Jenni
& Joe
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Merhaba,
from Western Turkey! 
Our
time here was spent as houseguests of Binnur and Ertunç; a delightful young couple
who touched our hearts as we made friends forever.
JOE: Jenni and I met Binnur and her husband, Ertunç, about a year ago on the Web site www.virtualtourist.com. We've traded dozens of e-mails over the months and have gotten to be quite good friends as we've exchanged messages on a myriad of topics; from our young marriages to politics to cultural differences. Binnur is a teacher at a private high school and Ertunç is an engineer who works with computers. They met while working together at a TV station. Binnur was a reporter and Ertunç was her favorite photographer. We knew Binnur would be a delight from her e-mails. We had no idea just how kind and thoughtful a host she would turn out to be in real life!
Binnur and her father met us at the bus station after our 13-hour overnight ride from Cappadocia. When we met, Jenni and I were so exhausted, but so relieved to see Binnur because it would have been so confusing to try and find her home when we knew nothing about Izmir! Jenni and Binnur hugged "hello" and I (barely) remembered to do the traditional Turkish greeting of kisses on both cheeks. Binnur and her Dad drove us back to their apartment where we spent the next 8 days.
JENNI:
Binnur speaks English quite well - self taught - and her father speaks some. We
chatted on and off during the half-hour drive to her apartment, but Joe and I
were both so worn out from the bus ride, I'm not sure we were very good conversationalists.
When we arrived at her home, we dumped our bags off in her spare bedroom, and
joined Binnur and her father for breakfast on the terrace. Binnur worked it out
with her school that she could miss her first class in order to help us get settled,
but she left shortly after 
breakfast
for school. Joe and I proceeded to fall straight asleep for several hours in this
comfortable home in this strange city.
JOE:
The third largest city in Turkey, Izmir has a population of 3 million. Its former
Greek name is Smyrna, and is reputedly the birthplace of Homer (not Homer Simpson
- the ancient poet). Izmir is an attractive, cosmopolitan city with wide boulevards
and plazas. The world class boardwalk along Izmir bay is lined with restaurants
and cafes. But, frankly, we spent very little time sightseeing in Izmir and most
of our time just reveling in the hospitality of our hosts. We spent most of our
days catching up on our rest by hanging out in Binnur and 
Ertunç's
neighborhood of Goztepe. We joked that we were like two big cats (tigers) lying
around her living room.
We occasionally would go for a walk and buy simits; a kind of bagel with sesame seeds along the way. During one morning walk, I saw this lazy man getting his breakfast bread and newspaper by dropping down a basket from his fifth floor window (picture, bottom left). Once, I went with Binnur to the market where we bought fruits, cheeses and meats for a big dinner she was cooking. Perhaps the most amazing thing about the market is the fact that Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones sells socks here. That's him with the goofy sock hat made of "The Simpsons" Cartoon characters (yes, Homer Simpson this time).
JENNI: It may seem unusual that that we didn't do very much here. Usually we plan a method of sightseeing and read up on the city we're visiting…but in Izmir, we happily did nothing like that. We were more than content to follow Binnur and Ertunç wherever they wanted to take us, and go along with whatever they had planned, from a trip to the bazaar and fish market to the movie store to ancient sites. Several weeks earlier Binnur had e-mailed her ideas on what we could do and where we could go - but since the unplanned side trips to Adana and Cappadocia, we were about a month late in arriving at her house. But it didn't spoil too many of the plans. The day after we arrived we all got into the rental car (courtesy of Ertunç's father) and headed for Ephesus (in Turkish it's Efes) and Mother Mary's House.
JOE: Ephesus is just a half-hour drive from Izmir - a stunning collection of ruins of an important ancient city. Five thousand years ago, it belonged to Ancient Greece. At that time it housed a giant 40-foot statue of the goddess Athena which was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, and perhaps the most visually pleasing.
Ephesus rose to even higher prominence after being taken over by the Roman Empire.
It was also the home of the Ephesians of New Testament fame. It was later taken
over by the Turks when they conquered what is now the Turkish mainland. Ephesus
is now 10 km inland, but used to be one of the biggest port cities in the ancient
world. An 
ancient
traveler called Ephesus the most "wondrous of the Seven Ancient Wonders" and the
"most beautiful work ever created by mankind." The Temple of Artemis was the largest
building in the Ancient Greek world and it was made entirely of marble. Ephesus
later became a center of Christianity in the 
Roman
Empire, so much so that he Ecumenical Council met here in the 400's AD.
JENNI:
Judging by its giant theater designed to hold 25,000 people, it's safe to assume
that upwards of 250,000 people lived in Ephesus at one time. And it's also safe
to assume that the people were educated and culture thrived here. There's a huge
façade of the library left standing, (in the picture to the right) which looks
larger than it is. The tiny space that architect had to work with forced 
him
to invent creative ways of making the structure more imposing that it could really
be.
This wide
promenade used to be covered and was the main street of this city, running past
shops and temples and theaters…the rocks are now slicked from so many tourists'
feet and treacherously slippery in places. It's all so elegant still, and relatively
easy to imagine what life must have been like so long ago. 
And
you can even tour the communal toilet for the city folks! Just holes in cold marble,
with a trough of running water three feet below. Notice
how close the seats are to each other…we're told that politicians would debate
ideas while they took care of business!
And
interestingly enough, the first advertisement is supposed to have been posted
here. A local prostitute touted her wares and skills with this"ad".
It's an imprint of her foot, with some sort of inscription included. I wonder
who wrote the copy?
We
also visited the Virgin Mary's house, up on a nearby hilltop. The tiny house now
looks like a chapel. This was Mother Mary's house after she left Jerusalem about
five years after the death of her son, Jesus. She lived here under the care of
Saint John, the apostle, according to legend (and supported by some archaeological
evidence as well as an edict from the Vatican.)
JOE:
Binnur was kind enough to allow us to visit her computer classroom at the private
school where she works. She is an 
excellent
teacher because she allows the students plenty of hands-on experience after she
introduces them to the different topics at hand.
While
her kids are no doubt excellent students as well, I turned out not to be a very
good student at learning a very important task: pronouncing Binnur's name! It's
a very unusual name for an American to try and say and I spent hours - no, days
- practicing and still had trouble getting it right. Binnur 
says
her name somewhere between the following three pronunciations: "Bin-noor." "Binnoore"
"Binn-noourge." Someday I will get it right, but for now I sound like an American.
JENNI: I got it right days before Joe did…and Ertunç is pronounced AIR-toonch! They turned out to be serious lovers of conversation and sharing of ideas, ranging from religious topics to off-color jokes. They are both wonderful, wonderful people who epitomize Turkey for me. I hope we made as much an impression on this couple did on us. Joe and I asked Binnur to write down some of her thoughts about our weeklong visit, and here are her words:
Binnur: Do you know that feeling? Stars of the cinema, or famous faces of politics seem like they are not actually living. They are just like cartoon characters or just pieces belonging to "no-land." Joe and Jenni were something like that for me before I found the opportunity of giving the first hug to them, as soon as they arrived at Izmir's main coach station. They were no more the pieces of the cyber space for me. They were real and reciprocating my Turkish way of greeting people (who are loved), warm and "kissful". (Joe was better at this than Jenni, but I cannot forget Jenni's tight hug, which is warm but more American because of the lackness of the two kisses on both cheeks.) Thinking about my impressions about them formed by one year of e-mail exchanging, I was anticipating warm and kind people but our days spent together brought something beyond my expectations. They were like real friends with whom my husband and I every now and then burst into laughters. We gave our sitting room to two cute kitties, so called tigers by themselves. It was real fun to know that, if Joe is in happy mood (he is always like that, isn't he?) he was wrestling with their bedding and rolling like a ball with them as he carries them to the sitting room. And it was nice to hear sincere and "full of mouth" laughters of Jenni and listen to her "always kind" words. She seemed "hungry like a wolf" for books and buried her nose to her books whenever or as soon as we stop chatting. I always love people who love pets and loves books. As a part of a marriage, of which our first anniversary was celebrated a few months ago, it was flattering for me to find people on my dining table who eat desirously what ever I cook. However, it was maybe because Turkish cuisine was interesting for my American friends, who (sorry for this, friends) had a hard time noticing the difference between onions and leeks. They also went crazy over one of our simplest salads (grated carrots with olive oil, salt and lemon juice). As you guess, it was a pleasure for me to cook for such an "easy loving" and "much appreciating" guests.
As final words, I want to say that after knowing them as much as 8 days would let us know them, Ertunç and I found ourselves both lucky and unlucky. Lucky, because thanks to the Internet we found the opportunity of knowing a wonderful and "shining in all terms" couple. Unlucky, they are not living next door. I hope life gives us many chances to see them many times more. |
There
are many things to be told about 8 days together with my friends, but they wanted
me to write just a few paragraphs. I wrote more than a few. We do too. We thank Binnur and Ertunc for the wonderful conversation and hospitality. I hope one day to be able to call them neighbors - whether in the United States or in Turkey, doesn't matter to me which.It is very hard to leave when you've been treated so royally, but we still have so much to see. Our next stop: Santorini, Greece!