Total Eclipse

Today I read on the newspaper that some lucky few on the French Polynesia will observe a total solar eclipse. A very rare, extraordinary and a mystical experience.

I had the chance to see one on March 2006.When my friends invited me for the trip to see the eclipse, I was reluctant to go because it was visible on Side, a town on the Mediterranean coast which requires a 10 hours drive from İstanbul by bus. Well, to tell you the truth I wasnt thinking that it was such a big deal. How wrong could I be??

Finally I said yes and hopped on the bus with the rest. I was more interested to see the antic city of Side. At the end of the day it was a double bonus for me. I watched a wonderful show of the nature near the ancient pillars of Side.

We were lucky because it was a bright day with no clouds on the sky and the total darkness lasted couple minutes. I was expecting a semi darkness but it was dark as night.

But for some a nap was more important than everything. I remember taking this photo of a local just couple minutes before the eclipse.. 

Well, if you have a list of something like ''100 things to do before I die'' make one of the items 'to see a total solar eclipse' Its really a once in a life time experience.

Flowers from the Sea

As  Hera choose to pee and poo at the beach since her very first day here ,we are usually the earliest birds at the beach every morning which gives us the advantage of being the first ones to see what the sea offered previous night.

Couple days ago, there was heavy wind and big waves and the morning of that night I found these beautiful flowers. I have never seen them before. It looks like the wind and the first rays of the sun dried these little plants of the sea immediately.

As they are extremly fragile I only managed to salvage two of them. Have you ever seen something like that before? And the posing starfishes came from a far far away sea..

Göcek

The nearest airport - Dalaman- is about a 3 hours drive from here. Not a very convenient distance... However the most popular marina of the country is only 15 minutes away from the Dalaman airport. So it is a very busy airport especially at weekends where rich and famous are rushing here to spend the weekend on their yachts..

I didnt see the old days of Göcek marina, but they said that it used to be a lovely and quiet seaside village before the construction of the 6 marinas and the airport.

While we were flying to İstanbul 2 weeks ago we spent couple hours at Gocek before catching our flight. It is still a lovely and quiet place at day time as most of the boats are sailing. There were lovely small shops and nice restaurants. It was a refreshing stop before İstanbul.

Summer Flu

Just a quick reminder: Never take your good health granted. It is actually such a precious gift.

Well, as you can guess my summer flu still continues with blocked nose,running eyes,sore throat and some fever at night. I am confined to my bedroom surrounded with books, notebooks,pills,pc, tissues and so many other stuff. Its a mess, but here is a picture of it on a much tidier day.

The wonderful turquoise painting is the one that I bought this winter and posted about it here. Blue printed bed cover is from Esfahan - İran and pillows are the product of my mother who used a vintage bed sheet.

and the blue and gold painted pottery is a gift from Jordan..

have a very healthy day under the sun shine...

A quick trip to İstanbul

This past Saturday we flew to İstanbul to attend the wedding of my cousin. As expected, it was pretty hot when we left here.

However İstanbul had other plans for us, but the gray mist over the blue mosque was still dreamy.

Finally at the end of the night, my handsome cousin married to his sweetheart,

and the youngest guest of the party was my 5 months old nephew who had his own quiet plans for the night.

The next day, the newly wed couple flew to Maldives for honeymoon and we flew back to Datça, but guess what??? All the travelling as well as the weather differences made me sick. I think I have some kind of flue, and right now I am laying on my bed on a beautiful summer day and listening the happy sounds coming from the beach. I hope you are all healty and happy..

Gifts from the sea...

Well, this post is definitely not about the timeless book of Anne Morrow Lindbergh. Althought its one of my favorite books and I had the habit of reading it every summer for the last 10 years, today's post is about real gifts of the sea.

You know what they say: 'when life gives you lemons, make a lemonade' but what if sea gives  you  a can of beer???

Here our days start between 6:00 - 6:30 with the morning walk of Hera at the seaside. As we are the early birds we found this can of beer produced in Greece.

It is most probably fell from a passing boat but I like to think that it swam all the way from Symi, the Greek island in front of Datca.

So, when life gave me a can of beer, I did the most logical thing: Cooled and drank it  at my balcony and sent a  big cheers to Symi.

So tell me what are the most interesting things you found at the beach? I have to tell you that I also saw an old iron couple days ago but it probably needs a good fix but so far my most expensive find was a Christian Dior sun glass..After a good cleaning my mother still uses it.

Welcome to Mediterranean Days..

Welcome to our Mediterranean days...

We are finally settled to our summer routine. After couple lazy days under the sun, here I am with my first summer post.

Well, this is a rather live post. Right now we are in our favorite beach/restaurant. There is a little bit of wind and the sea is rather freezing at this time of the year but so far everything is wonderful. Above are couple photos taken by my telephone. I wish all of you a great summer or winter if you happen to be living on the other side of the world.