When the morning’s farmwork is done, I set off past the gardens toward the Rhône River. I strike a moderate pace—the trail along the river is steep, and at points treacherous. It’s not here that the Rhône is famous, but it’s the same Rhône, and that adds a thrill to each glimpse of the river […]
Monthly archives for August, 2015
Sacrilege in the Morning
There’s a sense of relief, on leaving the Middle East, that passes through to my exhaustion-addled mind. Switzerland is by no means a godless western country—most of its population is Catholic, or here in Geneva, the Protestant descendants of fugitive French ideologues. Nonetheless, religion means less here. It’s not the basis for bloodshed, it’s not […]
Beached in Bodrum
On the Bodrum peninsula, the village of Türkbükü encircles a calm bay off the choppier waters of the Aegean. While the ruins of a Byzantine castle grace the skyline of Bodrum proper, Türkbükü’s main (perhaps only) attraction is its water—clean and clear, a welcome respite from the August heat. The hills around Türkbükü form a natural […]
Drinking While I Can
With ISIS clamoring at the Syrian border and President Erdoğan at war with the Kurdish population of what should no longer be his country, things in Turkey are going to get ugly quick; I plan to see a bit more of it before they do. As a sendoff, Ayşegül’s mother Funda prepared an incredible dinner: […]
Indulging in Indulgence
It’s not just what Turkish people eat that surprises me (like tavukgöğsü, a chicken-based dessert), but how they eat. Here, as everywhere, social life revolves around food and booze (or, if you’re religious, just food), but unlike elsewhere, the social ritual of the Turkish meal is unbounded by time constraints. In New York City, you […]
Jams
While cab drivers are the scum of the earth, and Turkish cab drivers no exception, occasionally you meet a good one. On the way from my hostel in Beyoğlu to my friend Ayşegül’s house in Arnavutköy, my cab got stuck in one of the monstrous traffic jams for which Istanbul is notorious. The driver spoke […]
Defenses
The lifeblood of a great city is its mass transit system, be that train, bus, boat—or in Istanbul, all three. While landmarks have always been a favorite target of terrorists, there is something perhaps more insidious about those who would blast apart the very veins of a society. The past four days, I heeded official […]