Ekmek kumaş ev

We have been in Istanbul for a week now, and what a week it has been. The good news is that all three kids are happily settled into the respective schools. All of them come and go by bus- even little Hatim. 

Home-to-be

The rest of the news is not so unequivocally sunny. We are still living in temporary accommodation. We have had the keys to our new "home" for a few days, but this home is far from ready to receive us. In interesting Turkish fashion, rentals have no light fixtures or cupboards. Plus we needed beds so it seemed logical to head out to IKEA. Luckily for me, my parents decided to arrive in Istanbul a few days after us to help us settle in. So Wednesday evening Abbu convinced me to try and find our way to the IKEA in Bayrampaşa. First we took a taxi to the metrobus stop, then the bus across the Golden Horn (Haliç) and further up into terra incognita. We then changed on to a surface train and finally made it to Forum Istanbul. The IKEA in Istanbul is weirdly unsettling- so much is familiar and yet all is alien. At least we managed to pick up basic light fixtures. 

Few cities do pretty like Istanbul

On Thursday I returned with Mama and Abbu, taking a prettier route this time- the tram from Kabataş to Aksaray and then the train. What happened next hardly bears retelling. Suffice it to say that 8 hours later when we emerged from IKEA we no longer thought of shopping as retail therapy! In those interminable hours we managed to get beds for the boys, Iman and a bed for the guest room. We also managed to order a bunch of cupboards and pick up all the essentials to get a kitchen going. Never before have I felt so frustrated by the lack of language skills. 

Our empty room

Over this week we have started to grow more familiar with our new city, even hopping on to public transport and hazarding the odd word or two of our exceedingly limited Turkish vocabulary, but unfortunately I have very little to report on the roti, kapra, makan front (or ekmek, kumaş, ev as it must be from now on). Most of our meals have been sourced in the food court next door (although we did roast a chicken tonight), there is very little kapra of any kind in this serviced flat and the makan has a long way to go. 

Messy goodbyes

I had imagined my last week in Karachi to be seven days filled with revisiting favorite parts of the city; eating at all my old haunts; sharing memories with good friends and indulging in some last minute shopping.

Gone

The reality has been quite different. For one this has been among the filthiest weeks of my life- the house is a sea of packing material, dustballs and Coke cans. It is astonishing just how much stuff one can accumulate in almost five years, and even more shocking how many scraps of paper, random receipts and scribbled notes I have managed to squirrel away in every nook and cranny of my house, possibly fueled by all that Coke! And then there has been the sorting- what to take, what to sell. At first I shed a tear over every item I was to be parted with, but soon enough the nostalgia wore off and a certain ruthlessness set in; three weeks later I just want people to take the stuff away, preferably in cartloads. So the thought of shopping and adding to the load of cartons and knick knacks is frankly nauseating.

The list of essential things to be done is forever growing, so taking time out to stroll around Empress Market or take a last carriage ride on Bunder Road is looking highly unlikely. Fortunately, we have been able to squeeze in a few hurried coffees and dinners with friends, which has definitely helped. We had one very memorable evening with some very dear friends, sitting on broken mooras, our glasses perched on an upside down packing carton. It makes me happy to know the glasses we drank from are now at that friend's house :)

It's all got to go

It is almost the end of our Karachi adventure, and what a ride it has been. Goodbyes are never easy for me, so rather than reflecting on all that (or more precisely all those) I am leaving behind, I'm just going to focus on what comes next...see you all in Istanbul. xxx

Goodnight Karachi.