Day Three At dawn as I watched the sky slowly lighten and the sun rise over the fields I resigned myself to starting another day. I had heard from Lisa, who had gotten in contact with Murat, who had gotten in contact with his cousin Gökay, and Lisa wrote that Murat assured me that I…
Day Two I awoke groggily at dawn and watched the sunrise from my tent. I consulted my hand-drawn map to confirm that I needed to just follow the coastal road I’d been on and I would find my way into the Çilingöz national forest. I climbed up from the seaside before making a long descent…
Introduction Back in July I went for a long bike ride and camping adventure. During the lockdown days it was nice to think about going away somewhere by myself on my bike with a tent and I started looking up possible locations I could reach from Istanbul. Playing around on Google Maps I found that…
When I wrote my previous reflection about a year with the Canon AE-1, I was eagerly awaiting the arrival of an upgrade. One side-effect of picking up a new hobby like photography is that you will be confronted with Gear Acquisition Syndrome, and you will have to learn to control and live with it. My…
A year ago in July when I was back in the states, I went in to a camera shop and asked the shopkeeper for a manual camera with no automatic settings. He had two cameras in the shop to offer me and recommended the Canon AE-1. It was one of the earliest cameras that sold…
I recently bought an analogue camera and have been learning (slowly) to take photos. This marks my first entry in what I hope will be a continuing combination of sharing stories and photos. Some of the biggest difficulties I have with living in Istanbul are the all-encompassing mass of concrete, the lack of green spaces…
We’d just driven down scenic M-22 after camping at the Betsie River campground outside of Frankfort, Michigan. We had spent a few days in Grand Rapids before we were to drive to Saint John’s, for a quick visit with grandpa on our way to Waynesville, Ohio, to see my mom’s side of the family, and…
IX Birkaç gün sonra Kardelen arka sokaklara, Deniz’i bulmak için gitti. Deniz çok endişeliydi. “İyiyim, vallahi, ama sormak istedim, pembe sünger paket alabilir miyim?” diye sordu Kardelen. “Ama Sinan çok dikkatli kontrol ediyor, anlayacak!” “Endişe etme Denizciğim, dükkancılara biraz para verebilirsin, benden yüz lira alırsan, yeterli olur.” Kardelen, Deniz’in itirazları karşısında hemen pembe sünger paketine…
VII Bir telaşla uyandı. Yüzünü, kollarını, vücudunu kontrol etti, derin bir nefes aldı. Sadece bir rüyaydı. İlyas’a döndü, uyandırmaya çalıştı. Ama uyanmadı. Daha dikkatle İlyas’a baktı, gözlerinin açık olduğunu fark etti ve yastığı çekti. İlyas’in kolunda bir iğne gördü. Bağırarak odadan çıktı ve restoran salonuna koştu. “Abi, abi gel! İlyas uyanmıyor kolunda iğne var!”…
V İstanbul yolunda Deniz’in kafasında çok soru vardı. Süngerci olmak nasıl bir hayat olacaktı? Ama Süngerci Sinan’a soramadı, o hep telefondaydı. Sürekli numaralar, kilolar, dükkanlar, isimler hakkında bir sürü insanla konuşmaktaydı. Bazen sinirli olur ve bağırırdı telefonda. Deniz pencerelerden manzarayı izliyordu. Her geçen dakikayla, kilometreyle yeni hayatına bir kilometre ve dakika daha yakınlaşıyordu. Kısa bir…