A mosque in iznik covered with the meşhur eponymous tiles. and lots of men outside - it’s friday and we’ve just heard the ezan.

İznik was historically a walled city, with the walls in a pentagon shape and four gates at the major NSEW directions. Remnants of the gates and the walls still remain. This is the Yenişehir Gate, to the South. The gates were built in the time period 69-81 AD (Roman age).

This is the Lefke Gate, to the East. The gates are named for the city that is reachable by following the road in that direction.

A closeup of the Lefke gate.

A long section of the wall still standing near the Lefke gate.

In the museum, a carved decoration from the Roman period. I’m sorry I forgot to get a closeup of the placard, but I remember the figure is Hercules.

Meşhur Manyas kavunu, 1ytl/kg. (that’s kinda expensive melon, but hey, apparently it’s famous.)

Near the Yenişehir gate, we met a farmer on a tractor and his wife in the wagon being pulled behind. When we waved hello, they stopped and offered us nectarines.

Kids near the Lefke gate, they really wanted to have their picture taken.

Travel instructions from Istanbul:  Take the fast ferry to Yalova (embark at Bostancı, Kartal, Pendik or Yenikapı depending on your location and timing) - fare from Kartal was 5.50 using the akbil, 7ytl without.  Travel time less than an hour depending on your starting point.

Disembark in Yalova and walk about 10 mins to the left to a bus area right across the street from the bazaar (active on Saturdays).  Find the minibus to İznik near the back, 7.50 fare.  During the center of the day (9am to 6pm), the minibusses go every hour at 10 past the hour and a couple more times outside those hours.  Travel time less than an hour, get off at the final stop in the center of town.  Total travel time (including some waiting for the minibus) is less than 3 hours.  Same path in reverse to get home except you have to get on the minibus at the İznik otogar (bus station) a little way away from the center of town (easy to find with the map from the tourist information center, or by asking a local).

The nicest part was that the bench I found to sit on in order to look at this view had rather short legs, which made it much more comfortable for me than normal city benches. My feet easily reached the ground!

After reading my book (The Thirty-Nine Steps, by John Buchan) and soaking up the sun and view for a while, I continued my wander north and ended up meeting up with Emrah in Beykoz. We went for dinner at my favorite fish restaurant, the Beykoz Balikci Barınağı (basically a fishsellers area with a big grill and outdoor seating - short tables and little square benches). As far as I can tell, there’s just one thing on the menu: ızgara uskumru (grilled mackerel) served with arugula, parsley, onion slices and bread. Best of all - no forks, just dig in with your fingers! If I hadn’t been so hungry I would have taken a picture before we ate almost everything…

The next day we stayed home and relaxed for the most part, just wandering near the local seaside in the evening, people and animal watching. On Tuesday (a work day for me but due to cancellations I had a big chunk of the day free), we went to Büyükada and rented bicycles for a couple hours.

Eventually I did have to leave and head to work… but it’s nice that the adalar (islands) are close enough that I can spend a few hours even on a workday.

Finally, last night, taking advantage of another cancellation I was able to leave work just before sunset so again decided to go up to Çengelköy because I wanted to watch the bridge at night. After dark (these days around 9pm) it is lit up with lights that change color in interesting patterns. Also last night there was a lovely crescent moon (waxing) just above the bridge. As it sunk lower in the sky it turned a lovely orange color. I unfortunately forgot to bring my camera so no pics this time, but if you want to see for yourself, try this google images link. I plan to go again before too long, with my camera.

I finished The Thirty-Nine Steps rather quickly (it’s a thin book) and started another called Balthasar’s Odyssey by Amin Maalouf, a new author for me. Jenney lent me four of his books while she is away and this first one is very enjoyable so I’m looking forward to the three others to follow… Here in Istanbul it can be hard to find good books in English without spending a fortune so teachers (who tend to also be readers) do a lot of sharing. Yay for book sharing!

I can probably chalk it off to post-holiday-back-to-work and pms coinciding but the past few days I’ve felt a seriously strong lack of desire to do anything combined with a palpable boredom due to not doing anything.

I’ve actually socialized a bit more than normal this week, going out for a few hours on Thu after work (10pm is after work, btw!) and also Saturday evening, but overall I just feel blah. The idea of leaving the house is totally unappealing, but staying home is almost equally so (except I do enjoy my balcony). There’s nothing I feel like cooking, all my knitting projects are in the blah-zone at the moment, I’m in a lull in my turkish language education, etc etc.

What I’ve done so far today:

• downloaded some podcasts and listened to On Point Week In The News while washing dishes (these days, any podcast on the economy has me entranced).
• cleaned and reorganized some cupboards and one drawer. oh, and another drawer in a different room.
• half-watched some biographical program on BBC while knitting and then put it away (and turned it off) mid-row/mid-show.
• randomly swept and dusted, managing to not complete any room except the balcony (by far the smallest and easiest)
• felted a wool sweater in the washer (it had already been accidentally washed and half felted), cut it up into trivet- and coaster-sized pieces, and started some blanket stitch edges.
• cleaned the filter in the fish tank, entertained myself stacking up the decorative rocks in new arrangements.
• put whites in the washer (they’re still there, I assume they will get hung to dry by someone in a while)
• reviewed photos, games, and commentary online from the 2008 National Scrabble Championship, happening this week in Orlando, FL. Rah rah scrabble-buddies! And then realized nobody would be around to play Scrabulous on Facebook with me for a whole week.
• Grated a zucchini in preparation for making some mucver for dinner, with yogurt, yum.
• More stuff but, i can’t recall anything else worth mentioning.

(Sorry, RG, for the boring list, but that was sort of the point.)

I’m really in a quandary with my knitting, primarily with the problem of the socks. I wanted to try a pair of toe-up socks, and I wanted to do a bit of stranded colorwork (though it’s very simple, just blocks) but to be honest, I’m just up to the first heel and I’m pretty much not enjoying it. It’s a great carry-around project, and I have a hard time giving up, but I think I’m gonna hafta frog it because it’s just holding me back. What I’d rather be doing is a pair of simple cable fingerless mitts in preparation for winter. I also seem to have a bit of a felting bug (despite the difficulty of a front-load washer) and might try some felted bowls. But I have a t-shirt that is lacking just one sleeve that I really should finish…

Everything I do these days, other than walking around the city, feels pretty sedentary, and I feel the need for some new active thing to do. I thought about a yoga or tai-chi class, but the social interaction required from that is anti-motivating, plus the idea of having to do it according to someone else’s schedule. I really like the idea of geocaching, but would need to invest in a GPS device (I had an old one but gave it away to a friend who is easily lost, not sure how it’s helped). I’ll have to investigate how much they cost here in Turkey and maybe after payday (7th of the month) I can afford to get one. Geocaching seems ideal because I can do it alone or with a friend along, it would GET ME OUT OF THE HOUSE, plus it’s both puzzle-y and earth-y, both things that appeal to me. Yes, it sounds good.

Finally, I also need to get some energy back for my actual work. With my students also taking holidays and feeling “summer blahs” these days, what lessons I’ve had have tended to be more low-key and I’m feeling like they haven’t been very directed or effective. So I have to find some inspiration to get some energy back into my lessons. Ideas welcome!

Blah-ly yours,
Rebecca