The Galery

I promised a galery of all my vacation photos or at least a choice of the best. Here are some explanations -- or go directly to the galery.

Inspiring details and the "beach google"

We did not buy a lot of souvenirs. Not that we were out of money; but there wasn't too much worth while, and if it was, we would have had trouble to get it safely over the flight. I took back these dishes, hand painted, in my cabin rucksack, wrapped into a traditional hamam towel, the thing people wear in the steam bath.
On auntie's lanai, I discovered this wonderful grid, very simply made, yet with a surprising effect.
-- Something you see most everywhere: The use of solar energy. Almost all the hot water in households and hotels is produced by means of solar panels and stored in metal barrels on the rooftops. Even old and poor looking houses are equipped with such devices, maybe less shining and new than these.
Before the use of solar energy started, Turkey had a serious problem with illegal wood chopping; this is solved, as far as I know.
Solar energy is almost entirely used to heat water. As for electricity, Turkey uses water power mostly, but also plans to build nuclear power stations. What for? They are flooded with sunshine!
Turkey is a modern country with all kinds of technical equipment, but on the other hand, there is no unemployment insurance, as we have it; the family has to support members who don't have a job.
Now the promised story. I was sitting in a beach chair, J was reading the "Golden Compass", I was doing my embroidery when I missed my scissors. Oh my. I started digging in the sand. The beach "janitor", an employee of our hotel, saw me and asked if he could help. Yes, please! He said, wait a minute, and came back with his beach "search engine", a rake with a wire basket which caught my scissors indeed after one or two strokes over the place where we had been sitting. Of course this help was followed by a proper tip.

... and the real reason for blogging here

This is my favourite place in the Turkish hotel. A lanai, open to all sides, allowing the wind from the sea to cool the place. Once, we had 43°C/108°F. But this was only one day with a wind that seemed to come out of a baking oven. Mostly, it was around 86 F, quite pleasant. But not going down much at night, so we had to sleep with the air condition on, and the cold winds fell right onto my bed, so I had dreams of wool caps. The remote was in a box screwed to the wall, so all you could do was to switch off and on. At last I learnt that the lid of the machine could be put into a different position, so this was improved.
I had a flu for a few days, and when it was mostly over, J got it.
I got a little further with my embroidery. The cook of the hotel had a look and said that this looks like Turkish nomad craft. I was quite pleased to hear that. I had taken a sketch along instead of the big book. But I did not get very far, because most of the time, there was an animation program going on around the pool, and this lanai was close to it. The young guys who did the animation turned up the music to an intolerable volume, so I was constantly on the move, looking for a quiet place. The nights were no better, there was disco music and parties all around in the neighbouring hotels, so even my ear plugs were not enough to save my sleep. We had to sleep with closed windows and a chilling air condition -- see above. But this hotel also had great advantages; more about that soon. And then I will explain the "beach google".

I missed you, friends

The other night I had a dream of one of my blogger friends -- or was this a symbol for many of you? And I was trying to find out how you were. Now I'm back online, and I'll find out.
Next chapter of my travelling adventures. The place where we were is a new village on the south coast of Turkey, a place that is only 30 years old, an assembly of hotels. Yesterday, we took a taxi plus driver. He drove us up past the ruins of an aqueduct from Roman times to an embarkment up in the mountains. I asked him to take us there and to some quiet place where we could eat typical Turkish food, and we ended up on his aunt's lanay. His cousin made wonderful flatbread for us, filled with spinach and cheese, plus a few more lovely dishes, a salted yoghurt drink (ayran) and more stuff. We finished the meal with tea and watermelon. The aunt charged 18$ for all of it. No, not per person. For the complete meal. So we were integrated into the family, real genuine Turkish village inhabitants, and this was part of his sales management. It is funny, how business and privacy are being mixed for a higher purpose. We departed with kisses on both cheeks, and our driver thanked his aunt with a Turkish hand kiss: He kissed his aunt's hand and then touched it with his forehead. Very charming gesture.

Back from Turkey

This is our first life sign after two weeks in Turkey. We saw so many amazing things, and I'll go into the details asap. We just arrived, unpacked our luggage, and now we are hungry and have to buy food. Upper picture: Stormy weather, quite unusual in Southern Turkey, and swimming was forbidden on that day. Usually, the sea was very calm. Here, you see a bit of the ancient ruins from the Greek settlings from about 1800 years ago. And this is the view out of our hotel room, rather our first room, because we changed, due to the noise, after a few days. More details and picture galery in a few hours!

Today, we booked our holidays

Winter is getting on our nerves. Today it started snowing again. I took this picture at night which explains the weird colors. Aperture: 8 sec.
So we went to the travel agency today and booked. We have been reading hotel descriptions and travellers' ratings on the internet for a week and looking up places and pictures.
First we were interested in Malta and the stone age temples. But what we read about the hotels was less attractive. So we shifted our aim, and I recommended Turkey which my husband had not been too interested in.
I was there twice in 1992, and I was enchanted by the Turkish lifestyle.

Sometimes I think I did not fall in love with my first husband but with his lifestyle.
This fancy remained after divorce.

The offers convinced J.
Hope the holidays will convince him even more. Two weeks, all inclusive, 1940,-- $ for the two of us.
Something to be anticipating.

I started quilting again. The hand bandage prevents wrong twists of my wrist. I keep working on the quilt for my husband.

Interesting times

"May you live in interesting times", this is a Chinese curse. When I was 43, I married a handsome Turkish guy. This picture was taken in Adana where he came from. I was wearing a scarf which represents the typical Adana fabrics, but I found out after I bought this vintage scarf from India for 2$ on a flea market. He was very surprised to see me wearing it and he told me so, and I later found very similar things in the Museum of History in Adana. Along with a fantastic collection of Kelims.
A few days before I went out with C for the first time, I sewed myself a pair of red harem pants. I knew that bridal costumes in Old Turkey were red, as they were in China and in Central Asia. It was clear to me that I would be wearing red when I got married. I had no idea who to be married to. But when I was wearing these pants for the first time, sitting in a street café, part of a Turkish restaurant where I frequently had lunch, this waiter whom I had seen a few times stepped up to me and asked me "to take a walk with him", in other words, he wanted to take me out. And it did not take long until he proposed.
I wonder if I knew that my first marriage would be unhappy.
We married in Adana, I was wearing red (the same harem pants), but it did not bring me luck. This marriage ended after 4 years.
Four days before my divorce hearing, in 1997, I met the man I married later, and we've been together since then. Happily.

Basting the backing

After 17 years in my stash drawer, this Turkish fabric will be the backing of the bird quilt. I bought it at an incredibly low price in Turkey, when I was engaged to get married for the first time. It was in Mersin, a southern harbour, where we went to a fair (lunapark) with my fiancé and his family, mother, younger brother and two sisters. We took one of these small cheap buses called "dolmuş", pronounced "dolmush", which means "we are complete". Explanations at the end of this posting.
In Mersin, we visited a market, and I tried to find vintage fabrics or bedcloths, table cloths, whatever. Most of the stuff was so ugly that tears came to my eyes. Later I found out that this piece was for oversize bed covers, so I never used it, just kept thinking that I would change it to a proper size some day.
That night, I also witnessed a weird performance of a standup comedian dressed like a harem eunoch in fairytales, appearing together with a beautiful tall singer who looked like a model and sang like a pop star. We sat at a table and had a drink, and my fiancé told the show man that there was a German guest. Me. A sensation in the Turkish province! Nobody ever goes to Mersin. It is a stinking industrial place. So I was celebrated as the only tourist who ever came to Mersin.

Now I took this evidence of my presence in Mersin out of the drawer and washed it. It faded a little, but that's alright for vintage.
I basted the backing, creeping on the carpet, because I don't have a large table. My sports for today.

Dolmuş
These are private vehicles which stop on a gestic signal of people waiting anywhere along the road. To signalize how many persons want to get on the bus, you point the according number of fingers to the driver, and he either stops or shows the number of free seats with his fingers and drives by. The same fee is payed for any distance. When you reach the desired place, you just call "stop!" and you're allowed out. A dolmuş can take up to 10 Persons on board.
This is very practical.