Our Street Sign
Outside Front
This is the front of our flat. Ours is the top balcony. It's called the 4th floor because the bottom floor is counted as 0. Our flat is number 6 because there are 2 flats on floor 0.
Looking West
This is our first day at the flat. We actually moved in later that night at about 7:00pm. We had brought our bags from the hotel at about 1:00pm, but the owner was still moving out and had a cleaning lady cleaning behind her. Meanwhile, Ben and I shopped our mattress and pillows and rode the trolly around the neighborhood. It was a rainy day and this is the view down the street looking west towards the water. It was so gray that day it's hard to tell the sky from the water.
Looking East
As you can see, it is a rainy gray day. This is looking east and slightly uphill from the flat entrance. This is the direction we go for groceries, including the bakery and fish markets. Once we go up a few blocks to the T, we turn left and we can find anything we need, including restaurants galore.
Ben off to Work
This is Ben heading off to work from our new flat on our first morning there. Yes, that is a cup of coffee! We have a French press and we broke down and bought coffee at the only Starbucks in our neighborhood....next is a thermos mug to keep his coffee warm on his 30 minute walk to work. He had just put our garbage in the Big Blue Box.....more on that below.
Green Velvet Sofa
This is Cindy on the Green Velvet Sofa in our living room. She spends her mornings looking for work in the US and now in Istanbul and working on the blog. She also shops at the markets and is getting to know the shop keepers and they are getting to know her. She is the crazy lady that does not want everything in a plastic bag, she has her own cloth bag! Crazy Lady! She is also our activity coordinator and plans our weekend outings. Last weekend we went to the Grand Bazaar and this weekend we will sail up the Bosphorus towards the Black Sea have lunch at a little fishing village and sail back. We are hoping Paul and Kris, that are coming for a weeks stay with us on Wednesday, are up for that!
Peek-a-Boo View
This is our view from the balcony on a sunny day! We can look out and see the Bosphorus Strait and all kinds of boats going by. It's also nice to see the sky and sun over the roof tops of this densely populated area! Being on the south side of the street and on the top floor, we get lots of sunshine in our whole flat. In the late afternoon, we have to have the slider door open to cool it down inside. We are glad we have shades and a fan come summer. Still looking for some chairs and flowers for the balcony.
Big Blue Box
See that big blue box on the street corner? That's where our garbage goes. Ben usually takes it out in the morning on his way to work. It has a nice big foot bar on the bottom that opens the lid so you don't even have to touch the box with your hands. Ben likes that! Oh, Cindy loves that little old red mini in front of the new black mini too.
On the top of the box is a large ratchet poking out. The garbage truck has the female part that hooks onto the top and picks it up over all the cars and hangs it over the garbage truck. The bottom of the blue box splits in half and the bottom opens up and the garbage gets dumped into the truck. Then they plop it back where it was! There are natural recyclers that come and pick through the garbage and recycle anything from cardboard to used shoes on a daily basis. If your car gets towed, they use a similar crane-like devise. It just claws over the whole car and picks it up and places it on a flat bed truck. Boom..gone!
First Friday Night
Here is Ben in our dining room on our first Friday night! See the nice sunset in the background? Oh, and the shamrock hanging from the light? Oh, and the nice bouquet of flowers Ben brought home? Ben is wondering "where's the pork!?" We did just find one deli in the fish market that actually had pork this Sunday afternoon!! We had Gordon, Jimmy and Teresa over for a little house warming on Sunday evening and we served them a pork salami. They were so thrilled to have pork that Gordon found the same deli that night and bought some more pork for himself.
Bosphorus Strait Park
This is Ben on the staircase to the park at the end of our block. We walk 1.5 blocks to the top of these stairs and down to the park. It goes right down to the Bosphorus. If we head north on the path, it takes us to the ferry docks and a little further is Ben's work. If we head south it goes around a point that is the entrance to the Sea of Marmara. We get great views of the European side and all the International ships going by. The doggie condos are on the right side of these stairs.
Stair Landing
Here is Ben at our stair landing, outside our front door. The little curtained cupboard is for your shoes. He is removing his shoes after a day of touring the Grand Bazaar on the European side.
5 Stories Up
These are the stairs to our flat. Yes, it's 5 stories up, with no elevator. They don't always smell the best. You get your neighbors strange cooking smells and someone has cats or lets the strays in. It's a great workout, especially with a few bags of groceries. We are happy that our apartment smells like us, but better since Ben brought home flowers with huge sweet smelling lilies. Cindy thinks we should invest in lilies for each landing on the stairs!
Sunday at the Fish Market
We went to the Fish Market again on our first Sunday in the flat. It's about a 15-20 minute walk from our flat, depending which way we wind through the streets. The array of fish is amazing, most caught locally in the Bosphorus, Black Sea and Sea of Marmara. This market goes on for several blocks and is very similar to the Pike Place Market in Seattle.
Produce at the Fish Market
Here is some produce at the market. This market has deli's, spice shops, bakeries, butchers and anything else you would ever need to make a great meal. It is quite overwhelming at first! We are learning where to go for what we want and who can speak a little English to help us if we have questions. The shop keepers are always willing to help you to buy their product or bring you to who has what you are looking for : )
Balcony Corner Market Shopping
If you need a little snack, or you just need some butter for dinner, each block has a little corner market. Cindy has been talking to our corner store guy almost every day. Today, after she went for a great run on the Bosphorus trail, she stopped in for a few sodas (that's what they call mineral water, plain or with fruit juice). She only had a 50 that was too big for him to break. So she went back up to the flat for a smaller bill. Well, as she has been talking to him over the days she has learned how we can call him and order a few items, lower a basket or bag from the balcony with money in it and he will come and put the items in the bag, take his money and give you change! So that's what Cindy did today! She called him after looking up the Turkish words for basket and balcony, and she asked for her 3 sodas to be delivered. He understood and came out and delivered her 3 sodas. No running up and down 5 flights of stairs and it was fun! This is the basket with a rope attached that Semra (our flat owner) left us for this purpose.
Our Bedroom
This is our bedroom. It came with all the furniture and drapes. We bought a new mattress, pillows and bedding. The mattress and all were delivered the night we bought it and they carried it up all those stairs for us! The little lamp on the night stand we just bought at the Grand Bazaar this Saturday. It is a classic Turkish style lamp we are bringing home with us when Ben moves back.
It also has a nice big dresser and mirror. That is the door out to the hallway by Ben.
There are nice big armoires for our hanging clothes and more. I guess Cindy can ship Ben the rest of his clothes when she gets home!
These are the windows and door to the enclosed back balcony. This balcony is shared with our guest bedroom. We will be very happy to have this back balcony for cross ventilation in the summer. Another nice thing about this flat and bedroom is that it is quite at night, so sleep is easy.
Back Courtyard
This is what we see out the back balcony. It is much better than most courtyards we had seen while apartment hunting. At least it has some trees and people take care of their back decks.
The Bathroom
It has all the essentials! Some extras are a towel warmer and a venting window. The venting window is essential, it's just considered extra because, living on the top floor, everyones venting comes up this way. We have since gotten a strong smelling candle we light in the bathroom.
Guest Room
The guest bedroom has a large bed and the shared balcony out the back.
It also has a large desk with a twin bed on top. We have plenty of room for guests, so let us know when you can come and book your ticket!
It also has two chairs for relaxing in your own room. Cindy is still not happy with the arrangement of this room, so we might be moving it around and putting that large white "armoire" out on the enclosed deck. There will still be plenty of storage for anyones clothes.
Ben's Dressing Room
This room is right across from our bedroom. It has another nice armoire for Ben's work clothes. He can get up and shower, then dress in here and not disturb Cindy in the bedroom at 6:00am or earlier, if she doesn't want to get up that early!
It also doubles as the clothes drying room while we have guests. It is really uncommon to have a dryer due to poor electricity. There are other clothes drying racks in the enclosed balcony out back. We are very happy to have a washer! This is also the storage room, we have our luggage and some of the owners items we did not want or need around the house in here.
Entryway
This side of the entryway leads to the kitchen on the right and the living room on the left.
Kitchen
Dining Room and Living Room
Again, plenty of room for guests. We would love to have you. Love'n our new place but love and miss you all too. Ben and Cindy
A Happy Birthday shout out to Philip. We both love you and wish you a great 25th birthday son. Mom remembers that day like it was yesterday....how time flies. You make us both so proud to have you as our son. We bought you an awesome present at the Grand Bazaar the other day, we just hope mom gets through customs with it. She'll send it to NYC when she gets home....or just throw it out the plane and aim for Central Park as she flies over : ) Love mom and dad.
very very cool, I'm jealous. Looks like so much fun and your place is beautiful!
ReplyDeleteAngie