“All hail yale! Resurrector of the Dead Memory Card and Recoverer of the Lost Photos of Istanbul!”

A long long time ago (Okay not so long, last year when I was holidaying in Turkey) I wrote the following despondent words…

Alas!!!  A disaster has befallen our heroes!!!  I went to pull out my camera yesterday and was greated by the ominous text … Memory Card Failure !!!  Nooooooo!  How could this be?  I haven’t done anything to you, you little traitorous memory card, you!  How could you fail me now???  And with 200 odd of my photos on it???  If I sound like I’m crying I really, really am!  I need new shoo-hew-hews!!!  

🙁  Grrr fucking memory card death.  🙁

The bitter disappointment of the dead memory card or the unbackedup file is one of those inherently modern emotions.  We might liken it with an Edwardian lady who loses a treasured lock of hair bestowed upon her by a gentleman come a courting or perhaps even with a man who loses his wedding ring whilst out surfing or something.  The abject feelings of loss whilst keen in both these circumstances are also tinged with a little bit of personal responsibility – If only I had secured that his lock of hair in my locket…. if only I had remembered to take off my ring before I went surfing.   That sort of thing.

But the loss of a document due to a computer mysteriously crashing?  Or the sudden death of a memory card?  Why it’s a betrayal of monumental proportions!  "You!  You heinous piece of technology You!  You have let me down!!!  I did trust you with my important spreadsheet and did believe that you would faithfully record and save safe for me all my precious photographic memories!"  Oh the agonizing betrayal of it all!  Betrayal… heavily lined with indignation – "You’re not supposed to do that…. You mutterfuckingmutterfucking stupid thing!"

Sigh.

Having lived through and somehow survived the despair of the Spontaneous Memory Card Death I can not describe the elation… nay the ecstacy!… of today having my photos restored to me by the Small Computer God (okay at 6’9" he’s not really a ‘small’ anything… but it sounds good) that is  yaleman!    All hail Yale! 

Dr Nick.. your copy will be in the mail asap  😉
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… checking the fucking eggs ….

Oh the life of the international jet setter is well and truly over when you suddenly stop and realize you’re in the supermarket opening the egg cartons to make you don’t get any broken ones  😐  I stopped, stared into the distance and pondered for a moment….  what a world away from this one, was the whole sailing in the Mediterranean thing….    Sigh…..  is there any mundanity in the world such as this?

 

egg carton art 1 egg carton art 2 egg carton art 3

Few of my favourite things

While on the plane out of Istanbul I was trying to sleep and it wasnt working so after I had exhausted my choices of on board movies…. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and The Good Year, I amused myself by writing some notes about my favourite memories of Turkey. This probably wont interest anyone else so tune out if you want.

. The donkey ride up Mt Nemrut… I really thought me and the little burrow were going over the edge at various points – it was an adventure.

. Going for a hamman in Antalya with the Turkish equivalent of Brunhilda! Being scraped down and scrubbed to within an inch of my life… and a couple of weeks of soft days afterwards!

. Hot air ballooning over Capadokya – sucha an amazing place and a unique experience – I can cross that off my list of things to do before I die!

. Nick’s sunglasses being lost at the internet cafe and actually getting them back when we went back the next day to see if they had been turned in!

. Addie ordering a mexican platter in Canakkale and getting a plate with Doritos around the edge and some diced cucumber and tomato, some yoghurt dip and some grilled green chilli on the plate… I will have to get her to send me a copy of the photo she took!

. Watching the sunset over the Gallipoli Penninsula from my Canakkale hotel room…. with a bottle of pommegrante wine and some good friends.

. Talking the little man in Fethiye to sell me a ruby ring for his best cash price but on my visa – took two days but worth the wait.

 . Carpet shopping at Tribal Collections in Capadokya with Ruth… was so informative and fun. And even though Nick was falling asleep he didnt get in trouble!  Hmm wonder why 😉

 

I should have bought this carpet!!!!

. The god awful filet mignon disaster at the Empire Hotel in Istanbul. Should have known better – bacon – hello???? Got cardboard steak with tinned mushrooms in white sauce grilled undera tonne of cheese!  Eww….?!?!

. Finding a saucy note from Yale in my phrase book. Ooer as he would say!!! Bet he doesnt even remember writing it!!!

. Addie’s jewellery diet… which is a diet where you go without food so you can afford to buy more jewellery … might work for me back home actually!

. Having to go through metal detectors to go into the cinema…. and the intermission in the middle of the film so you can go out for a smoke.

. Nicks carbonara pasta at Gallipoli… spaghetti with evaporated milk and tinned mushrooms and luncheon meat on it!

. Being forced to use the worst toilet in Turkey at the internets in Silifke… imagine a turkish toilet that is being kept clean and habitable by teenage turkish boy geek types. Thought I was going to throw up!

. Trolling for jewellery in Kas looking through all the unusual handmade stuff and hanging out with the shop keepers who werent pushy here. The goods are so unique you either love it or not – no point in harrassing the patrons.

. Polite ATM machines in Turkey … you put your card in and they say ‘hello Ms borysSNORC – how can we be of assistance?’  Gotta love that.

.   Strange ice cream confections – particularly love the Ulker Golf icecream which tastes like a Bounty ice block 🙂  Thank God they were hard to find or we might have consumed heaps of them its so hot!  Equally hard to find was the sickly sweet pink Star Lolly!  (shudder)

. Finding out Ruth at Capadokya has a ‘thing’ for NIck and the look on his face when we told him about it!! Absolutely priceless!!!

. Signs in shops that say ‘SORRY WE ARE OPEN’…. which i gather is loosely meant to be ‘Excuse me, we are open’. Excuse me by way of getting your attention that is… cute.

. Being so exhausted on the overnight train to Ankara that we were getting rained on in our sleep and no one noticed.

.   Shopping for pashmina… in the Grand Bazaar.  And the Egyptian Spice Bazaar.. and in Goreme.. and in Antalya.. and in Fethiye.. and in Selcuk… and in Gallipoli… and in Sirceki… and ummm…. well everywhere really!

 

. Having a dinner debate about how the conservative Turks can abide the very sexual belly dancing thing and claim it as an iconic turkish thing??? Doesnt makes sense – about as much sense as being able to buy gstrings in the supermarket but 45% of Turks think it’s okay to beat your wife?!??

. Talking to Angel, MrK and Yale by video conference from the internet cafe… beautiful to see family when they are so far away. Not being able to look at the Youtube clip while there were people around! 😀

.   Trying all the strange fruit wines in Sirince (pronounced Ser-in-jay) pommegranate, kiwi fruit, apricot, peach, lemon, cherry, black berry, strawberry… you name it.

 

. Taking my first walk without Nick in the Ankara Otogar and being unable to walk 6 pace together without some overly enthusiastic and outgoing Turkish man coming up and wanting to talk to me. Nick was a great anti-Turk device for me!

. Watching a thunderstorm roll in over the mountains at Nemrut Dagi.. the clouds looked like they were on a slow boil and when the rain finally came it was huge fat raindrops and quite the lighting show. Almost made up for the fact that our room smelled like raw sewerage and mothballs.

. Being constantly asked if we tried the yoghurt in Silifke when we mentioned to anyone that we had been there…. didn’t know Silifke was famous for it’s yoghurt until after we left! 🙂

. Finding out that the scar on Bob’s back wasn’t a terrible skin cancer thing, but rather that he had been shot ‘I was a bit of a lad when I was younger’. Likewise finding out that Bonnie was a military cook and has an FBI file but wont say what for… you just dont know who you’re travelling with really 🙂

.   Walking around a modern city like Antalya and rounding a corner and suddenly… Hadrians Gate!  That is just something that is so totally cool and so never experienced back home i Australia.

. Jimmy the arrogant Turk dropping ‘Your’re terrible Muriel’ into a converstaion and the Kiwi and Aussies at the table absolutely losing it while the Yanks looked on bemused….. not the thing you expect to hear come out of a stange little fat Turkish man over dinner! 🙂

. My blog being constantly blocked at the internet cafe by the anti-porn software!!!! LOL!!!! 😛

Turkey was heaps of fun and I am so glad we went.  Nick was great to travel with too which is always a bonus  🙂  Would definitely have Nick the Travel Buddy again!  Where to next Nick???   South America? 



Suleymaniye Mosque at night, Istanbul
using a moving bridge for a tripod 🙂

Shootings and bombings and

I remembered some other things I will and will not miss about Turkey……

Thıngs I wıll mıss about Turkey…

The call to prayer echoıng across the cıty…

Thıngs I wont mıss about Turkey…

The call to prayer echoıng across the cıty… at 4:30am!!!

Last day in iSTANBUL today and we are all going our separate ways today –  

Karen, our fearless leader and cleaner uperer of Gallipoli, is off to Poland next to start doing tour leading in Eastern Europe for the summer.  Cant imagine leading people around places I have never been to before – not really my thing I think.  So she is doing Polanad, Czech Republic, Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania etc for the next few months…

Addie left for Thessalonki *(sp??) on the overnight train last night, loaded up with Fruit Tingles, and is doing Greece, Eastern Europe and then Spain and Morrocco before heading back home to the US…

Bonnie and Ebony are off to do the Black Sea Coast before returning to New York and Perth respectively….  Bonnie is looking foward to more carpet shopping I think.  And Ebbie has finally taken someone seriously about dressing conservatively in Eastern Turkey cos lord knows nothing we have said have kept the midriff covered!!!

Bob is off to Frankfurt and then Berlin before heading to do Eastern Europe too before coming back to the Gold Coast where he spends his days surfing…

Hailey (dont think I’ve mentioned Hailey before – Hailey is Canadian, from Alberta, plays mummy and daddy off against each other to milk them for interesting study trips.  Hailey is also rather cute and dresses inappropriately for her environment and then bitches about getting so much unwanted attention!)  is off to go study in Ankara for a semester before returning to Canada-da….

Estie is off to India where she plans on being vegetarian for the duration in the hope of avoiding the Delhi Belly and then is rounding up her travel in Australia before heading back to NZ.  Hopefully she will come visit Bris on her way through to Auckland…  

Gina and Dandenong Dan are off to Eastern Europe too (seems to be the done thing this year) before heading off to Peru of all places.  He does wood sculpture and she is some sort of astrologer so we figure they must be financing their travels by selling dope back home!!!  🙂  Cant back that up but….. seems logical to us!

Then there’s Grace who is the only person, other than Nick, who came to Turkey just for this trip and is heading straight home to Philadelphia when she’s done in Istanbul….

and I am off to Pakistan… where the fun never stops!  Last Thursday night,9 people were shot dead on their way back to the military base in Quetta…. the same base where Major Dazzles lives and the same base I am going to go stay at myself tomorrow!!!  So they’ve had two seperate bombing incidents in Quetta last week and now shootings this week…. fun for the whole family I say!!!  Bloody hell whose stupid idea was this???

PS :  Please dont anyone tell my Mum about these news reports until I get home!
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