We met a Turkish musician I said music and showed him my uke, Had a little say goodbye to Istanbul Jam we were taken home in quite a few camera’s! www.youtube.com/watch
We got back to the parking place quite late, we put the kids into bed and tried to leave Istanbul, thanks for saving us strangers! (who told us to follow them!)
Drove a bit, got up at 6 and continued, The kids rehearsed in the bus all day! On their show!! imagine, we rehearsed in the living room they did in the bus!
We stopped for a few hoursto play by the side of a stream
And around 5 we arrived in Sofia:
Zaro who had invited us had promised us a full theatre and it turned out to be a charming Café/shop thing with 10 ! people after a lot of phoning!! but both us and them had a good time!
Here with pictures of Nathalie RITZMANN She managed to capture the spirit of the evening very well: check her blog in french :http://dubretzelausimit.over-blog.com/article-35529336.html and ofcourse the Audience, we met some lovely people again!
Thanks Again Sophie and Hakan & everybody that helped us on our way to Istanbul!
This has been such a Magic experience! For all of us! It wasn't always easy but definitely worth it!!
Thanks Jyoti
The 30th of August we played at Hakan and Sophie’s house on the Island of Hebali in the sea of Marmara. The date got closer and closer and they were sailing a boat from Greece to Istanbul, with bad weather…. So Sophie was worried they might not make it back in time…But I kept faith, and soon enough I received that email saying:
We’re back! You are welcome!
We took an early taxi to the ferry and arrived on the Island fairly early. Such a beautiful island!
Sophie and Hakan collected us with a horse cart! We didn’t all fit in, with all our gear!
Hakan walked but arrived before us!
We went for a walk in the hills ( where Senne showed us his collection of funny walks, Funny! We all cracked up laughing!)
The 30th of august is also Victory day (winning from the Greeks in 1922) I’ve never seen such big flags as on this day! Everywhere on buildings, the bigger the building the bigger the flag!
We also saw some traditional musicians on the pier, and of course all those pictures of the big man himself, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk
We found a little beach for a bit of cooling down, behind the little harbour,
When everybody suddenly seemed to talk more and get generally more exited: we saw dolphins! Just there in front of our eyes in the sea!!
We all felt it very appropriate for our last day, the furthest point of our trip!
We went back to the house and started to get ready for the show, two interviews for blogs http://dubretzelausimit.over-blog.com/article-35529336.html (it's in French..) and a long wait for a boat that was late in a beautiful house with a gorgeous view and lovely atmosphere
We played a sweet show with a pleasant creaky floorboard ; )
Thank you for the photo’s Nathalie RITZMANN!!: In the next bit!
Jyoti
So It’s 22th September more than two weeks that we are back and three weeks after we played in Taxim in Istanbul in a beautiful restaurant for the monthly get-together of dutch speaking Istanbulites.
And I worry about Istanbul now, with all the flooding, I hope it turns out for the best… It feels weird being safely in Holland.
It was a fun night! The night before I had partied with a bunch of people from the check republic which involved Ukuleles and a lot of Vodka!
And on the 28th itself we had a hospital adventure with Dries! Senne and Dries were racing and running on the rocks next to the water when Dries fell into a hole and cut his foot badly, We tried to get a taxi but to no avail in the end some very friendly young men took us there and he got 5 stiches!
So no Hamam! but a scar for Dries!
In the Evening we got ready in the Bus, put on our costumes and characters,
after which we took a cab to Taxim onthe other side of town with a cab driver who didn't know his way around! (or pretended to so to have more income) Anyway we had to walk a few streets with carpet and high heels suitcases children, and locals / tourists taking pictures. We must have looked very odd!
We arrived just in time and played for a group of 25 people, the kitchen and the waiters! Thank you Marc for Inviting us!! ( And Dirk who contacted me and forwarded the mail, Kris for writing Charlotte who asked her sister who contacted Dirk, And the whole of our tour was like this!! So wonderful).
Photo's by Slawomira Kozieniec
It was a difficult show for us because it wasn't in a livingroom! With music playing in the beginning and a lot of things going on at the same time, concentrating was hard but a good time was had by all!
Marc and Slawomira took us for a tour on the Asian side the next day which was wonderful!
Thanks again Jyoti
I'm sorry for all those who were waiting for our news, it's taking me a lot longer to digest than I thought! and on the way back it was very basic, just drive eat and sleep and some play! but here I go: better late than never!:
Driving on those small roads that are called motorways we didn’t quite believe we would actually reach Turkey but we did! Getting in was another matter, The bus not being on our name and the green card nearly expired (there was a new one in the same folder, but we didn’t know that at the time!) . we had to buy visa’s ( € 15 a piece!)And none of the machines recognized Vincent’s ID card
I was very Kafka like, the very popular type and the ‘I shall not laugh’ and the ’ I must ask my boss first’ type were running from desk to desk until finally they made up their minds to let us in, gave us the right stamps and we could continue into Turkey!
The Road in Turkey was beautiful, wide and well made! We slept somewhere at a not quite finished mouse pestered petrol station, and the next day
Istanbul! We arrived in Istanbul over a mega super motorway, straight into a Ants nest with a very particular set of rules! Like one never indicates where one wants to go neither left nor right, And had it been only one…. Millions or cars, trucks, people, and Taxi’s .Everywhere! not Indicating beeping their horns! Vincent actually exclaimed thank god we brought a GPS system! We actually found a camping!, really it was a neighborhood football space where kids and Adults play football from morning till midnight!! Next to that there was a kartingtrack, same hours!! To go absolutely crazy! We could take showers in the changing spaces for the footballers! And he asked full price! We were in great need of a wash with all that blacksea salt in our hair so we stayed there 2 nights then moved to a guarded parkup near the blue mosque. We did meet some lovely Italians and drank some beer and Rumanian Palinka/schnapps with them! We even wrote a song about the camping!! We will meet again!
We wondered around a lot and saw the grand bazaar! Lots of colours , and tourists. We ended up near the aya Sophia and the blue mosque where the Ramadan was very visible! Lots of stands that sell food of all sorts, tea trinkets and ice cream which gets served with a show, very funny!
And lots and lots of people that all get together to break the fast. With live music and dervishes.
The atmosphere was very nice and festive, without any aggression like we know here at gatherings of that many.(we reckoned it was mainly because there’s no alcohol and everyone behaves).
And this was every evening of the Ramadan!
We saw a lot and visited the blue mosque/with a man who had been Imam a few years in Austria ‘s Senne thought him a very friendly man that showed us around! Until he asked us some lira, Senne’s trust in humanity was lost! It took us a lot of energy to convince him that we had known from the start .
The Aya Sophia was also really worth our while! Incredible the size and the mix of religions and time. Beautiful !!! the mosaics of Mary Jesus next to the Loge of the Sultan and that kind of introductions
Ea said people really like me here, don't they?! she got a lot of attention! with her innocent eyes, her blond hair and her straw hat.
more soon! Jyoti
Well we are back! We got back here Saturday night, what a drive! I haven’t quite arrived yet and I didn’t see a chance to write in my blog or even prepare text or pictures.
It took all my energy, driving along, leaving, passing all these countries, also Vincent’s energy was very low Sunday (the day after!) He stayed in bed all day with a terrible headache, while I went shopping with Dries as he had nothing to wear to his new school! And the washing machine has been working non stop!!
We visited some interesting places on our way back, one afternoon we played in the river Timis a few hours, building dykes and stuff like that, another day we visited a fort and on our one before last day we visited Passau a beautiful little town where the Donau and two other rivers join each other. The last day we had a Terrible row! We nearly broke up! And then realized it was all these hours on each other’s lips and all the tension coming out! So we managed to forgive each other and drive to our friends Stephan and Mieke for a surprise visit! Which was well appreciated by all!
For thank you it’s too early, but they will come in due time ! so many people to thank!!!!
First I’ll write about our last three shows: in Taxim Istanbul, on Hebeli ada Iland in the sea of Marmara (where we saw dolphins in the bay, a definite highlight!)
and ofcourse the Audience, we met some lovely people again!
