My Gypsy Life

love!

A treat to making platinum status (woot!) Sky Magazine features Turkey in the latest issue

My old roomie and I stopped by the Brooklyn Flea this past weekend and stopped by this adorable booth run by Claudia Pearson. We both purchased some items and today I stopped by her website only to find more delightful images. I really want this one below.

self-portrait from the roof of the New Museum

My delicious Israeli breakfast this morning…quite similar to Turkish so it made me happy

Why do I torture myself? Tickets to Istanbul for Wednesday through Monday are $600…

My halloween costume - “Midnight in Paris” 

travel related of course ;)

Why yes please! Giant Slide here I come.

Where I giggled in the ocean

(near Datça, Turkey, 2011)

Because I loved the country so much I decided to extend my holiday for another 2 weeks (get the math right 6 weeks total). Driven by a want to do more research, make some life decisions, and see more of the country I called Delta and changed the flight.

Since I was traveling alone I decided to visit areas I had been to before with friends or at least had friends of friends to connect with. The beautiful thing about Turkey is the friendliness of the people. Traveling as a single woman I felt safe, and the staff in the hotels made sure I was taken care of.

The last week I found myself in Bodrum. Thank goodness I escaped the tourist trap for a lovely place called Datça. 

A ferry departs twice a day from the Bodrum marina. Upon arriving 1.5 hours later, a shuttle takes you to Datça downtown.

(view arriving into Datça)

Blue Mosque in the background

(Istanbul, 2011)

sunrise

(Turkey, 2011)

For a few days I found myself in a wonderful place called Eski Foça, a fishing town outside of Izmir packed with Turkish tourists and locals. Picked up from the airport, I was whisked through the Turkish countryside through the farmlands outside of Izmir until we reached the ocean.

(tomatoes being dried in the sun)

I ended up spending most of my time laying in the sun, jumping into the crystal clear water, then drying off in the sun again. It was also a wonderful opportunity to practice my Turkish since most people spoke little English. The experience though was complete with miscommunication as I missed a lunch date with a friends mother and ended up eating köfte (I’ve been a vegetarian for 20+ years).

My last night in Foça I went for fish and raki then off bar-hopping with friends. We laid on the beach watching the stars, Tarkan playing in the background, only to find ourselves later standing on the cliffs outside of the city drinking Efes watching the sunrise. It was a long and fun night. 

(watching the sunrise through Kayne colored glasses)

sunset on the Aegean

(Foça, Turkey)

street art

Istanbul, 2011