has set us up in a beautiful 16th-century apartment above their touristic shop in the Old Harbor part of town, and the beach is a 10-minute walk away. We have been eating amazing fresh fruits and veggies (not to mention the cheese!) every day, playing music together, painting, reading, swimming in the salty Mediterranean water nearby... I am slowly coming back into myself from Istanbul. I feel the blood returning to my fingertips and my soul tingling once more. I am so relieved and exhaustedly happy to be here in Greece, with a loving companion and my Mother Earth holding me so gently. I am so overwhelmed with gratitude to be here, to breathe this air, to eat these beautiful tomatoes, to wade out into these waters at sunset, to be alive.

- nova.

End of May already??!

Wowee! Time sure is flying by over on this side of the world!! :) Since my last post I've take a couple trips, have bought more tickets for future trips, moved out of my flat and have been couch-surfing in Istanbul. So all this time in transit has not left me much down-time to write to you all! There's lots to catch up on, but here are the highlights...

A group of young college students I befriended invited me along to a group-trip to Antalya. Antalya is a beautiful city in the south of Turkey, along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea (and near the island of Cyprus). It's basically the "California" of Turkey -- lots of planted palm trees, sun for much of the year, and a vacation spot for Turks and tourists alike. We stayed in a very cute "resort" - a hotel with a small park attached with fun activities for kids - and basically just hung out by the beach for about 5 days. Very fun! The best part of the trip was our mode of transportation: we took a huge tour-bus to and from Istanbul, a 14-hour drive each way! Plenty of singing took place, as well as some dancing in the aisles... I learned a few choice moves as well! ;)

After Antalya, I came back to Istanbul and resumed looking for work. Again, not much luck was coming my way... So instead, I thought I'd work on my social life, and began to utilize couchsurfing.org a little more to try and make some women-friends; so far I had only really been meeting guy-friends and I just needed some girl time! (Ladies, you know what I mean!) I had a few coffee dates and met a few very fabulous women that I would later travel with...

But not yet! Instead, a couple weeks later, my best friend here in Istanbul had his cousin come to visit. We three toured the city and I finally saw the Blue Mosque and the Aya Sofya... And wow. What a sight they are to see! Since then, I've already been back twice, just to sit in the Blue Mosque for hours, staring at the impossibly elaborate walls under hundreds of candle-strength light bulbs in low-hung circular chandeliers, listening to the soft sounds of chatter muted by the beautiful floral-printed carpets and gently-curved dome-
ceilings. Every square inch of the place is detailed, but not in a way that western churches will ever be able to understand or replicate. Even the most stereotypical/obnoxious American tourists lower their voices in respect and awe. Though many decades of work went into creating this wonder, there is still a humility and softness about the structure that the towering cathedrals of western Europe defy in opposition with their sharp edges, pointed turrets, dark and foreboding interior, and ugly-faced gargoyles intermingled with endless images of dead saints/Mary/Jesus. To me, inside a mosque there is a sense of light, softness, tranquility, and a desire to be thankful and at peace. Inside churches, I usually feel a sense of foreboding, guilt, sins remembered, and strong urges to ask for forgiveness for my 'wicked ways.' Though I'm not saying Islam is completely without bloodshed on it's hands - it is, after all, a major religion and has played a role in many of the world's wars just like Christianity and other religions - it does seem to generate much more peaceful energy to me. I feel less violence in my soul when walking into their place of worship. The Aya Sofia feels the same yet different - colder, breezier, all made of marble in deep shades of gray and dark green. But still, on the main level there are no images of dead prophets or saints - only beautiful Arabic script in giant gold lettering on huge forest-green disks, hung 50 feet in the air along the main pillars of the interior. Similar low-hanging chandeliers have small candle holders where low-wattage light bulbs now give off light to cast a beautiful soft/fuzzy luminance throughout.

I moved out of my flat May 15th and have been couch-surfing with friends since. So I took the opportunity of this flexibility to head out to Samsun with a couple of my new friends from couchsurfing.org! Samsun is another sea-town in Turkey, though this time to the north and along the Black Sea. This was really exciting for me, as I have always regretted not seeing the Black Sea when I went to Bulgaria for the first time when I was 16, and it was so close... Actually, Samsun reminded me a lot of Seattle -- gray, drizzly/rainy, and the sea was gray as well, much like the Pacific Northwest. Lots of greenery, a medium-sized city, and a historical one at that - Samsun is where Ataturk founded the Turkish Republic movement, and it served as it's base during the Turkish War of Independence. Again, my friends and I drove, but it was only about 10 hours each way this time! ;)

Now, I'm back in crazy/beautiful/exhausting/magnificent/crowded Istanbul for a short while before taking off again -- I've got a quick trip to Sofia lined up from this Friday to Sunday. The goal is to see some of the major sights in the capital I didn't get a chance to see the last time I was in Bulgaria, and to eat fabulous Bulgarian food!! (Duh! Of course!) Then, I return to Istanbul for the last time (in the near future at least), before flying out to Athens on June 3rd... I'm certainly ready to leave Turkey behind for now and continue the adventure in Greece.

That's all for the moment, friends. I'm missing Seattle and sending you all my love!

- nova.

P.S. I hope everyone knows you can click on any picture in my blog to make it bigger/see more detail! ;)

Catching up: More of Istanbul and a week in Paris!

Hi there, friends! It's been a little while since I updated everyone... So I'll start with a few recent pics around Istanbul. :)

On the ferry... I'm now totally spoiled and hate taking 'regular' busses/dolmushes/etc, because the traffic in Istanbul is always so terrible! At least on the ferry, not only is my commute time cut in half or more, but I can sit, enjoy crossing the Bosphorus, and really soak in the magic of leaving one continent and going to the other... :)

My dear friend I met on the havas bus in from the airport to Istanbul my first night! She was a medical inern at a local hospital for a 4-week program and we got to hang out a couple of times... This is on her last night in town, with our last lahmacun together.

One day I heard someone playing an accordion closeby... I looked out my bedroom window, and there was a gypsy family - mom toting the kids and dad playing away, just walking down the street...

Turkish BBQ chicken! Totally superior to any BBQ chicken I've ever had in my life, anywhere in the world.

Ahhh yes. My one vice in Istanbul... I haven't done much shopping (shocking, I know!), don't spend too much money on food, and haven't done the touristy stuff like organized mosque-trips, etc. But I sure do enjoy a real Turkish Coffee now and then. ;)

I live next to a hamam! This is the view from my bedroom window.

Simits are like bready-pretzels, sold on the street on nearly every corner for 1TL.

My flatmate and I, eating a simit and about to enter the Tuesday Bazaar on the Asian-side of Istanbul, close to where we live... Here we go!

Knock-off heaven!

Yes, these were shirts... in tiny shrink-wrapped cubes... ???

Another local 'street-food' type of thing... These little corn-stands are everywhere too (like the simit stands) and are also just 1TL a cup.

A view from the main street my flat is just off of.

A particularly beautiful sunset on my ferry-ride home tonight...

Istanbul remains a challenge. I have still not found work, despite my near-constant attempts to scour the internet and contacts I have for any possible leads/openings on an all-day, every-day basis. I am hoping to at least do a gig or two here, before heading off to Greece in the beginning of June, but if it's just not in the cards I am trying to make peace with that and just enjoy the city for now.

In my last post I mentioned having to return to Seattle earlier than I had initially anticipated... I'll be coming back sometime in October and will need to get some work lined up pretty quick -- I'm sure I'll be financially drained (already out of a lot more money than I thought I'd be at this point, actually) and will be in desperate need of a paycheck... And am also not sure what my housing-situation will be like (more couch-surfing??). For now, the more-immediate plan is to stay in Istanbul until about the beginning of June and then head out to Greece to meet my partner-in-crime. :) We'll stay there for about a month and then have tickets to Rome lined up around mid-July... From there, we aren't sure what will follow from then until our return to Seattle in October, but we are open to ideas/suggestions/friends to stay with! I am also loosely thinking about doing a year of university in Paris for the 2012-2013 year...

Ah yes, dear friends! I went to Paris for a week! I had to clear my head of Istanbul after about a month of being here... Loneliness was starting to push in and the heaviness of my challenges here was getting to be a bit much. So I took off to Paris to see some dear friends and refresh my soul a bit... Ahhhh I love Paris! What a lovely city, and such a contrast to Istanbul!! People actually say 'please' and 'thank you', and 'excuse me' when they accidentally bump into you. Seeing greenery - special areas just for trees and nature and beauty, people actually using crosswalks in intersections and waiting for lights, traffic actually stopping for a stray pedestrian (gasp! no!!)... This is the Europe I really love. Istanbul has been a very educational experience and I'm definitely glad I came here, but it's not what draws me to 'this' part of the world -- I say 'this' because I'm realizing that Turkey is really not in Europe. I mean, technically yes, but the energy, the culture, the food, the religion, the music... It's just not the western/northern/eastern Europe we Americans are used to mentally conjuring when hearing the word "Europe". I literally live on the Asian-side of Istanbul -- I have to cross the Bosphorus to set foot back on Europe again!

But anyhoo, back to Paris. While I was there I also sat in on some conferences dealing with the racism-issues towards Muslims in France, specifically the first and second generation northern Africans and Arabs in Paris and laws being set into motion to limit their religious freedoms. Very interesting stuff... They had brought in a super fabulous black woman-Ph.D. professor/researcher/speaker from the U.S. to talk about her experiences growing up in the rural south, her perspective on living through the U.S.'s Civil Rights movement, and to give the some sort of perspective on how to go about staring a civil rights movement of their own in France, against these outrageous laws against Muslims in non-violent ways (boycotting, protests, sit-ins, etc). Interestingly enough, the top new story of today when I woke up was that a new ban has been put on wearing face-veils in public in France, and two women were arrested this morning. Very curious that I was just there and talking with young black French people in depth about this...

Some pics for you...! :)

The beautiful street my friends live on. :)

Shopping heaven!

Yum! My friend and I stopped for a super fancy hot chocolate in one of the most beautiful shopping centers (if you can even call it something so common like that) I have ever seen in my life.

L'Opera!

The Louvre...

Super good panini... YUM.

Notre Dame.

Cheese heaven!

And of course, crepes! One savory and one sweet...

The view from my friend's fabulous flat!

My dear friend and host - we took a picnic to the Eiffel Tower. :)

Yum!

Look at all that green! I sure do miss that about Seattle, too. Istanbul is too crowded to just have space for only grass and trees...

Rent a bike! 1Euro for an hour.

Well friends, I think that's all I can muster for now. Keep your fingers crossed for some dance gigs for me, eh? :)

- nova.