Sasha Ермилова on Uzbekistan

Sasha Ермилова
From what I remember it was incredible. We had an apartment, but within 40 minutes of walking we had a little farm. Imagine acres and acres of land. All of it surrounded by perimeter of raspberry bushes. Except for the front of the farm, that's where we had vines and vines of blackberries that you could just come up to and pick whenever you wanted... Read More. In the middle of the farm we had all sorts of vegetables and tomatoes and strawberries and pretty much anything that can grow in the ground. On the right side we had apple, pears, plums and apricot trees. On the left grape vines that went all around the little area my grandfather built for us with swings. I remember swinging high high up to grab grapes from the "ceiling." We also had a little house and a pool that grandpa built and spend whole days through just splashing away. Food was cooked on the fire next to the house. I do believe it was a piece of heaven on earth.
Of course much probably have changed now. IF it's still the same, I recommend going to the bazaar. We used to walk through it and grandparents would buy us shishka bobs and corn and we would just munch on it while we shopped for a variety of items you can find while you're there. I would highly recommend NOT swimming in the canals if you come across one. They're pretty gross. The area is kind of high in criminal activity, though, so do be careful dear Mook. But I hope you find much interest while you're there. I miss it dearly.

half of me begins in you, know that it was not i..

to my friends in detroit and elsewhere:

i miss you guys. i watch the world spin with or without my presence and im scattered in some far away land. with me everywhere i take a backpack full of memories and a love that goes unchallenged. and i must say that i stink of the great city im from. its kind of funny really when you watch the reactions people make when you tell them where you are from. no, ive never met eminem and no, i dont live on 8 mile. but yes, it is a crazy place that im from and yes, it is true that you will never go there. i hope to bring some of you out here as its been mentioned although i completely understand if it doesnt work out. i just miss all of you and i know that this round of travel is going to be a big one. its hard to even wrap my head around when i will be back and what the future holds for all of us. ill find you though wherever you end up and we will make noise. my only worry is that after this journey i have ahead of me is complete that i will be too far removed and will not have enough time back to feel that comfort of home again. its of no difference though, know that im good at what i do and i share that love and bold respect everywhere i wander. all is bless-ed.


soul.












i stole this from alan.. it really did it for me..

hmm.. a stamp for future reference and to see if anything has been done about the situation

nah... on second thought i'm better off. i need to stay focused. any advice on the matter would be greatly appreciated but, as i've been previously unnerved by, i think i'm alone on this one. something happened to me last summer that i don't often share with people. it shook me up a little bit. it's not the first time life has shaken me up and reminded me that i exist and that i'm fragile, probably not the last. all is fine but such experiences leave you asking dangerous questions like 'what if?' you should never ask yourself that.

met a man last night, nico, who is from germany. he is not the first person i've met to behold an extreme journey in the light of extended travel however there is something unique about meeting him. nico is riding his motorcycle from germany to india over an undisclosed amount of time. however geographically thinking, if you imagine istanbul on a map, he has not traveled very far. in fact, he was only 14 days deep into his journey when i met him at a hostel yesterday. this was a unique perspective for me because most travelers i meet are well experienced and deep in their travels however he is like new blood. he was even expressing the immediate doubts that had struck him in the last few days and i'll be curious to see how his travels pan out. i put a link to his blog on my page, its called The Long Way Raus. check it out.

back to my gloominess. i've stamped today. we shall see where this takes me but i know this next few months will be very interesting and shaking in their own way. i'd be less vague but people read this who will want to talk about it with me and talking is not something i'm good at on the subject. but this is a stamp just as i've made many stamps in the past. be bold, kids. the mind is an interesting and amazing thing and people are pretty rad too.

¿por que te vas?

listen.. listen.. what speaks to you? something is always calling from far away, thus i've known for years. foolish i've often been for thinking of this great void as distance of miles and kilometers rather than distance in our history and ancestry. i suggest rather than being afraid of our connectedness with us and the kingdoms which have walked before us that we embrace and celebrate them. and the silence between our worlds is growing deeper by the day. as it's been written so eloquently before me, "unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing's going to get better it's not."

of course the big stopping blocks for people are time money and interest - kim howard

i've always believed somehow that there is a strange interconnectedness between certain points in the past and certain points in the present. it seems to happen during moments of different states of mind when suddenly a change of weather or a random song will teleport you back to some place you know very well. this morning the air was cold and i'm still in my sleeping-pants. an early morning meeting on the rooftop with a friend on the rooftop presented sudden reminder of times back home, wherever home was for either of us.

istanbul, istanbul.. in a few weeks i'll step foot outside of the city (the country more specifically) for the first time in a few months. in time my finger will heal and i'll be able to play guitar again. she'll come with me to bulgaria.



so, as its been warrented, a little on turkey:

i have some friends coming out here next year and often i think about what it would like to bring someone into this world i've landed in. in the past i've been an open eyed and curious wanderer of new cities always eager to see everything and absorb it as my own. istanbul has been different for some reason. my niche that i've stumbled into is quite small however without borders. i live and love on the european side in taksim. this part of town is the central attraction of nightlife in istanbul where its easy to have a fun and budget-varying night out. the streets are always crowded and its easy to meet people from all over, especially at the far end in tünel which is a haven for expats. i prefer a handful of my tribesmen and women which i've chanced upon in the last few months, they are as close to me as the friends i've made anywhere and i wish in a beautiful way that we could combine forces someday. speaking of this i mentioned i have some friends coming out. so as i wander the streets i'm always thinking about how cool it will be to bring an outsider into town especially people i'm so fond of.

there is another spin on istanbul that i am gratefully blessed with, i also have a second scene on the asian side where there is an entirely different aroma of life. i've learned long ago that when i came out here i was placed with people of the like and it's superficially obvious. soon, when i come back from bulgaria i will have a new apartment where i can finally set up creative shop and sleep on a pile of cushions i've been collecting. from there it is only a few short weeks before egypt. our team is a bless-ed one. we are actually venturing so far south that we are in stone's throw of the sudan border. we've got quite a journey ahead of us including an aquatic voyage down the nile traveling and sleeping on boats. a debaucherous night out last week with the five of us gave a nice foreshadow of the fun and potential we have together. we somehow fit well into each others' lives and i'm thankful to have met these wonderful people. the tribe grows too. there are many among us not affiliated with our trip to egypt however deeply woven in the fibers of tribal istanbul. travelers and transients alike we each know the role we fit in among each other and we are all painfully aware of the temporariness promised before us. the future is beautifully uncertain and although it is easy to speculate a grand journey to kyrgyzstan it is also easy to forget that one day you might wake up with a finger more or less missing.. yeah halloween 09.. dont worry, it's getting better i think.

in this day of lovely interconnectedness i see the bridge between my life in istanbul, my life in detroit, my life in samoa, my life in central america and anywhere else i've wandered or will wander. live and love, mookfish.







a bless-ed picture from sofia, bulgaria cleverly tagged on facebook as myself (on the right) and christopher graham, my bulgaria travel mate (on the left). dibs.