Blogs from Turkey, Middle East - page 456

Ayvalik. An inseperable part of the Turkish national homeland(!). Signs all over point out that it was here that the first military resistance was formed against the advancing Greeks back in 1919. I daresay I'm a bit puzzled. By all indications this was as Greek a town as any in western Anatolia. I spent all day walking down the quiet narrow alleys, among unmistakably Greek houses, spotting the occasional unmistakable church. One sign on a shop read "Rum evleri tamir ve yikimi yapilir" (lit. "We fix and demolish Greek houses"). This is yet another town fallen victim to the forced population exchange between Greece and Turkey -- Greek speaking Turks sent east to Anatolia, and Turkish speaking Greeks shipped off to Greece. A true tragedy. Yashar Kemal has an excellent trilogy "Bir Ada Hikayesi" (lit. "An ... read more

On the 30th of October, a friend and I walked in to the office of Kamil Koc in Taksim, looking to buy a ticket to Canakkale the following day. The guy who spoke English, knew 3 words: Yes, No, and Tomorrow, or so we thought. Trusting his vast English knowledge, we asked for a ticket to Chanakkale for TOMORROW. He wrote down, 12:30, and asked "Tamam?" After some reluctance about missing class on Friday, we accepted. The ticket we received said 00:30 for time of departure. Turks and their crazy military time thing, we told ourselves, not fully grasping the meaning of it all. The next day, we show up, with the least dirty of our clothes stuffed in our backpacks, panting for breath just after twelve noon. The woman at the desk looks at our ... read more

Aiesec Eskisehir was in charge with providing the trainees with accommodation, and what they offered us actually suited us quite well. It was a flat about 10 minutes away from Onder Dil, the Language School where we were going to teach. Our flatmates were two Turkish guys, rather dashing :PP, who could, unfortunately, speak very little English. Carmen and I spent the first 2 days scrubbing the place up and making it feel homey...as it was rather scruffy. Fatih, one of the students living with us took us one day to Onder Dil. This was actually Aiesec's job to introduce us to the school principal and show us around, but they never showed up. Apparently Fatih had studied at Onder Dil, so he was familiar with the school and even knew the principal. So, there ... read more

It's been 5 days since I arrived at the airport named after the omnipresent Ataturk and still I had had maybe one good meal. I can't blame Turkish cuisine for all of it, as carnivorous as it is. Jet lag, which makes me sleep during the odd hours of 6PM to 10PM and then from 7AM to 12PM. This prohibits me from eating both breakfast and dinner almost all the time. Yesterday, I fulfilled my food fantasies in the inevitably touristy quarter of Istanbul, Sultanahmet. Myself, and two lovely girls from California and Texas respectively, made our way from my dorm room to the Sultanahmet with several adventures along the way. First a bus ride from Etiler, across the Golden Horn, into Eminonu (not enimonu, not enimonumu, but em-ee-no-nu). From the bus stop, we decided walk ... read more

On my walk from Bursa to Balikesir I was passing by a spring of sorts (they're all over the place) when an old villager invited me to sit down with him and proceeded to ask the usual questions. He couldn't get over the fact that I was walking such a distance "for fun", and asked me if I was an anarchist. Such was my state of mind at the time that I nearly replied "no, but I do have sympathies", which would likely have earned me a solid beating as I would be seen as a troublemaker. I guess the image of a sole bearded male walking mountain roads with a backpack and large stick is enough to conjure up thoughts of Che Guevara. I dodged the question, but a short while later I was asking ... read more