Driving me round the A La Turk bend

Need I say more?!

After settling down in Antalya back in 2009, I have spent the majority of the time in the same area so know it quite well, but now I am filled with not only a new inspiration but also a new fear as my husband and I transfer for 2 months to the village of Ӧzdere, Kuşadası, Izmir.  I'm so looking forward to seeing a new area (although I have spent 2 nights in Kuşadası for the old VISA renewal trips to Greece) and exploring 'tourist style' the sights, but the one thing that fills me with fear is the time it will take on the road!

Anyone living in Turkey or even any regular visitors, will know that driving A La Turk, requires angelic-like patience, sheer steel of determination and the ability not to poo your pants at what is (regardless whether it is meant to be or not, either in reverse or otherwise) coming directly towards you at high speeds.

The Turkish driving test is driving off road in a quiet field then answering a few road sign questions, and my Turkish friend is asking experienced drivers to help her drive on main roads!  The fact that even she is scared doesn't do much to put my mind at rest if I ever need to rent a car!

Cars, buses, (especially) taxis, dolmuşlar (can't pluralize easily in English), motorbikes, lorries .... they are all - well the drivers of ... are all to blame for the complete stupidity on the roads.  Men listen up now - your jokes about bad female drivers can't exist here because EVERYONE is as bad as each other.  Even the regular occurrence of motorcyclists without any form of protective clothing is bad enough, but when you see mum, dad, 1 child and a baby precariously squeezed together on one small moped (not even a motorbike!), clearly without any sense of danger, scooting around no matter the weather, one starts to wonder if anyone really cares!  I know that health and safety does not exist - men in flip flops or bare feet and a pair of shorts dangling on wobbly scaffolding, passing large planks of wood to the person similarly attired above them - is just a little proof of that, but people surely need to have a sense of danger engrained into them.  I also know that maybe health and safety goes beyond ridiculous with all the red tape and do's and don'ts that exist.  Where is the happy medium?  Does it exist?  Has is ever existed in the first place?

Painting ... the man had just free-styled it down the 4 floors
of scaffolding hanging from one hand at a time. 
When I took this photo, he had just landed and
re-steadied himself by using the paint roller!

All this makes me a little worried about the looming 10 hour trip to Kuşadası along very narrow, winding mountain roads at high speeds, often on cliff edges with a too-high-for-comfort vertical drop to one side, and with vehicles coming towards you at high speeds, often on the wrong side of the road. 

Where I live, even the way you go around a roundabout is optional. Turkish thinking; "Oh! It's quicker to go that way even though I might get killed!" It would be very funny if it wasn't so dangerous.

I get travel sick also, so I think you can begin to understand the trepidation I am facing...

Back to my original rant about driving here and the constant use of the horn aka "Beep! Beep! Beepity-beep-beep, Beep! Beep! Beep!" You cannot escape the horn. No way!  Any time, anywhere, the horn will beep you!  Half a second after the traffic light turns green everybody beeps!  You want to stop a moving bus and have a change - you beep!  You're about to start military service you and the convoy following you, certainly go "Beep! Beep! Beepity-beep-beep, Beep! Beep! Beeeeeeeeeeep!" At junctions cars block the road so you can't go, you wait and then the same thing happens again and again........then everybody behind beeps!  It's the endless beeping syndrome!


What also gets up my skin you ask?  Well ...

- Nobody ever lets you out from a side road, you have to push and push to try and get out. The reason why nobody lets you out? Because if you let 1 car out about 20 more follow and then you have everybody behind you beeping you!!


- Nobody ever flashes or hand signals to say thanks.

- In traffic a car behind you overtakes and pushes in front of you - just to pass 1 car - what's the point!!??  I ask you!!??


- Traffic lights appear suddenly even at mini roundabout when there was no need for them and it creates loads of traffic and confusion.

- Everyone is so angry, I have seen proper fisticuffs for the smallest of incidents many times.


Aaaah the joys of driving in Turkey!!

Leave a comment saying where your worst driving experiences happened.  What did you do?

Ataturk Anecdotes



K. Ataturk

I came across something that made me smile today.  It is about Mustafa Kemal Ataturk (1881 - 1938), the highly revered Turkish revolutionary leader and first preseident of the Turkish Republic (1923 - 1938), making Turkey the modern country it is today.  The honour the Turks have for him amazes me, as many youths have "K. M. Ataturk" permenently tatooed onto their forearms in large swirly black letters (can you imagine someone proudly wearing the current Prime Minister's name on their arm as a fashion statement?!!!), momuments of Ataturk adorn every nook and cranny, cars are decorated with "Ataturk" bumper stickers, every office, shop and place of work will have at least one portrait of the infamous leader by each desk, not forgetting homes ...  the memorials are endless.  But it goes much further than all this suerficiality, deeply embedding itself into the heart and mind of the Turkish nation. 

One friend and colleague said something interesting to me one day as I complained that the 1m x 2m portrait of Ataturk staring at me from behind with piercing blue beady eyes that always seemed to look at me wherever I went in the office, and with an unnaturally white (faded and sun bleached) face creeped me out a little. He said that life without Ataturk's intervention would be so much different in ways I would never understand as a non Turk as it was not my history he changed, not my ancestors' way of life he influenced or my human rights improved.  Maybe one day I should write a blog about Ataturk's influences and investigate how deep this really is embedded in the Turks.


Anyway - back to what made me laugh. As part of his bid to modernize Turkey, Kemal Ataturk decreed that his countrymen should adopt Western-style dress and declared;

"The civilized, international dress is worthy

and appropriate for our nation and we will wear it," he declared.

"Boots or shoes on our feet, trousers on our legs,

shirt and tie, jacket and waistcoat.

And, of course, to complete these, a cover with a brim on our heads.

I want to make this clear. This head-covering is called a 'hat.' "
 



Having cuddles with Ataturk
while sitting on a bench in Side

Did you know...?
Soon after this declaration, the Turkish fez was banned (1925) (see video below), as was the headscarf for Muslim women. Indeed, to this day, women in Turkey are forbidden from wearing headscarves in schools, parliaments and other government buildings.

Take 10mins to watch this summary of Ataturk's life and how he reformed a whole country.

... ENJOY ...

The Real Father Christmas

Part of my job as Holiday Concierge is to write daily newletters with interesting information and "Things You Never Knew" about Turkey for our guests. One of the many places that my husband and I loved was Demre, Myra and Kekova, further west of Antalya than where we currently live.

The whole area is built on such fertile land, that most of the country's food comes from this area. But what interested me was the truth behind the constant lies and bribes millions of parents decieve their children with throughout the year to "encourage" them to behave well ... who Father Christmas really is.

We watch the touching movies that bring tears to the eyes, tell stories of the North Pole, the fat man who lives there and the ever-cheerful elves who make presents of all shapes and sizes while singing the day away. Some parents even take children to Lapland and the misguided infants spend the first years of their life believing in flying reindeer. (It's still on my wish list of places to go!!!)

Eventually, all children find out and are either devasted by the news that Father Christmas is not real after all or pretend they knew it was a lie all along because they saw mummy and daddy putting the presents by the bed one fateful night many years ago ... (or in our families case, could tell that the bite from the mince pies and the footsteps in the flour really were not from a reindeer because Grandpa's shoes were a little too suspiciously floury the next morning!) The sad fact is Father Christmas may not be alive and kicking but he was a real person...

He did also drop presents down chimneys and his biography actually starts in the country of Turkey, not the North Pole. In November 2010 my husband and I got the chance to visit the town where his reputation was made.

Six Facts about Father Christmas that You Never Knew

1 – Father Christmas was born in the town of Patara on the South West coast of Turkey between the years of 260 and 280AD. Technically, the republic of Turkey was not formed until 1923 so if you want to split hairs, Patara at that time was under Lycian rule.

2 – The true name of Father Christmas was Nicholas and in adult life, he became the bishop of Myra which was a town further up the coast from Patara. It is now called Demre.


3 – When Nicholas’s parents died, they left him a lot of money and made him a wealthy man. He wanted to help people who were poor but he wanted to do it in secret so the agile bishop used to climb on the roofs of people’s houses and drop coins down the chimney. One day, a citizen caught him in the act and his good nature was revealed to the town.

4 – Upon his death, a memorial was erected in the town but it would be a number of years before he gained the holiest of titles and that was as Saint Nicholas. He also became the patron saint of sailors but more specifically of children as he was remembered for giving them nuts, fruit and sweets for good behaviour. You see - bribery was alive and kicking even back then!



5 – December the 6th become associated with the feast of St Nicholas and in later years, a bishop declared December the 25th as the birth of Jesus. Over time, the two celebrations began to fuse together and that was the first connection between Santa Claus, Saint Nicholas and Christmas Day traditions.

6 – In the late 1800’s drawings appeared of St Nicholas aka Santa Claus / Father Christmas with a beard, pipe and a large belly. The transformation of a humble saint called Nicholas to a fat, jolly man who feasts on mince pies and gets stuck in chimneys, had began. (I don't think I will ever know how the North pole, loyal elves and flying reindeer came about!)

The Church of St Nicholas, Demre (how it used to look)



Located in the town of Demre (far away from the North pole!), the church is open every day and on the 6th of December, special celebrations are held for the day dedicated to Saint Nicholas. Many tousists visit this now famous attraction. The church also held till recently his original sarcophagus although his bones were stolen in the 10th Century by Italian sailors and they are now encrypted in a church on the south east coast of Italy. We were told that so many Russian Orthodox Christians came to touch St Nicholas' sarcophagus and throw money inside it for good luck, that now they have had to place everything behind the plastic casing as often the determined pilgrims often got a little to excited and parts of the stone were broken away.

St Nicholas' Tomb



Special Notes
Entrance fee is 10 Turkish Lira (just under £4 correct as of January 2012). The church is still used today for special Orthodox Christian Services, including St Nicholas Day Service. Please be respectful as you enter as you often find people praying and taking part in a service.



Challenge to all parents

Ok, I get it! The story of Santa Claus, reindeer, elves and the North Pole is more convincing when trying to get naughty children to behave. However when they get older,instead of making a confession that you have been lying to them for the first years of their life, tell them about saint Nicholas, his origins and how his good deeds earned him, a place in the heart of children all across the world.

Newly excavated ... still unsure if a home or part of a church


Excavations are still continuing today and newly discovered 900+ year old buildings are still being found. Take the youself and the chidlren to see this amazing place...

Turkish Street Food

One needs a good meal to start the say with, so why not take a quick look at Turkish Street food to start this brand new blog with eh ...

For many, a big part of any holiday is the food you eat, the food you remember and the food you would rather forget. In Turkey, street food is a way of life and simply cannot be ignored. Some of your finest meals will be made instantly in front of you so here is a little taste of what to expect from Turkish street food.

Kokorec, spiced offal wrapped in lamb’s intestine is of course, a tasty treat to tie you over until dinner. For anyone wondering about the necessity of the intestine, it has been suggested this is in order to disguise the taste, raising the issue of whether or not the entire dish should be rethought!! However, when in Turkey ... something that sounds that questionable must be worth a try.



Kahvaltı, or ‘before coffee’. Most of us would shudder at the prospect of anything before coffee but this actually means breakfast, and breakfast can be grabbed from the street in the form of a giant bread polo called simit, reminiscent of a bagel really, but tasty all the same. Having one with a strong Turkish coffee (or so I have been told as I actually hate the stuff!) or with traditional çay, is even better. I always nab one or two from the street sellers as I'm out and about shopping in Manavgat. Only 60 kuruş (about 20p) and really moorish!



Kebabs. Arguably you don’t necessarily need to travel hundreds of miles for one, when getting one in your home country is extremely easy. The overwhelming hunger, the actual need for food, the fact that it is accompanied with lettuce is an easy justification for a late night healthy snack. Don’t forget about the ill-advised flirtation with the kebab man and the overwhelming disgust, the following morning at your gluttony.

Turkey welcomes you to a whole new world of the kebab. At any point of the day, more than one if you fancy, the kebab is street food to start you off. The fresh bread, salad, and meat taste is better than ever and the friendly banter with your street chef will keep you coming back day after day... and I promise you that the kebabs here bear no resenblence to the kebabs I munched in the early hours of the morning after a gig! I'm sure anyone who has tasted this would almost certainly agree - and man - that hot spicy tomato and chilli sauce certainly cleans all nostril hairs in one fair sniff!




Beyin (Brain) is an affordable delicacy as is tripe. This country really does not waste any part of an animal! I can't say I have had the stomach to eat any tripe yet (no pun intended!!!!) as the memory of the smell as mum slowly cooked it for the dog is enough to put me off.  However, brain in various forms, I have tasted and surprisingly enjoyed in small doses.  My first induction was in Morocco when I was offered a burger ... it was clearly a strange coloured looking one, but I ate it.  On being told what it was, I found the idea put me off the rest of my late night snack.  The second time was at a restaurant in Belek (Antalya). Friends ordered the food; mezzes, salad, meat, bread, everything typically Turkish and out came this amazing looking bowl full of something with an array of spices encircling it.  It all looked amazing but I didn't know what anything was. I casually commented on the artistic nature of the bowl's design - only to be laughed at and told it was the skull and inside it was the animals own brain!  Well - that was that - once again I timidly tried some as everyone else was tucking in - and my verdict; slimy yet satisfying! The third time was in the early hours of the morning as 'beyin çorba' (Brain Soup).  The soup was liberally coated with sizzling out the pan melted garlic butter and all I could taste was the garlic.  The brain then, was simply too slimy and I will never try that again!  The garlic unfortunately lasted for days too!  Eugh!  So the choice it yours - would you prefer brain salad, brain soup or brain burger!

Gözleme. Essentially a pancake. Cooked fresh on the street with endless options of fillings they are irresistible and should come with a warning that you will reach new levels of gluttony after your first. They are usually made by women sitting cross-legged at what looks like an over-sized knee-high upturned wok. Within a minute they've made wafer-thin, sweet, breadlike pastry into a large circle about 80cm in diameter with a rolling pin that looks like an elongated pencil! Turning it and flouring it as they go looks much easier than it seems! Youc hoose your filling(sweet, savoury or meaty) and soon they have managed to fold it all together into what becomes the most delicious snack ... Be aware though that many people return from holidays to Turkey a few pounds heavier after eating too many of these!



If this doesn’t fill you up there is plenty of fresh food and fiery flavours on offer on all street corners so it's my recommendation not to leave Turkey without trying some form of this delicious street food. You won't regret it!

Been to Turkey? If so, what is your favourite Turkish street food?