In early January of 2014, Jessica Austin boarded a Turkish Airlines jet in Washington D.C. and flew to Istanbul. She knew no one in Istanbul. She did not have a place to stay, nor did she have a job waiting on her.
Austin had been living in D.C. working for a consulting company doing contract work for the government. When work began to taper off and Austin’s landlord sold her apartment building, she saw opportunity. She took the severance package offered by her employer and did something she had been contemplating for awhile.
“I always had a desire to travel and live abroad,” said Austin. “There’s so much out there.”
A graduate of the Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science, Austin, 35, says her wanderlust was ignited by a high school trip to Italy. She has degrees in biology, criminology and international affairs.
She was considering Argentina or Brazil, when big brother, Curtis, suggested Turkey. The country shares borders with Greece, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Armenia and Georgia, and Turkish speakers are good candidates for foreign-service work, he told her.
Austin found an apartment on Craig’s List and got a job teaching English at one of the city’s many language schools. She’s now working as an editor for a publisher of trade journals for the oil and gas industry.
A city of 14 million, Istanbul — once known as Constantinople, and before that, Byzantium — straddles the Bosporus Strait, which divides the city between Europe and Asia. That blending of history, culture and architecture — mosques are a dominant feature of the cityscape — gives the city an exotic, yet cosmopolitan flavor.
“You get the sense of not being in the U.S. or Western Europe, but in a safe environment,” Austin said.
Her first apartment — one that came with a Turkish roommate — was on the Asian side. Kadikoy is a neighborhood of narrow, winding streets, open-air markets and small shops. Come nightfall, the district’s sidewalk cafes fill with people, transforming the streets into bustling living rooms of animated diners, who make an evening of the nighttime meal.
And that — she calls it a “sit-and-chat” culture — is a big attraction for Austin, a sometime food blogger and an avid foodie.
“Turkish food is amazing,” she says. “If you like grilled food, you’ll love Turkish food.”
Kebabs are a common menu item. Typical sides include cold yogurt soup with mint; roasted eggplant, peppers or potatoes; and a salad of chopped onions, tomatoes and olives topped with walnuts or pistachios and a pomegranate dressing.
Fresh fish and vegetables are plentiful, Austin says. Pork in this predominantly Muslim city is not so common. When she returns in December Austin will be packing pork skins and pork sausage at the request of friends. Too, she will be taking grits and pecans to complement the occasional Southern feasts she prepares.
One of Austin’s favorite Istanbul eateries is a Georgian restaurant, called Cafe Niko, on the second floor of a ramshackle building in a bus station in a gritty section of Istanbul. That’s Georgia, as in the former Soviet Union, not the one known for peaches, sweet tea and Jimmy Carter.
The restaurant, a mom-and-pop place, consists of two rooms, a floor covered with an astro-turf carpet and a TV tuned to football or an English soap opera with Turkish subtitles.
The food, says Austin, is hearty and filling: beans, dumplings filled with spiced meat and covered with gravy. Also available is chacha, a Georgian moonshine served in recycled plastic bottles.
The gregarious Austin has made friends in Istanbul, and she has explored other parts of Turkey with friends and visiting family. In the summer she and friends hire a boat to take them up the Bosporus to the Black Sea. Along the way, they stop to swim and picnic.
Recently, she took a bus from Istanbul to Paris. Along the way she made forays into Bulgaria and Croatia.
When asked about her plans, the usually ebullient Austin turns pensive — she went to Istanbul planning to stay a year, and she’s been there almost two.
“I like Istanbul and I know I’m going to leave,” Austin says.
Asked when, she shrugs.
“I’m not making a lot of money, but I’m having amazing experiences, and I’ve met a lot of amazing people.”
Birney Imes III is the immediate past publisher of The Dispatch.
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