Nancy dropped by this morning to see if we could go out shopping. The plumber was here fixing our hot water heater (finally, after 2 or 3 scheduling mishaps since we've been here), and we were expecting an electrician to come and fix an outlet, so we couldn't all go. We decided Lacey, Maren and I would hit the town with Nancy and off we went.
We took a dolmus ("dol-mush" is a shared taxi...a small blue bus that stops where you want it to, and is generally stuffed with people, stuffed is actually the literal translation for the word) to Kizilay, walked amongst the seemingly endless supply of buses that meet there, and then caught one to head off to Tenali for shopping. Kizilay is for another day, but it is a huge shopping area closed to cars, and is crowded and classic bazaar style craziness with modern stores thrown in as well. We were headed for a little more calm in the Tenali area and to a few specific stores Nancy wanted to show me.
Maren absolutely loved being jammed onto the dolmus and getting to stand up on the moving bus. Lacey took the first available seat on Nancy's lap. Even when we got onto the non-crowded bus Maren chose to stand. What a goofball.
While we were walking through the park and bus area at Kizilay the girls saw a simit vendor and got so excited and started yelling, "Simit! Simit!". So we got a few and continued on...simit are the "Turkish bagels" with sesame seeds all over them. And so far the girls still enjoy them. At 3 for 1 YTL, I can't argue!
When we rounded the corner onto the shopping strip I recognized that we were right at the D & R Bookstore that Mustafa had taken us to for birthday present shopping on our first trip with him. Of course I had no idea where we were on that trip, so that was fun to realize where we were, both today and on the previous visit.
We browsed a number of stores, but hit the jackpot at a store called Yesim/Made In Turkey. It carries a jumble of name brands, all manufactured in Turkey, and for whatever reason not in the shipments headed off to stores abroad. Old Navy, Gap, J. Jill's, Eddie Bauer, Williams-Sonoma, Hilfiger, pretty funny to see them all jumbled into the same racks. The girls got bathrobes, I found a set of 12 great cloth napkins, some baby washclothes, a T-shirt for me, and most importantly, a pair of jeans for me! Two big bags of stuff and it was only 95 YTL.
We ate a late lunch at Tapa Tapa Tapas. Leave it to us to go to another Mexican-style restaurant and have tapas for lunch (should be called meze here, not tapas!) It was great. I tried some of Nancy's anchovies on a type of bruschetta and bread (first time except in Caesar salad dressing!) and it was better than I was expecting! Maren had a hot dog and french fries, though the hot dog came with sauce and "stuff" on it, so we had to do some scraping. She did discover though, that french fries are very good with mayonnaise on them. She scraped the mayonnaise cup clean. Ketchup and mayo are very popular here, and are often mixed together as well. Even McDonald's serves ketchup and mayo in packets with your meal, and they're much larger than in the US. Lacey had "3 Cheese Pasta" which turned out to be cheese tortellini with a cream sauce, a good choice for her. Nancy had a pan-fried sole fillet with potatoes and a salad, and it looked so good and colorful. I had a Spanish omelet, which wasn't bad, it was just odd because the vegetables were a canned mix. It filled me up though, and I helped Lacey and Maren with their food and was stuffed by the end. We all had buz (booz), too! Ice, not liquor.
One store we visited had many traditional blue eye trinkets and porcelain animals, so the girls picked out some souvenirs/decorations for their rooms. We also saw first-hand the tradition of piling coins in the corner of the shop to bring good luck. A tripping hazard and liability in one country is a good luck charm in another. The owner gave both of the girls a small blue eye bead and wished them well. I'll have to do a separate entry on the blue eye thing to fill in the details.
We took a taxi home...the first taxi ride for the girls ever (if you leave out the 5 block taxi van in Puerta Vallarta). They were pretty excited and the driver was, too, after Nancy explained to him that it was their first ride in a taxi. He asked for a copy of the photo and he gave us a phone number to call for a man at the university that has "the internet". What a sweet guy.
Brian and Lacey went to see the premiere of the ballet "Giselle" tonight with Tim and his daughter Meggie, and Paul, Becky, Emma, and Catherine and a friend of theirs from the UK. Details are here: Article about the premiere. The report: the stage was small (5 marley floors wide) and the theatre just below the level of the Pantages in Tacoma. Besides it being way too hot in the balcony (every indoor place here is over-heated already, then add to that the upper balcony heat collecting and you get some sweaty ballet-watchers), they enjoyed the show and the outing. Lacey danced out Giselle's part for me at home, including explaining how every time a boy asked her for something she looked away and held up her hand (in a kind of "talk to the hand" gesture). She showed me with her usual dramatic flair and it was fun to watch the re-enactment. They have a rule here that no children under the age of 8 are allowed at shows in this theater after 8 PM, so Maren couldn't go. After hearing this she declared she didn't want to go anyway!
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