News and Photos

Here is the photo of the place we stayed the first four nights. It was okay but it cost more than we could afford and the shared bathroom was a bit of a nightmare. Too much means $40 U.S. a night, and we had always planned on an expensive nightly price, until we could find a decent weekly price, while we looked for a good monthly price.



Next, we moved to this place and we stayed for two weeks. We had a great view from the terrace (where we got to know the owner and his friends - particularly a really nice guy - a cop named Ghengis Kahn - people we'll stay in touch with). There were only two rooms on our floor and the other room had its' own bath, so we basically had our own as well. This was a vast improvement and we enjoyed staying there, although the room was tiny.







Today we moved into this wonderful house as we mentioned earlier and we have our own mini terrace, our own bathroom, and access to a kitchen, living-room and dining room. It feels really nice! So, we will stay here for one or two months while we finish looking for work and find an apartment that will be all our own! Things are slowly progressing and each step has been better than the last. We were very lucky to find Ergul and her son because we have felt at home with them from the moment we met them. We are also lucky because shortly Ergul will be going on vacation and we will practically have the house to ourselves. We might even be more lucky because Savash (Ergul's son) might actually go with her on vacation and then we WILL have the house to ourselves! Still, I don't want to count on that because he has not yet decided and stated that he does not actually want to go, Ergul wants him to go. Time will tell and either way we are happy to be living in a house and not just a room.

Here are some photos, first from our terrace in both directions, into our room from the terrace, and then from the upper terrace.











We are also very excited about the kitchen because now we can start eating at home and can have REAL coffee! We are lucky to have a nice percolator from Eric's mom to make our coffee. This is exciting because Turks drink tea like water, and Turkish coffee is more of a special occasion thing. Somehow Nescafe (yes instant coffee) has become pervasive and when you order coffee that's what you'll get.... I told Eric that I would think of the instant coffee as "Hot Drink" because if I thought of it as coffee it we just too disappointing.

Our new place is just a three min. walk to the edge of the water along the Golden Horn! It is also a three min. walk to the bus stop and the ferry, we might have a ferry ride as part of our commute to work depending on its location. Which would be a nice commute! So far we have only used the ferry once when we went to check out a neighborhood where we might want to work & live. Ferries, buses and trams are all the same price and ferries can make the most sense, depending.... It is really cool to live in a city where using a ferry is part of daily life for so many people. So, we almost feel like we live here and are not just on an extended vacation, once the whole work thing sets in and we are doing the commute it will really hit us as our reality.
Stay tuned.........