International Worker’s Day in Turkey - May 1

So I posted a video on Facebook that resulted in some fairly concerned messages from my nearest and dearest; I feel I need to explain it better!

Everyone has seen some worrying changes in the government, and a prime minister who is a little too big for his boots. Over the past year there have been many protests, often violent, and often heavily dealt with from the police. This protest is different and not so much related. Labour Day, International Worker’s Day, or ‘Work and Solidarity Day’ was cancelled in 1980 after a military coup, but has a fairly bloody history. (See the Taksim Square Massacre in 1977, where unknown people opened fire on a crowd of approximately 500,000 people.) Rallies are traditionally held in Taksim Square, and after the cancellation of the national holiday, small demonstrations continued to be held but were banned from entering Taksim Square. Most years have ended with violence from the police. In 2008, police fired tear-gas into hospitals and a local primary school.

This year Taksim was completely shut down the night before. And when I say shutdown, I mean a double fence was built 3-5km around Taksim Square and no one was allowed to get even close. Which meant that the demonstrators didn’t leave Besiktas (where I live) and ended having skirmishes around the area with police. Somehow this happened on our street, and Liz and I got stuck in the house with a birds-eye view of events and more than our fair share of tear gas wafting in the house.

         

We both made a runner from the house at 2pm when it seemed to calm down. The streets were bizaare, police everywhere, students calmly walking back from university, no traffic, and a beautiful sunny day. There was debris everywhere, even the pavement had been ripped up in places for the stones to be used as ammunition from protestors.

Anyway, everything was cleaned up by the next morning with no sign of anything that had happened except for a sad looking man standing next to his newly-discovered beaten up car, and some graffiti on the walls.

While there are many things I absolutely adore about this country, the total mess of the governing system here is scary. With little to no accountability, an executive power that steps in and messes with the legislating and judicial powers whenever it feels the need, and a police force trained to believe they are above the citizens they are supposed to protect, Turkey has a long way to go. I feel the frustration my friends feel at being unable to change anything, and that their voices go unheard. It doesn’t surprise me that the passion of those ends often violently.

Antakya, Hatay

It’s not the most exciting title I could think of, but don’t be fooled; this area in Southeastern Turkey is WONDERFUL.

I spent the weekend with a friend and her family being hosted in the most incredible way. I have always found Turkish people to be incredibly hospitable, and generous beyond measure, and these guys were not different.

I arrived late Friday night, and Yasmin and her cousin picked me up and took me straight to Harbiye for a spicy durum kebab, a cold ayran, and a walk around the extremely beautiful site of Apollo. My immediate impression was how different the atmosphere was from the other parts of Turkey I had been to. The province of Hatay used to be a part of Syria, and that is very clear. Arabic is written everywhere, and the daily language seems to sway between Turkish and Arabic. I was told that many older generations don’t even speak much Turkish generally!

The city itself was much bigger than I expected, and also less conservative. From what I could garner from the family I stayed with, life is still fairly traditional, with traditional values and customs upheld, but with a very open-minded and fairly tolerant approach to other people. The city is home to not only a large Muslim population, but also Jewish and Christians. Indeed, the first church of St Peter is located here (though currently under renovation so i didn’t get too see it unfortunately!)

 

The food itself is also quite different. My favourite food is Antakyan (and therefore my favourite restaurant in Istanbul is Antiochia, in Asmali Mescit) and I was extremly well fed – high quality meats in ichli kofte, durum, tepsi kebabs, sish kebabs, the wonderful kunefe dessert (stringy melted cheese in pastry covered in syrup and pistachios) more coffee than I could ever drink in a week in Istanbul, and a new favourite – rose flavoured icecream, mastic flavoured ice cream, and something called “bucibuci” or something, bought from a roadside stall.

        

We went for a wonderful winding drive over to Samandag on the coast. We stopped off in a beautiful street of laurel trees ‘Dephne Yolu’ for the best gozleme I’ve had yet, hand made and cooked on a steel disc over a wood fire. We also stopped at a tiny Armenian church where I picked up some beautiful lace for my mum, handmade by the village women. (Sorry mum! I realised I forgot to send this to you!)

Samandag had a beach! And surf! The first I’d seen in Turkey. And a tunnel called Titus Tunnel. I could be less lazy and find something out to tell you about it, but I’m not going to. I’m sure you can wiki it :P

It was an incredible piece of engineering anyway, a good few thousand years old, and a few of the old stone houses were still intact to explore. One of the most incredible sites was a crypt from Byzantine times. As you can see the structure was still in fairly good shape, and I was mildly (but not overly) surprised to see all the tourists wandering all over, and throwing their rubbish into the empty burial plots.

 

      

Does anyone speak latin? Or read it? I think its latin but I’m not sure.

 

My last meal was a mangal, or barbeque amongst the greengage trees, with homemade wine and spicy chicken, kebab, hummus and babaganoush. Yasmin’s family gave me fivekgs of eriks (greengages) to take back to Istanbul, which Liz and I have tried our best to make a dent in!

  

Greengage jam from my hoard of eriks!

This time if year is erik season. Eriks are the tiny, hard green plums being sold by the paper bag on the street. The Turkish eat the dipped in salt, but I like their crunchy, tangy, sweetness. Unfortunately Liz and I couldn't quite manage to get through the very large shopping bag I brought back from Antakya so today in a fit of homemaking, I decided to try my hand at making jam!

For your information, I had never made jam, and I decided to just wing it.

And it turned out really well! With hindsight, I probably should have halved the little plums so it was easier to get the stones out when the fruit started breaking down, but with a little perseverance I ended up with a slightly tart, mildly sweet, greenish jam of perfect consistency!  It tastes awesome of toast with melted butter, and fantastic on a cracker with salty cheese. I have no idea if you can get greengages in NZ but I'm sure going to miss them when I leave Turkey!

I'm baaaaaack! In the real? World

 
Hey.

Remember me?

I used to have this little blog, and I was pretty good at updating it... Then... 

  

 

 Summer happened!

I have to be honest, the photos are beautiful but it was the most challenging job I've ever had. I learnt a hell of a lot though - about myself, about people who lead lives one would only dream of (or feel like a Nightmare in), about sailing and working 20 hour days, about physical jobs, how to make Turkish coffee for ten people, how to make every champagne cocktails and martinis. I experienced amazing things and thing I never hope to enjoy again - visited beautiful bays with crystal clear waters, ancient archeological sites, pretty little fishing villages, the experience of falling asleep the second your head hits the pillow (or while sitting upright at the table as was often the case), I discovered the ultimate pick-me-up is an espresso, an apple and a big spoon of Nutella. I exploded just two 600euro bottles of champagne, made hundreds of coffees, cocktails and strange diet teas. I saw the best, and worse, of people. I know that money can't buy you class, but diet pills can make you skinny. 

I also got a tan, have ginger hair, and kept some pretty awesome muscles in my arms from pulling ropes!

I am now in Istanbul, with a new job, a new apartment, and a whole lotta bills!

Here's an ode to my days, though 9-5 seems like a dream in this here country of 6 days a week, 9hours a day....

http://youtu.be/LwDMFOLIHxU

Kartalkaya; Skiing in Turkey

I have a whole heap of renewed respect for my Ma and Pa (especially Dad since he is a snowboarder) skiing with two little kids back in the day. I’ve spent the past week playing mother duckling to the girls on the ski fields. T-bars, chairlifts, ski poles and snowploughs suddenly became a whole new challenge. (Three days of skiing on my own and no aches and pains, one hour of snowploughs with the girls and I’ve discovered leg muscles I didn’t know existed.) The girls had two weeks off for school holidays and for the second half we drove 3 hours East from Istanbul to Kartalkaya, Bolu. I couldn’t quite believe there would be a ski field, let alone snow to ski on as we were driving. 18 degrees, and not a mountain to be seen – even after parking the car at the bottom and jumping into a prebooked hotel car to drive us up. But suddenly, out of nowhere, appeared a whole heap of snow in a valley and a fairly impressive ski resort.

   

We stayed in the Grand Kartal Hotel, a large all-inclusive that provided ski passes, three meals a day and all the sahlep, hot chocolate and mulled wine one might want. There was a warm swimming pool to kick around in after a long day’s skiing, and a sauna, spa and hamam which we didn’t take advantage of.

The slopes themselves were similar to NZ skiing. Nothing too difficult, but great for the girls as beginners. The first few days were very windy and I spent my time on the slopes closest to the hotel while the girls had lessons. The third day the wind dropped and I headed over the top to the other side of the mountain where a grand total of six skiiers and boarders had carved into the piste. It was pretty weird standing on the side of a sunny mountain at 12pm with only a couple of tracks in front of me, and not a sound to be heard. I think all in all there would’ve been about 300 people on the entire mountain skiing, and not many of them left the t-bar on the blue slope or the main chair lift. The other side had potential for some awesome off-piste skiing but it was pretty icy (and whipped up into lovely meringue peaks) and since I didn’t have a helmet, and there was absolutely no one around I decided to take it easy.

   

The weather was pretty good, very windy for 4/5 days, but one day when the wind dropped and the sun was shining was absolutely fantastic. The Sunday was the busiest day of the week, I read somewhere that because of the proximity to Ankara and Istanbul many people come for the day, plus there are buses arranged by travel agencies the drop off early morning and return in the evening.

I have no idea of the costs involved, but I imagine its pricier than skiing in NZ. The hotels (Grand Kartal and Kartal) are all inclusive and supply the lift passes. I couldn’t work it out but there is actually a whole other side to the mountain with some good-looking pistes, which I think were all attached to an newer, fancier hotel directly opposite the Kartals. (Called Kayak World or something similar. Kayak means Ski in Turkish, how confusing.)

I think this was only my second time ever skiing without my family, I missed my folks a bit! There weren’t too many people my age staying at the resort – I think mainly because it’s pretty family orientated and there isn’t much of a apres-ski scene. I think there are a few other resorts around Turkey more well known but much busier.

Too many words from Istanbul

I'm in Istanbul! I'm supposed to be in Cyprus but it turns out that just because a country controls half of another one against the wishes of the international community, does not make it part of that country. (i.e. I had no idea that (Northern) Cyprus was a semi autonomous state unto itself, and I'd have to go through visa control. Stupid visas. I'm a little over them! I'm still waiting on my residency, and because it's kurban bayram next week it's going to take another few weeks to process.

Anyway! I'm living with a wonderful family in a very affluent part of the city, next to a big park where I go running every couple of days and am teaching two super cute girls English. Mondays off again so I've been doing a little siteseeing (especially last Monday thanks to the lovely Bulent - a friend from the hotel - and his wife who showed me around Istanbul and spoilt me rotten) and catching up with friends I made in Bodrum over the summer.

Istanbul is a bit like someone took London and Madrid and shook the cities over the hills of Wellington and the Kapiti Coast. Actually, maybe not London because it isn't anywhere near as multicultural, but a really, really big city. The Bosphorous running through the middle is stunning, and Taksim (central city, Europa side) is a maze of alleyways and cobbled street. I haven't had much time to see any of the zillions of neighbourhoods, but hopefully I'll slowly see more. I've ended up containing myself to Istinye, Emirgan and Resitpasa Mahallar (around where I live) and Taksim, Sishane, Beyogulu in town. Sarah is here from tomorrow so we should get some siteseeing going over the next few days too!

Ohhh the weather outside if frightful. I think I was going to burst into song then, but it's the first time I've seen rain in five months! It's still fairly warm and it's nearly November (Winter is coming.) I felt a little Game of Thrones-ish then.Istanbul is seasonal, and it's nice - I like that for summer it was spectacular and sunny and hot everyday, with a chance of strong winds, and now it's jeans and tshirt weather and always quite comfortable. Not sure how winter will go but I know that I'm not missing all my winter clothes in London yet. Hopefully I'll get to pick them up mid-November so it won't be a problem.

I was thinking how Turkey is my kind of everyday life, yet it can be pretty different from NZ or London. There are things I miss, and things I don't even think about. The following is just a mind dump into a post so apologies. i could probably do some research but it's been so long since I did a proper post I figure you can just pretend this is an extra long email from me!

I could probably write and entire post on the food of Turkey. Even something as simple as breakfast is completely different. With the family gone for a week I'm going to the supermarket to buy cereal - I've been craving muesli, eggs, mushrooms, my normal breakfast foods! Breakfast here is set out on the table on little dishes by the housekeeper - sliced and peeled tomatoes and cucumber, bread, a selection of cheeses, maybe some jambon (veal ham), maybe a hard boiled egg, jam, olives, butter.

Normal lunch and dinner fair included rice and meat stuffed capsicums, many stews, maybe white beans in a tomato sauce, rice, pasta with white cheese (kind of like feta) and butter, okra (can't stand it), green beans, salads, this turnip/potato/carrot dish with fennel, stuffed vine leaves, this kind of finger sized spinach stuffed pastries, a lot of fish, and lots of yogurt.

Oh the sweets! The Turkish has a ridiculously sweet tooth. Becca this post is for you! Desserts of course there is baklava that we all know and love - a sticky syrup and nut pastry (my favourite is hazelnut)- and then there are these kind of small churro like things called tulamba which are also covered in syrup. Kunefe is a bigger sweet pastry thing with cheese in the middle which seems to be fried and covered in sugar syrup. (I can't handle this one.) There is a milk pudding, or rice pudding dessert, and of course halva made of semolina spices and sugar. Lokum is the ever famous Turkish Delight, starch and sugar with spices, flavourings and/or nuts which I actually got through all summer before having any in Turkey. Fruit platters of cherries, peaches, strawberries, nectarines, apricots, plums, honeydew melon, watermelon, figs, and grapes are standard at the end of dinner dependent on season. And Turkish icecream is a extra sticky and particularly nice!


The Turkish drink a huge amount of black tea which is made in a double boiler where you end up with a very strong hot tea concentrate and then a second pot of hot water which you dilute it with. The Turkish all like a LOT of sugar so I add none and get funny looks, and have seen some of the men in the cafeteria add up to seven or eight teaspoons in one tiny little cay cup. Of course there is the Turkish (or Greek) coffee we know overseas with the silt in the bottom, and then alcohol wise there are some fairly average wines. The Turkish love to drink raki in the evenings which is an aniseed liquor drunk with water and ice, and eaten with melon and cheese. There are also lots of vendors selling fresh orange or pomegranate juice.


They are all mad. This is what Sarah and I say to each other when everything gets a little too culturally different. But seriously, the Turkish people I have become acquainted with are extremely kind, generous, and hospitable. Relationship wise they seem to be very caring, affectionate, jealous, and incredibly possessive. Marriage and children are an expectation fairly young and I've met some girls who would have been ridiculously young mothers. Family is really important. I kind of knew this while working in Bodrum since half my Turkish friends send their wages back to their parents and seeing foreign girls navigating the whole family approval thing, but living with a Turkish family has highlighted it even more.


A lot of you have asked me about Turkey being an Islamic country, but I honestly don't notice it at all. As much as I would see in Spain amongst Catholics, or even the UK with Anglicans. There are mosques everywhere (though they probably couldn't compete with the churches of London) and the call to prayer is LOUD. I've seen far more headscarves in Istanbul than Bodrum (where they were almost non-existent to be honest) and most of the Turkish seem to drink (heavily.) No one eats pork, but a lot of people confess to having tried it butI don't know many people who go to mosque, and harking back to my university days when I actually did know what I was talking about I'd still argue that it is traditional conservatism in Turkey is stronger the further East you go and less about Islam than about ingrained cultural norms. I could be being naive about this, these are just my observances so far but its fairly complicated to explain.

Next week is kurban bayram as I said, which is a holiday based around the story of Abraham sacrificing his son to God, and God in his mercy changing his son into a lamb. Following this tradition Turkish households sacrifice an animal for a feast and excess meat is donated to charity. The last bayram celebrated the end of Ramadan and I didn't really notice anything in the way of religious celebration but it might be the circles I run in. Some of my friends stopped drinking during Ramadan, but I don't know anyone fasted during the day.

Oh man, this has turned into a novel. Sorry about the lack of photos! I'll try get some up over the next few days.

Pamukkale and Hierapolis

 

This is a long overdue post but I guess that means it's been an awesome summer! In my last few days in Bodrum I jumped on a bus and headed to some of the tourists sites I'd been asked about all summer. Being me, I didn't do any research beforehand and went to Pamukkale over Ephesus (the more popular ancient city near) on the advice of friends. Very glad I did!

 

There is this ridiculously random site in Turkey in the Denizili Province called Pamukkale or 'Cotton Castle' when translated. By random I mean, in the middle of rolling dust and scrub covered hills is a white 'castle' of limestone terraces and hot spring water, topped with the ancient city of Hierapolis. I booked through the hotel and was picked up at the very early hour of 6am for a lift into Bodrum to the coaches which were taking approximately 100 Russian, French, Italian and English tourists to the site. A four hour bus ride with a brief stop for breakfast was made easier by the fact that I am small and can sleep anywhere. Apparently there was a presentation and talk about the area on the way, but I missed it.

 

 

 

Once the bus parked up at the top of the hill after a four hour drive I immediately disentangled myself from the group of tourists I'd arrived with and set off straight for the ruins of the city. Pamukkale was heaving with half-naked tourists (hilarious to watch) and the ruins were wonderfully hot and desolate, but peaceful. I actually ended up writing blog notes sitting on a umpteen thousand year old piece of marble that had fallen by the Necropolis road, pleasantly sunning myself while these awesome lizards baked on the tombstones and the call to prayer echoed around the valley below. Pretty special, especially as there was no one around except the lizards and hundreds of butterflies, birds and bees.

 

 

Anyway! The city is of Greco-Roman and Byzantine eras, rebuilt and expanded at different stages after various earthquakes. Famed for the sacred hot spring waters that flow through and believed to have healing powers, and the city worshipped the God Apollo, and Pluto (of the underworld, probably because of the natural gases that rose up around the city.) Some of the ruins of the Temple of Apollo have had a giant natural swimming pool form over them, and for the bargain price of 30TL you can swim with other tourists in a surreal moment where ancient, natural beauty meets heaving commercialism.

 

 

I spent a fair amount of time giggling at the mud because I'm awesome like that, but it had dried to this awesome crackle effect that had curled up like clay.

 

 

 

 

 

 

So pretty! You can only walk in certain places, and no shoes allowed so that the white calcium carbonate doesn't get muddied or damaged.

 

I paid 70TL for the daily excursion - they are advertised all over Bodrum and it was the cheapest and easiest way to get to Pamukkale but probably not the most efficient. If there are a group of you it'd be good to just hire a car and go because the excursion includes a particularly terrible example of 'traditional Turkish cuisine' (read extremely bad buffet Turkish cuisine) and a stop at a leather factory on the way home - which with the four hour ride each way made for a very long day.

 

I also caught the ferry over to Datca - absolutely beautiful but I forgot my camera. It felt very different to Bodrum and as soon as you get off the ferry you feel a million miles away from the crowds of Bodrum. I wandered through Knidos, another ancient city which was actually spectacularly placed (kinda felt like I was in lord of the Rings oddly.) Don't miss your ferry though! Because it only runs twice a day - once in the morning and once at night (and you'll have to stay the night like I did...)

 

 

 

I didn't really see as much as I liked of Bodrum - in summer it was a bit hard to handle because of the crowds and I was working but one day on our day off Elena and I stumbled upon one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World - the Mausoleum of Halicarnasuss - the first mausoleum ever built. There isn't much left on the site since the British took away anything of significance to the British Museum, and the Knights Templar dismantled it in the first place to fortify the nearby St Peters Castle circa 1400AD

 

 

 

 

There's also this huge amphitheatre at the top of the hill overlooking Bodrum - it's still used today for concerts and plays! The view is wonderful - you can see St Peter's Castle in the background next to the harbour. Elena and I wandered through the back streets until we got to the water and then spent a merry afternoon in wandering around the castle. My favourite part was the glass exhibition showcasing all these very fragile and beautiful glass artifacts found in the various shipwrecks around the area.

 

 

 

 

And then of course we went to our favourite Bodrum fish restaurant - Trata - next to the fishmarket where you choose your fish, pay the monger then have the restaurant cook it up for a 5TL fee. Don't forget to choose some mezzes! We usually end up with cheese stuffed mushrooms, seaweed, smoke aubergine and peppers, and a yoghurt based dish of some sort. And fava of course! And later headed in to the Bodrum shops to try and haggle for the massively overpriced but awesome selection of fake handbags. I got a travel wallet and big leather tote and can now pretend I can afford real Hermes. (Though having arrived in Istanbul and now living in Istinye I've suddenly realised how many Turkish women can and do buy real Prada, Chanel, Gucci and Hermes.)

 

Anyway! How was that for a brain download. I'll try get you an update on Istanbul when I get a moment.

 

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