It's after 11 at night and I just saw three orange things fly across the sky. They weren't blinking like an airplane. They made no noise and they were in a loose formation. Nobody at the apartment is awake so I ran to the guard shack and showed him. He kept saying "camera! camera!" but I just filled up my card and there wasn't time to run back and get it and delete. Then as those ones disappeared, two others flying very close together appeared and went flying over us. Then a few minutes later, a lone one! I always thought I would die in a strange way...I hope not by extraterrestrials in Turkey..I am sitting outside to type this in case any more appear! So far, nothing...except for some airplanes flying in other directions. Normal airplanes/jets that make noise and aren't orange and do having blinking lights..
Anyhow, it's true, Burger King delivers in Istanbul...by motorcycle!
Friday night a bunch of us rented a place, it's in a nice bar, downstairs, and is like a private theater. It is filled with couches, comfortable chairs, tables, etc. and the movie screen fills up one large wall. There is a choice to either bring your own movie to play, or to play one of their's.Then there is the advantage of being served food, snacks, and drinks while watching a film. We watched "The Gods Must Be Crazy". I've seen part ll many times but haven't seen Part l in years, it was soooooooooo funny! Here is a link to the place, it's called Kafika: www.kafika.com
Today a friend took me to see something I've wanted to see very much - the Whirling Dervishes...otherwise known as the Muslim order called the Mevlevis. They are sort of the mystical side of Islam. They perform their "sema" (whirling dances, prayers, rituals, music) only one Sunday a month at the Mevlevihanesi, the Mevlevi "museum", in Istanbul...but their "headquarters is in Konya, Turkey. The sema was outlawed in Turkey in the 1920's, but followers still practiced their faith in secret. Many years later the government allowed the Mevlevi to perform sema only in public. This year is the 800th anniversary of Rumi, the poet and spiritual leader of the Mevlevi. There is an exhibit at the Hagia Sophia which I will go to this week! More about this fascinating sect tomorrow, and more about Rumi's poetry as well.
Thanks to Mert and Husnu for the free all-day boat trip on the Bosphorus to the Black sea!
When I win the lottery...
Expensive homes on the water
Rumelihisari Castle along the Bosphorus
The non-students at the fish restaurant
Swimming in the Bosphorus - it's SPIDERMAN!
Husnu and me
Relaxing on the boat-VA Tech Study Abroad Students
---------------------------Exterior of shop - cottage industry - Anatolian - Asian side of Istanbul
Craftsman at oven where wood is shaped and dried. He's been doing this since age 13.
Frame made of chestnut
Raw materials - this is what is woven over frame
Finished product
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Wow....wonder what those Orange things in the sky were? Have you discovered if anyone else has seen them besides you and the guard? I thought I saw a UFO formation when I lived in the Las Vegas desert about 41 years ago, but they were not orange - just strange moving white lights moving closer and closer and then they disappeared the other way so rapidly that I could hardly believe my eyes. Poof, in a blink of an eye they were gone.
How fun to have watched "The Gods Must Be Crazy" with a group of people in such a creative place in Turkey, no less. LOL I remember going to the opening of it in Beverly Hills. I dragged my son along who was in high school at the time and he kept saying to me, "Are you sure this movie is going to be good?" We got there early because I knew there would be a line-up for the small theatre that usually showed art films like this and movies like "Das Boot." Rob Reiner was directly behind us. My son thanked me after the movie and said that he enjoyed it a lot.
So, you finally got to see the Whirling Dervishes. That's great.
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