A few weeks ago, I went with my friends Galen and Sam to Southeastern Turkey for our week-long break during Kurban Bayramı ("Holiday of Sacrifice"). We flew into the city of Diyarbakır and traveled around the area via bus going to Urfa, Mardin and Hasankeyf. It was quite the journey. The region is very different from Istanbul, socially, geographically and historically. It was an amazing opportunity to see another side of Turkey and also experience something that was completely new to me.
Yesterday was Thanksgiving and a few American friends of mine organized a dinner in one of their apartments.They labored to create a traditional meal and we had all the standards: turkey (surprisingly hard to come by, despite the name of this country), mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, cranberry jelly, and pumpkin and apple pie. The food was delicious and I think everyone had a great time. There were about 12 of us in total and we even got to share the holiday with some of our European (actually Dutch and Belgian) friends. It was all really very nice.
In a few hours I'm going to be getting on the train to Bulgaria. My visa is expiring so I have to leave the country and come back again to get a new one. I'm taking a night train there, will arrive in Sofia by noon, then will take a night train back tomorrow to Istanbul. Hopefully all will go well and I'll get to see a bit of Bulgaria too. Oh and Monday's my 20th birthday. We're going to a Chinese Restaurant to celebrate. That's all for now--I'll try to post pictures after I get back.
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