Welcome to Beypazari, where it is known for...well...almost everything!

Well, I guess this weekend can best be summed up by a pair of purple suede knee-high boots...
...and my inability to make logical decisions.

So Friday Katie was supposed to come visit from Istanbul, and we were to meet the others at a bar in Kizilay that I had gone to before. Everyone left for the bar at 6:10, and at 6:30 I was informed by Katie that she had missed her train and would not be Ankara-bound this particular weekend.

This was the first of my decisions to make for the weekend.

I could either spend a peaceful friday night at home, cleaning the house, listening to music, perhaps indulging in some yoga and spiritual cleansing...

or I could face the Ankaran Demons on my own- and make it my mission to get to the bar.

So I had to act fast-

I pasted a "Kizilay or Bust" sign on my back and made my way to the metro. I had figured A) I had walked through the mean streets of Roxbury numerous times on my own in the dead of night, so walking through Ankara at 7 would be a piece of cake and B) I had walked in a group to the metro stop in the bus terminal so much I couldn't possibly get lost!!

Well, oddly enough, only one of those assumptions was true, and at least my life wasn't in danger.

For some reason, as soon as I entered the bus terminal my mind went blank, and I walked around ASTI for at LEAST a half hour before I just jumped into a taksi.

Luckily I made it to the bar just as Lady Gaga's soothing voice was blasting through the loudspeakers. I saw all the usual suspects and made plans to meet up with Aybuke, Nihal, and new friend Aysha to meet up at the mall tomorrow for some serious girl bonding time and shop therapy.

So Mackenzie skated off with her posse (shes the popular one in Turkey) and Julia and I met up with the ladies at the biggest shopping center in Ankara, Ankamall (I too giggled at the creative genius that was the title). We spent a good 5 hours going into the stores of my dreams, every where I looked I saw faux leather, faux fur, leopard print, sparkles, sequins! It was amazing! And the prices were good too!! I didn't go too crazy, and only got a T-shirt with a giant Lion's face on it (it seemed like a must-have at the time) and a pair of wonderful purple suede knee high boots.

Within the first week of being in Turkey, I quickly realized that I had made a grave mistake in the footwear selection I had packed for the next 6 months. This footwear consists of the following: A pair of glittery blue high heels, a pair of gold strappy high heels, a pair of black and white work heels, a worn down pair of useless red flats, obnoxious rainbow polka-dot rainboots, brown and red lace-ups, and of course, bright white power-sneaks. For some reason I felt that I would need to dress like a soccer mom with a secret stripper life, needless to say, I was in need of some casual kicks.

I spotted them from across a crowded room. I'm not kidding either, Ankamall is consistently packed. The were a ridiculous shade of purple, easily one of a kind, with a small heel to boost me into the hemisphere of a normal human being. Plus they were on indirim!! (sale). With purch in hand, I knew that I would effectively, and stylishly, conquer the activities of Sunday.

Mission Beypazari.

So most of our outings have been organized by the school, but this week there was nothing planned, and this is when I decided to take things into my own hands.

I had heard about a little village that used to be located on the old silk and spice routes. It was known for its silver, kuru (like biscotti), sarma (stuffed grape leaves) and 80 layer baklava (reg baklava is like 40 layers or something)..even though the restaurant we dined at only served 79 layer baklava (amateurs).

So I heard that there were busses that left from Ankamall, and we decided to have a small group of girls only go on Sunday for the day.

So about 15 girls and guys met that morning to venture off to Beypazari.

I had dressed to the nines in a purple shirt, uganda bead necklace, peacock feather in my hair, glittery silver sunglasses, green snakeskin pants, my typical gorilla coat, my red elmo gloves, and of course, the purple boots. Needless to say, I looked as lush as the tropical jungle was emulating.

We got there and ate a ton of delish food, and then decided to hike up to the hill top overlook. You may recall that we purchased a small eggman (now eggbert) from Abant, and we want to take pics of him everywhere.

It was an adorable town, and though the hike uphill proved slightly difficult for me and the boots, we took it over and conquered.
However getting back down was a whole other story.

An hour and near heart attack later, I made it down the slippery cobblestones. The boots were great, but not for rigorous outdoor activity. Another logical decision down the drain...

We went into a store for some delicious baklava, and the woman was so excited to see us that she insisted we try some of her friend's chocolate baklava....or what I like to call...Choklava. Weirdly enough, this marketing combination of words had never previously occurred to the locals, as they giggled at my genius and insisted I tried more of their foods.

It was then that I saw the jewelry store of my dreams. Beypazari is famous for their silver, so it was obvious I was going to need some bling. I had my notepad at the bargaining ready, and scored myself the most bombdiggity ice i've seen in a while.


It was at this time, we all decided we had successfully invaded Beypazari, and boarded the bus to go home. We then taught the Turks our ancient ways of predicting their marital and financial futures....by some epic games of MASH on the back of the bus.

Oh ya, on a side note, we are officially signed up for Turkish lessons!! we are going to be getting them 2-3 times a week in Ulus. Today was our first class. We got epically lost on our way there. Shout outs to Corn Man, Helpful Taxi Guy, and Green Shirt Jewelry Man for pointing us in the right direction....I think!

And there are times I really miss whats happening in the United States. Particularly when I find out about things like Pajamajeans. I would have called the Pajeans....regardless...they will be mine.

That's all folks!

G.

MY CAMERA DIED, SO ALL PICTURES ARE A COPYRIGHT OF JULIA "THE CHOC'KULAH" TEIXEIRA