This time it is 2 drivers from Tarsus, 30 kilometres east of Mersin.

See here and here.

Late spring flowers around the ancient columns of Soli/Viransehir.

Adana = Kebab and Kebab = Adana: AIESEC summer tour in Adana

Narrow houses along the Bosphorous north of Istanbul

Where the Bosphorous meets the Black Sea

Olivia, Brad and Beer!

The above 3 images are from this trip.

Oral and Yeliz at their wedding celebration. Notice the flower arrangements in the background and the money and gold pinned on the newly-married couple.

Iklim (Oral’s brother), Sebiha, myself, Brad, Olivia, Buket and Serkan at the wedding.

Olivia with Hanifi amca using the hair-dryer to encourage the coals to burn and cook the kebabs.

Hanifi amca, Brad and Olivia with the cooked kebabs.

On the Mercedes Benz official website there is a feature on Turkey, more specifically, HAS Turizm, a bus company headquartered in Antakya (Antioch). Along with the expected Mercedes-Benz slant, the article contains many useful insights into the Turkish bus system, one of the best bus systems in the world.

The 4-paged feature article is here. The links to each page are on the top-right of the article.

If you are interested in Turkey I recommend you read it!

How good was that tuna, tomato, roasted capsicum, mushroom, onion, lettuce and tomato paste roll? Sensational!

The thick fresh cream with jam and honey on bread that followed was almost as good.

I also picked up my latest photos last night. This roll of 36-exposure film took 2-3 months to finish like most of my rolls seem to so there is a good range of photos. At Muhammed Ali photography shop, the attendant mentioned about drinking as if I drink a lot. Looking through the photos, most of them are of social situations when alcohol either was or could have been involved. All drinking was in moderation of course (true – my previous hangover was new years day).

Oh, the Olympic opening ceremony was meant to be on last night. I didn’t have the TV on so I wouldn’t know. The most interesting Olympic news of yesterday in my opinion is the Iranian refusing to participate against the Israeli in the judo.

Meanwhile, Turkey’s only hope for gold in track is Elvan Abeylegesse, who still carries on with her training in Turkey. She will continue warming up for Athens in Mersin (a southern Turkish city) with her trainer Ertan Hatipoglu for six more days.

Source

Elvan Abeylegesse broke the women’s world 5000 m record earlier this year and is one of Turkey’s megastars of 2004.

I haven’t seen her running the streets of Mersin yet. I would know if I did see her. She looks distinctly non-Turkish.

UPDATE (17/08/2004): Apparently Elvan chose to train in Mersin because of its similar climate to Athens.

Olympics

As most people on earth probably know, the Olympic games will begin in Greece this weekend. I am not overly enthusiastic towards the games and am happy I’m in a country where I can ignore most of the hype. An interesting fact is ‘as the crow flies‘ Mersin is closer to Athens than Adelaide is to Sydney, the 2000 games venue. This is despite the fact Adelaide and Sydney are both in same country.

I (hopefully) will be in Iran for last part of the Olympics. I am curious as to how the coverage will be in Iran. I don’t expect to be able to watch the female synchronised swimming on TV!

More Weddings

As well as the Olympics, this weekend will also host Devrim (in English: Revolution) and Efkan’s wedding. Although Devrim and Efkan live in Mersin and Efkan’s family come from Tarsus, the wedding will be in Canakkale, where Devrim’s family lives. I was invited but it is a 20 hour bus ride to Canakkale from Mersin and I cannot take the time off work then.

The weekend before last was Hanifi amca and Medine teyze’s son, Hakan’s wedding. This one was in Milas, Bodrum, where his wife is from. Hakan is manages a hotel in Bodrum. I received a small wedding arrangement from the day. The arrangement contains candied almonds, like those my parents had in their wedding.

Another Train Accident

Another fatal train accident in northwestern Turkey.

It is Summer so the Ants are About

The office, Huseyin abi’s shop and even my 6th-storey flat have had running around inside. So far in all cases they are manageable and not a real hassle.

In response to the accident yesterday, the local council is now removing many of the the branches (and most of the shade provided) from the 2 large gum trees and one smaller ‘pepper’ tree. I could hardly believe it a minute ago when I saw the worker cutting off the top branches of the pepper tree – but now he has stopped and moved onto the other gum.

Other news this morning: a few small bomb explosions hit Istanbul.

Today at around midday I was at my work desk when I a heard a cracking noise outside. I turned around and a gumtree branch had broken off and landed on a Blue Hyundai Accent parked across the road. The branch was large enough to smash the windscreen and dent the roof. A few hours later, after the police had checked the scene, a tow truck came and towed the car away.

The owner of the car worked at the real estate agency next to my office. When he worked at another agent my boss rented my apartment from him. The area under the gum trees near the river is very popular for parking, particularly in summer when the trees provide shade from the scorching sun. It could have been anybody’s car parked there. Bad luck!

As an addendum to the previous post, here is a photo of Huseyin abi in his shop prior to the makeover: