Time vs Space

Yes i like to be a nerd sometimes (overall i’m an engineer what do you expect) and recently i’m really obsessed with the theory of relativity between time and space. I actually came to this topic because of my passion about meditation and the energy stuff and i started to realize they are all connected. ( Yes, to reduce my moving stress i’m focusing on more deep issues)

I wanted to write about it just because reading and learning about this topic makes me so excited and changes my whole view against the life and who knows maybe somebody reads my blog and teaches me more, i’d be super happy!

The first thing i learned and that made me astonished is the time actually not passes it is stable, it is not horizontal but vertical. There is just one time which is now and actually everything happens simultaneously NOW. There is no past or future they are just the terms humans invented to describe the change in space. So you may ask if we live past and the future at the same time there is no point of trying something at the present because it’s already happening, but it is not the case because they can interact with each other, the thing you learn now can change your future, or the thing happening in the future actually affects you now but we are just not aware of it. This theory also explains the “dejavus”, the weird moments that we feel like we had lived it before because we remember those moments while jumping between the vertical points of time. Einsteins theory of relativity also supports this so it is a proven fact :O

I know this sounds really complicated and stupid for many of you but i believe it and i can write anything i want in my blog right?

Making the dreams true

This time i won’t write about my travel adventures as usual because so many exciting stuff is happening in my life. My biggest biggest dream is coming true! I still cannot believe it, i tell it to others like i tell the story of a friend i cannot realize its my story, that lucky person is nobody but me!

I really believe everything happening in our lives actually gives us some signs and all the rest depends on the fact that if you could read it well on time or not. I had bad days in Google in the recent months, really depressed days but i saw it as a sign to take an action and actually those moments brought me to here. The mistake most of the people do is getting trapped in the bad mode when the life goes not the way they wanted but i do the opposite i see them as a step to reach my goals. I know that it will bring me something so much better than i could ever imagine and it actually works like that. When i look back all the things i thought as bad caused super cool things  in my life so i learned how to interpret them,  i started to stop cursing about them but turning them into something great.

I hear from many of my friends ‘how lucky i am’ but i don’t think it’s just because of luck. I’m recently reading lots of books about the power humans have to make them dreams true. (Yeah sometimes i’m like a nerd/monk). All you need to do is REALLY want it, not with your conscious mind though, you have to push it to your subconscious mind. Because actually everything’s in the world works around the energies and our subconscious mind is the root of this energy. Many people understand it wrong they think they want something but actually in their subconscious they think “no it will never happen for me, i’m not that good etc” and by thinking so they actually remove their dreams from themselves and say “look i really want but it never works out, i’m not that lucky”. The first they have to learn is to remove the fears and trust themselves only then they’ll start to see how “miracles” happen.

I know i may sound really stupid for those who don’t believe this energy things but that’s the little secret of my “luck”. I feel like there is nothing in the world i want and i cannot achieve. It’s nice to feel that powerful huh?  Try it or not it’s up to you…

How meditation changed my life?

Actually everything started with a book that my mom brought home. A meditation book. My mom doesn’t even believe this kind of energy things i don’t know how come she found and brought it to home. It was a sign maybe, whatever the reason it was thanks to that book i discovered the power of thinking and my whole life changed…

In last September i was finishing my 8th month at work, i was already sick of Istanbul and everything, i was in kind of a depression. In one of those days that i was questioning what the hell i was doing, i decided to move to Australia. ( I know it sounds crazy but people who met me knows how much i want to live in Australia ). I started to collect the documents necessary for work & holiday visa immediately and start looking for jobs on the internet in Sydney. I even told my family about this and as they know me only thing they said was it would be better if i go after i find a job there. ” Don’t worry mom i can sell ice-creams to live at the beginning then i can find something “. They had no other choice than saying “okay…”

When i was planing all these, one day my friend asked me to send my CV to Google instead of him as he got rejected. I said ok i could try but i knew i had no chance, that’s why i hadn’t even try to apply it by myself. I wasn’t that enthusiastic person, when my friends were doing internships in big companies my biggest concern was to travel more and see more countries. I had never even pass to the second interview of a corporate company in my life, Google no way.

During these messy times of my life i met this book and started learn about meditation . I was always interested in positive thinking and energy stuff but i had never explored it really deeply. For some people this all may sound stupid but i really believed that if i send the good energy to the universe it would come back to me. I remember this phrase in the book perfectly ” imagine that yourself where you REALLY want to be and send this energy, you’ll see it will come true”. That’s what i did and the thing i was thinking as impossible become true. From a ice-cream girl i turned into a Googler girl.

Of course after i reach what i imagined, i become even more passionate about meditation. Because after it entered my life i’m happier, i’m more peaceful inside. When something bad happens to me, my sadness doesn’t last long as i believe it happened for a good reason and i don’t let my energy to go down. I know i sound like Pollyanna but it really works at least for me. If you never tried it you should and you’ll see the difference 😉

Roadtripping in Ireland

The people with the travel bug would understand me, even if you live in a different country, miles away from your hometown when you spend 3 weeks in a row in one place you feel like you are suffocating, you just want to run away. I was in the exact same situation last week, I needed a break from everything so I begged my friends “Please let’s go somewhere, I don’t care where, let’s just go, please please pleaseeee”. I’m so lucky to have friends that don’t leave me alone with my crazy suggestions. At the end Nazli agreed to do a roadtrip in Ireland with me, even if she had no idea how to drive on the left side.

We took our rental car from the airport, Nazli was almost shaking “Fuck I don’t know how I’m gonna drive, I hope we won’t die on the way”. As a person who had many on-the-edge-of-death stories I was so relaxed “ Don’t worry I trust you, we won’t die.” I’m not sure if my extreme-relaxed mode helped her not but after half an hour she was the ‘chauffeur’, smoking her cigarette in one hand and driving with the other. We had literally no destination when we left Dublin, we were gonna follow the wind and firstly the wind took us to Wicklow Mountains, Glendalough. After almost 2 hours we arrived to Glendalough by passing from great views. I was just smiling and keep saying “Wow it’s soo amazing!!”. I had already left all of my problems behind me, nature was my cure for sure.

In Wicklow Mountains we felt like we were a part of a painting, the shades of the green, the mountains, the lakes, the clouds, everything were incredibly beautiful. I was already happy to live in Ireland but at that moment I fell in love…

 

As i said we had no destination, when we were done at Wicklow we didn’t know where to go next. We checked the time, could we do it to the west side? Nazli was feeling comfortable with the driving, according to the GPRS we could be in Cliffs of Moher around 6 which meant we could watch the sunset there. We looked at each other ” What do u think?” – “What do YOU think?” She had understood my answer from my eyes. Of course 2 crazy girls were gonna accept this challenge! We started heading to the west. The anxious driver Nazli had become the pro suddenly, we were like flying! We put our favorite Tame Impala song ‘Elephant’, we were singing together (screaming almost), the sun was shining over the limitless green hills. I cannot even explain how happy i was, sooo far away from my troubles!

It was a great plan to Cliffs of Moher but we didn’t take the possibility of getting lost into account as we had trusted the GPRS but first of all GPRS couldn’t find the way then our petrol signal started blinking. We were in the middle of nowhere, we didn’t know how many kilometers we had to go more but the screen were showing 37,36,35…I was almost sure we were gonna stuck in that forgotten road as i knew my luck from my previous experiences. After these stressive moments, literally in the last minute we saw a petrol station and we were able to fill. Solving this problem wasn’t enough though, we had only 15 mins left before the sun goes down, if we couldn’t catch the sunset it wouldn’t worth it. In the narrowest village road we finally saw 100km in the screen, we were in a rally. Finally we found the way, we parked the car and start running like crazy. We had 1 more min! When other people saw us running they also started to run. It was sooo funny, 10 people running to catch the sunset, everybody was laughing and keep running. At the end we could see the tiny tiny piece of sun for maybe 2 seconds but still it worth for all this stress. The feelings when we sat near the cliffs and watched the last lights of the sun fading were indescribable…

After these peaceful moments we realized we didn’t have a place to stay. I was relaxed as always, we had the car we could sleep inside but Nazli was the responsible one, she knew we would freeze in the cold as we weren’t prepared. We tried to find a B&B, we rang all the doors maybe 15 different one we went, either nobody replied or they were full. The road was the darkest road i’ve ever seen no light at all. Nazli was getting stressed again, all i could say was ” Look at the stars so amazing! In the worst case we can stay in the car and watch the stars”. I’m so careless and irresponsible sometimes, maybe she got angry with me at that time but she didn’t say anything. In our 16th try finally we could find a empty B&B. The room was great, the saloon had a fireplace, all wooden walls had given the mountain house mod. Everything was like i imagined, I was definitely having my best day in Ireland!

After 30 mins by following the suggestion of the owner of the house we decided to go to the only pub of the town. She had told us there is live music so we said why not we love music and beers. When we arrived i should admit it was a little bit disappointment because the age average inside the pub was maybe 70. Yes i’m not exaggerating one of the ladies were having her 80th birthday inside! Everybody was looking at us, it was so obvious we were the tourists but it was the best part of this experience. We drank our Guinness and listened the live Irish music a fully local experience. I wouldn’t wish any better day than this!

 

Ireland and its weird sides

Yes, it’s been 4 months that i’m living in Ireland, in my new city Dublin. I’m really happy to be here and i quite like it but as expected in any foreign country there are some things about Ireland that comes totally weird to me. Here is my list:

1. No umbrellas

As you all know Ireland is the land of the rain but surprisingly almost none of the Irish uses umbrellas. They walk under the rain wearing T-shirts while all the foreigners are in coats trying to keep them dry under their umbrellas. When i first see that i was like “What the hell? Do Irish have a invisible protection or what?”

2. Traffic lights

Traffic lights in Dublin is definitely the weirdest thing. I really wonder according to which rule it works and who designed them. It shows red to both cars and pedestrians almost all the time and when it is green it stays only 2 seconds but believe me just 2 seconds. If you wonder how we manage to cross, wait for the yellow light.

3. Outfits & Ceramic make ups of Irish girls

I’m not a girly girl, i was never fan of make up myself but the reason why i write this is not criticizing these kind of girls, if you would see the ceramic make-up of (most) Irish girls you would understand me. At night in the club or during the day at shopping they don’t care, you can meet them with  their 5 mm foundation on the skin, their fake eye-brows and shinny lipsticks at any time, anywhere. They are beautiful i really don’t understand why they are doing to to themselves. Ah and of course their outfit should fit these heavy make-up. If you see high heels and nearly visible skirts in the Mano le tough concert it means you are in Ireland, welcome!

4. Teenage Invasion

I sometimes really think whether Ireland consists of just old people and teenagers, no age in between. You go to a festival, to concert there are just teenagers everywhere, so drunk, hardly standing or passed away. Where are the people of our age?

5. Young mothers

Wow it was also one of the most shocking things for me in Ireland. 18 years old moms, seriously?? I learned the reasons in a short while though: first abortion is illegal as Ireland is a catholic country and second they get lots of money from each child especially if the couple lives separately. But still does it make any sense? No.

6. Fake tan fashion

I can make this list even longer but i want to end this with the funniest fact: fake tan! I can definitely say there is a tanning mode in Ireland. Most of the people either using these fake tanning sprays or going to solarium really often. I’ve never seen that much solarium in my life like i see in Dublin. It is always nicer to be natural than doing fake stuff, why they cannot see that and are not just happy with what they have?

 

 

 

 

 

The dream came true: Brazil

My love with Brazil actually has a really funny story. In 90’s Brazilian soap operas were quite popular in Turkey, everbody was watching them so was i, accompanying to my mom. I clearly remember the moment when i literally fell in love with Rio when i saw the sunset scene over the Christ the redeemer and the hills, ” WOW i should go there one day” i said to myself at the age of 7 and this passion of mine to Brazil especally to Rio didn’t reduce since then in contrast it got even bigger after getting known as “the Brazilian” between my friends in Australia. There was an undeniable connection between me and this country i cannot even  explain.( Don’t laugh but sometimes i even think i might get adopted from a Brazilian family hehe 🙂 )

With these thoughts i got into the Rio plane from Madrid. 10 hours of flight, seemed like the longest flight ever to me, i couldn’t wait to arrive there. I forced myself to sleep it was the quickest way to finish this journey. I woke up when the landing announce was finally being made. With the excitement all my sleep suddenly evaporated, i literally ran to the window, my eyes were checking everywhere to see the statue of Christ. Seeing it was like a magic to me, i had dreamed it for so long. Unfortunately even though i did my best i couldn’t make the magic happen but still the view over Rio was one of the best views i’ve ever seen. It’s  really hard to explain the feelings i had at that moment, my childhood dream had come true, i was finally in Rio!!!

When we left the plane the warm and humid weather of Rio welcomed us. The first thing we did was to change our winter clothes and adopt ourselves to summer. We passed from the passport control really quickly and found a taxi to take us to the party!!! We had come to Rio in its best season during the carnaval! ( PS: I went to Brazil with my best friends Mafalda and Fanny from my exchange in Australia. I flew there with Fanny and Mafalda had arrived 2 days earlier than us). We met Mafalda in the city center. That first meeting of 3 of us was emotional, after our crazy days in Australia meeting again in Brazil was just unbelievable!

When we arrived to Rio me and Fanny had no idea where we’ll stay we had found some couchsurfers but it wasn’t even sure but Mafalda was the one who saved us from the trouble. She had some friends in ipanema which is one of the best neighbourhoods of Rio and we could stay there as well ! This was the best news ever, i couldn’t be happier at that moment: we had a place to stay, everywhere was full of young people dancing on the streets, i was in my dream city what else it could be!

We, me, Fanny, Mafalda and her Brazilian friends  went to the apartment to drop our heavy bags to the room and get ready for the carnaval. In 10 mins i was more than ready, i was jumping in my place keep saying ” let’s go, let’s go!”. When i say Rio carnaval don’t imagine the parade we saw on TV or photos. Yes of course that parade happens but it’s outside the city and you have to pay a lot to get inside. Inside the city though there are some blocos ( a big truck filled with the sound system, (it has also a place on the top where the musicians play) goes really slowly between the streets and everybody follows it by dancing, drinking and getting crazy) and that night we went one of them. I was tired ( Rio was my 4th destination already), jetlagged but when i arrived the place i forgot everything. The ambiance was just incredible. Everbody was in their costumes, young and crazy. The smell of the alcohol was in the air inviting us to join the party so we did. We didn’t need to look for a shop to buy the alcohol because many people were selling it on the streets from the same price. With a quick start it didn’t so long to catch the others. In 1 hour we found ourselves on the back of a pickup dancing, showing our samba moves.

One thing i cannot miss mentioning is the craziness of Brazilian boys. When you walk they just grab you and try to kiss you. If you don’t want to kiss them their friends make a circle around you and start yelling as ” Beijo! Beijo!” which means “kiss” in portuguese. You cannot save yourself from there unless you do it so you slowly bring your lips and let it happen.  When i told you like this it may sound disgusting but no it is not because Brazilian boys definitely know how to act to a girl. They can behave so kind and romantic that you may even believe they are in love with you so be careful if you ever go there hehe 🙂

From the first night

Situation of the streets after bloco

While we were finishing the first night with lots of alcohol in our blood, we had already started thinking about the bloco which will take place in the morning. Carnaval had started fastfor us and we were definitely ready for it…

Geçmişe Yolculuk

Benim bir huyum var hala iyi mi kötü mü karar veremediğim. Notlar alıyorum her yere zaman bulduğum her an. Kitapların arasına, defterlerin ortasına (ki kimse bulup okumasın (çok zekice biliyorum)), küçük kağıt parçalarına bazen peçetelere ya da telefonuma. Öyle çok önemli şeyler yazmıyorum başlangıçta. O anki konumumu ve duygularımı anlatarak başlıyorum genelde “Şuanda … dersinde sıkıntıdan patlıyorum” tarzında ama işin içine duygular girmeyi versin bir bakmışım yine içimde kopan fırtınalar dökülüyor kağıda, aşklar mı, ihtiraslar mı istersiniz yoksa sessiz sinir krizleri mi.

Gerekli gereksiz her yere yazmasam sırlarımı, ödünç verdiğim kitabın arasından tüm aşk itiraflarımı yaptığım kağıdı bulup “bu senin galiba” diyerek bana getirmese babam, bu huyumu seviyorum aslında. Duyguların ne kadar çabuk değiştiğine tanık olmak ilginç bir duygu çünkü. Başkasının yazdıklarını okuyormuşçasına heyecanlanmak, “Hayır bunu ben yazmış olamam!” diye şoklara girmek, kendini korku filmlerinde hep gidilmemesi gereken yerlere gidip ilk olarak ölen aptal sarışın kıza benzetip ” Gitme oraya! Öyle hissetmemelisin, hayır! Ne kadar salaksın Gizem!” derken bulmak baya eğlenceli aslına bakarsanız.

Geçen gün Avustralya’da yazdığım yazılardan birkaçını buldum şans eseri. Aslında bu yazıyı yazmamın asıl sebebi de o yazılar. Bana o kadar duygu yoğunluğu yaşattılar ki okuduklarım bugün bile etkisinden çıkamadım. Yazdığım anlara geri dönüp o zamanlara özlem duymak değildi sadece beni etkisine alan, kendime zar zor itiraf etsem de hala aynı şeyleri hissediyor olmamdaydı asıl sorun. “Maymun iştahlı ben nasıl olur da 2 sene öncesinde kalan bir şeye takılı kalabilirim?” diye düşündüm, suçladım kendimi bütün gün. Beynimin duygularıma hükmedemediği günlerden birindeydim ne yazık ki, ben de çareyi yazmakta buldum yine, çivi çiviyi söker misali…

Dönüm noktası

5 Şubat 2014. Hayatımın dönüm noktası. Önümü görmemi engelleyen tümseğin üzerine çıkmayı başardığım gün, yolun geri kalanını berrakça görmeye başladığım gün. Hayallerimin bile ötesine geçtiğim gün…

Bundan sonra hayatımda hiçbir şey eskisi gibi olmayacak. Bundan iki ay sonra şu ana kadar bildiğim, alıştığım her şeye veda etmiş olacağım. Yeni doğmuş bir bebek gibi hissedeceğim kendimi belki de sudan çıkmış balık gibi. Bilmiyorum. Bildiğim tek şey bunu yaşayıp görmek istediğim. Bana şimdiye kadar oldukça eli açık davranan hayata teşekkür borcumu ödeme sırası şimdi bende.

Kara liste

Ben sorunumu buldum: gereksiz insanlara gereksiz önem vermek. Bazen istemesem bile sırf onlar kötü duruma düşmesin, sırf üzülmesinler diye kendimi zorluyorum. Ne kadar da aptalım! Aynı konumda olsak beni bir dakika bile düşünmeyecek kişiler için yapıyorum hem de bunu. Ama hayatımda yepyeni bir sayfa açmaya hazırlandığım şu günlerde o sayfanın en başına bunu yazıyorum bundan sonra kendinden başka kimseyi düşünme.

Bugün hatırlatma yazısını yazmama sebep kişilik kara listeme alındın tebrikler. İlerde olurda bir gün elime düşme, o gün seni harcamak için elimden geleni yapacağım.

Greek Islands- Samos & Ikaria

Human nature tends to ignore the beauties if they are close to them. Like it was in the case of Greece for me. “I can go there anytime I want anyway” i was thinking since it is really close and quite similar to Turkey . I was always postponing this trip to an unknown time in the future but this changed with the Greek Islands suggestion of my friends last summer. As i had limited time for holidays, this travel sounded great and I accepted it without even thinking. It was finally time to visit my grandpa’s land, our neighbour Greece!

Our Greece plan was including Greek islands Samos, Ikaria and Mykonos and we had planned to end the trip in Athens. Samos is one of those islands that is really close to the mainland of Turkey. If you take the ferry from Kuşadası it takes only 1 hour 15 mins to reach, so perfect destination for a short trip! I don’t know if you are like me but I LOVE being on the water, watching the waves and the sailboats passing by. After a long working period such a journey was a great cure. When we arrived to the island I was still feeling like I’m in Turkey because even the old men working in the market could speak Turkish. “Merhaba komşu ( Hello neighbour)” he said so warmly, so friendly, in a way that made me think like “how we could be enemies with such a nation”.

Samos

For Samos we had planned a day trip, by the afternoon we had another ferry for our next destination Ikaria. In a hot summer day the best thing to do was to go swimming of course so we went to the closest beach and throw our bodies into the cold water of the Aegean Sea. After spending a few hours in the water the first reaction of the body always comes from the stomach. We were lucky that just behind of the beach there was a really nice Greek restaurant where we could try the delicious calamaries! By the moment we finished our lunch it was already time to leave for the ferry that’s why we couldn’t find the opportunity to explore the island much but still it impressed me a lot with its nature and peacefulness.

The ferry journey from Samos to Ikaria was one of the greatest journeys of my life. It was sunset time, the orange sky was meeting with the bluest water, i was listening a song perfectly fitting into this scene while the wind was throwing my hair back with. We visited a couple of small Greek Islands on the way in which at most 500 people live i believe. I watched them imagined myself settled down in one of those islands when i’m old. I lost myself between the dreams until Ikaria appeared with its lights in front of me.

The views from our journey from Samos to Ikaria

We had 2 days to spend in Ikaria before leaving for Mykonos. We had already arranged our rental car and hotel as opposed to my usual travel routine (thanks to my friends)  so we didn’t need to worry about finding a transportation and accommodation in the dark. If you go to Greek Islands i strongly recommend you to rent a car because all nice things are at the opposite ends of the island, without a car it’s impossible to explore all of them. Ikaria is not one of those touristy Islands, it’s really calm and local, perfect location for relaxing your mind. Our hotel was on a cliff, it had a pool just against the complete darkness of the sea where we drank our pre-drinks listening to the sound of the waves. I guess that was the time when i fell in love with this island.

The pool session by night

Ikaria has one religious festival happening just ones in a year called Panagiri. This festival takes place at the highest peak of the island in a forest. Guess who were that lucky to catch this specific day! After our relaxing drinks at the pool we head to this peak, by passing from the scary roads inside the forest. After 20-30 minutes of driving when we finally arrived there all we had to do was following the music. It was an old church’s garden surrounded with the trees which was full of people. It was an amazing atmosphere, people were so happy while doing sirtaki all together. We directly went to the small table where they sell homemade wines. Quickly we finished our wines and joined to the crowd even though we didn’t know how to dance sirtaki. Turkish has a similar dance as well that’s why it didn’t take so long till we learned the figures. After a while we were one of them, we were laughing and dancing together with the island’s habitants who were friendliest people ever. (If you want to imagine the environment in your mind here is one video for you: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGboMop2nVA)

Panagiri festival at Ikaria

The next morning wasn’t the best morning of my life at all. After drinking that much wine i was dying because of hangover so that I had to even reject the main plan, our reason why we went to that island: surfing! I was so sad when i was lying on the bed alone i had missed the chance! But after 30 mins my friends appeared on the door: ” Damn, there were no waves at all, it is impossible to surf at this weather”, they said. I should admit i wasn’t that sad to hear that ( maybe even a little bit happy). When i could start at least to stand up, we decided that the best cure for my hangover is the cold water of the Aegean Sea so we jumped into the car and head to the most famous beach of Ikaria called Seychelles.

Seychelles beach is definitely the hidden germ of Ikaria. To find it is not easy, you have to pass from a long and hard path,  jump over the rocks and get down the hill. But the view that you reach at the end of this path is just incredible, definitely worths for all the efforts.

The view that you reach at the end of the path

I’ve seen many amazing beaches including the ones in Australia and South East Asia but this Seychelles Beach was definitely the best one. The turquose color and the clearance of the water was uncomparable. Swimming to the small  caves around the beach and jumping into the water from the rocks made this beach even more unforgettable for me. I clearly remember i was the happiest person on earth when i was at Seychelles.

Seychelles beach

In Samos and Ikaria we had spent really relaxing and peaceful days and had saved a lot of energy. The next destination was the top point of our holiday, perfect place to spent this accumulated energy: Mykonos! Big adventures were waiting for us there…