I’m back in Mersin, refreshed after a wonderful week in Antalya. I was planning to return earlier to Mersin but extended my stay. I wish I could have stayed much longer.

The hospitality shown by Umut, Beysun and Yasemin, the historical sights, the weather, the setting, the sophistication, the relaxation, the trip to Sivasli; it was all fantastic.

Umut, my former Mersin flatmate, is an Assistant Manager at Laura Shopping Centre’s Migros, part of Turkey’s largest supermarket chain, owned by Turkey’s largest company, Koc Holding.

Beysun,Umut’s wife, works as an educator at a tourism school owned by MNG, another large Turkish company.

Yasemin, Umut’s and Beysun’s friend from their High School days in Alanya is a Sales Executive at Kervansaray Hotels, owned by International Holiday Courts. She works at their head office, located in the Lara, Antalya hotel.

I will write lots more and post many photos when I have time in the next few days.

I’m at an Internet cafe in Lara about to go into town to visit the Antalya Museum. On Monday Beysun and I drove to the ancient sights of Perge and Aspendos before accompanying Umut north to Sivasli, Beysun’s home village in Usak Province. Yesterday, on the first day of Kurban Bayrami (Sacrifice Holiday), Beysun’s extended family slaughtered both a ram and a cow. The live cow turned into barbecued lunch in a matter of hours.

I will write more and post photos when I return to Mersin on the weekend.

A new year has arrived. I expect this year to be very important. We’ll see how it unravels…

After a few changes of plan, NYE was spent at Mete’s summer house down the coast near Tomuk. To drink, I brought some home-made punch that was barely drinkable. I should not have added the Syrian Arak 🙂

From 1 January, officially the new Tukish lira is the only currency to be accepted as payment, although I have seen some old lira still floating around.

2006 has also brought about the tragic death of three siblings in far Eastern Turkey due to bird-flu. Dogubeyazit, where the infections are believed to have occurred is a long way away from Mersin, so I’m still happily eating my chicken kebabs.

Mersin’s weather so far this year has been mild and pleasant, unlike pre-Christmas. In fact, on 2 January, Wunderground forecast Mersin’s temperature to only range between 13 and 16 C for the whole 7-day period. Quite amazing!

From Tuesday to Friday next week is Kurban Bayrami. The dates fall very conveniently and work will closed for the whole week meaning we have an 8 day holiday. Yay! Tomorrow night I’m off to Antalya to see Umut and Beysun, my old flatmate from 2001-2002 and his wife. This will be my first trip to Antalya, one of Turkey’s most picturesque areas, and I’m excited!

Antalya is not the only trip coming up. In early February I will visit Australia, stopping off in Istanbul and Dubai/Oman on the way. I’ve never holidayed in Australia before so it will be a new experience. Yesterday I purchased both the Turkish and Australian domestic flights. Due to the route, I will have 3 separate flight tickets. My sequence is:

1) Adana-Istanbul (Atlasjet)
2) Istanbul-Dubai-Melbourne (Emirates)
3) Melbourne-Adelaide (Virgin Blue)

On the way back the flight order is reversed.

After paying for my Virgin Blue tickets I remembered I had a Qantas Frequent Flier balance from years ago. I could have obtained the Melbourne-Adelaide return flights free! Although this scenario sounds bad, it isn’t actually a big deal. The Virgin Blue flights only cost AUD 158 and if I used my Qantas frequent flier points I still would have had to pay AUD 93 in taxes and duties!!! I’m only paying AUD 65 difference and I still have my points.

During the blog downtime:

– Dragos and I moving to a larger house closer to the city. Moving washing machines and fridges up flights of stairs is not recommended!

– Natraj, an AIESEC trainee, arriving from Bangalore, India, to help out at work. My aim to travel overland to India has not weakened.

– Ronnie and Bob visiting Mersin on their way through to the Middle East. The party involving Ronnie, Bob, Natraj, Dragos and myself will go down in history as one of the great parties.

– Spending a week with C. Gizem and friends in a cave home in Cappadocia. Being stuck for several hours on the side of a valley cliff was not planned. Thank you Gulcan and C. Gizem for your heroics rescuing me.

– Mum and Dad spending 8 weeks in Turkey. The end of Ramadan holiday venue was Syria. As well as seeing the always wonderful Bangali and Celine in Aleppo, we also visited Palmyra, Damascus and Hama. Palmyra, with all the old Mercedes and the date palms in the desert was probably the highlight.

– Seeing Mum’s cousin, Carol, and her husband, Danny, in Ankara. Danny is on the verge of retiring from the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office and one of his last stints was in Ankara. Mum and Carol had not seen each other for more than 30 years and it was a brilliant reunion. The Red Lion Pub, parties, full English breakfasts and education protests added to the fun.

– Receiving a couple of mentions in the Language Travel Magazine.

I’m sure there were other highlights I can’t remember at the moment. Apologies for any I have missed.

Much has occured over the past 5 months or so, both personally and news-wise. I will write more about personal happenings soon. Here are some of the news stories I have bookmarked over his period:

Mersin’s unofficial recyclers are similar to
Cairo’s devoted refuse collectors although they do not collect organic material. A few months ago an official paper and plastic recycling service was instituted in my council area.

Some excavations occuring at Soloi Pompeipolis on the outskirts of Mersin.

Was a Picasso painting found down the coast from Mersin?

An analysis of the Turkish nationalism following the ‘flag‘ incident.

Smuggling rort via Mersin Port.

Ryan Sidney, Mersin’s American basketballer moves to Israel.

Turkey seizes five in ‘bomb plot’: Five men have been arrested in Turkey in connection with a plot to carry out bomb attacks in the Mediterranean resort of Mersin, security forces said.

Mersin’s Port is privatised with Singaporean and Turkish interests paying US$755,000,000 to win the right to operate it.

Bomb kills one in Mersin. I found out about this story via a Herald Sun (Australian) article!

The new lira is taking over.

Mersin wants peace.

Call for Unity at ‘Hand-in-Hand for Mersin’ Meal: Representatives from various political circles, from various religious sects, and from various religions, have come together in Mersin, a city that has been experiencing a high number of riots recently, and delivered the message of “we exist in unity”.

Teachers exiled for teaching evolution theory: Five teachers were exiled in the southeastern city of Mersin for teaching the theory of evolution, which is believed to have shaken the religious beliefs of their students. The city’s governor, who exiled the teachers, had denied reasons behind the move and blamed it on violations of clothing regulations and other irregularities.

Turkey travel advisory warning ‘senseless’: The Turkish Ambassador to Australia has slammed the Government’s travel advisory warnings, saying they “don’t make sense”.

A tragic accident causing the death of 2 AIESEC Ankara members on the way to a conference. (Article in Turkish).

Cricket is coming to 2 Turkish universities in 2006. (Article in Turkish).

Australia will open a new consulate at Canakkale, near the Gallipoli Peninsula.

Eva Balan, a fellow 2000 UniSA graduate and AIESEC alumni is now the Marketing Manager MSN Southeast Asia, Microsoft Operations Pte Ltd (Singapore).

Thanks to the wizardry of Imran, this blog is back. In July, more than 5 months ago I destroyed the template. Today, Imran not only fixed the template but made the blog better than ever.

Thank you Imran!

Much has happened in the past 5 months and you should here about this soon.

deneme

Last Wednesday, the sketch comedy series Comedy Inc – The Late Shift screened on Australian television. Before, during and after the show, viewers searched the internet for the stars of the program (particularly the female performers).

Because this website is and was currently number 1 or 2 in Google for two of Comedy Inc’s stars “emily taheny” and “katrina retallick”, I received a huge spike in traffic last Wednesday. Check the following statistics for and see the spike:

Emily is my second cousin. She comes from Yorke Peninsula, South Australia, where my Dad grew up. On Yorke Peninsula it seems every second person is either a Taheny or somehow related to one 🙂

During year 5, due to Dad’s work, my family moved to Edithburgh, Yorke Peninsula, for a school term. My older sister, brother and I attended St. Columba’s Memorial School, Yorketown, the same school Emily attended. I don’t remember at the time if Emily was a budding comedian but comedy does run in her family as older sister, Fiona O’Loughlin, is also a comedian.

The above photo is of Emily in front of a person (obscured) wearing a St. Columba’s top. The image is from a Yorke Peninsula Country Times article by family friend Jenny Oldland.

As Turkish television is surprisingly not showing Comedy Inc – The Late Shift, I haven’t been able to watch it. I will have to wait until I return to Australia to see it…

Related links:

Previous blog articles:
Emily Taheny And Katrina Retallick
A to Z Of Celebrities

Comedy Inc’s official website:
Comedy Inc