Days 28-29: Kite, swim, eat, sleep

4 October 2011

The blog title says it all- I've been spending lazy mornings in the sun and windy afternoons on the Aegean sea. No shark sitings yet.

Jeep-ing over to the kite bay

 The pansiyon has been a bit busier recently, with a woman in her mid-30s checking in as well as an older couple. All three are Turkish, and I can sense through their lively and jovial conversation with the owners, that they are filled in on "me"- the one who always just nods and smiles when I am spoken to in Turkish. I can just imagine the conversation,

"So tell me, who is that young woman over there? On her computer all the time..." (probably with some tutting about not being able to get away from technology anywhere anymore etc etc)

"Oh her? She's Canadian, yes, has been here a few days now. Drinks a lot of wine. We've been told she's here to kitesurf."

I have sinced learned that the woman's name is Fedan, and it turns out she's a good friend of Captain's. She has always been incredibly smiley each time we passed- often saying things to me in Turkish, to which I usually just smiled and nodded. She certainly knows I do not speak Turkish- but it seems that doesn't mean much here, as frequently the other coupld speak to me in Turkish as well. Sometimes I understand, like when the older woman shuffles over holding out a plate of walnuts and then says something... I presume it's something like: "Here, try these fresh walnuts!" There are some precious moments when language isn't needed, like when she similarly shuffled over while I was eating my breakfast and showed me newspaper, folded to highlight a picture of some sort of tiny creature perched on a human pinky finger.

"Oh my!" I say enthusiastically. I must show gratitude at her sharing this exceptionally random picture with me. She gives me a toothy grin and flips the pages, folding again to show me another picture- this one of a light post that had collapsed onto a ferris wheel.

"Eeek," I recoil, showing shock and surprise. "In Turkey?" I ask.

She nods, wide-eyed.

"Wow," I say, smiling as she turns to return to her breakfast table.

Last night Captain (from my arrival a few days ago) came by and took Fedan and I into town. On the drive I learned that she is a dentist and comes to the area for most long weekends to kitesurf. Her english wasn't spectacular, but she was an incredibly lively woman when she spoke. It was the most fascinating thing- while she gestured and spoke in rapid Turkish to Captain, it was always paired with lively expressions and eye contact with both Captain and I. I could certainly detect the emotion of the conversation- but had no idea as to what they were talking about. To a passerby, it certainly looked like there were three people engaged in deep conversation- particularly since I found myself giving sympathetic smiles and laughs as she told a story- strictly based on body language cues. Occassionally I was filled in with a rough translation from Captain.

We dropped Fedan off at a market stall in Alacati. She was on a mission to pick up some pink tomatoes that she had seen me eating earlier in the week:

"Can I ask.... where did you find those tomatos?" she asked in the kitchen one day, "They are....very...special to me," she went on, grinning.

I pointed out the stall I had been taken to by Yigit and we dropped her off there, while Captain and I continued on to the nearby town of Çeşme. We toured the posh marina and shops of this seaside town and enjoyed DELICIOUS salami, cheese, and tomato sandwiches- with some sort of magic sauce. Very, very good.

Tomorrow I'll be off, heading back to Izmir and then back along the coast again toward Fetyie. Good 'ol facebook has put me in touch with another SJKer (highschool) who was recently in this area and provided me with some excellent recommendations for hiking and camping. (Thanks Rob!)