Happiest Place on -Erh-

Disneyland.

Old Walt had a dream of creating a place where dreams come true. Mickey Mouse, Minnie, and Donald Duck live side by side in charming Tune Town where tourists can buy churros (fried bread dipped in cinnamon and sugar), ice cream, and endless kitsch. Disneyland is great and truly weird. I spent five days with my fam in Southern California and we milked it for all it was worth. My poor sister was sick with a sore throat, but we all rallied.

Being an Aunt is one of my most favorite things in the whole world. I loved watching Tyson throw his arms around giant, life-sized chipmunks in true adoration and staying up late at night reading books with Tate. Tiny Alyssa is her mama's girl, but in stolen sweet moments I won a few of her smiles and cuddles.

Little known fact: my dad ran into Walt Disney once. Literally. He was on a street corner in Seattle for the 1962 World's Fair and my dad accidently bumped into a man, apologized and quickly added, "Walt Disney... Excuse me, Walt Disney!"

I am not convinced a fictitious land filled with bawling babies, long lines, and a hefty helping of gluttony deserves the title of "Happiest Place on Earth," but it was a marvelous place to visit for a few days. Thanks fam for a great vaycay!

One Magical August...

I tried to keep this video short. No need to overload you, but perhaps this will tantalize you into purchasing a ticket to Europe!

Primum non nocere

First, do no harm.

Thus sayeth the Hippocratic Oath. I have been at a mission conference all day, listening to folks invested in international development in some way, shape or form. Lots of good-hearted souls have gathered to talk about ways to make the world a better place. But we are a surprisingly sedate bunch. Probably because we are Presbyterian. I think we need to get a little more riled up about all the injustice we witness.

Anywho, I'm feeling quite chipper despite the madness of life these days. It is fall and I love this time of year. The trees are tired after a long and hot summer, so they are fading in spectacular glory. The last few months have been full of good travel and adventures. There will be Turkey stories and pictures soon. Promise. Ahhhhhh, Turkey. Now THAT is a spectacular place.

Holy Shamoly

All right. I have been a crappy blogger of late. I absolutely must share some more pics from extraordinary Turkey, but please be patient, my pets (all six of you who read this blog). It is fall, thank God, and I am delighting in cool weather and weekend excursions. Went to Valley Forge and NYC and this weekend plan to go to Washington DC. Got a lot on my mind these days, so the blog has been neglected. But wishing you all heaps of love and promise to be back with a few tidbits soon!

Magic

I crawled into the car yesterday and I wanted a little magic. You ever have those days? I wanted to roll down the windows, turn the radio on, and listen to some fabulous playlist that the DJ would miraculously assemble.

Instead, I crawled into the car yesterday, flipped on the radio and the first thing I heard was some irrational woman screeching about burning the Quaran alongside a litany of hateful slurs. Eeek! What ever happened to religious freedom and mutual forbearance?

But then there are people like this:

"We came to have a peaceful conversation with the pastor, to hear his grievance, to ask him to follow his own Scripture about his enemies. His Scripture teaches him to love his enemies." Imam Muhammad Musri, president of the Islamic Society of Central Florida after meeting with preacher Terry Jones, whose church is planning to burn Korans on Saturday. (USA Today)

There is hope, Ms. Carmen. There is hope.

A magical city, indeed

On my last day in Istanbul I stayed with a wonderful Turkish family who divides their time between Istanbul and Philadelphia. For decades, they have had a lovely home high in the hills of Ortakoy overlooking the Bosporus River. The Bosporus River divides east from west, Europe from Asia, a critical waterway between the Black Sea and the Sea of Maramara. As the moon rose over the opposite shore, we ate fresh figs and peaches and drank Turkish coffee on the porch. Fisherman and drunken boys argued on the water's edge while a welcome breeze finally offered a reprieve from the August heat. I asked my host, Mr. Eroglu, what he thought of Istanbul and he replied without hesitation. "In Istanbul I feel old. A thousand years old." He gestured to the palace of a sultan across the river and then a fortress built by Constantine. Centuries of architecture and war, religious and cataclysmic ideological shifts have transformed the hills and soil and water of Istanbul and my host said that he felt that somehow his life was a continuation of all those lives and events that had come before.

On my first day in Istanbul, an old man holding two white rabbits asked if he could read my fortune for 1 lire. I found he and the bunnies rather charming, so I placed a coin in his hand and watched as he and one rabbit carefully selected and unrolled a blue piece of paper that provided wisdom for my life, much like a Chinese fortune cookie.

All kinds of superstition is woven seamlessly into the culture. To ward off evil spirits, a person can buy a blue medallion representing Medusa's eye (to deflect evil thoughts). I am my mother's daughter, a woman who happened to be surprisingly superstitious herself, so I happily offered the remains of my Turkish coffee to Mr. Ergolu when I was told one could learn about the future from the sediment at the bottom.

Istanbul is a wildly fascinating place. Boasting a population of 20 million people, this massive, throbbing city is home to Kurds and Turks, Muslims and Marxists, all of whom stumbled across my path throughout my visit. Such a friendly place where gestures of hospitality are offered through Chai tea and banter. Ramadan kept things rather quiet during the day, but could not keep the smokers at bay nor the carpet sellers from aggressively selling their wares.


The pictures are from the Blue Mosque, the Aya Sofya, a boat cruise on the river, a Kurdish neighborhood near Taksim, and a carpet shop in Sultanahmet.

VayCay, Day 3

The only thing better than visiting charming Nuremberg? Visiting charming Nuremberg and staying with your friend's Amy and Jeff who provide gorgeous lime/plum/coconut cake for breakfast. Today I had a leisurely morning that involved learning two things about spiders while drinking a cup of coffee on the porch:

1) Spiders gather in their webbing into a little ball when you mess it up.
2) After they do this they need a break and curl up for a nap. This morning I thought for the very first time in my life, "Spiders are cute."

This is what vacation does to you. It gives you the time to notice the way spiders spin a web and how they nap.

I traipsed about the city with my lovely friend Saskia yesterday morning and learned lots of its secrets with my old friend Udo last night. Thank you both, for a remarkable day.

You live in a beautiful part of the world and I am grateful to know you. Tschüß!