Handwriting

Remember all the time you spent practicing cursive writing in school, and how difficult it was to get right?  Remember how you had to write your essays first in pencil and then in ink? Remember how it used to be important to learn to sign your name, so you one day could put it on your paycheck?  Now we have direct deposit and online banking, and I know a lot of teachers and parents that are horrified because children's handwriting skills are deteriorating due to keyboards and touch-screens.  

Calligraphy is an art form that might become more and more valued, and more and more rare.  I have always admired (and envied) good calligraphers.  When I discovered Arabic calligraphy with all its beauty and different styles I was (and still am) awestruck.  The Muslim faith does not allow one to make a picture of Mohammed or living beings, so they use the written word and often stylize the writing to create forms. The results are unique pictures and beautiful works of art.

We recently went to an amazing calligraphy exhibition inside Aya Sofia, and our young M, and aspiring artist, took all these pictures (and then some...)  The exhibition is called "Lisan-ı Hat ile Aşk-ı Nebi", which means something like "The love of line and language"

This is called geometric Kufic script

Ballikayalar National Park

Ballikayalar ("Honey Rock") National Park is a narrow limestone canyon near the city of Gebze.  It is about an hour from the Bosphorus on the Asian side.  There are picnic tables and an outdoor restaurant at the park entrance where the river pools up a bit.  We spent the day with friends walking up the river, scrambling through the rocks and spotting frogs, fish, birds, and even a water snake (he got away before we could photograph him).  It was a beautiful respite from our urban environs.  Not a building or traffic snarl in sight!  C said it reminded him of the countryside north of Tarsus during his time in central Turkey.  

If you click on the above picture to make it bigger, you can see the climbers on the ledge halfway up (or down) the rock face.  There were several groups throughout the day making their way to this area for technical climbs and descents.

    

It was great fun to 'hopscotch' back and forth across the river in the narrow spots and scramble up to higher ground in others.

Little waterfalls and eddies all along the river - this particular one looked as though someone had sealed it with cellophane wrap.

Tons of these guys - every other footfall along the river would send one or more scrambling to the safety of the river.  In some spots they would croak in this long, odd 'voice' and we wondered if there birds or unknown creatures hiding in the brush.

Paddleboat - 3tl for 15 minutes. No need for parental permission (or apparently, a life vest)

Cotton candy and a little extra sugar burst before the hike!?

       

You can buy raw meat at the restaurant and grill it yourself, and there are public picnic tables and grills if you bring your own food for the day.

Even the trees express their love for this oasis!

Norway

One of the benefits of living in Turkey is exploring and visiting so many interesting places, while being closer to my family and friends in Norway.  We spent one week in April traveling across this beautiful country, visiting my parents in the west and going to my brother's wedding in the east.  Between these two destinations we travelled by train (bus and ferry!) across the vast and sparsely populated mountain plateau.  

Vestlandet

(Norway West)

Pictures from the island I grew up on - and where my parents still live:

Yes, you can see a glacier in the distance

Still on the island

Sleeping trolls in the daylight moss

"Hestehov", one of the first flowers of spring

Hardangervidda

(Norway Middle)

The train ride from Bergen to Oslo takes about 7 hours, and is a scenic experience.  We were lucky enough to share the train with enthusiastic, true Norwegians on their way to what we were told to be the world's biggest ski marathon - Skarverennet.  Over 12,000 skiers of all conditions participated in this year's race.  A few of them entertained us while we were enjoying our Norwegian meatballs in the train's dining compartment.  Our favorite moment was a rousing rendition of "Knocking on Heaven's Door" played on an accordion and guitar, while the rest of the 'team' was drinking beer or vodka out of tin cans.

You have to be very quick taking pictures out of the train window.  Especially because the first half of the trip from Bergen goes through a lot of tunnels and a mistimed click gives you a black photo with your reflection in the window.

These are the hytte (cabins) we Norwegians love to spend our vacations in
(except for when we go to a Turkish beach hotel!)

The local police with their police issue vehicle

Østlandet

(Norway East)

These pictures are from a very little island in the middle of Oslo fjord, on which Fort Oscarsborg played a very big role in Norway's defense during WWII.

It all looks very peaceful now

I think this is a much better use for an artillery slider

The barrel of the cannon shot through the lens of my Canon

A good Norwegian soldier armed with an umbrella

I just can't help getting distracted by details:

Wedding

The grand finale of our trip was the wedding of my (not-so-little-anymore) brother 

and his fiancé.  

The couple was glowing!

The food and drinks were exquisite!!

... and the guests were extremely handsome!!!