Esenkoy Countdown

The final days in Esenköy were spent unpacking, fixing and shopping.  Mom brought a whole suitcase (49.99lbs) of goodies for us that consisted mostly of boat parts and a bag of chocolate chips for yours truly.  Dad and I left close to no food on board so that was necessary to purchase, but we were limited because the refrigerator wasn’t working correctly.

What we go through for a cold drink (and the ability to eat meat that hasn’t been canned).  The tube that sucks water in from the sea to cool the engine that runs the fridge was clogged.  Water wasn’t coming in so nothing was cycling through the motor and nothing was flowing out.  In order to get to the tube Dad had to basically take the kitchen apart.  Under the sink is the motor that actually cools the fridge and its normally covered.  We had to lift the stove off of its hinges and have it chill out by the stairs while Dad climbed into that hole and remove the filter of the tube, without filling the boat up with water.  I was betting on a jellyfish or something interesting being clogged in the tube, but as it turned out the filter was just really gross so it wasn’t letting any water through.  Dad fixed the problem and we had the green light to go shopping for meat and vegetables.

Dad’s birthday was on June 16^th!  He turned 63.  We decided to make him a special meal aboard and he requested steaks.  Mom and I went to the butcher and managed to get three nice size steaks which were a little tough but very tasty.  We also saw corn on the cob and dared to try it.  Well judging from the photo you can guess that it wasn’t that great.  It was field corn… the kind used to feed pigs… not sweet corn… the kind we eat at home.  We pressure cooked it with sugar and some butter and milk but even after all of that doctoring, it was almost tasteless and still a bit tough.

Mom and I took a trip into Yalova so she could experience the dolmuş ride and so we could visit the Migros and stock up before departing.  We couldn’t find things like spaghetti sauce in Esenköy so we had to travel to the big bad city to get that and broccoli.  This is a view from the front of the bus as we are going down a hill towards Esenköy.

This is “our” restaurant – Cumhur.  It was the place we ate at when we first arrived and we went through almost the entire menu while we were there.  Their sandwiches are great and the people are so nice.  This is the owner and father.  Every night he would be out grilling a special “Turkish Kebab” which was a lamb rolled in alternating layers of fat and put on a spit over and open fire.  He would chop it up into little pieces and flavor it with oregano and some sort of red pepper and serve it on a roll.  It was really good.

These are some of our Cumhur family.  On the left is one of the cooks and I think a son or cousin of some sort.  He does most of the grilling.  Then Dad and Me and then “Mom” who is generally in the back making soups and so much rice you could swim in it.  She would always have a smile for us and I could tell was trying to learn a little bit of English to talk to us.  Next is one of her daughters.  There were two girls there that are about high school age and are still in school.  They are learning English in school so they would try and practice with us and would help us with our very limited Turkish vocabulary.  In the back are the two garcons who are actually new additions to the group.  There was another man who served that roll, putting out plates and taking orders etc, but he wasn’t there when we got back from Istanbul.  These people welcomed us into their restaurant like we were family and made the stay in Esenköy really special.

This is Mom and Dad standing in front of the boat while the sun sets.  We went for a tea after this and said goodbye to Tamer and some of our other marina friends.

Istanbul with Mom

When I returned from Sweden, Mom had arrived in Istanbul!  It was really great to see her and we had a lot of fun revisiting some of the tourist stops we had already made in the city and adding a few new things to the mix.

Dad has shown Mom the Blue Mosque and Grand Bazaar the day she arrived and we had planned on visiting Aya Sofya the first day I was back, but the line was literally around the block to get in so we changed our plans and went to the Basicila Cistern first.  We did do a silly photo where we dress up in Turkish clothes and sit like royalty, but it’s a print that I don’t have a digital copy of so that will just have to wait to be presented to the public for another time.

A new thing we decided to do was check out the Egyptian Bazaar or Spice Market.  Sadly on the walk there it began to rain so we did get a little wet and the experience wasn’t as good as it could’ve been, but it was a lot of fun to see what the different vendors had to offer.  In addition to spices, there were flowers, pets, pet food, leeches, and other random stuff like mops. 

This is a cool spice market guy.  You can see the wide array of spices and nuts and every other dry good Turkey has to offer.  I can say though that there was no garlic powder anywhere in Turkey, not even at the spice market.

This is Istanbul University.  We couldn’t go inside because a student ID was required but we did admire the exterior of the building which used to serve as the Ottoman war ministry. 

Because we weren’t taking the Pipedream up the Bosporus into the Black Sea, we decided to take a Bosporus cruise up to see what we were missing.  The timing was great and we walked out from the tramway right onto a boat which left right away.  This is a view of a castle that used to defend Constantinople and keep intruders from entering through the Black Sea.  It also shows one of the impressive suspension bridges that connects Asia and Europe.

The trip was a couple of hours to around the center of the waterway and back to Istanbul.  We counted a number of ships, ferries, and other boats cruising around.  We could also see the counter current and literally felt it push the ferry we were on back towards Istanbul.  It was nice to see, but didn’t spur any regrets.

We went out for a nice dinner on the terrace of a hotel/restaurant which not only served beer, which was requirement number 1, but had a great view of the water full of ships on one side and the Blue Mosque lit up at night on the other.  It was a cool night out and a nice walk back to the hotel.

We had planned on taking the late ferry our last day in Istanbul so we could see more of the city and do some last minute shopping. 

Mom and I got up early and were in line at 8:30am to get into the Aya Sofya which opened at 9:00am.  We stopped for a morning Starbucks and waited in line with a German couple who were there on a cruise.  The building itself was just as awe inspiring as I remember and it was a lot of fun to be able to share that moment with Mom too.

The ramp leading up to the second story reminded us of the Pirates of the Caribbean queue line at the Magic Kingdom.  This is my best pirate impersonation. 

There is a column in the base of the building that leaks a little bit.  People have touched it throughout time for good luck and it’s called the wishing column.  Mom and I both made wishes and of course touched where thousands have touched before.  There is a hole worn into the column that is surrounded by Plexiglas now. 

No trip to Istanbul would be complete without taking a final tour of the Grand Bazaar.  This was actually where I got most of my souvenirs for the trip to Turkey.  With Dad’s bargaining skills we walked out of there with all sorts of loot and at great prices. 

We took a taxi to the ferry port since we were lugging a hefty amount of luggage and found a bench to wait for the Esenkoy ferry.  The ferry that showed up was a lot nicer than the others we had taken but was also a lot fuller.  There were so many people going the same way we were and over half of them seemed to smoke which made for a very warm and stuffy trip back. 

The boat was there and waiting for us upon our arrival and it was nice to see it was still afloat.

Detour: Sweden

A Turkish visa lasts 90 days.  Not 3 months, but 90 days exactly.  Dad and I were supposed to be leaving Turkey to go on the EMYR and then when those plans fell through to go into the Black Sea… well that didn’t happen either.  So we counted and found out we would be about a week or two shy of being legal in Turkey and have heard horror stories about the fines placed on people when their paper work isn’t up to date. 

I had been talking to Karyn Kiser about her recent engagement and was inquiring about what their wedding plans were.  She fell in love with a wonderful Swedish man in Colorado and they were going to tie the knot in Sweden at the end of June.  I looked at where we would be at the end of June and it looked like a Greek island that may or may not have an airport so I wrote off the chance to actually attend her wedding.  After we chatted a little bit more she mentioned how she would be in Sweden the entire month of June and how it would be great for me to visit without all of the pressures of a wedding in the way of actually catching up.

To bring you up to date, Karyn Kiser is my BFF, literally best friend forever.  I’ve known her since elementary school and we became very close during the turbulent junior high years that are hard on everybody.  Her Dad got stationed in Guam and they moved the summer between 8^th and 9^th grade.  We kept in touch through letters and eventually through Facebook.  My sophomore year of college I took a trip to Searcey, Arkansas to visit Karyn who was attending Harding University.  We hadn’t seen each other since junior high.  Here it is 6 years later and I was planning a trip to Sweden to visit Karyn and meet her new husband to be. 

After I had decided I was going Dad and I sat down and picked out some dates.  We had to get out of the country by the 12^th of June and Mom was arriving on the 13^th to be our third crew member.  We decided it would be best if I went before Mom arrived and then we could see Istanbul together and everyone could travel back to the boat at the same time.  Dad had inquired about a bus ride into Bulgaria which shares a border with Turkey and worked out the overnight bus into Sofia, the capital.

My flight left at 5:40am and the shuttle to the airport left the hostel at 3:10am.  It was an early morning with an hour layover in Frankfurt that I remember as a rush through customs into the EU and a quick hop onto a bus that took me to a plane that I was hoping would land in Gothenburg, Sweden at 10:10am.  Sure enough I lucked out and me and my baggage made it right on time.

So I basically ate my way through the country.  This is Swedish kebab pizza and it’s delicious.  It’s a pizza crust with a red sauce and then kebab meat completely covering it.  The swirl was the mild kebab sauce and I wish I could describe it, but wouldn’t even know where to begin.  Pizza is generally eaten with a fork and knife which took some getting used to and I could only finish about 3 pieces of mine.

After a nice big lunch we decided to go on a hike.  Well we were sort of tricked into hiking up to this castle, but we managed.  It had a great view of the city and a wonderful story.  I am going to paraphrase because I only remember bits and pieces, but a wealthy man married a German woman.  They moved to Gothenburg and she got very homesick.  So to try and make her feel more at home the man built a tower that resembled one of the castles that are sprinkled throughout Germany and they lived happily ever after.  This is Karyn and David at the castle and I predict that they will live happily ever after too.

We visited the Gothenburg Natural History Museum which was super interesting.  Everything pictured here was alive at one point and is now stuffed and displayed in the museum.  I am pretty sure they have every type of animal present at the museum and in every stage of life.

Karyn had literally just made a comment about not seeing any owls.  Here is an owl’s life from beginning to end.  Most of the animals had been found or killed 100+ years ago when it was still ok to hunt entire families down and take them out.

This is something that would NEVER be in an American museum – actual Siamese twins.  In 1863 the twins died and the doctor essentially pickled them for all of eternity.  The museum began as a sort of Ripley’s Believe it or Not and turned into a more educational – family friendly environment but there is still an entire display case of the weird.

This is an actual blue whale.  It used to be a small café and place where people could go inside and say “I’ve been inside a whale” but some people were taking advantage of the novelty and were saying they did other things inside of a whale too.  It’s really weird because you can see the nails where they cut the guy open.  The whale beached itself and back in the good old days instead of trying to push it back into the water a group of villagers stabbed and killed it.  Its bones are to the right and they have the bones of a sperm whale hanging above.  It was pretty awe inspiring. 

After leaving the museum we went on another hike into the live animal area of the museum where I got to see a giant heard of deer and a couple of moose.  It was a really pretty walk and we rewarded ourselves with an ice cream afterwards which is always good.

It was still pretty early when we were done with the museum and Karyn and David had recently heard about a movie they wanted to see so we went to a theater to see if it was playing.  The first theater we went to didn’t have it, but there was a list outside of the theater saying it was showing at the other theater in town.  So we went for a great walk through Gothenburg and I got to see parks and building and take in just how different Sweden was from Turkey.

We saw the movie “Melancholia”.  It was directed by Lars von Trier a Swedish director and was filmed about 20 minutes from Gotheburg, but was in English and starred Kirsten Dunst.  My first reaction was that the movie was interesting.  Maybe not something I would run out and see again, but after we all sat on it for a day we all agreed that it was good and I left liking it more and more.

This is the time of year where the sun doesn’t set until around 10:30pm and rises again at 3:00am.  I thought it would affect me, but I was so tired from traveling and having fun that I managed to get to sleep without any problem.

Day two of my Swedish adventure was another fun filled day.  Karyn asked if I would assist with a “wedding chore” and I of course said yes.  They are expecting 20 people at their backyard wedding and instead of renting plates for the reception, David had the idea of going to a thrift store and getting 20 different plates.  I love the idea personally and had a blast going through the plates at a huge warehouse like thrift store up the street from the house.  I personally couldn’t decide if I liked the Christopher Columbus plate better or the clear glass plate with a cartoon shrimp in the center.  They were both fantastic.

We were meeting some of David’s friends to go play pinball (a passion of David and Karyn’s) and stopped for a cup of coffee and a snack while waiting for one to finish an errand.  I got to try a piece of Princess Cake which is what Karyn and David will have at their wedding.  It’s custard inside with a small layer of flavored jam and then is covered with lime green marzipan.  It was good, but very sweet.

The ride to Boras was interesting.  I sat in the very back of a car the size of a Ford Focus.  It was a Toyota with an extra row of pop up seats in the trunk.  My legs were the smallest so I volunteered but was ready to get out and walk around once we reached Boras.  This is the “round table” chairs in the center of town.  There is no table, but the chairs are set up like the knights.  Left to right is David, Karyn, Me, “Y”, and Ida.  Victor was taking the photo.  I think the buildings in the background are almost as picturesque as the people.

I want to say the man who wrote Pinocchio was born in Boras?  Either way there is a giant Pinocchio statue in town.  Mow and I thought this was pretty awesome. 

More food pictures.  This is a Gothenburg specialty: the Halv Special.  It’s a hotdog on a bun with ketchup and mustard on top.  On top of that is a layer of mashed potatoes and then a salad of some sort – seafood salad or shrimp salad (I vetoed the salad) and then a layer of fried onions goes on top of that.  It is a ton of food and when first presented with this delicacy I wasn’t quite sure I would be able to handle it, but it too was delicious.  I could only finish about half of it, but I was proud of even accomplishing that.

Bryan this one’s for you.  I went to my first pinball arcade!  We went down a shady service elevator and into a basement full of pinball machines.  There is a small entrance fee of 150 kroner which is about $25 which allows anyone unlimited play on any machine that is working.  I learned how to turn a machine on, I learned what the insides of machines look like, and I learned that each machine has specific goals to meet.  We played pinball for about 5 hours and I got a little bit better as the time went on, but will never be on the same level as David. 

People can purchase sodas, candy, and alcoholic beverages.  I had my first Swedish cider which has about the same alcohol content as a beer, but is super fruity and delicious.  Did you know that it is totally ok to have open containers of alcohol in the car as long as it’s the passenger drinking and not the driver, but it’s not ok to turn right on red? 

That night we got back and went for a walk through a cemetery which may sound odd, but was actually a really nice park.  I got to try a Swedish beer which has a moose on the can and thought it tasted much better than Efes. 

My final full day in Sweden was spent doing what everyone associates with Sweden, visiting a castle and IKEA.

This is Tjolöholms Slott (Slott means castle).  It is where the movie “Melancholia” was filmed and it was awesome to be able to go and see it right after seeing the movie.  Naturally we ran around where we could quoting parts of the movie and figuring out where certain things were filmed.

This is our best attempt at being melancholy.  The castle itself was really impressive.  It was on the water and there were a lot of people there flying kites and having picnics.  We chose not to do the interior tour because we were on a bit of a time limit, but walking around the vast grounds was pretty cool.

This is Karyn peeking out of a stone gate.  What is really cool about this photo (aside from Karyn of course) is a Rumba like grass mower in the background.  It was awesome.  There was a little charging station and it just went around cutting the grass. 

It wouldn’t be a trip to Sweden without visiting an IKEA.  They are all over and this isn’t the original, but it’s a real Swedish IKEA!  I had a lunch of Swedish meatballs, potatoes, and Swedish cakes (I can’t remember the name… it begins with an M).  Then we walked around and window shopped.  I bought a frame as a souvenir that I will put a photo of Karyn and I in.

When we got back to David’s Dad’s house he had made us fish soup for dinner.  It’s a fish soup with saffron that is served with boiled potatoes and a garlic spread.  It was good and I thought it was really nice of David’s Dad to go through all the trouble of making us a nice dinner.  I was also very grateful that he let me stay at his house and use his washer and dryer while I was there.

My flight from Sweden left at 11:55am and I arrived in Munich for a 6 hour layover.  I didn’t go straight to my gate since I would’ve had to go through passport control and wasn’t sure what goodness awaited me on the other side so I stopped at a restaurant in the central part of the second terminal for a good German meal.

I didn’t think to take this photo until I had already consumed half of the delicious meal.  I got two veal sausages, a pretzel, sweet mustard, and the Hofbrahaus Original Helles beer.  I wanted more beer, but I was already feeling tired after only one (I haven’t been drinking much at all) so decided to limit it to one.  I spent the rest of the time walking around the secure terminal and did you know there was a sex shop in the airport that sold Swarovski crystal butt plugs?  I had no idea (and no I didn’t purchase one).

Water Water Everywhere

Dad and I did a little bit of tourist stuff when we returned to Istanbul.  We only have a 90 day visa for Turkey so we both had to leave the country and then come back in to get our passport stamped and our visa renewed.  I had already planned a trip to Sweden to visit Karyn Kiser and Dad ended up planning a bus trip to Sofia, Bulgaria in order to get his renewed.

We had an afternoon in the city to kill so we went to the Basilica Cistern and out to an early dinner of Pide (Turkish pizza).

This is the Yerebatan Sarnici or Basilica Cistern.  It’s an underground waterway with 336 marble columns that are 26 feet high.  It was nice a cool underground and everything was a little damp which made it slightly eerie.

The cistern was kept full all of the time in case of a long siege and the fish that are swimming in there today are supposedly descendents of the original cistern fish of the 6^th century.

This is my Medusa hair.  There were two Medusa column bases in the northwest corner of the cistern.  They were moved there from another Roman site and were supposed to ward off evil. 

For a country of people who throw trash on the ground, this was an interesting piece of artwork in the center of the tourist area in Istanbul.  It’s a tree constructed of recycled water bottles.  The one thing we have noticed is people really do just throw trash on the ground without thinking twice about it.  I guess as part of a new environmental campaign someone collected these bottles and made a cool tree out of them.

Dad’s bus for Bulgaria left at 8:30pm and was an all night ride.  The shuttle for my 5:40am flight arrived at the hotel at 3:10am.  We didn’t get a whole lot of night use out of the hotel room we had, but we did take great naps in the afternoon to prep for a night of traveling.

In the market for a scarf?

Bursa was the first capital of the Ottoman Empire after the city was captured in 1326.  The first 5 sultans of the Ottoman Empire lived here until Mehmet the Conquerer conquered Istanbul and moved the capital there.  Each of the sultans built his own complex and it was in Bursa that Ottoman architecture blossomed.  More than 125 mosques were built here and the skyline is a sea of minarets. 

Present day Bursa is prosperous because of the automobile and textile industry and is known for the beautiful silk scarves that are manufactured there.  We knew it was a prosperous city when we arrived at the bus stop and saw an IKEA.

It took three buses to get to Bursa.  We took the Esenköy to Yalova bus and with the help of a nice person at the bus station crossed the road and happened to get on the Yalova to Bursa bus.  This was considered a full sized bus and was a nice coach variety.  Dad and I were really impressed when they came around with a warm roll for everyone and the choice of tea or coffee.  It was better service than many of the airplanes we have been on and it was only an hour long bus ride.  We passed through one of the main olive export cities and then arrived at a huge bus stop in Bursa.  We had been warned by Tamer that the bus terminal was outside of the main city and wandered around asking how to get to the tourist area.  There was a basic map in Fodor’s we could point to and managed to find the correct bus yes again.  On the way out of the terminal we passed the familiar IKEA and I couldn’t help but smile.

The bus driver knew where we wanted to go and made a point of telling us where to get off which was super night of him.  There were a few business details we had to attend to while in a big city and we took care of those right away.  There were two Turkcells where we could update our internet dongle and Dad inquired about fixing his rimless glasses that have a small problem with where the stems are attached.  The Turkcell was a breeze and the glasses got strange looks from a couple of stores before we decided it was a lost cause.

This is the Orhan mosque.  It was built by Orhan Sultan (2^nd ruler of the Ottoman Empire) and is right outside of the main bazaar.  The shoes are an example of what men wear around town and as you can see are easily taken off.  They have it down to a science, that Dad and I have yet to perfect, of taking them off and stepping onto the “No Shoes” area without skipping a beat or getting dirty socks.

We went for a walk through the bazaar and it was very similar to the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul, but focused on selling cotton towels which are made in Bursa.  On the outside of the bazaar was a group of people with what looked like protest signs.  Dad and I stayed clear until we saw it was students carrying signs and handing out pamphlets for a non-smoking campaign.  It seems almost everyone in Turkey smokes so to see this was a real eye opener.  The man in the foreground has a cigarette in his hand and as students passed they would point to it and chant something.

The Koza Han or Cocoon Caravanserai, is a section of the bazaar that is the silk trading center.  There is a beautiful courtyard with a 150-year-old linden tree and vendors lining the outside selling beautiful silk scarves.  I couldn’t resist and bought a scarf that I would be able to wear at home too.  Apparently the Queen of England had been to many of the shops and had purchased  (or was given) one or two also.  Hung on the stone walls were old photos of the silk trade and how the scarves were made.  It was a really interesting place.

This is Ulu Cami or the Grand Mosque.  It was built in 1396 by Sultan Beyazit who had vowed to built 20 mosques if he was victorious in a battle.  He was but decided that 1 mosque with 20 domes was a good compromise.  The mosque was huge and had quotations from the Koran decorating its walls.  What we thought was unusual was the fountain located in the center of the mosque.  The fountain on the interior is for ritual washing before prayer and looks really cool.

We decided to go the Bursa City Museum instead of the archeology museum and it was awesome.  It was only 3TL for both of us to get in and I was really impressed with all of the displays and exhibits.  There was a section dedicated to the 5 sultans that called Bursa home and I’m not sure which one Dad is posing with but it was cool to see all of the turbans and photos of what each sultan brought to the table.  There was write ups but they were all in Turkish.

There was a hidden Mickey in the Bursa City Museum.

This was the coolest display!  It was all old cameras and newspaper equipment so naturally I wanted my photo taken with it.  There were two old enlargers on display and Dad and I actually recognized one that was very similar to one we had recently gotten rid of.

There was a special clothing exhibit which was really cool.  It reminded me of the first lady dress display at the Smithsonian.  The detailed stitching and bead work on the clothes was super impressive.

We climbed to the top of the city to see the Yesil Turbe and Yesil Cami.  This is the Yesil Turbe which means Green Mausoleum.  Shown is Mehmet I Celebi’s tomb built in 1424.  The “green” tomb is actually covered by blue tiles because the green were destroyed in an earthquake in the 1800s.  This is one of the most elaborate mausoleums we have seen and I thought it was really pretty.

This was the Yesil Cami or Green Mosque.  Sadly we didn’t see any green tiles or anything else that was mosque like except for the carpet shown here.  They were restoring everything so we did see Turkish scaffolding.  The carpet shown is a prime example of a prayer carpet.  As you can see there is a pattern that points towards Mecca.

In the Green Mosque I had the chance to wear my new scarf!  I’m still not sure how to wear it, but I did.

Catching the bus back to the main terminal was a little bit harder than we thought it would be.  Apparently not every bus goes back to the main terminal so we had to not only find the correct bus to get on, but we also had to find the stop where to get on it.  After asking a few people and then having a woman and her daughter actually escort us to the correct stop Dad and I boarded the bus to learn that you were supposed to buy the tickets at the terminal ahead of time.  The driver was nice enough to let us ride anyway and we made it to the terminal with just enough time to buy a ticket back to Yalova.  Everything fell into place and it was a great day.

The Many Adventures of Tamer

The days spent in Esenköy are starting to blend together.  We have been taking day trips into interior Turkey, have been doing boat maintenance such as painting the red stripe along the side, scrubbing the floors on hands and knees, and changing fuel filters.  Dad spent an afternoon scraping the beard of green slime that had began to grow off of the waterline and we each spend at least an hour a day reading on deck in the 75F weather.

There is a hammock we can set up on deck, but when windy it serves as a small sail pushing us into the dock.  It is super comfortable to just hang out in the hammock and read for an afternoon though.

We are getting to know the people of Esenköy like Mr. Hassan who is a retired 75 year old man who has a small wooden fishing boat he’s been painting and launched recently.  He worked in Austria for 14 years and doesn’t speak a word of English but always has a smile and “Merhaba” for Dad and I. 

The owners of our local restaurant Cumhur are learning English as we are learning Turkish.  They make the best sandwiches in town and are a popular place for the locals to stop for a portion of köfte, Turkish meatball served with rice and a grilled green pepper on the side, or one of the evenings specials of Turkish lamb kebab seasoned with oregano and red pepper and served with diced tomatoes on a half loaf of bread. 

This is where the fishing side of the harbor begins and where the Cumhur restaurant is located.  All of the buildings in the mountain are apartment houses and have very steep roads that lead up to them.

Most of the fisherman who hang out at the tea house, located at the dock, have grown to recognize Dad and I and always wave or try to carry on small conversations with us.  We are getting to experience a side of Turkey that we would’ve never seen in Istanbul and that we didn’t see in Kemer.  Esenköy is trying to break into the tourist scene of Turkey but has really only extended to those living in Istanbul.  This is as far as the ferry from Istanbul goes and it’s only a bus ride from Yalova. 

The port has so much potential as a boating stop in the Sea of Marmara, but is unknown to many boaters passing through.  The book describes it as a small fishing village that doesn’t have a lot to offer sailing yachts.  They say the bottom is a mess of fishing nets and abandoned mooring lines.   There are a lot of fishing boats here, but they are small and on the shallow side of the harbor leaving plenty of space for sailing yachts and the ferry to all be here.  The summer season is about to start and the port president has been sprucing the whole area up.  They dredged a corner of the harbor and were picking up all sorts of crap including old fishing nets, trash, and random metal poles.  The electrical box was repaired and there is running water (with the help of a pliers – the handle is broken).  We are sheltered from any weather coming in from the Sea of Marmara, and the ferries that do share the harbor are amazing and create the smallest wake I have ever seen from a boat that size.  The two things that would really make this a yachter’s stop would be a bathroom facility with showers and a Laundromat.  There is no place to do machine washing in Esenköy and that does make for a little more work on our part to keep things clean, but it’s not impossible because we have unlimited water with our mooring fee, which is only 35TL a day for a sailing yacht to stay here and we have a deal for 25TL a day for the monthly rate.  The Istanbul marinas were asking for 80€ a day which after the conversion is 160TL a day. 

The real gem at the marina is Tamer, the harbor master.  Tamer speaks English, Italian, Turkish, and knows everyone in town.  He is the one who has introduced us to his friends and translated for us when needed.  He arranged for a minitanker of fuel to come to the dock from a neighboring town and has invited us to some very Turkish activities.

This is our Esenkoy family.  From left to right is Mr. Hassan, Dad, Me, and Tamer.  Tamer works at the waterfront scraping and painting the bottoms of the fishing boats that populate the harbor.  Filet (what Tamer calls him) Hassan helps him and has a small wooden fishing boat of his own.

Tamer had planned to visit a hamam, Turkish bath, with a friend of his 15 kilometers outside of town and invited Dad and I to join.  This was not a tourist hamam that is pictured in Istanbul or at the various hotels dotting the Turkish coast, this was a fully functional hamam where real Turkish people went to bath.  The men and women were separated into two sides and when Dad and I compared notes were identical rooms.  For a small fee of 5TL you go in and there is a small locker room where you store your things and change into a bathing suit, or in some cases for the women their bathing dresses, yes full dresses that they bath in when in public.  The next room is warm and has a heated stone slab in the center to lay on.  This is where you are apparently supposed to relax and work up a sweat before entering the main bathing area.  There are stone basins along the side of the room with hot and cold water faucets where a person can prewash.  There is a second room with a giant hot tube like pool in the center and more basins lined along the walls.  There was a sign on the wall that warned that the water could reach 72C which is 161.6F.  I think an average hot tub in America is between 90-110F so that gives some idea of how hot the water gets.  I was able to stand the water in ours.  It was hotter than any hot tub I had been in, but not to the point that I couldn’t get it.  This was pretty much the extent of my bath since I wasn’t familiar with how things worked.  Other women got in and out of the water, laid by  the tub to steam, and then soaped up and used a luffa sponge to remove any dead skin.  They used the basins along the wall to rinse off with Frisbee like bowls of water.  There were only a few women in the bath while I was there and I spent most of the time relaxing and observing, not watching, what different people did in a Turkish bath.  Dad and I compared notes afterwards and he said his side had a group of men there and they were all socializing and having a good old time.  He said his “tub” was too hot to actually get into, scolding was the word I do believe he used.  It was a very refreshing experience and I am excited to compare what we did to the tourist baths in Istanbul which also provide massages.

The second Tamer adventure was another Turkish fish fry.  He invited us on a Friday afternoon, which is the Holy day and day off of work, and we met him on the other side of the harbor where all of the small fishing boats are lined up.  He had set up a table and a small grill much like the one we saw when we ate aboard the Anna M.  There was another couple there and the man that had driven us to the Turkish bath.  A small salad was made of tomatoes, cucumbers, parsley, and lots of lemon and olive oil.  The salad was put onto pieces of bread like a bruchetta and was good.  Then the fish were grilled/fried in a frying pan with a little bit of breading.  We think they were sardines, but aren’t entirely sure.  I watched someone else eat it, not sure how to proceed, and learned you tear the head off, open the fish with your fingers, pull the spine and any other big bones out and eat the rest (which isn’t much).  I don’t really eat a whole lot of fish, but to be polite I ate about 6 of them and had a lot of bread.   

We are planning our trips out of the country, I’m going to Sweden to see Karyn Kiser and Dad is taking a bus trip into Bulgaria for a day or two so we can get our Turkish Visa’s renewed and then my Mom will be making her way to Istanbul and we’ll pick her up there and prepare to leave Esenköy.

There is a lot of sea wildlife in the water around our boat.  Aside from the minnows and barnacles that are plentiful, there are star fish that live along the wall of the harbor and on some days so many jellyfish that finding a space of clear water is almost impossible.