Mutlu and I just bonded over football

Mutlu, whose name by the way means "Happy," and I bond over the fact we are both Fenerbahçe fans. The Galatasaray and Beşiktaş fans amongst us, and you know who you are, well, you can go, you know. Photo courtesy of İlgi Çelik.

Waiting for dinner to arrive

The main course hasn’t even arrived yet, and the table is filled with food. In other words, a pretty typical Turkish dinner. Left to right: a salad with lettuce, carrots, and tomatoes, bread, a mound of yogurt made from buffalo milk with walnuts and honey on...

Tech tools

Mac, Turkcell VINN (for internet connection), and Nokia cell phone. Photo courtesy of İlgi Çelik.

Mountains of Heavenly Radiance, or Mountains of the Infidel?

One thing I love about this walk is how unpredictable things are. Yes, I may have planned out the route months before starting the walk, and yes, I may have spent hundreds of hours poring over Google Earth before I even left California. But as planned as many aspects...