Where have I been?

I was really going to put up a post over last weekend, there appears to have been a slight delay. I was actually quite busy as I had stated before, now, things have changed! My early morning class was canceled due to to low attendance. There were 9 people enrolled but only 4 came every day, the company they work for was paying for the course and so when they saw that less than half were attending they canceled it. But I was able to work there for one whole month and the extra money paid for our move into our new apartment! We have been living in our own place for three weeks now (but I’ll let Eric write about that). Having the extra hours/money coming in allowed us to pay our deposit and buy the things we needed to have without any stress.

Now that I am not getting up so early in the morning every day I can tell you all about what it was like to do so. As I said before I would get up at 5:49a.m. four days a week, the commute would take about an hour and 15 min. then I would teach English for about 90 min and head home, the whole journey was over at 11:00 a.m.

The trip to work consisted of a bus, underground metro system and the another bus that would take me across the Bosporus into Asia. After I got off the last bus I would then walk up the hill to Hıdiv Kasrı which would take about 10-15 min.

The trip home from work was a bit more relaxing I would walk down the hill catch a bus that would take my down along the Bosporus (the a.m. bus would just bring me across it) then take a the ferry across the Bosporus and up the golden horn, that would take about 30 min then I would get off and walk about 5-10 min home. I could not take the same route to work because the small ferry that goes along the golden horn only runs once an hour and it did not fit the time frame that I needed.

Teaching there was really wonderful though, the gardens were beautiful the building was beautiful and the view out over the water was beautiful. My students were very nice and the class was going well, the problem was, the class was before work for them. If they wanted the lesson they would get to work a little over an hour early and go into work about a half hour late. Most people did not want to come in so early to start their day. Oh well, another experience had.

Here are pictures that show parts of the whole trip.

Waiting to catch the metro...


A passing Dolmüş or mini bus. They usually follow bus routes or will take you to areas that buses do not go. They wait until the are full or nearly full and then go. They cost a little more than a bus but less than a cab.


After getting off the bus I would arrive in Kanlıca and begin my walk up to Hıdiv Kasrı.


Every morning I would pass the cats that lived nearby.


Just some neat old stairs.


Finally the gardens of Hıdiv Kasrı.


Hıdiv Kasrı, Front door, balcony and view from balcony.










Inside the building,










The room that I taught in!


The elevator, quite fancy for when it was built, very modern.


Marble staircase, actually quite a lot of marble in the whole building.


They have transformed the old stables into offices for a company called BelTur, I was teaching their managers.


Lastly, waiting for the bus from Kanlıca, there were always many dogs around the bus stop. They would sleep the street and get in the way of traffic.


Now to show the area that we live in, this is what we see in the last three min. of our walk home,








The front door to the building we live in. There are three other apartments in the building and this is the entrance to them.


Our apartment has its own separate entrance on the other side of the building and this is it.


This is the our front door.


Also, we had another successful trip to Greece and in 5 days we will have been in Istanbul for six months!