Mediterranean Winter

Mediterranean winter is all about

Sunny Days....

Stormy Days...Something in between....Loaded trees...making beach excursions....silent days.....making new friends....having the whole beach as your private restaurant.....and welcoming the night after a wonderful and fulfilled day.

Winter market

One of my all time favorite quote is from Henry David Thoreau. He said ''Live in each season as it possess; breath the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit and resign yourself to the influences of each.'' I always enjoy the local markets, it's a place where I can get in touch with the spirit of the season and the place. So here today I am posting some photos from Datca's local farmers market.


This market is open year round on Saturdays. We returned from Datca on Sunday and I was at the market on Saturday for the weekly shopping. When I see all these goodies I couldnt resist to buy huge amounts, even hubby protested. As he himself bought kilos of cheese and olives, we made a truce at the end. So we returned to İstanbul as a moving market.





The olives on the last photo are our recent favorite. They are stuffed with orange peels. Great with your drinks..Isnt it a beautiful season???

Blessings

Yesterday it was my birthday. I woke up early and was having my tea on the balcony, watching the pink and purple clouds surrounding the Symi island. It was a magical and peaceful moment, I felt so lucky and blessed. Couple minutes later my phone gave a signal of an e-mail. I was expecting 'happy birthday' calls and mails but definitely not this early.



It was from my dear friend Sara from Iran. I know that some of you knew Sara from her blog www.day2daypictures.blogspot.com She used to give us wonderful images from her city. Unfortunately she had to stop. I hope she will start again someday..

Sara sent me this lovely poem which was exactly matching my feelings of the time. Coincidance? Most probably not..Before sharing it with you let me tell you that I am so blessed that I know all of you.



Instead of counting candles,
Or tallying the years,
Contemplate your blessings now,
As your birthday nears.



Consider special people
Who love you and who care,
And others who've enriched your life
Just by being there.



Think about the memories
Passing years can never mar,
Experiences great or small
That have made you who you are.



Another year is a happy gift,
So cut your cake, and say,
''Instead of counting birthdays,
I count blessings every day!''


If you are wondering so far I have counted 45 birthdays...

Guess where am I ..

Last four days we have celebrated the festival of the sacrifices, the second big religious festival in Islam. Tradition says that you have to sacrifice an animal and distribute it's meat to poor. However as I do not like the idea of sacrificing an animal, I always donate the equavalent amount of a sheep to a charity..

So in the first day of the festival, I gave a big lunch to husband's family.On the second day we visited some elder relatives and when the third day came we have more or less finished with the festival. It was a rainy and gray day in İstanbul. After having a late breakfast and lazily decided to spend the day indoors, hubby suddenly came with a wonderful idea. He said' Let's pack something and go to Datca '( where our beach house is) and that's what we did. We packed ours and Hera's stuff and left the house in an hour. After an 11 hours drive we are here and that's where I was just 2 hours ago..

Today is December 1st and officially the first day of winter but appereantly Mediterranean has other ideas. Sea is just wonderful.. Cool enough for a relaxing swim.

As for Hera, she is having the best time of her young life. She is leash free and roaming the surrounding with great joy and interest and so far always finding her way to come home, but her first encounter with the sea wasnt her best point. As a dog who hates to take a bath, she doesnt like the sea either. When she is home she prefers to spend her time on the balcony under the sun.

We will be here until the end of this week and I will definitely post more from here. I missed being here so much and hubby and I talking more and more about moving here permanently..and couple quick shots from the harbour..

Mesopotamian Food

(My cleaning lady did not come today and I have guests for dinner tomorrow. I have to clean, shop and cook. So excuse me for posting an old article I wrote 3 years ago after a month old trip to Syria and Eastern part of Turkey..)

It is not wrong to say that appetizers or starters are rather the main dishes in Syria. They are serving so many different varieties at the beginning; the main courses are becoming less enjoyable afterwards. Rice with saffron or pounded and smoked wheat called frik served with chicken or beef and a kind of yogurt soup made with small wheat balls called Lebeniye were the ones remained in my mind as main dishes.

Kebabs were average except one. If you happen to be traveling on the Damascus – Aleppo motorway one day, don’t forget to stop at the Tower Restaurant, which you could easily identify with the huge Eiffel Tower standing at the front. Its specialty is flat meat balls cooked with tomatoes and served in a shallow cooking pan. It was just delicious. Another good address for starters in Syria is the Beit Sitti House in Damascus.( http://www.beit-sitti.com/ )

But I think the primary taste in Syria is the sweets. There are so many shops selling various types of sweets in both Damascus and Aleppo that even a simple window-shopping is an experience itself. The practice of using less sugar and syrup compare to the ones in Turkey greatly increased my capacity to consume. A dangerous feature :) Of course there is also the kunefe; you should definitely taste this warm sweet served with melted cheese inside. You could fulfill all you sweet desires with a single kunefe served at an average price of 40 cents.

Good kebabs are definitely on the Turkish side of the border. Although the previous visitors told that the quality was not as it was before, I still ate the best kebabs in Gaziantep at İmam Cagdas. The kebab with vegetables was just great. Also the sweets made with pistachio should make a visit to your stomach.

Also take a note to drink a zahter tea (a type of thyme) at Tahmis Coffee House that was built in the year 1640 which is located at the end of the Elmacılar Bazaar in Gaziantep. Tahmis is also a nice stopping point for narghile lovers.

In Diyarbakir Aslan Lokantası located at the entrance of Aslan Hotel is a nice restaurant where you good taste good food and kebabs but try to avoid the time during the lunch break as you have a good chance of waiting in queue to eat. Another thing to taste and buy in Diyarbakir is the almond paste of Atlas. This small store located at Ekinciler Cd. No15/C and the quality of its product could easily compete with the famous Bebek Almond Paste in İstanbul and the prices are much much cheaper.

Antakya is another heaven for meze-starters. We ate the best ones in the Kervan restaurant in Harbiye region of the city that is famous with its water falls. Anadolu restaurant at the center of the city was said to be good with its foods and kebabs but I happily settled with delicious grilled calamari in the two nights we ate there.

I don’t particularly like drinking coffee but largely enjoy the smell and the rituals. Although I don’t like the taste of cardamom they are adding into the coffee in Syria, Urfa and Mardin regions I strongly advise the bitter and dark coffee- mirra- served around Urfa and Mardin. It was obtained by boiling the coffee in 3-4 hours in dim fire and served in small cups that you have to drink in one sip. Its dark, its bitter and leaves a kind of sour taste in your mouth afterwards. I tasted the best mirra in a small coffee shop in the Urfa Bazaar and the trick of its good taste was a bit of Nescafe they added when boiling the coffee.

Photographs:
Sweet Shop in Aleppo

Sweets from Gaziantep and Syria
Mirra coffee in Urfa

Sunday Flowers

I love fresh flowers..However when the season is not right or my budget is tight, I usually go for the mini options.. Here are some flowers for your eyes. We collected them yesterday with Hera on our morning walk at the park. First ones were spotted by Hera on the grass. Surprising to find them on a cool morning.When we came home, I put them to tiny glasses to enjoy then took some photographs. This morning I spotted some red things inside the poop of Hera. Alarmed at first, but realized afterwards that she climbed to the couch on the balcony and ate the berries, spitted the leaves and drank the water as a small night snack. Well, we enjoy things different. I, visiually.. Hera, deliciously..

Naked Ladies

Now tell me is this blog getting more nasty or not ??? Couple weeks ago I had posted some giant penises from Bhutan, and today here are some naked ladies from Sri Lanka.

Thru out all my travels I mostly see religious paintings in the caves and on the rocks, so these ladies were such a nice surprise to find on one of the most astonishing ancient sites in Sri Lanka.

However, to see these ladies is not so easy.You have to climb a big rock of 370 metres to see them. The place is called Sigiria - Lion's rock.

On top of this rock there are the ruins of palaces and gardens which used to be the hiding place of a king who was afraid of his brother. The brother was the rightful heir of the throne while our king was not. History is full of similar stories. The end of our king came at the inevitable battle with the brother. He committed suicide. The brother - the new king turned this palace to a monastry and wiped out most of the ladies not the disturb the meditation. So out of the 500, very few of them reached to our time.