Eurotrip

Traveling in Europe alone has its ups and downs. Its not so much fun when you are lost with walking around for two hours 40 kilos of luggage past midnight in the gayborhood of Madrid. But there is also a great sense of accomplishment after finally following the right tourist to the fround door of the hostel you have been searching for for the past two and a half hours. You feel that no matter what situation you are in, you can make it on your own. But thank god I traveled alone for less than a total of 5 days :-)

I spent most of the day underground in Madrid. I was riding the subway all over town in search of Saatchi Madrid, AIESEC Madrid, a Train Station to buy a ticket to Lisbon, and a bus station for a ticket to Barcelona. What I saw of Madrid I loved! I couldn't believe how fast I fell back in love with the Mediterranian lifestyle of socializing at outdoor cafes and bars until early hours in the morning and taking siestas after lunch to catch up on the sleep you missed from the night before with a pitcher of sangria with tapas after work, and dinner at midnight. God! I would die to live in Spain! Which is why I gave it a good shot searching for jobs in Barcelona. I fell behind because of my lack of skills in the spanish language department. If I wasn't so worried about life and if everyone didn't ask me every day when I am coming home I would take a bar job to learn the language and move up from there. Life is too short to be cought up in the daily grind. But apparently my father disagrees. So. . . the plan is to be home for summer and start my "real life," then god dammit! Rar!

The Famous Lizard by Gaudi

Anyone been to Barcelona?

After my unsuccessful job search in Barcelona I stopped in Valencia for one day. It just happened to be the day of La Tomatino.

Every year, on the last Wednesday in August between 11am and 1pm, the little town of Bunol in the east of Spain is almost literally painted red - by over 125,000 kilos of tomatoes.It's one giant throwback to the rebellious days of your adolescence as complete strangers spend two hours hurling ripe fruit at each other and generally causing total mayhem. The rules are simple: squash the tomatoes before you throw them, don't throw anything else, and… well, that's it. La Tomatina has been part of Bunol tradition since 1945, when a food-fight broke out in the town square. Since then it has gained international renown. So handpick your fittest friends, grab some tomatoes and go forth. Oh, and trust no one. (Image and article taken from www.thisisthelife.com)

Thank god I didn't get wrapped up in this mess alone. Luckily I just missed it and got in to town just as everyone was showering off and getting ready for a long night of partying. After hours of searching for another hostel I finally begged an old women to let me stay in one of her hostel rooms . She was screaming at me in spanish from out the third floor window and I was yelling ''por favore" up to her from the street. Finally, after trying to bargain using Spanish numbers I barely remembered from high school, we settled on a pretty hefty price for a room with two double beds that I obviously didn't need. She dropped the key down to me from the third story window and I took another 45 minutes to get to the room after trying to figure out how to open the old antique Spanish door and lug all my bags up three flights of stairs. Honestly, I didn't care anymore, all I cared about was having a place to put my luggage and having something nicer than a bus station chair to sleep in. I was happy. I watched clips from La Tomatino on news with the old woman and her husband while they were eating dinner. They asked if I had gone to the festival. The two warmed to me after I told them I missed it.

I ended up really liking the city. It seemed so Spanish, more so than Barcelona or Madrid. No one spoke English, there were little to no American chain stores, and la paella was excellent!

After a night alone I caught a bus from Madrid to Lisbon to meet up with some friends. As soon as I found the right car on the train I asked the girl who was sharing my room which bed was mine. As she turned around I recagnized her as the most anoying girl I had ever met while traveling. I met her a week earlier at a hostel in Madrid. We chatted a while and I found she is actually much more interesting than I originally thought. She is studying theater and women studies and great university in Canada and writes for Rollingstone! Although she doesn't drink we made our way to the bar and met some crazie Aussies. One was a stockbroker that works in London and makes frequent trips to Abiza to entertain his clients. This company made for one hell of a night. We bought a bottle of cheap wine off of the bar after it had closed down and drank until the early morn. I only had a few hours to sleep before we arived in Lisbon but all was good. This is a picture of the crazy music journalist from Canada with the Australian DJ-stockbroker from England on the train.

From Lisbon I set out for my mini 603 reunion (http://www.istanbul603.blogspot.com/). I met up with Ashfaque, and we then made our way to Aveiro to visit Natercia. She was an absolutely wonderful host! She brought us out to a party on the beach with all of her friends. I love the protugues when they drink. They always seem to find the need to by a foreigner a drink. They play a game called "Till the End," where the whole group will look at you and sing a song in portuguese, this is when you are supposed to start chugging your drink and then they dont stop until you finish it. The night was a blast. Somehow Ash lost his belt in the sand after the shots of absenth, I started balling because I am American and everyone hates me, and we lost Natercia in the crowd and slept in the car and ate cookies for breakfast. Twas a great party.

After Aveiro we went up to visit Cristiano (A.K.A. The Captain) in Porto. Porto is such a fine city. He showed us all around the city day and night. My favorite was dinner with his family. His mother grew up in Brazil and his father in Portugal, and both his grandmothers live together in the apartment next door. The food was excellent, and the company even better.

The Captain put together a very fine itinerary as our tour guide. We got to see everything from historical buildings, to beautiful parks, the seaside, modern art museums, and his favorite little cafes in Porto. It was really wonderful.

My Big Fat Turkish Wedding

I don't think a lot of people know that Greek culture and Turkish culture are so similar. But so many of the things in this movie remind me of my first experience attending a Turkish wedding. The dancing, the singing, the family, the food, and the love. All of them are there in full affect.

I absolutely loved learning the dances, meeting Sefer's family, and attending both the wedding and henna ceremony. It was wonderful!






I think Sef's trying to be all cool before the wedding. But I love it! The converse shoes definitely make the outfit.










Sefer's mother and sister, Cihan, are dancing in a traditional style at the wedding reception.






The Jewelry Ceremony

The main reason for the jewelry ceremony is to help the new couple a little bit financially because the wedding ceremony, renting the house, buying all the new furniture and everything else that comes with starting out is so expensive. I think this is where the practice started but now it’s just a tradition. Even if the couple is wealthy the guests still must give gold or they are looked down upon. Usually, during the ceremony, a line is formed to give the jewelry to the bride and money to the groom. First the couple’s immediate family give their jewelry to the bride. This jewelry must be the most magnificent of all! Then it’s the relatives' turn, after all the relatives give their gifts it is finally bride and groom's friends' turn. If one of your relative's son or daughter marries before your son or daughter and you didn’t give any jewelry, that family will not give anything to your son or daughter when they decide to marry. If you gave expensive, they have to give expensive, if they gave a cheap one, then it’s up to you what you give. (Usually if a family has financial problems, it’s looked down upon if they wont give anything but they must explain the situation to the father of the bride. If the family can not afford to buy a gift but are able to give at least something, usually the family will give something more expensive in return. -Sefer


Helin, Me, and Cihan at the wedding.

The Wedding Cake

I don't know if it is some kind incarnation of the western style wedding cake or what, but it is quite increadible.

Henna Night

Henna Night is celebrated by the female relatives of the bride and groom. The night before the wedding the women come together to sing and dance and celebrate however they choose. The bride must apply henna to her hands and wear a red dress. She also wears a red veil over her head and around her hands.(Some people say that red symbolizes the bride’s virginity and something about blood showing her purity and innocence during her first experience after being married.) The women involved in the ceremony also put henna in their palm and if men are involved they will put it on their finger tips. Usually the bride cries during the henna ceremonies because of a song which says, "I’m in a place that I don’t know anything about and I miss my mother.. bla bla". (This references the tradition in which the bride is taken from her home and moved to the home of her husband. -NG) Right after the crying session there is another song for belly dancing and the other ladies force the bride to belly dance which is a little ironic because she cries when she dances.. In the old times and still in East, Henna ceremonies are a platform for the single women to display their beauty to the mothers of the other men. (I think this has something to do with the competition between the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law -NG) So you can ask how I know these things… When you are a little kid you are allowed to goto Hennas with your mother and maybe the guys are having fun and drinking while kids are always at kina. - Sefer