My blog has emerged from hiding!

All I now need to do is to change the colours, formatting, links, directory and a few other things! They will be changed in due course.

Here I will be writing random stories about whatever I see fit.

The Hamam

On Saturday evening I went to the local hamam with my boss. The hamam is just around the corner and on the same block as my apartment. The wash, massage and kese (think of someone rubbing sandpaper on yourself) were very enjoyable. I came out very clean!

This was my first visit to this hamam, although I had previously walked passed it hundreds of times. ‘Mersin Hamami’ has a small swimming pool, sauna, washing compartments, hot stone, massage areas, showers and restroom/foyer. In the middle of the restroom/foyer area is a pool with catfish and two very lazy tortoises. I was very surprised at how far the hamam went under the apartment block, particularly given the very innocuous entrance. One interesting aspect of the hamam was the naked (no pun intended) fluorescent light in the hot sauna! I don’t think this would meet appropriate occupational health and safety guidelines!

The Restaurant

Following the hamam we ate at the Afyon Cumhuriyet Sucuk Restaurant. Sucuk is a famous Turkish sausage with a strong flavour unique to its own. For desert I ate ‘ekmek kadayifi’ with some of the famous Afyon cream’ Adding the cream to the desert more than doubled its price!

The Nightclub

After dinner I caught a bus west down the coast to Davultepe. There I met a friend, Orhan, at a nightclub. The nightclub was supposed to be having a ‘dark rock’ theme that night. Entry was 5 million Turkish lira, which was pretty good, as it included 2 Efes Dark beers. Despite the theme, there was no rock, let alone, ‘dark rock’. The music (house, techno, pop stuff) was okay, although it was against expectations and very few people who arrived, stayed. After the 2 ‘free’ beers we caught a bus back into town, having an earlier than expected arrival home.