It was an amazing week, made even more incredible by the spontaneity that inspired it. On March 16th, I headed to England for two days to spend some time with Neil and to relax, and then traveled on to Turkey to pick up my stuff and say goodbye… What a whirlwind!

I’ll start from the beginning. I arrived in England and was immediately met by Neil and sunshine! You all know how I love sunshine.. 😉

We headed back to his house where he had an incredible brunch set up for me including three different meats, scones and clotted cream, cupcakes, Brie, and orange juice and champagne. A feast! Amazing.

In the afternoon, we wandered round the shops for a tent (yay road trip 2013!) and then headed to Avenham Park for a walk. It was gorgeous – truly a beautiful landscape.

We headed for a pub called the Continental where I had an awesome strawberry beer. It was sunny and lovely and perfect!

We ended off the day with Anchorman and Indian takeaway. We tried to also watch Old School but I fell asleep… Typical Caroline.

The next day, we woke up and headed to Blackpool for Mother’s day. She chose a lovely restaurant called the Barn, and it was amazing. All of our meals were so good, although I think my meat and potato pie was second to none. They also had a tiny knick knack shop that we wandered through which was super cute. We finished the lunch with ice cream – I had the best toffee ice cream I’ve ever had. It was so amazing.

After lunch, we headed back to Preston and just hung out for the rest of the evening. It was a great relaxing weekend, and I was (as usual) so sad to leave at the end of it.

Monday, I flew to first to Istanbul on my way to Adana. During my layover in Istanbul, Omer came to meet me at the airport for a quick goodbye since he’s no longer in Adana. It was much to short, but I’m so glad I got to see him, and I met his cousin Ibrahim who I’d heard much about! Then it was off to Adana for what was going to be a whirlwind 36 hours of packing and then rushing back to the states. Well, it’s true the first 36 hours were a whirlwind; but they were not followed by a rush back to the states!

I stayed up all Monday night and packed with the intention of enjoying my day on Tuesday before leaving early Wednesday morning (supposedly). In the morning on Tuesday, I said goodbye to my boss and several of my coworkers. Unfortunately, I was not able to see everyone. Oh well, I’ll just have to go back at some point, right?

When I was finally finished packing, I filled a quick prescription (here’s to having health insurance…) and then met up with Irem. We were on our way to meet Micky when we got distracted by a carpet store, where I had my first official carpet buying experience.

Buying a carpet in Turkey is an all-afternoon affair, one which I’ve read many short stories about but never actually experienced. I absolutely adore Turkish carpets, but they are expensive, and then you run the risk of getting something you might not like in a few years… So nerve racking! But I wanted one, so Tuesday was the day. My last truly Turkish experience.

We greeted the carpet salesman, who gestured to us to sit. After this, he began pulling out carpet after carpet, in so many different colors and designs. I picked out a beautiful tiny blue one, and as soon as he unrolled it, I knew I was in love. But I waited til the end, til I’d seen probably 40 different carpets before making a decision: I wanted two. Haha

I settled on that first gorgeous blue carpet, which will go perfectly with my white bedspread and maybe a teal accent wall (yes, I designed rooms around my carpets). The second carpet was orange, navy blue, and gray. It’s bit bigger, and perfect for a living room with a blue couch and maybe cream colored side chairs. Both carpets are lively and fun without being too busy (you know me, my tastes tend toward the more “simple” side). The carpet salesman and Irem assured me I had made an excellent choice, and I brought Micky back for a third opinion. After I was sure everyone was in agreement, we started the bargaining process.

550 lira LESS later, I was the proud owner of not one, but two Turkish carpets! I was so excited. I can’t wait to open them up and show them off. Maybe even someday I’ll have an apartment in which to put them.. Haha

While we waited for the transaction to finish and FedEx to come (I shipped them home), we chatted with the carpet salesmen and their friends. One of the men was a former Long Island resident (39 years!) who had recently retired in Adana to be close to his family and childhood friends. His children were still in NY, so he goes back often. It was a great conversation – he knew things about NY that even I don’t know. About three hours later, the carpet-buying process was over, and Irem and I set off.

Since it was (supposed to be) my last night in Adana, I wanted Adana kebabs, so we decided to go to a restaurant called Dede on Türgut Ozal. We picked up Taylan, and Selçuk met us there. We had tons of meze, followed by amazing Adana kebabs, washed down with ayran. After dinner, Irem and Taylan had to go home, so I said goodbye. Everyone was proud I didn’t cry although it was close.

After goodbyes, Selçuk and I headed to Çukurova University. We headed to Turkuaz, the small coffee shop where I met Selçuk and Omer for the first time. Serkan joined us and we sat there and watched the lights of Adana twinkling across the lake and recounted the last few months. I can’t believe how much has happened in such a short time. Look at me, I’m getting sentimental just writing about it.

Serkan eventually had to go back to class, so we said goodbye and then Selçuk and I headed to Newport for one last Efes. Then it was getting late, so Selçuk dropped me off to finish packing.

5:15 the next morning, Selçuk loaded up his car with my five suitcases. We headed to the airport for my 6:45 am flight… Only to find out that there was a TON of things wrong with my luggage. After three weeks of sleeping in a hospital, two nights of staying up packing, and tons of emotional goodbyes, I made the most irresponsible decision I’ve ever made: I didn’t leave. Called my mom, told her I couldn’t come home yet, and then headed back to Selçuk’s house.

I went down for a five-hour nap, after which I properly met Selçuk’s mom, sister, and cousin. They gave me breakfast and Selçuk assured me he would help me figure out what to do with my stuff. We spent the next few hours contacting shipping companies, trying to get a quote for how much it might cost to ship my stuff home.

When we exhausted all of our ideas and just had to sit back and wait for the companies to get back to us, Selcuk’s mom told us she was making içle köfte, which are balls of bulgur stuffed with meat. They are delicious, but I’ve never tried to make them because apparently they are very difficult to make. The result? Yeah, they’re not particularly easy… It’s kind of like creating pottery. You start with a small ball of bulgur and roll it, then poke your finger into it. You then just kind of rub it around until you create a bowl-like shape. After this, the meat filling goes in and then you kind of roll it up into a ball. Selçuk’s mom was amazing, rolling them up so quickly. It took me about six tries before I finally felt like I had it. I made a total of five içle köftes an Selcuk’s mom was so proud of her student. 🙂

After we had used up all of the meat filling, we used the remainder of the bulgur mixture to make small bulgur balls for sarimsakli köfte. These were MUCH easier. Roll out tiny balls, poke little belly buttons in them, and you’re done. I definitely appreciated how much easier these were.

While we rolled the içle köfte and sarimsakli köfte, Selçuk showed me the photos and video of his sister Neşe’s wedding. I’ve heard about this wedding SO much… Apparently it was the best night ever, according to Selçuk, Ömer, Ezgi, and Serkan. I have to say, it looked pretty amazing.. Sad I wasn’t there.

Wednesday evening, we ate our içle köfte for dinner (delicious!) and then I met a bunch of Selçuk’s family. They came over and we just hung out for a while, typical Turkish evening family style. They are all so sweet, and Selçuk did an incredible job as translator. 🙂

I’m going to end this post here because it’s absurdly long, but I’ll be posting the second half today and my completed Ankara post in the next few days. Until then, kendine iyi bak!