dreamy Cairo nights

 

This was a fascinating night in Cairo. Something tells me I'll come back even though I didnt' drink any water from the Nile.

windsurfing in ras sudr

 

What a nice day! You tend to enjoy these days more when you know they're numbered and you'll soon move back to miserable North European weather..

sisha in sequioa

 

an interesting night in Brussels

 

where I helped a guy park his car by the king's residence. He was informed that he couldn't leave his car there because this is where the king lived.

motorcycle

 

This frame captures both my car and my motorcycle :)

another barbecue day

 

Brussels welcomes me with mixed feelings. I like change, but this city has too many memories for me. As I'm driving to friends' house, even the music is too familiar.

Pardon, bakar mısınız ?
Tanış mıydık ?

I'm having the third barbecue in a week and it's good to be in the company of friends. But somehow, the song keeps playing in my head.

Gözünüz öyle uzak bakmasa
Sizi tanıdıgıma yemin ederim

We continue into the night at a restaurant. After the barbecue, there's no way I can eat anything else here, but the conversation is great and lion's milk is abundunt. I finish the night with the now very familiar Moroccan mint tea. I remember the box of tea which is a present from friends I made in Fes and I even have the whole tea set somewhere in a box. As I'm going to sleep, the song finally starts to quiet down.

Peki bu şarkıyı hatırlar mısınız ?

And I realize that I'm beginning to forget this song. I've found my new apartment in a new neighborhood, already started meeting new people in the few days I've spent here and I can't find any reason to look back or play old songs anymore...

letters

 

I wasn't able to finish looking at all the letters that were waiting for me at my 'official' residence. Half way through, I dozed off...

angara galesi

Today was a special day. We had a walk around the old Ankara castle and went for a long lunch at Golbasi where the weather was beautiful. But what happened even before in the early hours of the morning opened a new page in my life. As I'm getting ready to move back to Brussels, I'm going to need more of these barbecues. Good weather is rare in Brussels, but I'm going to rent a apartment with a terrace at least to make barbecues a weekly event...

ankara

 

fire

 

Today, we had a close call with a forest fire. An airplane and 2 choppers were constantly bringing water from the sea, our neighbors had left their homes and we were about to as well when suddenly, the wind quited down and the fire was taken in control. It's a scary feeling when you're thinking about what you definitely want to save from being burned in your house and what can stay...

kordon

 

beyoglu at night

 

Interesting night in Istanbul. I had only a few hours when I postponed my flight to Izmir to the next day. This way I was able to see my brother and a friend who was also in Istanbul only for 2 days from the US. The night started with hamburgers at Kizilkaya, continued at Nevizade, and ended with hamburgers at Kizilkaya :) The friend caught a taxi to go the airport and I got a few hours of sleep before continuing on my trip myself. The city that never sleeps was able to provide impromptu entertainment.

downtown again

 

a gift from Morocco

 

Here's a pair of Moroccan slippers I received as gift on my last week here. They're the ubiquitous flash yellow type and I'm entertaining the idea of taking them everywhere I go and have a photo taken wearing them all around the world...

essaouira

What a great place to spend a weekend! Old town, beautiful castle, long and wide beach, wind/kite surfing during the day and live music at night. Already made some friends here and hoping to fly over from rainy Brussels on long weekends...

my hammock

 

taking a moment to rest by the water

 

principles

 

It's important to have principles and one that I've acquired over the years is not to travel without my box of kadayif...

potluck

 

getting ready for the feast, the giant pot is sighted on the conveyor belt...

the view after lunch

 

aliens are attacking

 

and they start with the landing troops...

keep me from the rain

 

There's nothing more romantic then the hen and the favorite chicken in his harem, spending a private moment under the eav of a house, keeping dry from the rain...

let's have fish tonight

 

The more I stay in Izmir, the more I love this city and I want to keep coming back. Stay in Urla, feel like eating fish and go down to the port, and finally call friends to go out at night in Cesme...

working hard again

 

bulgurca under water

 

This was the small town called Bulgurca. We used to take this way to our summer house years ago. That would usually be a Friday afternoon. We would stop by Bulgurca, buy bread and groceries. Now, the town is under dam waters and the only thing left is the minaret of the mosque. Well, at least part of it because it looks like they decided to recycle the top and the alem...

memories from a year

 

memories from a city

 

the tuareg from the desert

 

I made great friends from Merzouga. They cooked for me and even shared the recipe which I'll try first thing when I move back to Brussels. But I need to find some 'real' safrane, not the fake safrane made of brick dust that's sold in some places...

a ring for a fish

 

This fish didn't find its finger yet...

lace work

 

recollections

 

this is where I write when ... well, when it feels like it needs to be written.

falling dream

 

you know that dream where you feel like you're falling for a second (if you're lucky) and longer if you're feeling especially adventurous. Tonight, I set up the camera and with motion sensors photographed myself when this was happening...

cacik & coban salad

 

there's nothing like shepard (coban) salad and cacik for dinner when it's hot hot summer time baby, and if you've listened to Baris Manco, you know what I mean when I say that I'm feeling kind of like cacik today...

moroccan sweets

 

pick your taxi

 

chair by the window

 

after work traffic

 

Fes train station

leather tannery in Fes

volubilis

and the arch of triumph

turkey on wheels

 

The motorcycle with wings. The guy on the back was pissed off that I was photographing such an intimate moment..

casa streets

 

trucks in an empty parking lot

street lamps

fruit basket

Receiving fruit baskets in the hotel is a bad sign. It means I'm becoming a platinum member everywhere, but home.

empty roads

monster

 

no perseid meteor shower tonight

 

Tonight was supposed to be the night of the Perseid meteor showers. So I got out and started driving in the opposite direction of where I would normally drive to at night. Not towards Cairo, but into the desert. Trying to get away from the light pollution and hoping to take some nice shots. After half an hour of driving, the road turning into a narrow path, I came onto a checkpoint. The microbus driver in front of me presented his ID to the policemen and drove through after some discussion. I had no idea what I was going to say. How was I supposed to explain in Arabic that I wanted to take photos of the Perseid meteor shower in the middle of the desert. Yeah, right where even driving to the most touristic resort draws many questions if you're a foreigner. So I resorted to the only strategy I knew could possibly work if I was lucky and if I looked confident enough. I drove by slowly, stopped, turned around to the policemen, greeted them with a serious selamin aleykum and drove on without stopping. No one shouted behind me. I had made it! Of course, this wasn't much compared to an Egyptian friend who ran away from the police on his motorcycle because he was too lazy to get a legal license for his vehicle, but still I felt lucky...

Dates for Ramadan

 

butterfly