When I tell people that I'm from Turkey, the visions they imagine are nothing like my actual life.

Istanbul is actually quite similar to New York City. People running around, always in a rush, the streets dirty, the nightclubs open till the morning hours and blocks and blocks of shops continuously open. The mosques, the low skyline and the widely spread city reassure you that you're not New York City and the Turkish doesn't help either, but the lifestyle isn't so different from most other major cities.

But Burgaz is.

Burgaz is a tiny island, one of four, in the sea connecting the Black Sea to the Aegean, the Marmara Sea. The islands increase in size, Burgaz being the second smallest. We have spent our summers there for as far back as I can remember.

The island is so small that you can walk its entire circumference in two to three hours. As children, we used to make the trip several times a summer. Burgaz has no cars, only horse carriages. The only vehicles on the island are the two fire trucks.



Fishers make the island a heaven for the hundreds of cats that are its inhabitants. As you dine in one of the seaside restaurants, live fish jump up and down in their buckets. It has the best ice cream I've ever tasted in my life. Sweet corn and caramelized apples are available all day long. Most of the kids either skateboard or swim during the day and hang out in one of the two clubs at night. I must admit that dancing in front of your parents and your grandparents during your teenage years isn't anyone's idea of fun, which is why every teenager, as soon as the parents okay it, takes the evening boat to the biggest island to dance in the one disco. The same boat picks up the kids around 4 am, after the disco is closed and the early morning snacks are eaten. I have breathtaking images of walking up the hill to my house as the sun rose.

Burgaz is a piece of history. A tiny community with a single pharmacy, one grocery store, and a few restaurants. You know every one of your neighbors cause just like you, they and their parents and their parents' parents have all grown up here.

As of next week yesterday, Jake and I will be relaxing in the balcony of our small house in Burgaz. Watching the waves dance, the sailboats slide back and forth, the kids run around, eating delicious Turkish food.