Nearly a month without a blogpost is not what us edgy, indie
bloggers do – apologies for that. I have been positively rushed off my feet
this past weeks, starting lessons, travelling, sorting the world out step by
step in the Turkish parliament, being a born natural at Turkish folk dancing,
tidying my room every minute to trash it the next, losing my purse, finding my
purse, breaking my phone, getting a new phone etc etc..
We shall divide this blog post systematically to create the
highest level of entertainment; reader enjoyment marbled with cultural
insights. As Julie Andrews once said,
let’s start at the very beginning – a very good place to start.
1 CHRONOLOGICALLY THEMED TRAVELLING.
1)Cappadoccia. Kapadokya. Land of The
Beautiful Horses. (21st-23rd
of February)
Finally, after months and months of promising to visit Cappadocia, I became
successful in my mission. This was extremely lucky as only 12 people were
allowed to go on the trip – and my name was chosen on the 4th
drawer. Meeting at a bar at 1am is always a promising start to any trip. After
a very very punctual get away, in consideration of Turkish time, we were on our
way. I think finally I have mastered sleeping on buses now due to the habitual
process that is has become. Arriving at 6 am, the 50 students and I were pretty
exhausted. (Especially considering the night before I had not got home until
gone 5am)
Our hotel was pretty incredible, a thermal
spa which was greatly appreciated. (we paid 110TL liras for the whole trip,
inclusive of food, travel and hotel – this is roughly 38 pounds. Kaching!)
Cappadocia is an amazing place; but is best to be expressed in pictures – for
this reason – Enjoy!
2) Amasra – The Black Sea. (1st-3rd of March)
The plan was to hitchhike. The reality was
backing out at the very last moment and catching the bus. The weekend however,
was incredible. The Black Sea was somewhere I had always wanted to see, but it
was well worth the wait. Imagine looking to your left to sea crystal blue seas,
and turning to your right to see luscious green rolling hills. This best
describes the beauty of Amasra – a small fishing town nestled in the mountains.
The best thing was, you could tell how geared up this town was for tourism, and
how insanely busy it would have been come the Summer – but we were the only
tourists there. After hunting (or pretending to hunt, realistically going into
two hotels and settling on the second one) a hotel, we settled in for a very
nice price of 45TL per room at a small family run hotel, whom had to heat the
hot water with a clay oven downstairs. The Turkish people from the north
famously have blue eyes, and longer faces. Our hosts were no exception, one of
them was definitely a silver fox with amazing blue eyes. Just felt the need to
add that bit of detail.
That evening we waited for the boys that has hitchhiked from Ankara up to the
coast, it took them 7 hours, 4 cars, 2
busses, 2 minibusses and 4 lira but they made it in one piece, with an
adventure under their belt.
That night we decided to sample the local cuisine. The black sea is famous for
it’s fish – particularly Hampsie – a small, sardine type fish with a delicious
flavour. Kind of like mackerel but a lot more intense and a lot more delicious.
The area is also famous for its salads. Of course, any fish dish MUST be
accompanied by Raki. But perhaps not as much Raki as we decided to drink. The
less raki was left in the bottle, the louder the conversation got. At about 1am
we were asked to leave and stumble back to the hotel.
In the morning, with sore heads to nurse we
went for a stroll along the harbour and found a little breakfast shack – manned
by two old women cooking Turkish breakfast. For 10 liras we were treated to a
home cooked delight, which we had to help cook at one point due to too many
people being in the hut. With full bellies we went for a mince along the shore
and to do some rock climbing. Now, for those who know me – you will know that I
am not particularly dexterous on my feet, I should not be trusted to climb
rocks (or bang 7g rocks like Charlie Sheen.) However, I did relatively well and
managed to impress my self, not others, but myself with my level of dexterity.
After a lazy lunch, a lot of admiring the beauty and a Turkish coffee we
climbed up the hill – and this happened.. I don’t need to say anymore….
That evening me and Maiju – my new roommate for this semester, who is Finnish
and also wicked (she just walked in my room with a carton and cherry juice and
a chocolate that she had bought for me. Nuff Said. Babe) met for a beer with
her friends. We seem to have fallen into the habit of accidently going to the
same places at the same time completely coincidentally. Both accidently
stalking each other. Apres ca, we went to eat. Sultan – my Turkish friend who
came on the trip with me had arranged for her and the boys to eat a very
special meat stew cooked for 7 hours in a stone oven. I had pide. I always have
Pide. I have such a love hate relationship with Pide. I will be happy if I
never see another Pide again when I leave this country. Pide. Pide. Pide. Pide
var mu? Yok.
After once more drinking too much Raki,
staying out late and Turkish dancing, we awoke with sore heads once more. We
decided to head to Safronbolu on the way home – a picturesque Ottoman town
snuggled in the Bolu valley. A postcard village. After a very precarious Dolmus
ride – seriously whizzing round the mountains with about 60 people on a 12
seater, we arrived in the little town. Unfortunately we had not planned it very
well, as we only had a few hours or so until the bus back to Ankara. We managed
to walk around, see some sights, buy some trinkets and enjoy a home cooked
meal. We also got to meet a little old
man who worked in the old clock tower of the former ottoman castle. We climbed the stairs to see him waiting for
his, he was like something out of a fairytale and knew everything there was too
know about clocks. We arrived back into Ankara at 10pm after a weekend of very
little sleep, and a whole bus journey of convincing Jonas that we had to change
buses again (we had taken about 7 busses this day and the novelty had well and
truly ran out.) For the first time, as we drove in to Ankara – it genuinely
felt like home.
Eskisehir (Saturday 16th – 17th March)
This weekend just gone I joined the ESN trip to Eskisehir. After being massively delayed by the Irish and the Italians (as always) we were on our way. The weather massively sucked, but the city was pretty nice – with a population of almost 85% students, completely made that up for dramatic effect, but you catch my drift. After a rather wet and rainy and surreal and cold day of walking round a childrens playground, playing on a pirate ship and having an umbrella destroyed, it was time to get drunk. After I have been drinking a little bit I find it very hard to control my “englishisms”. Example; I was sharing my room with my friend Jannet – and I had sneaked some Rum into to the hotel. When pouring said Rum I told Jannet to “say when” to which she replied… What? .. Me: When… J: What? Me…. Is this not enough? Say when when it is…. Jannet: What?!
The night involved an actual night club, which was a refreshing break from the shitholes in Ankara, with good DJs and not terrible live bands. It also involved a lot of drunk shenanigans, the best of which was Yanki after finally getting a drink immediately dropping it. We woke up in the morning with definitely people that were not originally sleeping in our room, a huge tree that had been stolen form the Lobby and placed in the Corridor.
Cat eating ruffles
Kumpir Centre.
Professional Life
As you may be aware, I am now participating
in an Internship and the Turkish Parliament. I am the first ever international
student to partake in an internship at the parliament, and as a result I am a
bit of a celebrity. When I walk around people notice a) that I am white and b)
I do not speak Turkish – luckily they do not perceive me as any form of threat but
instead embrace this foreigner in a suit and make me feel very important. I
still feel like I am cheating somehow when I wear a suit, and I think I look
absolutely ridiculous pretending to be professional. Yesterday I put on my suit
trousers to realize the seam has broken right at the top of ass. Luckily I did
realize this before setting out for work. Officially, I am working for the Law
and Resolution Department, aiding the direction of bills to select committees
and helping with setting the agenda for the proceedings of Parliament. I also
have had the opportunity to spend my afternoons with said Select committees.
Last week I was discussing with a specialist on Human Rights – and how they
process Human Rights appeals. It was interesting to learn that the majority of
cases come from prisons in Turkey, so much so there is even its own sub
committee to deal with said problem. I was allowed to read some of the appeals
that had been made and processed. I was lucky enough to meet the High
Comissoner, who I very awkwardly smiled at and even did a little courtesy which
I don’t really know where came from. The
most surreal thing is, my knowledge of Turkish politics and political actors is
still weak. I have found myself having lunch with the President of the Turkish
Plenary without even realizing who he is until afterwards (fyi: he gave me a
chunk of his apple and winked at me) I am quite literally rubbing shoulders
with big names and I don’t even know. Regardless, it is invaluable experience
and I can feel my confidence growing every day. Particularly in the English
Speaking sessions I… that I run actually… I have silenced someone with a PHD in
macroeconomics because “I have not finished speaking” and I am only 21.
Other shit
1)
Water has been an ongoing theme for me in the
last few weeks. Firstly, we had no hot water in the apartment – and I had to
find salvage by just going to the swimming pool in order to use the hot water
there afterwards. However, now we are like children in Sub Saharian Africa when
a pump is installed, and we can frolic in our hot water with ease. To add to
this, we now also have A HUGE BOTTLE OF WATER WITH A PUMP THAT IS DELIVERED TO
THE FLAT. This was such exciting news that Maiju decided to open the door
whilst I was showering to inform me of such news.
2)
It turns out that I am acutally pretty wicked at
Turkish Folk Dancing.
3)
I tried to learn Karate but decided trying to do
so in a foreign language is impossible.
4)
Today I spent my lunch time learning the Persian
Alphabet
5)
I attended the ODTU Fenerbahce Societies annual
Raki drinking ceremony – and it was freakin awesome.
6)
My purse was stolen from my bag (or shall we say
my wallet – as I have learned “purse” is not understood in continental English and
causes mass amount of confusion) and everything taken. I have been living on
handouts for two weeks now and I am down to my last 20 lira. However, a mere
waitor found my cards scattered along the streets in a rough area of Ankara
called Gebaci, in which he found my parliamentarian business cards and
contacted the Parliament. We were able to retrieve almost everything. Faith in
humanity restored, I love the Turkish.
7)
It is week 5 of classes and I am yet to pick up
a single book
8)
I attended the Turkish Parliament annual concert
– in which Semra performed in. See Video. It was amazing.
9)
Technology is still not advanced enough to talk
to my boyfriend, who I now haven’t had a conversation with that lasted more
than 4 minutes for about 3 weeks.
10)
We held our first party at the flat. Random
Egyptians came, Rafay smashed the toilet door’s glass panel, I can’t remember
getting home, but generally it was a great success and finally all the dried
chickpeas we had bought by mistake were eaten.
11)
I am
finally, after 7 months able to play a worthy game of Tavla
12)
The weather is insane, with 25 degree sandstorms
one day, and snow the next. There is blossom but it is still -4 at night. I
think generally, it is a bit confused.
13)
I understood my first joke in Turkish. And this
is my proudest achievement to date.
