Have you ever seen someone hammer a nail into a log with a ceramic plate? · 4:42pm Feb 5th, 2015
Well now you have. That was me taking the video (in case you're wondering), and it was officially the wierdest shit I've ever seen. The video doesn't even cover the fact that the guy was hammering away for a good five minutes with the plate, and once it broke, continued to hammer with a different side. The nail itself was so stuck into the log we couldn't get it out - had to get an actual hammer to do so.
So yeah, Turkey is pretty awesome. I'm learning the language pretty fast (I managed to buy some stuff in a shop without speaking any English three days after starting to learn), and oh dear god the place I'm staying is jaw-droppingly beautiful. Take a look (and yes I took all of these):
All pictures courtesy of yours truly. I don't think I really need many words here - the pictures speak for themselves. I will however, give you another piece of music to ruminate on to go with the pictures - this time an instrumental electronic piece that, as someone who doesn't really listen to instrumental music, I cannot recommend highly enough:
And to close, today on Meri's Weekly Very Occasional Blog Posts I'm going to be breaking things up a little by not adding a funny comic - instead I'm going to post a picture I took of a dried fruit and nut vendor who was given a very bad English-Turkish dictionary. Enjoy:
Dat mountain tho. :O My parents were in Turkey a couple years ago on a cruise. I tried to tell them Chicken had better sights, but damn was I wrong!
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The majestic chicken rises into the sky, as awe-inspiring today as the day it was hatched.
You should hook up with akarock while you're there...
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I'll have to ask if he lives anywhere near any of the places I'll be staying...
Hmm. Well, I suspect he's asleep right now (as I should be too), but I'll get in contact in the morning! Thanks for the introduction.
Heh welcome to Turkey. The porcelain plate hamerring, definitely a Turkish thing to do. My father, rather than buying 4 bladed razors will use a rubber band to tie 2 double bladed razors together. So where are you living anyways? Also, that's nothing, at a restaurant in Cappadocia I once bought a dish with mince meat inside that according to the menu was "men's meat." I've also eaten "decimation baklava". Good times...
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What was really weird about the plate for me was not using it as a hammer, but the fact that it worked as a hammer - I don't know what they do to plates here, but I would not want to be hit by one! Right now I'm living in Uçisar, near Nevşehir and about an hours walk from Göreme. I'm going to be here for another 7 weeks or so, and then I'm off to İstanbul for a month. Anywhere near you?
Thanks! I've definitely got the feeling so far that Turks like to improvise things.
Also, I'm not sure I would have been brave enough to try "men's meat" - kudos to you mate!
2773746 I live in Ankara, so that's like a three hour drive. I've been to Cappadochia before. I think the restaurant with Men's Meat was in Uçhisar. I think it was Mother's or something. What are you doing in Uçhisar anyway?
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Ah well, that's a shame. I used to live in Ankara - I was quite small, so I don't remember it that well, but what memories I have are happy ones. And I'll have to see if I can find Men's Meat here.
As for what I'm doing here, well I'm in Turkey as a whole for work experience and to learn Turkish. I am staying in/working at a hotel owned by an old family friend in Uçisar, and then staying with some more old family friends in İstanbul and taking a Turkish course there. Basically, I wanted to learn another language, and there's something about Turkish that has always appealed to me - the fact that I lived here as a kid helps. It seems to have been a good choice too - I'm learning it far faster than I ever learned French. I've been trying to learnt that language for ten bloody years, and I'm still barely passable in it.
2773767 Well, if you need any help or end up in Ankara you know who to call. I also have relatives in Istanbul and have been there a lot, so I do know about Istanbul too.
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Why thank you! That's very kind of you.
Oh shiiiet brah, you in Turkey now?
Das Cool. I visited Turkey a couple of years back. It was a pretty amazing experience, one of the few places I've visited before that left a very unique imprint on my heart. It's an amazing place of great culture and interesting roots from different sources.
When I was in Cappadocia, I stayed in a cave. Like literally, it was those caves that the locals used to live in way back when, and it was remarkably comfortable. I remember driving by some nice ladies making unleavened bread by the roadside, and they were incredibly happy to share some of it with us in a manner of hospitality that is very uncommon in big cities like the one I live in.
I also remember jumping the continent border a lot and the bazaar, and lots of spices and the aqueducts and all that.
Turkey's great.
Also, if you've ever been to the aqueducts, I suspect this might be where your demon baby came from.
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I'll be honest - I'm pretty sure I squeed a little when I saw you had not only come and commented here but followed me too! Thank you so much!
I agree with you completely here, though I may be slightly biased about it. Turkey is a place that is very close to my heart, and I'm really happy to have the chance to get to know it better. I spent a large part of my childhood living in Istanbul, and I have nothing but fond memories of the place - unfortunately I was young enough that there aren't many of them.
Cappadocia was our most common holiday/weekend destination while we lived here, and I have as many good memories of this place as I do Istanbul. As you experienced, the people are extraordinarily friendly and hospitable, and the cave rooms are pretty awesome - I'm sitting in one as I type this in fact! It's got a few modern conveniences that I doubt the locals had back then, but it's still very much a cave.
I see you spent some time in Istanbul! It is without any doubt my absolute favourite city in the world - it's got such a rich culture and history, but it's still a modern thriving metropolis at the same time. Rather than ignoring it's history or getting stuck in it, it's built on it. There's nowhere else quite like it.
Oh, and as awesomely creepy as some of the aqueducts are, they weren't in fact the inspiration for the demon baby - although I wish I'd thought of that myself now!The aqueducts were indeed where I first made my home upon ascending to the mortal plane - good catch there.
Yes, I spent a few days in Istanbul (not constantinople) (hah) as well. It was one of the better experiences I had. I visited the Hagia Sophia, the blue mosque, one of the sultan's old palaces, which is only mildly larger than my own home but with fewer horses *brushes gold dust off lapels*
Nah, I kid. That place is gloriously huge. I could talk to you on end about my experiences there. I'm something of a world traveler, and I love getting the 'good' experience more than the 'clean' experience. Part of Istanbul's interest to me is also somewhat of a curiousity. Being Asian, I was astonished to find that the people at the Bazaar could communicate in sometimes up to 6 languages, and they cycled through all the asian languages upon sight of me until they found that I could speak English just fine.
I was offered a lot of tea as well, and I actually bought some cups that I use to this day because I collect fancy cupwear.
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The one on the left is part of a set of apple teacups, and the one on the right was a Cappadocian wine goblet I bought at a small artisan factory somewhere out somewhere (I forget the exact location unfortuantely).
A part of the fun of that place is bargaining, which us Asians and Middle Easterners love, I think, and I sure had fun with the haggle. On the darker side, however (and don't read this as a criticism of the country), is that more than a few times I was preyed on by swindlers trying to pawn off carpets as historical relics, and one time I got tricked by a taxi. I actually saw him switch the bill, and I was actually more interested in the speed of his change than anything. It's just part of the entire experience of a tourist there, and I honestly love it all, good or bad. But definitely, the friendliness there outweighed everything else.
I have to say though, you guys sure make desserts SWEET. Like I mean, 99% sugar.
I must admit that I do love my own country a bit more (it must be where the heart is!) but I also definitely agree with you that Istanbul is one of the most rich places in terms of historical building and a mixing pot of everything. You know, Singapore's a little like that too, so you might like our country as well!
Devil-baby caveternet.
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The Hagia Sophia is still one of my favourite buildings in the world - I always go and see it when in Istanbul.
A fellow globetrotter!
And yes, while the clean experience is perhaps a little safer, it's always more fun to dive straight in. And those teacups you have are all classic turkish models, particularly the Apple tea ones you pointed out - as you discovered, where ever you go in Turkey someone will offer you either "Elma cay" or some normal tea. I have to say, Apple tea has remained my favourite drink for cold weather ever since I first tasted it (although it is regrettably hard to find outside the country). As for your experience with swindlers, it is unfortunately common, but as you said, the friendliness tends to outweigh the occaisonal con artists. 
Like I said, I didn't spend that long there, and most of it was with friends rather than sightseeing, but it was a great place (although I imagine people who like chewing gum don't tend to stay for long 
). And although I (as I said earlier) hold a deep love for this country, I'm not in fact Turkish - I'm half Brit and half Sri Lankan of all things.
I've actually been to Singapore - I visited for a week whilst I was living in India. It is a fascinating place - it felt like paradise after New Delhi in particular! We couldn't believe that everything actually worked!
And you're right - the desserts here are very sweet. Good thing for me my sweet tooth is comparable to Pinkie's!
While the EBPN (Eldritch Blood Portal Network) does tend to work better in caves, it's really more based on the giant glowing symbols, from which the faint echoes of the screams of a thousand tortured souls emanate, that are painted on the ceiling.