On Saturday evening Naoki finally arrived in Mersin. He was going to arrive in the morning but his flight from Istanbul was cancelled. He came to Mersin as a representative of IEC at DVC a language school at a Californian college. That evening, Ahmet, himself and I went to dinner at Et & Balik Restaurant on the coast road.

Oh yeah, was Saturday Valentine’s Day?

The following morning I picked Naoki from the Hilton and we went for a drive down the coast to the west. He went from Japan to study political science in Kentucky. He has worked for the college for 5 years. We enjoyed discussions about many issues including politics, culture and philosophy. After a coffee and cake at ‘Kahve Evi’ I dropped him off at work and went to the train station to pick up a bunch of people: Alejandro, Jiri, Karin, Devrim, Magda, Maria, Isabelle and Fabian – 8 people from 8 different countries.

We made it to Guzeloglu Tantuni for tantuni and then the local kunefe shop – for kunefe. It was getting late in the afternoon when we caught the bus to Kizkalesi down the coast and as the sun was setting, we disembarked when we saw the ancient Greek theatre and other ruins at Ayas. The weather was freezing and Karin kindly lent me her scarf and gloves – my hands were going purple.

After one or two adventures we made it back to Mersin on the dolmus. Most of the group caught the train to Adana whilst Devrim, Karin and I went to Devrim’s place in Pozcu for dinner. After dinner the power went out and in candle light we told jokes, some that could be put on this website in the interests of good taste 🙂

At around 10:30 pm I made a run for it home in the ccoooolllldd. My apartment was relatively warm as it received the sun during the day.