Near the apartment

Last Thursday had a late lunch at a cafe across the street called Marmaris Büfe. Got a pide döner (pide is the bread and döner is like meatball) and was surprised to find french fries in addition to the kinda shredded meat and tomatoes I expected- hmm but it was good as well as the pita like bread it came in. Kinda looked like a pita too. I sat upstairs and people watched and read my book. There were buzzer like things on the tables to call a waiter over- pretty smart since they were all downstairs. I walked around the area near the apartment and saw a pet store with some cute but rambuctious puppies- some labs and golden retrievers it looked like. There were way more stores than I imagined in the area- some you would totally miss if you weren't looking like a sort undergroundish cafe. Saw a really pretty mostly wedding cake store!



It's pretty funny how drivers like to honk so much here- like at home I usually only honk if I'm really upset or something but waiting for Mert's bus stop and walking down to Kadiköy I notice people sure honk at any opportunity! If they are stopped for 5 seconds they will start honking and sometimes even at ambulances? I've seen cars not get out of the way so the ambulance honks and the other cars honk back but don't really move out of the way. And pedestrians jay walk- for me only if it's clear- but some people walk totally when it's not the right timing and the cars honk and the people yell back at the cars- even though they totally should not be walking at that time.



Pretty much everyone gets water delivered to their house- it's funny seeing the delivery guys cuz they have maybe 4 bottles strapped onto their scooter/motorcycles and it looks precarious because they are kinda heavy. A postal delivery guy came by one time and needed some ID from me and signatures (pretty funny cuz we couldn't communicate but he pulled out his ID)- it turned out fine though.



Oh and tried a fruit called quince- really odd because it's not juicy at all but looks similar to an apple or pear and you imagine it would be. The only thing I've had that I don't care for is beef tongue- it was paper thin and I probably wouldn't have thought anything of it, but the family told me what it was and that's all I could think about when I was eating it! I've also had I think it's called chee kufta which is pretty much high quality squashed raw meatballs with some herbs and spices- a little weirded out at first but it's not bad I don't eat too much of it at a time. In addition to simit stands everywhere, there are also roasted chestnut stands (on an open fire haha- well not fire but stove contraption).