Ari Tatil - First stop - Ankara III

In the castle area is a Koc museum - like it's Istanbul sister is it beautifully laid out and has a quirky mixture ranging from old brick telephones to steam engines. Not too big, with a restaurant in the court yard and I guess the roof opens, beautiful light fittings - reminding me more of a mosque.
However the best thing was the medicine cabinet from the pharmacy display in the basement -
Translated - the green side - Light poisons - red side, Killer poisons..... surely all poisons are Poisonous?? I love this concept.....

Wordless Wednesday

Antalya Old Town

Blue colour way

From the same window .....

All in grey

This sky was stunning. Kartepe

In the spring break

The pool that we use has this great Hamam, which we usually use, depending on who is in there - usually it's empty. The elderly ladies who we occasionally meet in there can be unpredictable when faced with several littles intent on a waterfight..... We keep the littles at the bottom end and get to sit and chat and do what you do in a hamam at the door end. This is a DIY hamam... no staff except for a grumpy door lady....

These are the marble 'sinks' they have no hole in the bottom, No3 thinks it's fabulous to sit inside these..... yes that is steam!

You pour the water over yourself with these copper bowls, or throw water at your friends of course. The pool we use is on the 'fresh' side temperature wise, the hamam is always so toasty it's very welcome....

Inbed with Orhan.... The museum of innocence

A couple of night back my girlfriend called and caught me in bed at 10pm.... early for me..... and asked if I was sick, 'no, I'm in bed with Orhan......' She was slightly shocked, then asked 'Orhan who?' I explained Orhan Paumk, well his book....
It's taken me a good couple of weeks to plough through the door-stop tomb - 530+ pages..... but it was well worth it. At last Mr P has written a fabulous books, his early books were tortuous to read, well I admit, I never got past page 20 of most of them, after several attempts. This one is different.
It is a love story, centered around obsession, unspoken desire and unfulfilled lives. The setting of course is Istanbul, in the 70's and 80's. There are scenes in various parts of the city - they even drive past the end of my street on several occasions.... I have the feeling there is an element of truth and fantasy mixed together but have yet to check that out. The most delicious thought is that he is actually planning to open a museum, biased around the book, and with 83 display cases, one for each chapter. I already have my entry ticket..... it is supposed to open in July 2010 - anyone know how to get me an invite to the opening??

Ortakoy Cafe

My mom visted over Christmas, and as is our 'tradition' we went ot Ortakoy, we saw some 'interesting' sights - more to come.... these nargile were inside the cafe....

10 November 1938 - 09:05

It's 71 years since the death of Atatürk - the normal remembrances were observed. The photos of that time are SO neat...

86 years old

Today is Cumhuriyet Bayramı - a national holiday, the celebration of the forming of modern Turkey. T1 and T2 went to Atatürk's summer house a couple of weeks ago. We had a long discussion about what today means, and they insisted that Atatürk brings candy to all the children today. I guess they have mixed it up with Şeker Bayramı (the candy giving at the end of Ramadan) and perhaps the impending Halloween. At least they now agree that Atatürk is dead and not on holiday. Doğum günün kutlu olsun.

Shadow box table - Nazar boncuğu

This section has soft, rounded stones that I've picked up at various beaches, and lots of Nazar Boncu - these are to keep away bad luck and are extensively used, pinned onto children, hung on walls, set in cement - if anyone would wish you bad luck then these amulets protect you - easy. When I was pregnant with T1 and T2 I got a bracelet with 4 eyes, which now protects me and the 3 littles - neat eh?

I've often been out and it's been discovered that one or all of the littles are not wearing them (they rarely do - I'm more worried about them eating the safety pin used to attach them) Nazar boncukları have been procured and attached, Turks are very superstitious in this way. The one in my car went missing somehow - I suspect it got vacuumed up - I guess the vacuum now has super protection (note to self, get evil eye protection for the car)

Anneler Gününüz Kutlu Olsun

So today is Turkish Mother's day - somehow I've fallen through the cracks with this Mother's day business, I would like to do British Mother's day, but this year I got neither...... maybe next year I'll get 2, I can live in hope... T1 (l) and T2 (r) made these at school, not sure if they are just decorative or for putting hot pans on - they are the stylised tulip which is the symbol of Turkey and Istanbul - they brought them home on Friday, they didn't quite get the idea of Mother's day and assumed it was my birthday.....

New Money

We have new money! When I arrived in Turkey we had Turkish Lira, after massive inflation it was decided that we would remove 6 0's and have New Turkish Lira, that was last year, this year we have gone back to Turkish Lira and no 0's - OK could be confusing - but the new notes are super cool.

Old on the left, new on the right.

They've taken their time to design nice looking notes, Braille dots, holograms that are interesting, little watermarks in useful places -so you wouldn't need to take all your money out of your purse to find a note, they are also smaller for less value and larger for greater value and a 200 TL note too - the backs have notable Turks on them. I am excited to find that they actually fit in my purse now as they are smaller than the old New Turkish Liras..... Good job bank folks.
How sad is this a post about new money!
I just hope that people stop quoting prices in the Old Turkish Lira way, it's quite un-nerving to be told that a simit costs 500,000 when you expect the price to be 50 krus or 1/2 a lira.