MISSING TURKEY

Fred and Carol Moore

© 2003, 2014, & 2015 by Author

Missing Turkey - STILL!

We're coming up on four (4) years living in Georgia in the United States and still we think often and fondly of our second country:  Turkey.  I think with great fondness about the Black Sea region:  Sinop & Samsun, specifically.

Sinop was a place of work for me in the eighties but too it was a place of great tranquility; simply a small fishing village but a wonderful get away.  Walking along the waterfront and having cay in the garden next to the old city walls; I can still taste that hot cay and the memory is so vivid.  Eating, oh how I remember the fish and the salad that was reminiscent of salsa!  It was usually HOT, just this side of "OMG" hot; tolerable and wonderful with pita.  My mouth waters as I reminisce here, sitting at the computer.  My hotel was on the wharf, the room seaside and on the second floor just above the waves lapping up again the docks below.  I'd leave the door open to the balcony and sleep to the calming sounds of the surf.  I suppose it's too weird but as I sit here typing I can smell the sea air and I'm transported to that tiny balcony where I used to sit and read.  At night sitting out there one could see a multitude of boats, tiny twinkling lights sparkling across the waters.  Many times I could hear the conversations from the cay garden on the opposite side of the hotel as they washed across the surface of the water.  Then the evening call to prayer would come from the mosques in the village and across the countryside.  Every now and then a boat/ship off in the night would blow its whistle; how those sounds would carry across the darkness.

Sinop was also a place where we had the fortune to visit a crystal factory.  It was extremely interesting to see the beautiful glassware coming from the production line.  The multitude of shapes and etched designs in the crystal was fascinating.  I think back at that visit and wonder why we bought nothing; but then when your life consists of moving, as ours always did, crystal is not a greatest thing to collect.

My wife and I used to travel by bus from Ankara to Samsun; especially in the early nineties when the Soviet Union was breaking up, many of the unfortunates from across the Black Sea would travel to Samsun to sell whatever they could bring in small rucksacks that might sell for hard currency.  We would walk from our hotel to the bazaar near the waterfront and browse the tarps of treasures on the docks and breaker wall; there would be all forms of goods:  lacquer boxes, stacking dolls, watches, die cast metal toys, stamp collections, clothing and "stuff", all matter of stuff.  Unfortunately a lot of what was on display was simple junk; anything that the carrier thought might bring him/her a little money.  It was very depressing to see, but then we knew full well that this was a matter of livelihood for most of those people.

Samsun had the most fascinating Mosque in the city center; it was reminiscent of a 21st century Star Wars kind of architecture; like nothing we ever saw anywhere else in Turkey.  (See picture below.)  Samsun was a larger village than Sinop but still there was a tranquility, a restive comfort there; one could come to the hotel and relax from the hurry up in the big city, Ankara.

It's amazing, as I write, my mind wanders, I'm in Samsun, no I'm in Izmir, no I'm in Cappadocia!  First it's Istanbul, then it's Amasya, then it's Kahramanmaras; the mind simply never settles as I being to think of our travels across Turkey.  When I thing Istanbul I see Topkapi Palas, the seat of the ottoman Empire; when I think Amasya, I see the tombs of the Pontus Kings carved into the mountainsides; when I think Kahramanmaras I think ICE CREAM!  We used to get a "brick" of ice cream in a wonderful little shop there - it was served with a folk and a knife and it was HARD, like nothing you might imagine from ice cream.  I'll leave you with that thought.

(Click to enlarge.)