To Mt. Nemrut and Back Again

It took us eleven and a half months but we finally made it to the one tourist attraction within the Malatya region.  After much finagling with Eser on Thursday night, we agreed on a time on Friday to head out.  He picked us up at 10:30am and we drove through the winding roads (with no safety guards) at speeds that Turkish drivers are comfortable with, but had me thinking many a time that all it would take was a skid on the badly paved roads and we would never see another day.  Fortunately that was not the case, and a couple of hours later we arrived at Nemrut National Park.  We hiked up to the top (luckily we could drive most of the way as were 2,134 m above sea level.) and were treated to a truly unique site from which we could view human ability and nature’s destruction.  

Eser, Joe and I

In 62 BC, King Antochus built a tomb-sanctuary with huge statues (8-9 m tall) of himself, two eagles, two lions and various Greek, Armenian and Iranian gods- although the heads fell off the bodies at some point in the future.  Although history prevailed and the site lost its stance as a place of worship it still remains semi intact, and  despite the turmoil of the past, it was excavated in 1881 and in 1987 was made a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and has been on our radius as a place to since our arrival.  

It was an amazing site and after looking around for a while we wandered down the steps on the west side (we had parked on the east) and had a lunch of menemen (which Eser negotiated down the ridiculously high price- 15TL for scrambled eggs essentially) and then figured out what we were going to do.  Eser wanted to stick around until sunset as apparently it is the highlight of Nemrut, and although neither Joe nor I wanted to stick around for the next seven hours, we did exactly that.

The man who ran the gift shop/café offered us a price to go down and see Arsemia (an ancient city where the tomb of Mithridates, king of Antioches was located and the Cendere Bridge- one of the best examples of ancient Roman architecture in the region.  Eser, again, was not happy with the price offered so bargained him down.  The conflict in Syria has severely depleted tourism in the area this summer as compared to last summer, so I was feeling  a little more sympathetic towards the man, but alas, Eser emerged victorious.  We drove 20km down into the valley, where the heat once more enveloped us, and we melted our way toward the tomb in an overheated state, before heading on to the bridge.  

The tomb of Mithridates

The bridge was apparently a hot spot amongst the locals who had gathered with families, livestock and vehicles to escape the heat in the cool of the river.

As we crossed the bridge, we ran into Kubra and Ali (Buglem’s parents) who were there with friends, which was enjoyable as I haven’t seen them for a month due to their holiday, and then we headed back up the mountain for tea and to kill a couple hours until sunset.  

We goofed around and found a good place to sit for the beauty of sunset and then headed back down before the crowds left- stopping for kavurma (a meat dish) which was a delicious end to the evening.  Somehow the roads were less scary when I couldn’t see the cliff edges, and we arrived back in Malatya quite late but to a wonderful day trip to a truly unique spot.

Kubra and I

Sore Losers

There is a fabulous expression in Turkish that is "Cok ayip".  Roughly translated into English it means, "What shame" or "How shameful."  Parents use it with children when they mess around with their food, strangers use it when they get bumped into in the street, and most recently I used it with one of my classes.  I had been having difficulty 'entertaining' one of my adult classes, with virtually every activity I have tried with them being declared 'boring' and pestering me to play games.  This is behaviour unlike I have ever seen from an adult class- copying answers from the back, copying each others papers from a speaking activity and insisting they had finished, "hiding" their phones under the desk (as though any teacher hasn't clued in to why students are staring at their crotch all class) and the like.  Finally this miserable class was ending on Saturday, so I rushed through the work so I could conclude with a Jeporady style wrap up game.  There were eight students: four boys and four girls, and they asked to be split up by gender.  I said ok, but told the boys they were going to lose to which they agreed and said no problem.  Within two minutes (before I had finished explaining) one of the girls informed me that it was a 'bad game' because 'she didn't understand'.  I pointed to the door and told her she was more than welcome to leave, but she didn't and I finished explaining and we got started. It went well for the first half an hour until the boys started to lose.  After adding up the rest of the numbers on the board and realizing they couldn't win, the boys told me they quit.  They weren't going to finish the game.   I have had this problem before (sorry for the stereotype but in general Turks are sore losers) but with their behaviour over the past few weeks, my patience had run its course.  I simply wrote on the board, "You lose, so you quit?"  Yes, they replied.  "Such shame." I wrote as the class got deathly quiet.  As there were only seven minutes left, I apologized to the girls, wiped the game off the board, bid them good day and good luck on the exam and finished.  Perhaps not my most professional moment as a teacher but I strongly feel that there are lessons more important than grammar that need to be taught and I cannot abide people who quit because they are losing. 

Women and children only day at the pool.

A busy two weeks finally wrapped up as our kid’s classes at the school finished (thank God!) as did a few other classes, so now we are back down to a manageable twenty hour week which is a pleasant change.  Our countdown has begun- and suddenly the six weeks that seemed as though they would last forever have whittled down to under four and I have no idea how that happened. 

Ms, Gulay, Aydan and I

  We have had fun- I went swimming with the girls again (although I baked brownies for the picnic this time) and that evening Gungor called and said he was bored and wanted to kill some time with some beers and didn’t want to drink alone.  Normally I don’t go out when I have to work the next day, but when you are running out of time to see people whose company you thoroughly enjoy, you do it.  I whipped in the shower and we grabbed some money and whisked back out the door for a thoroughly enjoyable evening despite the fact that Gungor can easily drink us under the table.   Joe and I had made plans with Eser to go to Mt. Nemrut last Friday as we had a rare day off together, but unfortunately his father was in the hospital (he has been battling cancer for the past year) so we postponed it a week in hopes that he would be doing better by then, but we will see.  Instead I gave Gungor and Tevfik a shout as we had been trying to organize a bbq in Gungor’s garden for a couple weeks, and they were both free.

Joe and I finished cleaning and headed into town to pick up some beer and chips (our contribution as the short notice didn't give me time to cook) and then we all headed out to the garden.  It is located about 30km north of Malatya and he is growing apricot trees that will be ready in a couple years.  He has built a little shed and it is a beautiful, peaceful- albeit stiflingly hot- 11 acres of land in the middle of nowhere.  We picked up oil and water on the way, and the oil managed to leak all over the trunk of the car and the vegetables.  We washed them in water and then mud and then more water, and then figured they would be fine.  

Tevfik starting to wash vegetables.

Gungor grilled the peppers and I peeled the cucumbers and tomatoes (nicking my fingers multiple times in the process) for a salad, and along with the kofte (meatballs) that we grilled it turned into quite a nice spread.  Afterwards, we pulled out the backgammon board and Joe and I got a thorough whooping from Tevfik who then lost to Gungor, but it was a nice change and a good way of learning new strategies for playing.  The mosquitos came out and so we headed home (I managed to only get a few bites) and then went back to Gungor’s house for Turkish coffee and conversation before Tevfik gave us a lift home as he had to pick up his wife and son in the same area.   A perfect bbq and alternative to Nemrut.

Men making fire

Heatwave

The heat has been borderline unbearable.  It is 40 degrees, plus a titch of humidity and no air conditioning.  I have never had to live this kind of heat before (as Indonesia averaged about 33-35 degrees) and the pain of the extra five and the sweating that comes with it is highly uncomfortable.  It means you barely sleep at night and then barely function throughout the day.  It makes wanting to exercise or be productive a remote possibility.  However, Joe and I had made plans on Friday to meet up with Eser (as we hadn’t seen him since before Ramadhan started) so we headed for lunch and then to meet him at the pub.  I messaged him when we got there, but by the time we had finished our first beer, he had messaged back to inform us he was in Darende (a couple of hours away) because he had gotten the time wrong.  That was a bit of a bummer, as the pub is not cheap, but we had a couple beers and played backgammon before heading home.

After a long work day on Saturday, I enjoyed two days off.  As I went for a walk on Sunday evening, I ran into one of my old students, who along with her mother and neighbours, was busy de-pitting apricots. 

The neighbours and the apricots.

  I went and sat and chatted for a bit (being sent home with many many apricots) and promised to come back the next day to help- it seemed like an authentic Malatya experience, and I didn’t have anything else to do, so Monday at noon, I headed over and spent a pleasant few hours eating, drinking tea, and de-pitting apricots.  

Nazli and I, doing our work.

After a couple of hours, I had a wicked backache and sore fingers and these women had been working since 7am and would continue until sunset at 8pm, and they had been doing this for a week and had another week to go.  For each crate they finished they earned 5TL (about $2.50) and could each average between 4-9 crates a day.  It seemed like a lot of work.  I learned a lot about apricots- the size, colour (dark ones are expensive) and watched them crack open the pits to get nuts out.  I could have sworn they were almonds (they look and taste like almonds) but they are not- and in large quantities can be quite harmful as they contain cyanide (fun fact),  however eating a few a day won’t hurt you.  I never knew there were nuts inside pits, so that was a very interesting discovery.  All in all, it was an interesting experience that was considerably more tiring than I had anticipated, but was a great way to get to know some of the women in the neighbourhood.

Apricot pits.  This is how many they had done so far.