Last night I met Peter for the first time, the only other Australian I know of in Mersin. Peter, his Turkish wife and their son came to Mersin six months ago although I did not hear about him until earlier this month.
We ate fish and chips, Turkish style, accompanied by a few beers and the Galatasaray-Samsun soccer game in the background. Both Peter and his wife teach English at a neighbouring town’s university. Previously, they lived in Melbourne and came to Mersin to give their son a taste of Turkish life and because the wife is from Mersin.
Following dinner we went to Mavi Sanat for coffee and dessert. A French/Turkish couple runs Mavi Sanat and I had not visited the place for a long time. The atmosphere is more sophisticated than the average Mersin haunt and it is somewhere I should visit more often.
I enjoyed meeting Peter and although we are of different generations, we could relate on almost everything. I now know there were at least two people in Mersin watching last year’s AFL grand final!
Joe, it must be a nice feeling to have at last a countrymate in your place, specially if you get along with him well !
I enjoy looking at your pictures, with so many varied subjects : your collection of plastic palmtrees was specially fun and even artistic, in a place where natural (and nicer) palmtrees can grow…
Also interesting, a little further down, (Feb.13), the 2 minarets being added to a mosque that has already 4 of them : I thought that the number of minarets was stricly limited to 4, except for the mosque in Medina that has 6 (or 7 ?) of them, the other exception being in Istanbul (the Blue Mosque), but this was in fact a confusion : the builder understood “alti” instead of “altin” (gold), as the sultan that ordered the mosque wanted the 4 minarets to be gold plated…
Hi c gizem,
Thank you again for your compliments.
The number of minarets is not strictly limited to 4. The huge, modern Sabanci Mosque in Adana also has 6 minarets.
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