How to bankrupt an empire

This palace almost bankrupted the Ottoman sultans when it was built in 1853 and when you go there you can see why. Dolmabahce Palace was truly amazing. The scale of the palace was incredible and impossible to capture in photographs...well at least in my photographs.

Instead I tried to capture more of the detail. This was also hard as the palace was quite dark and you were ushered through the 110,000 square metres quickly. This photo to the right is a sink!

The fabrics were rich and sumptuous with beautifully detailed floral patterns. You could easily spend hours here.

The grounds are gorgeous, with well maintained gardens full of huge old magnolia trees in bloom, all right next to the Bosphorus waterfront.

The photo to the right is not the palace - it's just one of the gates! And below that is the head maid's room.

The real highlight though was the drive there! Well maybe not highlight, maybe excitement is a better description, or even better 'the drive that scared the pants off me!'

I was happily driving along, secretly impressed with my progress in driving in the crowded Istanbul streets. We took a few turns into the back streets to try to find a car park. Sure, I can handle this, I thought. The roads were a little steep, but fine, so we continued along. Until some how we ended up in the steepest, narrowest cobbled streets I have seriously ever seen. I truly thought the car was not going to make it up! My stomach was jumping, it was about a 70 degree incline! The car's engine was about to cut out, and half way up the 'cliff face' was a street going off to the right. Should I turn or continue up? No time for hesitation....how do I get out of here?!!!

We decided to turn and just as we started to go down another very steep little street we spied a guy hanging out of a window so stopped (with difficulty - the handbrake wouldn't hold) and asked him. He motioned that we should back up and continue on the other steep street. Aghhhh!

With a lot of difficulty and encouragement from the passengers, I attempted a reverse handbrake start (with the handbrake not holding!) and along came another car in front, flashing and beeping their horn. Give me a break!

With a lot of burnt rubber, a worn clutch and plenty of cheers from the others in the car I made it back onto the other road. Then we got some sweet revenge - the tooting car couldn't even make it up the hill! We all laughed (mostly from relief) and little Yashar even had a chuckle.

I was pretty much ready to fall over and be carried to hospital after that! Mum, I hope you are not reading this! But if you are, we are fine.

Windswept

Yashar loves to have the wind blowing through his hair and the ferry trip over to the Asian side of Istanbul was the perfect opportunity. Although instead of a nice light summery breeze there were strong winds trying to blow you overboard! But the intrepid little traveller braved the winds with a smile. We hurried back into the shelter of the car straight after this!

Antalya

Antalya was gorgeous.

Colourful and bright.

Relaxing.

The old part of town was beautiful to stroll through in the early evening.

It was full of natural beauty.

Blue waters.

First swims!

A perfect way to end the visit from my sister and her family. It couldn't have been better.

A liquid lunch

Ok, so I have talked about smoothies before and, you know, it is such an important and potentially life changing topic that I thought it was important for me to discuss this issue again.

I saw this post over at Soule Mama about strawberry smoothies so quickly rang Senol to tell him to get some ice cream on his way home. We already had a huge punnet of raspberries so I thought 'perfect - this could be lunch!'














I like my smoothies super thick so for these I used about a cup of ice cream, a cup of raspberries and a teaspoon of honey, blended them and then I put a few more raspberries on top.



Man they were good, sitting out on the balcony, eating them (they were very thick - so guess more like a dessert than a smoothie), feet in the sun, head under the umbrella. What could be better? ...well...maybe a little vodka could be added to the mix.

Intermission

I thought I would take a short break from all my sightseeing news to show you the toy bag I just finished.

You might remember that I was working on this a long time ago. Well, in my highly motivated state this week I finally got it finished!

I am pretty happy with how it turned out and am looking forward to using it for visits to 'Baba-Anne's' (Grandma's) and when we catch up with friends and having it filled up with plenty of entertainment for Yashar.

The fabric I used is made by Cosmo Textiles. They have quite a few cute fabric designs, but the site is mostly in Japanese so a little hard to navigate.

I also lined the bag with some cute blue patterned vintage fabric and used some interfacing in between the pieces of fabric so that it was nice and thick and sturdy.

Anyway, it took a while but the timing turned out to be just right for summer with that big dripping icecream...mmm...icecream...mmm...must...go...now.

The bird house

Imagine getting this design brief:
Design me a house for resting and guests, two floors, located in gorgeous garden surrounds, overlooking the Bosporus - oh - and make it look like a bird house.

Sarı Köşk was designed in the 1870's by the Ottoman architect Serkiş Balyan with this concept in mind after receiving this 'interesting' request from the owner at the time, General Khedive Ismail.

Painted yellow for the same reason, Sarı Köşk is now open to the public and has a huge buffet style breakfast, including delicious Turkish pastries and amazing looking sheets of honeycomb, with the honey dripping off ready for your toast! It is owned by the Istanbul council which has a policy of making Istanbul's parks and historical buildings open to the public at reasonable prices. Excellent.

Sarı Köşk is in Emirgan Park, a huge park with forest areas, water fountains, playgrounds and masses and masses of flowers.


We had a gorgeous morning there with my sister and her family, filling up on pastries and cherry juice and then walking it off through the cool forest and parkland. I love going to huge parks like this when the weather is hot. All those shady trees, lush grass and the fountains really do make it so much cooler. Sure, you could go to an air-conditioned shopping mall to get out of the heat, but this is so much more fun and leaves you feeling all good inside!

Entering the Harem

Cimill, a 'Keeper of the Harem' at Topkapi Palace Museum sums it up well:

"As visitors enter the door of Topkapi Palace Harem their sense of anticipation is tangible. Even today they envisage the possibility of meeting an odalisque, her long skirt trailing on the ground as she walks. The word harem originates from the Arabic harîm, comprising the concepts of secrecy, inviolability and sacrosanctness that pervade the very walls of this place and marked life here over the centuries that it was a closed book to strangers."

The Harem is intriguing. It suggests the hidden, the secluded and the sensual. But also myth and misunderstanding. The Harem refers generally to the private quarters the Sultan himself, princes and of the women of the palace including the wives of the Sultan, his mother, his children, many other female relatives, maidservants, slaves and also to the eunuchs.

Visitors are asked to remain quiet, preserving the sacrosanct atmosphere. I felt like a voyeur, sneaking down forbidden passageways, peeking around corners and through windows. If there had been curtains I would have wanted to hide behind them and watch the secret life of the Royal Court.

Instead there were helpful guards, ropes, signs and other tourists taking snapshots. I suppose some things are best left to the imagination.

Where did I go? What did I do?

The towels were folded, new sheets on the beds, the fridge stocked. Our first guests were about to arrive! Of course, we made a last minute trip to Ikea for the essentials, rushing along the long pathways, me with the pusher, Senol with a trolley, making snap decisions at 9.59pm before racing to the registers before the store shut. Poor Senol ended up with 'Ikea hand' the next day - so many blisters from putting everything together. My sister, her partner and their 3 gorgeous children made the long journey to Turkey to see us and we were so excited!

So that is why I haven't been around here for a while (sorry about the late notice). We had such a wonderful time and I was so sad to see them go and to realise that I am alone (well not alone, but, you know, sort of alone without family and old friends) here again.

The visit was fantastic. It was so good to relax and have some fun with them all and it left me feeling reinvigorated and motivated. I feel so lucky to have a baby with a generally peaceful nature and go with the flow attitude, but also felt all consumed (and just plain tired) by the constant and unrelenting care, the need to protect him from everything, the crying and the sleepless nights. My sister and her partner do an amazing job with the kids and they are all such individual characters with wonderful natures and so much fun to be around! It made me realise that they grow up (!) and do become so much more independent. That life does continue!

I also saw that it can be a great experience to have more than one child. Up until now I couldn't imagine having another baby. It all seemed so exhausting. That feeling has now changed (no plans for more kids in the near future though!!).

I have lots of photos to go through and will show you some of the things we got up to over the next few days. Turkey is so full of treasures to be discovered!

The prettiest girl at the circus

Yashar is looking very spunky in his overalls and cute new pink T. So I guess the pink t-shirt does not help to abate all the comments that he looks like a beautiful little girl! But those comments always put a smile on my face anyway because they remind me of a story my Dad tells that my sister Emily and I always loved. It goes something like this...

When he was little he went to the circus with his parents. They had him dressed up very nicely in a little white bonnet. The ringmaster bellowed to the audience that the white pony prancing around the ring would stop and bow its head in front of the prettiest girl. The pony slowly made its way around the ring, then brayed and lowered its head in front of the cute little baby in the white bonnet - my Dad - the prettiest girl at the circus!

Is that how the story goes Dad? That's how I remember it anyway.

...Oh, and that's me holding Yashar.

28 things to do before I turn 29

So, quite a while ago I read a post by Andrea over at Hula Seventy called '37 things to do before I turn 38'. I thought that was a great idea - I love lists, I want to get all the things done that I mean to do and would love to do but never actually get around to doing...this is totally what I need! 5 months later and my point is proven -I need that list! (ok so I actually wrote the list back in April just after my birthday, but have only now got around to posting it - hope that is not cheating)

Here are my 28 things to do before I turn 29 in no particular order:

1. Go swimming with Yashar

2. Read 3 novels

3. Get up earlier

4. Get photos of Yashar printed and organise them in an album

5. Improve my Turkish to 'advanced' level

6. Draw a picture for Yashar's room

7. Generate some income -how? That I do not know!

8. Take photos of strangers - this is a hard one -see the 22 April post on Hula Seventy

9. Buy a sewing machine (and actually use it)

10. Take 5 pictures I love

11. Buy some vintage fabric

12. Sell one thing I have made

13. Get to know at least 10 new people in my area

14. Find other Mums to meet up with

15. Make a gorgeous room for Yashar

16. Knit a scarf

17. Have a romantic dinner with Senol

18. Buy handmade

19. Learn to crochet (see my earlier post about this - it is cool to crochet -believe me!)

20. Paint a picture

21. Go to Trilye

22. Get one of my photos printed 'ginormous size' for our bedroom

23. Write letters (not just emails!) to friends and family

24. Cook 4 things from Greg and Lucy Malouf's gorgeous book Turquoise

25. Paint a chair

26. Plant some herbs

27. Go to Topkapi palace (again)

28. Make the Christmas presents for my family (sorry to my family but that's what you are getting!)

...and what does this have to do with tomatoes and lettuce? Nothing, it's just dinner.