back post 6: journey across town

I really should have brought the camera with us today.  In search of patio furniture that doesn’t cost more than Dennis makes in a month, we set out on a trek to the “other side of town”.  Meaning, the suburbs where regular people live, not the ridiculous neighborhood we live in that’s filled with Range Rovers and Mercedes.   This was a 6-hour journey.  We began with a half-mile walk down to the water, then there was a bus ride, a tram ride, and a metro ride, and then we arrived at one of Istanbul’s many giant malls (about an hour & a half later).  We navigated to IKEA (a place I will never go to again, sorry acz), and then found what we were looking for at a store that seemed pretty much like a Home Depot place.  They had big buckets of something I took to be spackle or paint out front, but a really nice selection of patio furniture.  We even ended up with kitchen chairs so we don’t always have to eat at the seats-10 dining room table.  My favorite part of the store was that instead of escalators from one level to the next, they just had a long, slanted moving ramp.  Would be perfect for running up-the-down. 

I hate IKEA because they make you follow the little line around the store.  There’s no directory or map, and all this is much worse when you can’t simply ask a sales person if the store in fact carries patio furniture and have them tell you in a way you can understand where it might be located.  And they have massive barrels of random kitchen crap everywhere.  Why sir, do you happen to need eight zillion egg timers?  We have them, just in case.  As much as those big crates of crap irritated me, the “showroom” part bugged me more.   Am I supposed to walk into every single room and inspect every inch to know if it’s THAT exact candlestick holder I want?   Maybe the store is just better suited to people who like to browse and actually have the decorating gene.  

IKEA rant aside, we were pretty proud of ourselves for successfully purchasing furniture AND scheduling delivery of said furniture in broken Turkish and gestured English.  We (well, Dennis) even remembered our phone number correctly!  A metro ride, a tram ride, a funicular ride, another metro ride, and a mile walk later, we made it back home.  Not too shabby.   We’ll see if our stuff shows up on Wednesday.   Also, still not used to the smell of the tram at rush hour in the summer.  Woof.  Just going to have to accept that deodorant is not part of the culture here.  

where we spend most of our time.  plus our imaginary 8 friends who could eat with us at this silly table

the cats have adjusted just fine to being Turkish.  minimal emotional scars from the airplane journey. #1 still talks back and tries to get on the kitchen counter, and #2 is still a spaz