Welcome Me

One week from now I will be ending my first day in Istanbul.

I've been wanting to take off on an adventure for a long time, my last one was just after my graduation from the Oregon College of Oriental Medicine 8 years ago. Me, a backpack, a bus ride to Bellingham and then 36 hours on a ferry heading north to Alaska. Then the real world intervened and the era of open ended excursions was over. I made the decision to do this trip; a full week of belly dance classes, costume shopping and exploring in Istanbul followed by 2 weeks around the western half of the country (and an add on to see the ancient city of Troy), becuase I was getting stale. Once I gave Eva the deposit my practice grew to the size that I had been wishing for, my dancing is more inspired (at least from what Eujenia sees, I'm still not sure) and I truly feel that I have been doing this for the better part of over 10 years now.

This blog will be a travelogue for family, friends and fellow dancers (both known and unknown to me) to eliminate the need for postcards and individual emails. Eva plans to keep us very busy, so I don't know how readily I will update once I am on my way. I will do my best. I suspect I will become an unpaid booster to the Turkish Tourist Board, and do my best to convince those of you in the dance community to travel with Eva Cernik in the future (she also leads tours to Egypt and hopes to add Morocco as well with help from her husband Rachid Hallihal).

So excuse the dry introduction and enjoy my travels vicariously.


Merhaba!