sultanahmet diaries

i'm sitting here on a rainy tuesday morning, rain is pelting my wilting geraniums and people are walking by with various colors of umbrellas. autumn is definitely here and i can feel the chill of winter coming in the air. i'm not ready for another istanbul winter!

just wishing that i was back on holiday.... okan and i went to south turkey and visited oludeniz, butterfly valley (kelebekler vadisi), kayakoy, and fethiye. it was late in the season, but still warm enough to swim in the sea and sunny enough for me to get a little tan. (note: the tan will probably fade in the next 72 hours!) everything was lovely except for one thing: the 12-island tour we took. normally, these tours are fabulous and relaxing, and ours started out this way, too. the boat takes you to little islands and secret coves where you can swim among ruins and sunbathe. it's magical. magical, that is, until a giant white squall rolls in and almost capsizes your boat while it's in the open sea! this storm rolled in incredibly fast-- almost instantaneous, which was incredible. we were on our way back to fethiye and suddenly the wind picked up, rain started pouring down, and the waves got violent and strong. the boat was rocking at a terrifying degree and i was sure we were going to capsize and end up in the mediterranean. yikes. (NOTE: the photo above is NOT of the boat we experienced this in! that's the little fisherman's boat that took us to butterfly valley)

anyway. back in istanbul. ramazan is almost over. things are going well.

my parents bought tickets and will be coming to istanbul in december! i can't believe it. i'm absolutely thrilled that they will be able to see istanbul and experience a little bit of what turkey is like. i can't wait!

posted by camille @ 8:51 AM