Sahilköy Beach

Today, with some friends, we randomly drove to the Asian side of Istanbul and found ourselves up North in a village called Sahilköy (meaning literaly "Beach Village"). There wasn't much to do there, I walked a bit in the water and it was deliciously warm and soft. We stayed for 10 minutes and headed back to Istanbul.

Day One : To the Beach

We decided to walk to the beach which is at about 2.5 km (1.5 miles) and passed by this interesting car




















After leaving the road to use a shortcut we passed by the remains of this old farmer's (or shepherd) house where you can notice that he used the remains of some ancient Greek ruins to build his house.





















Here is a Greek swastika.






















Gümüşlük














The Rabbit Island is Gümüşlük's trade mark. You can go there by foot and you can find some rabbits on it but it gets its name because of his supposedly rabbit shape. Real rabbits having been added recently.







Ekin posing in front of this cool barbershop.

Black Sea Trip

Today we decided to go to the Black Sea at the entrance (or exit) of the Bosphorus, up North. It was a beautiful day. We brought Engin, Reyhan and Deniz along. It's very close to Istanbul. It takes 35-45 minutes when there isn't too much traffic, it's at about 40 km from the city center.

































































M. Deniz is thinking by the seaside. By the way, in Turkish 'Deniz' means 'the sea'.







M. Engin is as silly as ever. Pretending to climb the ground.


































After thinking for 40 minutes, we finally decided to eat at yüzevler restaurant in Etiler. A nice and fancy Kebap place.

SSK

This morning I went to the social security headquarter in Bakirköy. I needed to applied to the Turkish social security in order to be able to take advantage of it. In Turkey, you normally have a social security when you work, but not in the field I'm working in. When working on TV series they do not declare your job. Then you don't contribute for your retirement pension and whatnot. According to the law we have to be declared but well... We don't have paychecks, we don't have social security, we get our money cash in an envelope, etc.
Soooo, that's why I went there. Since Ekin is working I can benefit from the social security on her behalf. Meaning that I can benefit from health care and stuff. Is that all clear ? Is it ?


Marmara Sea, on the way there.









Still on the way.










Stopped at a traffic light.









By the way, it was so crowded that I decided to go another day. I had a job at 11 am and I had to be there on time. The job got canceled last minute. Anyway. Next time I'll come earlier.