Our final half day in Istanbul we were extremely lucky to be able to meet up with Selin, a real live scientist from the Institute (sometimes we get let out), and also a real live Istanbul-ian.

We met up after lunch, and immediately hopped on the boat to 'her side' of Istanbul (also known as the Asian side).






Apart from our journey from the airport, it was our first time on the Turkish-Asian continent. And I have to say, we all appreciated the greater peace that was absent from the crazy, hectic, tourist-filled old town area of the european side.. Sure there were still a lot of people, but these ones at least knew where they were going/didn't make a living based on heckling.


Selin took us to Baylan, a cafe she used to stop by on her way back from uni (in Europe!), where we got to try their famous Kup Griye.





If you want to know how it tastes, I think I will leave you with this series of photos as description:



Yup, That good!
We wandered around the streets a bit, trying to get a taste for life in Asia, and maybe trying to shift some of that icecream before dinner.










At some point we made our way into a rather nice, quiet-yet-lively corner filled with cafes, in order to find some beers, and some turkish coffee.






Mari-Anne, Andy, Selin and I took a turkish coffee- which Andy instantly fell in love with and has still not stopped talking about (Germans don't seem to have as much of a coffee culture as he'd like).

And then, on finishing, we tipped our cups upside down, so that Selin might read our futures in the grounds.



Mari-Anne was first, and found out that she is surrounded by many hearts. Although she had had dark times in her life, she had now found a nice place to live. Nonetheless, there will be more hard things in the future, but they will, in the end be possible.

Selin tipped the saucer, and declared that one of Mari-anne's wishes would possibly come true, but very slowly.

Also, and I think this is the most important of all: somewhere, somehow, a fat lady is thinking of her.


My cup turned out to be a bit more complex (read- messy). There was someone always pushing me, and signs that news (or possibly money) was coming from far away. This news, signified by an eagle, would come from the air, from a woman, and was very very important.

I was going to attack something- something that I wanted in my life, would be brought closer by the attacking, and two of my wishes were coming true.

It's possible a family member will have a kidney or liver problem, but everything will turn out ok in the end.

Also there was a frog. We couldn't really work out why he was there, but as Andy said:



Andy's cup held tales of two future nephews (which made us wonder what his brothers have been up to of late), who want something from Andy. There were many animals ('a farm?' we asked, 'a zoo?') and also many puppets. Creepy. Turns out he wants to control people around him but doesn't know how to. I suggested maybe I could help him out with some attacking.

There's a man who wants him to do something, to work for him, but it's not RB (current boss), and his big news, in the shape of a whale instead of an eagle, is coming from the sea.

And then Selin uttered the slightly ominous 'I'm not going to say the bad things, ok, just the good things.'

.. but continued with telling him that maybe two of his three wishes will come true, albeit slowly.

And then those darn nephews and their expectations popped on up again!

Andy began with an 'oooh.....oh my!'

and continued on:

A: 'looks like a little river system there'
T: 'yeah, definiately a river'
A: 'i think you're gonig to go to the amazon'
T: 'wait, I think you've got to be less specific there, I think specific is a problem..
A: ...'or some other river system!'
T:   'or to 'a river''
A:  'or maybe the Nile'

T: 'or it might be just water??? or just stuff flowing through her life. It could just be just stuff flowing?'

And that's when I spotted the rabbit.

'That's a rabbit down there,, but the rabbit is like, trying to be friends with a hedgehog.. so there's some problem.. either you're the rabbit or the hedgehog, I don't know which... but you want to be close to someone but they're different from you...


...becaue they're a hedgehog and you're a rabbit
or you're a rabbit and they're a hedgehog- it's quite hard to tell at this stage'



I carried on with a story of a large bottomed lady, who was either demanding something, or just dancing ('very hard to say'), and Andy popped back in with

'There's a snake and it's coming up!!'

T:  ....'enough with snakes and rivers'!


We both saw a goats head, but quickly got distracted by a dog that was jumping on a man. Andy kept repeating that the man was NOT expecting the dog (which possibly is more of a projection of his own trauma regarding being jumped on by animals), and Selin clarified that the dog is often seen as an enemy.

I told her we couldn't be certain whether she was was the man or the dog.

We discussed that the goats head was stubborness- and something was flying over it, so possibly this was being overcome), but then got distracted by something more exciting!

A Cockatoo!
Definitely a Cockatoo!
So we knew that Selin would oneday come to Australia.
And come to think of it, that lady with a big bum could actually be a kangaroo!

Andy: 'And you'll probably visit a river in Australia!'




More roaming was had, and some posing like tourists, before eventually Selin had to leave us.




We ate dinner, looked around a bit more, and then headed back into the dark water, to 'our side' of Istanbul.



















Winking Andy loves his coffee.