Leaving Another Year Behind

Getting ready to step into a new year, 2024. So much is left behind, and who knows how much is to look forward. 
The best thing about this year, 2023, was Indy. Now we have a new addition to our little family. A grandson, INDY! The last, but not the least. I think, since we are taking care of him, everything feels a lot different. We love our other grand kids, Olly and Isla with all our heart. However, taking care of Indy, makes the bond so special. He is growing in front of our eyes. We are blessed with having him in our lives. He brought so much love, energy, color to our world. When he put his head on your chest he melts on you. When he looks in your eyes, he looks in your soul. When he gives you his toothless, gummy smile, your whole world lights up. 

Olly and Isla are blossoming into little adults. They both have big hearts, and curious brains. We wish that they will have the kind of world that nurtures their loving, caring personalities. Alex and Ozgur, my daughter-in-law and son, are the best couple I ever seen. They love each other, they complete each other, and they love being parents. They both are wonderful human beings, successful in their carriers, but never forget their priorities. Their kids come first, no matter what🙏

When it comes to Ed and I… so far, I’ve been lucky with my health, Ed is not so much. We have ups and downs. We go thru some scary times.. However, all and all, we are blessed with a great life. Other than trying to create as many memories as I can with my grandkids, Ed, Ozgur and Alex, I try to stay as active as I can.. do my yoga, go on my hikes, my trips. My first trip for 2024 is going to be to Ecuador and Galapagos. I am so looking forward to this adventure. Hope the New Year will start well, and continue well🙏

wish you all the best!❤️

Life With Little Ones

My life is where I dreamt to be right now, but, never I thought it would be. I loved kids all my life. I was a sucker for them. My love for babies started when I was five years old and I had a baby brother for one day. I learned, when I was a grown up, that he had fluid in his lungs, and they could not save him, due to lack of technology at that time. I waited for him for so long, and I was so devastated. I became obsessed with kids, afterwards. I got my energy from them, they were the life elixir for me. After waiting for a long time, my son gifted me with three wonderful, precious grand kids. First Olly, my Ashkim ( my love), and then my Mavish , Isla, ( my blue eyed beauty), and then my zeytin gözlüm, kuzum ( my olive eyed, my lamb), Indy. Life is like a roller coaster.. ups and downs…. It went all the way down when I lost my precious mom, and then my dad.. and then, it went even deeper down when I lost my brother.. and… with these three precious gifts, I am back to living my life, whatever is left of it to its fullest.

questioning/sorgulama

After 2 failed attempt, finally our building is fumigated for termites..it is a very tiring and unrewarding process. Everything that goes in your body has to be double bagged and sealed. Not fun, at all.. especially, after two failed attempts.. I was ready to jump off any bridge.. your home looks like it is not a home anymore.. a mess.. we had to stay out of our house for at least one night and two days, till they cleared to go in the house, after they measure the gas levels. We were lucky and stayed at our son’s house, had a great time with them and the kids.. we are back in our home now.. it looks like s**t, but we love it, anyway. Ed and I are so independent, we love our kids, love sharing everything with them, but we just are so happy to have a life of our own, and a place of our own, at the end of the day.
Ed came and told me he had a great time staying with the kids and loved every minute of it, however he was so happy to be back to our home. I was agreeing with him, and I said, I know we have a great son we love with all our heart and we know he loves us back, but I dread the day that Ed is not in my life and I just can not live alone, anymore, or vice a versa for Ed. Ed was kind of upset the I was being too emotional and making him feel sad..what can I say..l. Even the facebook algorithm says that I am overthinker.. this is me.. I love life.. I love people.. i miss my mom, my dad, my brother.. but, I also love everybody in my life.. want to keep going, till I CAN NOT..

A New Beginning

not sure how long it has been, since I posted anything here.

9 September 2015 turned my life upside down, when I was not ready for it, at all. I lost my MOM, suddenly. She was the rock, she was the light in my life. Had no idea, how to deal with it. Then, 36 days after, I lost my dad. I was LOST. For most of my life, my brother was a very blessing part of my life, but for the reasons I was not able to understand, it was not so, anymore. We did not find the comfort in each other the way we used to, anymore. Went through a year of therapy, completed 500 hrs of yoga training to cope with my loss, and tried to keep going on. As if it was not enough, I was tested with more. Ed had horrible health issues, I almost lost him…. luckily, we survived. However, I lost all the zest to go on.

And then…

My son said the love of his life was expecting. He said, it was too early to share, but he wanted to help me with wanting to go on. I was ecstatic. All my life, I wanted to be a mom, and then to become a grandma. I was a sucker for babies. And, then .. they lost the baby… I was crushed..

Later, Olly, my Aşkım (ashkım), made his entrance to this world.. Boy… what a blessing he was. My heart was so full, again. And then, Isla, my Maviş (mavish) arrived.
and, then.. COVİD hit.. we couldn’t go to Hawaii, anymore., we were feeling trapped, especially ME… I had lost my parents, was living far away from my son, and was having real hard time finding reasons to enjoy life..

AND… it happened.. between my son and his wife, Alex’s encouragement, and our wishes, we made the big decision to move to Hawaii.. it has been three years..

Here we are.. after three years.. it had been the best decision and move we had made.. it was not easy, but it was worth every penny and pain. I had my share of heart break again.. lost my one and only brother to lung cancer so fast that, I still have a hard time to fathom.. problems, or not, he was my only brother, and I loved him with all my heart. While I was trying to cope with that, little Indy, zeytin gözlüm ( olive eyes) arrived.. ❤️. We take care of Indy, now, and he is the bundle of joy of our life. Papa Ed is in love with Indy:) We have Olly, Isla, and Indy now, and they make our life so enjoyable, worthy that, besides all my heart breaks I believe that our life is worth to live to its fullest, while we can..

Rome – Part 2

Everywhere you look Rome is full of history. Most the time, so well preserved. My days in Rome was spent with sightseeing, drinking cappuccino, spritz, wine, and eating cheeses, and prosciutto, or something like it. Since I was having difficulty walking for a long time, I took every chance to take a break, and have one of those drinks, and/or food:).

There were a lot of famous landmarks, close to where I stayed. Like Trevi Fountain, (one of the most famous fountains in the world), Spanish Plaza, Spanish Steps, etc.. Here are some pictures;

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Small world… a friend from Seattle lives in Rome now, and she sent me a message to see whether we could get together. That was the plan for next evening…

Rome May 27 – June 5

After a one hour bus, and 20 minutes train ride I arrived to Rome. I liked the paint job on the train:)

When I got off at Euclide station in Rome, I started walking towards my place near Plaza Navona. It was very hot again, and my knee was throbbing. My bag was feeling really heavy. Finally found a taxi. I was early, so my room was not ready. Left my bag with them, and went out to explore. Pain or not, I was going to experience and enjoy Rome, as much as I could.

Google maps helped me to get oriented, and I started walking towards Tiber River. Love the canals, bridges in Europe.

Since walking was quite difficult and painful, I decided to get a ticket for a hop on/hop off, convertible 🙂 bus tour. That was a good decision. The tour was about two hours, and went by all the main tourist attractions, and made me to fall in love with Rome.

Here are some pictures from the first city tour;

After the tour, walked around a little more, admired S. Angelo bridge and castle. Few more pics from S. Angelo;

Stopped for a spritz, and ice for the knees;

They were very creative with what they could put the ice in:)

I found my place. After my unpleasant experience with my previous stay, this was so rewarding. A bright an clean room, with a typical old time street view, and an amazing roof top with the view of Rome.

More from Rome days, later…

Campagnano Di Roma

I think this was the one and only really disappointing place of this whole adventure. When I got to the place, they took me to a room looked like a dungeon, a very dark room with a very small window, and old, stale smell. This was totally not acceptable, so I asked them to change my room. They did, but I realized, in general the place was in big need of TLC. Even though it was advertised, there was no A/C, no wi-fi reception, and the toilet seat was not properly bolted to the toilet, so you were entering there at your own risk. No way, I would stay there 5 days. Was too tired to leave immediately. I cancelled my stay after one night and headed for Rome the next day. There was one street in this town, looked a little interesting, and the Sunday market made it bearable for one day stay.

Here are a few picture from this town;

I left very early, next morning, took a bus to Saxa Rurba, and a train to Rome..

Viterbo

In order to walk less, carrying my backpack, I took a taxi to Viterbo from Montefiascone. After I got out of the taxi, I realized that I was not at the correct address. So much for taking the taxi. Keep walking again. Viterbo is not a very interesting city, until you enter the old town within the ancient walls. Using my google maps, I found the place we would be staying, very nice, but what else, all the way to the top, a lot of stairs. The owner was a gentleman, so he carried my bag to the flat.

I liked my room, especially the tub:). Did not use it, but gave an interesting ambiance to my room;

After a hot shower, I went out for a cold beer, and a little exploration.

Here are some pictures from Viterbo;

After Viterbo, I told my friend, I would be going to the next stop before we get to Rome to wait for her, instead of going town to town and spending one night to get to the next one. This was harder on my injured knees. So, I made a reservation for the remaining nights in Campagnano di Roma. We will see what that town had to offer…

Bolsena and After…

Well.. things did not go the way, it was planned. Bolsena became my last stop for our walking adventure. I was going to take the bus to Montefiascone, and go see a doctor. In the morning Kathleen went for her walk, I walked to the bus station. Bus ride was enjoyable. When I got to Montefiascone, it took me forever to get to the doctor’s office. Kept walking up, up, up. When I finally got there, even though he did not speak English, we managed it. Thanks to google translate. He told me that the ligaments, tendons below my knees were strained too much and produced extra fluid, because of the heavy load, difficult and too long walks, back to back. He said it would be quite painful for a long time, especially if I could not rest for long periods of time. Injected my knees with hyaluronic acid to help the inflammation. And, send me my way, saying, rest, rest, and then more rest, if I did not want permanent damage. This part of my journey was done, after 4 days and ~100 km walk. Bummer.. well s..t happens. However, I decided that I would do my best to enjoy the rest of my remaining time here, even though I would be quite limited with what I could do.

The place we stayed in Montefiascone was just beautiful, with gorgeous views. I wished we were staying more than a day.

Next day was of to Viterbo..

Day 5 – Aquapendente to Bolsena

It was raining this morning, but the temperature was very pleasant. Ran into another walker, he asked us to take a picture of him with his red pancho, then we asked him to take ours;

ll around the path was beautiful again. Many farm houses, very old buildings, wheat fields, wild flowers, etc;

Here a few of them;

We were 8 to 10 kms, close to our break point, but by this time my knee was really bothering me. I was limping, and moving very slow. We got to San Lorenzo Nuovo. Set at a cafe, had coffee and asked for some ice to put on my knee. Some pictures from San Lorenzo Nuovo;

You can see from my picture, I was not able to smile, anymore. Well, after a 30 minutes, or so rest, I hit the road, again. Stopped often, tried to enjoy the surroundings, took pictures, and kept going. I could see the lake Bolsena from a distance, beautiful volcanic lake.

In Bolsena we stayed in a Palaces that was built in 1500s, Il Vesconte – Palazzo Cozza Caposavi. My room looked like something like this, a little smaller;

Bolsena had many restaurants serving fish right out of Lake Bolsena. Our dinner was great at a beautiful restaurant within few steps of our place we stayed.

So next day, I was going to take the bus to Montefiascone.. I did not think, there will be more walks for me, if I did not want to damage my knee permanently, if I have not already.