This past weekend I went with two of my co-workers to Mersin - or rather, Kız Kalesi, to be precise, a town near Mersin, named for the amazing castle floating out in the middle of the ocean a few yards from shore. The trip was amazing, and the timing of it couldn’t have been better, at two weeks before I leave the country. And I enjoyed the company of my friends Duygu and Selda.
We left at 1 AM Saturday morning, switched buses in Mersin, and arrived at about 7:00 AM I think. We slept until about 10, after the late night travel session, then spent the entire day at the beach. It was scorchingly hot and I got burned pretty bad, but it was sooooo relaxing and the water was the perfect temperature. I enjoyed the uniquely Turkish institutions of selling simit (a fresh baked roll of bread formed in a circle) as well as tea and coffee on the beach. The guys walk around with trays of simit or canteens of hot water with tea and instant coffee mix, which you can buy for about a lira each. Only in Turkey!
After dinner, we watched some of the world cup match that evening (Paraguay vs. Spain, Spain won), with the intention to go back out afterwards, but during the match, we all just fell asleep. We did get a chance to walk around in the evening before that, however, which was nice, but nothing out of the ordinary or notable happened. We did stop to buy magnets featuring aerial pictures of the castle, though.
On Sunday, along with one of the Zirve University staff folks, the head of security, in fact, who was also in town, joined us for a day long boat tour. This provided great views of the castle, swimming in coves, and a rather lively dance party on the boat. There was one cove in particular that had an awesome underwater cave on the other side of some overhanging rocks. You duck your head under and swim forward a few feet, and when you come back up for air, you’re inside an awesome cave, with the light from outside coming through an opening in the rock wall and bouncing off the water to reflect on the other walls. After that, we went back to our hotel, got showers, and met up with the security man, who gave us a ride home. On the way, we dropped off another passenger, who lived in Karamanmaraş, a city famous for its ice cream, which, in spite of it being after midnight, we made sure to sample. We arrived back in Gaziantep the same hour we had left - 1 AM.
Taking this trip at this time proved more perfect than I could have realized (especially since I had originally wanted to go two weeks earlier). But I’m now in my last two weeks in Turkey, finishing class this week with exams next week. And due to this trip, instead of thinking about all the negative things and the problems we’ve had with the administration’s decisions, the cultural differences in running a university, and the mundane grind of working every day, I’m thinking about the good things about this country: the amazing places like Kız Kalesi, the amazing people like Duygu, Selda, and Hacer Bey, and the memories I have of all the trips I’ve been able to take since being here. And that is a great attitude to have while finishing up. It’s even got me thinking that I have to come back to visit - but I don’t want to ever work here again, if I can help it!
