From Turkey, with Love

Türkiye’ye hoşgeldiniz

Slowly the squeaking noise of the maxi-cosy is fading, the baby sound asleep now. The nanny stopped moving her feet and gets up to close the balcony door. That must be to prevent the baby from waking up from the loud sounds of  the water hoses and crickets outside. A real pity because I love those familiar sounds ánd the room heats up even more without the little breeze.
Some minutes earlier she had been crouching behind the sofa, together with the baby. Out of my sight, I could only hear her, and for a little while I thought she was singing a lullaby for the baby to get him to sleep. Only slowly I understood that she was whispering her prayers, every once in a while directing it towards the baby to comfort him with her voice. In the end she sang him a thank-you for giving her the chance to finish her prayers.

It is two thirty in the afternoon and I am still recovering from my fright due the cup of coffee I just spilled on my keyboard. “‘That’s a real good start to get some work done in my holidays’, I thought, and the worst possible scenario passed my mind as a quick video clip.

This morning we arrived at 04.30 hours on Kayseri Airport and were welcomed  by Tahsin Bey with a big smile. being the driver who usually does our transfers, we were chitchatting a bit about the what-a-bouts from everybody and the weather in both countries, before he left us to ourselves during the rest of the ride,  By then all the necessary text messages were already exchanged, The ‘Touchdown’ during the landing of the plane, quite soon followed by a “Hosgeldiniz’.

At our arrival we are being met with great enthusiasm and there are congratulations, exchange of some of the gifts we brought, some glasses with cold ayran gulped away and than, after the first updates, off to a couple of hours sleep.

It is Murat’s birthday and he and Pinar are already since days working there butts off in order to be able to leave for Antalya tomorrow, to meet up with the parents, children and all their grandchildren, The gathering will be the most important event of  the year, taking some days after which they will continue their vacation direction Bodrum, where they will start their annual ‘Mavi Yol’ with a group of friends and kids along the Mediterranean coast.

The weeks to come I will be living in their house, this period meant to be a mixture of rest and work, visit of some concerts and finalise the preparations for the October retreat.

Since the few hours we are here, I already got a lot of information on doe’s and don’t s, including the shops I can call for home delivery of gas and water supplies.
Also it is arranged that I can dip in the pool of the neighbours camping site whenever I want and I can use the car if necessary but preferably not, as the driving habits are quite extraordinary. Which I know from experience as I have been one of them myself. I will take it as it comes. There are 3 dolmuses in an hour, stopping just down the road and taxi’s are cheap.

I notice how not-tired I am from last nights journey. In spite of the 20 minute delay the regular Turkish Airlines flight has been incredibly comfortable, quite in contrary to charter flights, starting with the on-line check in. Although I felt embarrassed when this also meant we could pass the whole cue of 50 people waiting to check in and give our luggage.

The airport itself supported us as well in a contest to get us smoothly from one place to another. Schiphol was very quiet and near to deserted on this Thursday evening sandwiched in between the two most busy weekends of the year.

During the flight, with enough space for our legs and a movie to give my Turkish a wake-up call, we could make a choice between chicken,. köfte or a vegetarian meal as a late night supper. And although midnight came and passed during the meal, it tasted great.

The cleaning lady just left, the men will go and pay a visit to the barber, the nanny is in the kitchen preparing ‘biberli dolma’ for supper and the baby is sound asleep. I open the balcony doors and prepare myself for a little nap and some daydreaming.

Hoşgeldiniz : Welcome
Bey: Sir
Ayran: Yoghurt drink with water and salt
Köfte: Spicy meatballs
Dolmus: minibus driving on a regular basis through and between towns
Mavi Yol: Blue Voyage with a gullet in this case
Biberli Dolma : Stuffed peppers

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