After work Friday I walked to the Mersin city centre and up north to the Taksim International Hotel. When asked if the Australian refugees were going to be housed in the Taksim a security guard said, no, they were to be housed in the other hotels.

The Taksim International Hotel at night

At 10:30 pm I went to bed and set the alarm for 2 am. The first boat of Australian refugees were to arrive from Lebanon at 2:30 am on the Su Express, the same boat used for the Mersin-Latakia ferry service.

Mersin-Latakia ferry advert

At the ferry terminal I walked upstairs to the area overlooking the ferry dock. There, various media gathered, including James, Fiona and Stuart from lunch along with ABC TV Foreign Correspondent Representative in Turkey, Serpil Karacan Sellars and various other Turkish media.

James wasn’t feeling well at all and a had a case of the dreaded food poisoning (not from lunch!)

Then, the Jean Dunn, the Australian Ambassador to Turkey, arrived to give a briefing. 340 Australian refugees were to arrive on the Su Express coming from Lebanon via a break and refuelling in Magosa, Northern Cyprus.

As a sidenote: I did not realise until yesterday (24th) that Elif was the wife a regular commenter here and an allround good guy Oz Kanka!

In the next blog installment: the refugees arrive.

On Friday James phones and asks if I can take him, Fiona Hudson, another Australian journalist based in London, and Stuart Clarke, an English freelance photographer. Both Fiona and Stuart came to Mersin to cover the Australian evacuation from Lebanon story for News Limited.

I picked them up from the Hilton Hotel and, as they wanted to eat fish, drove them to a restaurant in Mezitli.

From left to right: James, myself, Stuart and Fiona

All of us enjoyed the lovely fish and salad meal. The journalists were craving for some light food after too many red meat meals. The many different topics discussed during the meal included Mersin, Istanbul, the Middle East, the conservativeness/liberalness of Mersin and Turkey, relationships with Turkish ladies, the Turkish presidential system, Mersin’s population make-up, what I was doing here and what I missed about Australia.

A few points I found interesting:
* Fiona did not know about Wikipedia.
* The journos wanted to know why I blogged and when I had started. I wonder how the blogging and MSM (mainstream media) relationship will develop in the future.

For the first half of last week I felt sick, run-down and energyless. The month of poor-quality sleep, a reflection of the hot weather, had got to me.

On Wednesday afternoon I felt well-enough to check my emails. Thanks to someone else’s unsecure wireless internet I now have internet access at home 🙂 One of my emails was from James Button, an Australian newspaper journalist based in London and working for Fairfax.

James had discovered my blog after searching for “Australian Mersin” as he was about to come to Mersin to report on the Australian refugees fleeing from Lebanon to Mersin by boat. I did not know about this before.

After work Thursday I walk to the ferry terminal at Mersin Port. Next to the yacht harbour were parked 4 big fat American SUVs (sports utility vehicles), including 2 diplomatic-plated cars. This was the only indication I noticed that something out of the ordinary was happening in Mersin until I reached the port.

At the port entrance, many buses were lined up.

Buses outside the port entrance

Outside the ferry terminal were 6 or 7 ambulances, 3 television vans and various security, ports and media people.

Ambulance workers

People began exiting the terminal building and I asked one of the ambulance employees who they were. He said they were Canadians and Australians.

Ferry passengers exiting the terminal building

Later, one passenger was having trouble understanding a Turkish official so I help translate. This Brit, based in Jordan, wanted a longer visa than the 45 day free visa given at the ferry terminal as standard. It turns out he was on the regularly-scheduled Lattakia-Mersin ferry and had not heard of the evacuation from Lebanon so obviously the ambulance worker did not know what he was talking about!

The ‘Su’, the Mersin-Latakia ferry boat

Stay tuned for the next update…

Things are happening here. I took 1 British and 2 Aussie journalists out to lunch today.

Citizens from several countries have or will arrive to Mersin in ships evacuating them from the violence in Lebanon. Early tomorrow morning at 2:30 AM the first lot of Australians are due to arrive.

I will write more on this story soon.

Amazing as it seems, but Turkey’s non-smoking revolution has begun. Months ago an Istanbul municipality introduced a law requiring restaurants and cafes to set aside a minimum area for non-smokers.

I thought Turkey would take many years to change its smoking habits but events are happening very quickly. Here are a few local examples I’ve observed:

* Istanbul Pastanesi (a cake shop near work) has a sign in Turkish that translates something like: “Smoking is allowed every second day, today is the other day.” This sign is on the wall everyday.

* Visitors to work are now far more likely to either smoke outside or ask if it okay to light-up inside instead of assuming it is okay

* The controller on the train from Mersin to Adana warned a man about smoking in the gangway, a practise previously ignored

* More places, including cinemas and cafes, now have non-smoking areas.

* The other weekend I saw my first quit-smoking business in Mersin:

One of my main dislikes of Turkey is the amount of cigarette smoke I have to tolerate. I will be very happy when I see the day smokers become the minority and respect non-smoker’s rights.

This year I had hoped to visit Lebanon. Now I doubt this trip will be happening.

On Thursday evening (13th) workmate Nesibe gave birth to a son, Ali Osman, by Caesarean Section at the Mersin State Hospital. Mother and baby are doing fine.

Nesibe worked throughout her pregnancy and hundreds of jokes were made about Ali Osman (most of them started by her).

Congratulations to Nesibe and husband Bulent!

Earlier this week Auntie Barbara passed away in the Netherlands. She died from cancer. Condolences to Bill and all her other relatives and friends.