Couchsurfing with an awesome host who has shown me all over the city and took me out with his friends. That and he has the most infectious, sincere laugh I have heard maybe ever.
Anyways...yes, yes. The food is dope, the city is beautiful. What else, right?
We went up to the old castle, looking out over the city from up on a hill. We walked back into downtown through an impoverished Kurdish neighborhood and got flooded with cute little Kurdish kids, playing in the streets with home-made trashbag kites. They LOVED getting their pictures taken and I seized the opportunity to get some great shots of life in Turkey.
On our way in, we stumbled upon a Gypsy (Roma) wedding on a side street and just kind of walked up and came in and watched the dancing and took a bunch more pictures of the party and OTHER cute little kids. The Kurdish and the Roma are two distinct ethnic groups that are both pretty marginalized in Turkey which maybe be indistinguishable to a (Westerner) outsider but they are very different. At any rate, stumbling upon this wedding party, it was more than getting a little lucky. The Turkish folks I was with said that they have never seen a celebration like this in the street and its pretty rare for an outsider to get to witness it. I was timid at first, but got nothing but smiles and eventually, I loosened up enough to get a few good shots and I am really thankful that I did. It was a really beautiful experience and I feel so fortunate for the way Turkiye has opened up and showed me all that it has. Its good to be here.
Kurdish men in the park playing Go and some other game...
Kurdish kids in the street
More Kurdish kids
And then we stumbled into the Roma Wedding Celebration...
and then top it all off with the most gorgeous, peaceful and picturesque sunset I have seen in years...
those girls at the wedding in the frilly dresses clearly took classes at the caity school of 'tude modeling.
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