It was Easter Sunday in a country with no
jelly beans or Easter bunnies. We planned
to go to church but couldn't find it. We
probably should have taken the Bosphorous
cruise since it was such a beautiful day but
my never-ending quest for old stuff came first.
I had heard there was a great Sunday market at Ortakoy.
I had to go. I was imagining old keys, some old
Turkish plates, maybe a few pieces of silver.
We were told to take the bus to Ortakoy and
we made it to the bus station which is really
just a ticket booth and outdoor lanes where
the buses pull in to load. We were lost.
We couldn't find our bus and that is when we
met Ahmet. He is a young lawyer, visiting Istanbul
for the day and he could speak English ~ yeah!
Ahmet walked around with us trying to find
the right bus, asking this person and that.
We would never have found this ourselves.
Finally we found the right bus and Ahmet
came along with us.
Unfortunately, the market at Ortakoy was
a bit sleepier than I had anticipated. It was
mainly the scarves and jewelry and food
stalls that we had seen already.
No old stuff.
So we decided to head back to a park near
Topkapi Palace to see the tulips. On the way
we talked and talked, comparing our countries
and our lives, Ahmet taught Ellen how to cross
the street in traffic ~ I'll never get used to that!
We spent the afternoon in Gulhane Park,
sharing drinks and big circles of bread
covered in sesame seeds. We watched the
world go by on this lovely Sunday.
The afternoon somehow turned into an English
language lesson. Ahmet & I both happened to
be reading The Picture of Dorian Gray, so we went
through the book and we tried to explain the meaning
of words or phrases Ahmet did not know. I would
pronounce words and he would record me on his
phone. I even sang a song!
What fun we had ~ we only left because we had a
planned phone call with our family back home
since it was Easter.
And Ahmet ~ here is a video of the song I
sang, sung by people with better voices...
thank you dear ellen. ı enjoyed that day. thank you for teaching english. ı will speak english very well in future that ı will remember you.
ReplyDelete