pray for samoa

in this beautiful moment crossing the boğaz at night..

..i realize that by caring about nothing i suddenly care about everything. it came like flash of happiness when i sat at the bus stop eating a street corner sandwich and sipping on a fanta (if you know me.. youd know that fanta in other countries is my favorite thing ever!). it was the realization that i have nothing on my mind but this beautiful moment and i have not a worry in the world. i worked a long day and put an even greater amount of time in effort to find a corner of the world that i deem fit to call my home and here i reside. i have never seen the boğaz from above at night and its quite lovely even by bus. two lovers sat on the seats in front of me, man with arm around his girl. the print from his knuckles left a tiny fog on the window and my can of fanta makes the sipping sound as the straw desperately reaches for the last few drops.

i did not want to forget this night.

i often wonder about you..

..and if what inspired you still inspires you. you turned your travels and adventures into words like fluids freezing into solid and by that same principal you always seemed to form the shape of whatever contains you. you were like a hero a to me and i like somewhat of a novice to the colours of life and i could not hold a candle to your love for cluttered rooms and large sheets of fabric woven with sunny days. this is not a letter of love yet a love of love to one of my favorite spirits that could never sit still. as time has taken its toll we are now no more than stories we can hardly remember and pictures that do not show our faces. but somehow you taught a fish how to swim.

so i wonder about you and where you are. i wonder if the sheer magnatude of the world and its bold displays of greens and blues still enchant you. do you still write sacred words to yourself on every notebook reminding you to keep your spirits bold and ever curious? are you somewhere happily? near or far?

and its in this mystery that i find some sort of happiness and smug sense that i do not really wonder anymore. in the same curious sensation that brought our traveling paths together we have forever vanished from each other's universe and i sincerely doubt we will ever cross again. i just want to know what became of you. i want to know if you still walk the world like i do forever seeking a lonlier path and forever seeking what you are affraid of. this is not a love letter but a love of love. it is not a letter of a fleeting love or a romance somehow meant to be but of a friend that i greatly respect.. one who has great respect for me.

i write this from 7200 miles away. but away from what? home? you once helped me to realize that home is where the heart is; burried deep inside of you, and in that sense i am home and will always be home as long as i remember who i am. happy, i am, and i write scribbled words into whatever form of paper i can scrounge at this rooftop so far away. this is where i go to say goodbye to the day and where i go to lift myself into the teeming sounds of istanbul below. and the question still bugs me.. do you still feel this? do you still quote Rumi to elder shop keepers? do you still draw on bathroom mirrors? or has the world gotten to you too like it has so many others? if so then maybe that is all that you are to me, a ghost of an inspiration who too has become chained to the world.

in that sense i am sad..

you really loved the world..

sultanahmet

here's to you, ya rayah

last night

the albanians, the turks, the kurds, the americans, the australians and the british sat at the same table together. we sank into rakı and beer and spoke of art and music. we dine at the same feast and we spoke the same language of laughter and community. this is why i travel.

ya rayah (oh traveler)

Oh traveler where are you going, you'll go, get tired, and come back

How the people failed, before you and me

How many cities i've seen and the deserted desert

How much time i've wasted?, how much more, still and you leave it?

Oh you absent one from the country of the people, how tired can you be and run?

You'll add more go the promising will, it became history, and you didn't know

Ya rayah win msafar trouh taaya wa twali
Chhal nadmou laabad el ghaflin qablak ou qabli
Ya rayah win msafar trouh taaya wa twali
Chhal nadmou laabad el ghaflin qablak ou qabli

Oh traveler, i'll give you my advice take it [with you] ahead of time

Look, what could be good for you, before you start selling and buying

Oh you sleeper, i got your news, what has happened to you happened to me

Like this the heart has accepted from the Almighty

Taksim Jam!

Prince of Persia wore chucks

the word çingene rings in my head and im slightly closer to a far and distant goal. in worlds like this so far away from home each of us slowly fall into whichever niche our destinies deem fit for us. somehow i knew mine years ago. now that im closer the stakes are much higher and i feel as though each step i take must be a step in the right direction. from this point on i dont expect many people to understand what it is that im getting at but they will one day.. at the end of a beautiful path laid before me and at the beginning of a whole new adventure. until then i leave behind colorful words like çingene and allow the callings from far away to ring louder as i am closer than i have ever been. i have to be careful now, there is no time to be fooled.

there are people among us who have been forgotten. their music sounds of the sadness they are born into yet somehow it calls for celebrating. they know not nor do they care of the world beyond their poorly built homes. but they know what we do not know. you cannot find them on a map. you cannot call them by their country, they belong to no country.



most faithfully it will occur.



oh yeah.. prince of persia wore chucks..

Taksim (to the rooftops)

Taksim

Albeit I have not come around to taking many pictures yet I have taken thıs 2am opportunity to turn jetlag into the documenting of my thoughts. I am living in taksim which is essentially the time square of istanbul. The streets are loud and crowded with people who dont seem to ever rest. Taksim is located on the european side of istanbul and the view from my rooftop terrace reveals the other continent, asia, which coincidentally is where i will be working. Having said that i must take a ferry both ways to and from work every day to kadıköy which is on the other side. ive been lucky to meet some really cool people that will be sharing the building i live in and working at various locations that my school branches to.

istanbul is really quite lovely. i was told on the plane that the first sight of the town will humble you and that is precisely what it did. the city is an ancient and living organism that bears the mantle of much history. ive observed that the city exists on two levels both ground level and the rooftops. i watch from my terrace the people below playing backgammon and putting down countless cups of tea while smoking nargile. people young and old from all walks of life crowd the streets and they wear their cultures vebrantly. i am new here but i progress through the language barrier as best as possible. im learning fast and through osmosis and practice ive come to pick up a few useful roots of turkish. its exciting to learn a new language, especially one that is so beautifully different than the language i am native to.

i bought a guitar today. this is my tool to meet new people especially other musicians that hail from many different backgrounds. the music of the street is colorful and the sounds blend together among the distant sounds of call to prayer. the food is simply too good to describe and the beauty of the people is enchanting. istanbul is my new home. im lucky to be here and lucky to have the opportunity to see a culture from the inside out. i am a well traveled fish that has washed ashore in many far off lands and this next chapter is going to be a good one.. pics soon..