A Beautiful Day!

One of the challenges inherent with living in a place far away, even if for a little while, is not being with friends and family on special days, such as your birthday. My experience, however, has been that these special days can somehow be even MORE special, when one's away. Yesterday, my 41st birthday, was such a day.

To treat myself, and get my day off on the right foot, I woke up extra early (7:30AM - give me a break, that's practically still the night before, here!) and arrived at the yoga studio for my own practice, before coffee. I was feeling every bit of 41, practicing first thing without the help of my friend, Joe, but in spite of the creakiness, the practice rewarded, as it always does. Still buzzing from my session and enjoying the relatively early quiet, I walked my walk up Istiklal and grabbed the dolmus (shared taxi) to Nisantisi, the neighborhood where my 11AM class is held on Tuesdays. Plenty of time for a coffee, so....House cafe makes great cappuccinos! No soymilk, but I figured what the hell, it's my birthday!

At my Ashtanga basics class, present were seven willing students. That's all any teacher can ask for. After class, I had a lunch date with my friend, Mina. I met Mina on my first teaching trip to Istanbul in January of 2006. It's always nice to see a friendly face, but especially Mina's. She's a restaurant critic for the Turkish Daily News, the English language paper in Istanbul. She had a vegetarian restaurant she wanted us to try, for her next column.

Not surprisingly, we couldn't find the place. This city is so densely packed, that the shops, restaurants, and living quarters are all packed onto and into one another. There are so many layers and levels of shops on the street, you just never know what's behind or below or above. Finally, after much direction asking and pointing and shrugging and a phone call to Mina's father for the address, we found the Olive Tree, or Zetin Agaci, in Turkish.

It was a lovely little cafe, perched above the busy street. Next to the window, we lunched on delicious home cooked traditional Turkish fare, in a very simple setting. Bottles of olive oil lined the shelves, and a bowl of beautiful green oil was offered for dunking our bread. The beet soup was a little weak, and definitely not vegetarian (chicken stock! I can always feel it on the roof of my mouth) but vegetarianism remains a relatively strange concept to much of Turkey. Chicken doesn't count, apparently. My spinach cooked with rice, a typical Turkish lunch which I must learn to cook, is served with yogurt and more than made up for the soup. Mina's cooked mixed vegetables in a mustard sauce, where nice as well.

We must have unintentionally eaten lightly so we could sample the house made desserts. We more than compensated up for our delicate lunch by sampling THREE! Remember, I'm the birthday girl! We shared a poached pear drenched in chocolate sauce. Then, reminding ourselves Mina had to review this place, we continued tasting. Torn between an orange semolina cake with more of that yummy chocolate sauce, or another cake, which turned out to be rich with chocolate and nuts, the friendly server offered to give us a little taste of each. I'm telling you, these desserts were waaay more than worth the calories, especially when cut nicely with a little cup of espresso. Really, does it get any better than this?

After lunch (yawn) I had several hours to kill, so what else does a birthday girl do? Go birthday shopping! Armed with my new knowledge of how to get to Kanyon, the cool shopping mall, I descended to the Metro (subway) for the short ride. Once there, I mostly sat in a comfy chair in D&R, Istanbul's version of B&N and read books. I did pop into Mango for a few little things, but no real damage done. Stan, you can relax.

Back to the House Cafe for tea time, back to Yogasala for my 7:30pm class, on to the OTHER House Cafe (yes, three House Cafe visits in one day) to dine, because I was craving the lentil salad with the purslane and truffle oil - and after all, I AM THE BIRTHDAY GIRL! Then, finally, back down the hill and up the little alleyway to my apartment, for a good night's sleep.

A great day? Yes! No, I wasn't home celebrating with my friends and family, but what made this day so special, was the kindness of people I don't really know all that well, like my Turkish friend, Mina. And the thoughtfulness of another yoga friend, Alexis, who took my evening class even though she had already practiced, so she could bring me a birthday present. And all the text messages I received from the other people here, that I barely know. And the wishes from friends in Dubai (how did they remember my birthday?) And the phone calls my family and friends went to a lot of extra effort and expense to make, calling me overseas. Not to mention all the emails from home. You see, you appreciate things more, when they aren't expected, when there's no obligation. Your family MUST acknowledge you on your birthday, when you are home. It's easy to drop a card in the mail, or make a local phone call. But when people go so out of their way, just to show you that you are somehow special to them, that is the making of a beautiful day!