Tuesday, January 26, 2010

With some complications Zeynep and I finally managed to arrive in Adana last Tuesday at 3 AM, 7 hours later than expected. I don't know why but, somehow we went to the wrong airport. Now imagine our faces when we found out that our plane leaves in 1,5 hours at the other end of the city! Okay, 1,5 hours sounds like a lot of time, but this is Istanbul! And it was even worse.. it was Istanbul at rushhour! It's hard to imagine what that means for someone who has not seen this traffic with his own eyes.. The only way to catch the flight was going by metrobus, and that's how we went all the way to the Asian side. But.. Well, we missed the plane anyway. So the only way to Adana that evening was to go back to the Atatürk airport on the European side, buy a new ticket and wait for the next plane. OMG that was a trip from hell :D but it was fun somehow! :)

Zeynep's family lives in a beautiful huge flat in the 13th floor near the beach. The ocean is visible from the living room's window and there are couches and soft carpets everywhere! It was the perfect environment to just lie down and relax. And that’s exactly what we did! Fortunately the weather supported us and it started to rain the day we came there and wouldn't for the next days. So the first days past with sleeping, watching Discovery Channel, eating, lying on the couch, eating... I have not been so lazy for years! But after all that exams and presentations I really felt we earned this! As announced before, Zeynep’s mother was cooking.. a lot.. and so delicious! I wonder how I managed not to explode to be honest... besides others we had the traditional Kebap from Mersin, Kaburga Dolmasi (filled rip of a goat i think), Künefe, Sarma, handmade Lahmacun and a lot of Kelebic (A ball of dough with fresh and soft pistachios inside, the whole thing is covered with an unbelievably sweet and gummy sauce made of tree roots) It was a complete mouthgasm ;-)

Oh, so I ended up talking about food again :D but that was of course not everything we did. When we finished recovering from the last semester - after approximately three days on the couch - we started going around, visiting family, and doing some sightseeing. On the last day we even went to the highlands, where people go in summer to escape from the unbearable heat in the city. When we went there it was just freezing and apart from an old woman and some goats we didn’t really see a soul. So here now some pictures of the trips:

Mersin, an ocean of buildings just between the Mediterranean Sea and mountains. I understand why so many people came to live here!

Well, normally the ocean is crystal clear (as I was said), but because of all the rain, it turned into some dirty color.. Lucky me, because i don’t like beaches anyway :D But the sun was nice when it finally came out :) I took this picture when we were walking along the coast, they have build a really nice park all along the seaside which really made me want to come back in summer!

Wherever we went people looked at me with some kind of confused expression.. Zeynep told me before that there are no tourists ever coming to Mersin and that's why for them it will be weird seeing me. They kept asking her mother how she managed to have such a tall daughter (our faces look pretty much alike they say) and some others asked me if I am from Izmir.. They just didn't want to believe that a foreigner would come to Mersin :D

Looking at the picture of me and Zeynep's Mum I also start seeing some similarities... what do you say?! I'm a Turkish girl! :D

This picture was taken in the highlands. The family has a summer house over there and I really enjoyed it! It’s mostly made of wood and the garden is full with fruit trees and flowers.. of course I couldn’t see very much of that because it was too cold. But it must be perfect in summer!

On the way to the highlands we passed by this place where Zeynep’s family uses to have breakfast.. It was awesome!

And of course the dessert shouldn’t miss! This is fried dough filled with kaymak, pistachio or walnut and dipped into sugarwater.. I could just try kaymak and walnut, then my mouth burned because of all that sugar!

Zeynep’s parents. Watching them when they are together is so much fun.. they are a sweet couple :) and I'm so thankful for everything they did for me! Especially the food and for showing me around!!

We went to this place, where Greeks buried their ancestors in a huge stonewall and put a sculpture over or next to the entrances, which is said to be an image of the person that lies inside! That was pretty impressive! Mostly because it was just in the middle of nowhere with nothing special around. I really didn’t expected there to be something like that! But that’s Turkey! I bet if i would just start excavate anywhere on Turkey's coast i would definitely find something! Whenever we drove outside the city I could see ruins and old buildings everywhere. This country just has so much impressive history and culture..

Close to the graveyard we went to a huge place with a lot of ruins, most of them have been churches, so they date back to 6th-7th century! We had a lot of fun climbing around in that area and using our newly gained Discovery-Channel knowledge :) (Thanks Bear!)

Finally we went to Kiz Kalesi, a huge castle in the middle of the sea! In summer you can rent paddleboats to get there.. But because of winter the beach was empty. I went into the water and it was really nice! Just as I expected it from the Mediterranean Sea ;-)

So that was it. One week is short and it went over fast. Now I'm back in snow-covered Istanbul, still deeply relaxed but accompanied by the sad thought that I will be leaving Turkey next week...