Anatolian Days and Nights: A Love Affair with Turkey, Land of Dervishes, Goddesses, and Saints

240 Pages·2006·2.34 MB·English

by  Eakins

Published by Wild River Books
P.O. Box 53
Stockton, New Jersey 08559
www.wildriverreview.com

Copyright ©2012 Angie Brenner & Joy E. Stocke

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or
transmitted by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or
otherwise, without written permission from the copyright holder.

Distributed by Emerald Book Company

For ordering information or special discounts for bulk purchases, please contact
Emerald Book Company at PO Box 91869, Austin, TX 78709, 512.891.6100.

Design and composition by Greenleaf Book Group LLC
Cover design by Tim Ogline
Watercolors by Angie Brenner

LCCN: 2011938491

Ebook ISBN: 978-0-9839188-1-3

Ebook Edition
For Jackson.
—AB

For my daughter, Sarah “Sadie” Gretchen Young.
—JES

CONTENTS

AUTHORS’ NOTE
TURKISH PRONUNCIATION
PROLOGUE
INTRODUCTION
One
LYCIAN DAYS
Two
LYCIAN NIGHTS
Three
BEFORE AND AFTER
Four
THE STEAMY SIDE OF ISTANBUL
Five
BLINIS IN BEYOǦLU
Six
RUMI AND COKE
Seven
ALMOST A HOUSE IN ORTAHISAR
Eight
OUR GRAND BASIC BLACK SEA ADVENTURE
Nine
THE QUEEN OF ANATOLIA
Ten
THE EAGLE OF ARARAT
Eleven
ABRAHAM AND THE MERMAID
Twelve
THE EDUCATION OF MUSTAFA
Thirteen
THE NYMPH WHO RAN AWAY
Fourteen
RETURN TO THE LYCIAN SEA
EPILOGUE
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
BIBLIOGRAPHY
ABOUT THE AUTHORS

AUTHORS’ NOTE

Bir varmş bir yokmuş—maybe it happened,
maybe it didn’t.

—Turkish proverb

For nearly twenty years, Turkey has been a part of our lives. For more than ten,
we’ve traveled together, sharing adventures and misadventures. We never found
the dangerous country so many Westerners fear. Instead, we discovered a
beautiful, vibrant, diverse culture as complicated as our own.
We’ve chosen to use the word Anatolia, Land of Many Mothers, in our title,
derived from Anat, the great mother goddess. Within Anatolia’s borders we’ve
visited places we read about in history books, the Bible, and in myth:
Mesopotamia, the Pontus, Cappadocia, and the Fertile Crescent.
But it was through author Mary Lee Settle’s writings that we first came across
the phrase Bir varmış bir yokmuş—maybe it happened, maybe it didn’t.
Throughout our journeys, the phrase has stayed in our minds.
Reality is framed within our memories. Maybe it happened, but then again …