Blackpool and Fethiye are shaking!

How weird is this?  I was hiding in reception because tiles were being lowered from the roof and rather a lot seemed to be falling out of the bucket, threatening to cause serious damage to anyone who happened to be walking underneath.  I was checking the newspapers and had just read that Blackpool experienced an earthquake at 3.30 this morning.  Now some of you will know that Blackpool is the home of some dear friends of ours – so I was just trying to open MSN to ask Grant if he had been jumping around at that time, when I felt the table shake and realised we were having an earthquake!

It’s not so unusual here, but it has been several months since I felt the last one.  We checked on the Government site where the details are published almost immediately, and it registered 6.3 in strength but the centre was 12km deep under the sea off Rhodes.

Living here, you get quite used to feeling quakes, and quite good at judging how big they are.  Sometimes it seems as though your chair or bed has suddenly become wobbly, sometimes it feels as if you’ve had one too many drinks and your head is spinning.  But the thing to remember is that these relatively small and frequent tremors are good; they show that the plates are moving and not building up pressure for a big quake.

Since the big earthquake near İstanbul in 1999, some Turks have shown a tendency to panic at the slightest hint of an earthquake.  I don’t imagine it was reported in the UK, but over here the newspapers were full of how the only person to jump out of a window during the terrible earthquake in Japan was a Turkish guy living near Tokyo; he jumped out once, went back inside, felt the second quake and jumped out AGAIN!   The newspapers explained it with this phrase:  ‘Even in Japan, a Turk is still a Turk’!

However, at Poppy I am pleased to report that nobody jumped out of any windows and even the guy who was sitting on the roof at the time (of course with no safety line – this it Turkey!) looked very puzzled when we told him to take care.  I have also been up on the roof in the last couple of days – not exactly sitting on it, as the workers do, but poking my head through it to get an idea of the view from the soon-to-be-there balcony of the brand new roof apartment.  It is going to be great up there; you can even get a glimpse of the sea in a couple of places!

Other work is progressing, never quite as quickly as I hope but perhaps that is because I’m too impatient.  And that just goes to show that even in Turkey, a Brit is still a Brit!!

(By the way I am having some trouble posting blogs since blogspot has been banned in Turkey; please bear with me!)

Building work continues

We spent all yesterday choosing a colour to paint the hotel.  Actually, we started looking at paint catalogues a few weeks ago and had sort of decided on one colour, but I was having second thoughts.  It is very hard to look at a small splodge of colour on a paint catalogue and imagine what that will look like transferred to an enormous building.  I know, because twice I have chosen a colour I thought would look good – and been disappointed. 

Turkey hasn’t yet expanded to tester pots for the indecisive (I have two pots of paint bought and then rejected when we were painting our bedroom recently!)  Still, we drove the builder so mad pouring over endless catalogues that he bought the smallest available tins of several colours for us to try.  In the end, the one we had sort of decided on a few weeks ago seems to be what we are going for and Cem and I both like it at the moment; but then again we have only tried it on a two metre square section of wall and there is quite a lot to go..!

The plumber has finished work in the rooms and the bathrooms have all been re-grouted.  He is now crawling around in loft spaces to change the direction of flow or drain pipes so we can get rid of the unsightly down pipes on the front of the building.  Yesterday I thought we should all be wearing hard hats as when he dismantled bits of it, they would come crashing down from above with no warning.  But of course this is Turkey and there are no health and safety bullies around!  



what a mess!



There are plasterers working away all over the hotel and even the garden has had a shake up – literally as it has been ploughed up prior to reseeding with something called mouse ear (don’t somehow think that is the botanical name) which doesn’t need mowing.  Cem, Yılmaz, Murat and various friends are doing their bit to add to the noise, mess and general chaos by sanding the furniture that missed their attentions last year.  Some of you know what a huge job that turned into last year.  Luckily there are only three rooms left to do.



the dream team (Cem and Kaan)



So…any of you coming back for a repeat stay this year will see the new improved Poppy Apartments!

The other thing that we are working on at the moment – all be it more quietly - is finding staff. This is no easy task.  Yılmaz and Elif will be here for their third year, cooking and cleaning respectively, but we have to find another cleaner (last year I had a frantic call from Cem while I was in London saying HE was cleaning rooms) and a new barman as Cengiz is going to do his national service.  By the way, for those of you who know him, he has cut his hair in preparation and I didn’t recognize him!

Finding staff here is no easy matter.  In the past, we have made some mistakes – partly due to desperation – hiring both Turkish people AND a couple of English people that have not worked out well (that’s the nice way of putting it), so we are a bit more choosy now. We have had two ladies come to see us about the cleaning job; one lives an hour and a half away by bus and the other has never worked before and hadn’t even told her husband she was applying for a job.  Needless to say, we are still looking….

Plumbers and headaches

Finally…work has started on the hotel.  We have had to decide what is urgent and what can be put off until next year as, despite our dire threats of not taking their guests this year and the resultant apologies (and bottle of Jack Daniels forwarded to Cem), we have still not received the remainder of the money from one of the agencies for last year’s guests.  They are supposed to pay 50% of the money for this year’s advance bookings in May, but that seems increasingly unlikely.  What seems almost certain is that we will start the season with another big dispute with them, sitting in their office explaining that it is hard to pay electric bills, wages etc. when there is no money coming in.  We also make threats to leave the next arrivals at the gate, but the trouble is they know these threats are empty as we don’t want to ruin anybody’s holiday.  So they have us over a barrel really.

Anyway, there is very nice young plumber in the hotel, quietly and efficiently going round each room fixing the many leaks and drips.  Since we built the hotel, the most persistent problems have been of the plumbing variety.  Part of the problem is poor quality materials – pipes that with no warning split and turn rooms into paddling pools, not to mention a strange toilet-flush system that relies crucially on a piece of string.  If the string is too long, the toilet doesn’t flush properly; too short and the reservoir never closes off and the water runs continuously.  It’s not enough to get them the right length as each time you pull it, the nylon thread slips slightly and will eventually be too long again.  Who invented this system?

Another problem is the workmanship.  If I ever build anything again, I will take most care choosing the plumber.  The one we used when building the hotel fancied himself as a bit of an artist and designed pipe connections to rival spaghetti junction for the number of bends and turns they take.  Perhaps he ordered too many pipes and felt he needed to get them all in somewhere, I don’t know.  Anyway, I don’t need to detail the result of these bends on the free flow of water through the pipes.  Suffice it to say that we are now aware of the various ‘black spots’ in the plumbing system and leave easy access to these points.

Tuesday was Cem’s birthday.  We didn’t make a big deal of it, but we had a couple of friends round for dinner and some drinks.  Entertainment was in the form of the boys’ wii – and it’s amazing how grown men are happy to look ridiculous spinning imaginary hula hoops, or flying – in bird form – between imaginary perches, as long as there is enough vodka involved.

Cem celebrating his birthday

I had a couple of glasses of red wine, but not enough to deserve the fuzzy head I had yesterday morning.  It wasn’t aided by the fact that the whole world seemed determined to make a lot of noise – starting with the hotel opposite us whose generator was working at full volume, and the building site next door which had a very large digger delivered - toe-curling screeches as it drove down off the lorry, then the drone of it digging out the foundations for walls.

I went to the hotel to give a lesson and the marble men turned up to polish the travertine round the pool.  This involves a machine which looks a bit like those that polish floors in schools and hospitals, but grinds the top layer off the marble – you can imagine the noise that makes.  To top it all, the plumber decided to tackle the room with the biggest problem, which involved breaking the wall with an angle grinder.

Oh well – it will all be worth it if the plumbing problems are sorted!

Seasonal Adjustments

Sometimes guests have asked me, looking at the seemingly endless days of sunshine, if I don’t ‘miss the seasons’.  Actually, there is much more variation through the year here than most people experience at home.

Firstly the weather.  I won’t go into it much (I seem to mention it a lot!) but the summer sunshine definitely does NOT last all year round.  The two worst months of January and February are out of the way and as usual I was amazed that as soon as we get into March, spring is in the air and the sun seems to be warmer.  Still, there is some rain and it poured down so hard while I was at the market on Sunday that everyone was marooned under the canopies.  These are not, however, are guarantee of staying dry since the water builds up on top of them until it reaches some crucial point and then empties itself in a bucket load – splat – not good if you are standing under that point! 

With the spring weather, the whole world seems to come alive again.  The Poppy tortoises were out the other day – three of them, still covered in dirt (they dig themselves underground to hibernate), playing chase round the garden with a view to making up for lost time!  Soon the martins will be here again – their fourteenth year – to raise more babies and leave their messages all down the front wall (and on Kenny’s window sill!)

 A trip to the market also reminds you what time of year it is as many things are seasonal.  At the moment oranges are plentiful and cheap, but strawberries will be around soon and then the wonderful cherries.  Even some fish are seasonal so ‘hamsi’ (sardines), which are very popular here, are only good for a few months in winter and you must have those from the Black Sea as they are (apparently) the best.

But the biggest difference, or course, is due to tourism.  Through the winter everywhere is quiet and I can walk the dog on the beach and not pass another person.  Soon, the beach will be full of sunbeds, umbrellas and frying bodies.

As we count the weeks until the season opens, many businesses have started repairs and improvements; builders are racing to get houses finished before the building ban comes into effect and everyone is getting ready for some hard work (and looking forward to earning money again).  We also all start talking about what sort of a season it will be, and how things like the price of fuel and unrest in Egypt will affect bookings.

I have this to say… we have never before had so many reservations at this time of year.  So, barring any more volcanic clouds or bankrupt tour operators, fingers crossed it is going to be a good year.

waves at the beach last week

Wonder-full Turkey

While we were in İstanbul, we went to the military museum and were lucky enough to see the Mehter performing.  If you don’t know – and I didn’t even after 18 years in Turkey -the Mehter was the Ottoman military band.  They marched into war alongside the army serving the dual purpose of rallying their own troops and striking fear into the enemy.

The current band, who give performances all over the world, are extremely smart and their marches really are rousing with their combination of percussion and the plaintive oboe-like zurna.  But what really struck me is the fact that they were probably the FIRST military marching band in the world.  The Mehter terrified the Crusaders who travelled through Ottoman lands and supported the Ottoman forces as they marched through Europe right up to Vienna. In this way, the idea for military bands was born in other countries.

part of the Mehter band

What’s more, the music of the Mehter – rousing songs and marches written especially for them – was also much admired, and its form was copied by both Mozart and Beethoven.  So why have we never heard about them?

Wondering this made me remember that there are actually a whole host of things that Turkey SHOULD be famous for…but isn’t.  Here are some of them…

The oldest urban settlement in the world is at Çatalhöyük in Anatolian Turkey, the site of a thriving, planned city nearly 9,000 years ago.  The oldest shipwreck was found in 1982 at Kaş – just along the coast from here.  It is a late Bronze Age merchant boat with a cargo that included copper, tin, glass, olives and trinkets like tortoise shells and ostrich eggs.

You probably know that the city of Troy, which the Greeks supposedly infiltrated with the help of their Trojan Horse, is in Turkey.  Some of you will have seen our own Trojan Horse at Poppy – a winning entry in the Çalış Carnival Parade two years ago.  But did you know that Caesar uttered those famous words ‘I came, I saw, I conquered’ here after victory over tribes in the Black Sea area?  Or that Noah’s ark is thought to have come to rest as the floods subsided on Mount Ararat in north east Turkey?

Yılmaz and our Trojan horse

Turkey was the birthplace of historic legends like Aesop, Homer, King Midas (of the golden touch) and the apostle Saint Paul, while Cleopatra and Alexander the Great came through here on their travels.  By the way, legend has it that Alexander the Great and his men conquered the town of Telmessos (modern Fethiye) by coming ashore disguised as musicians, with their weapons hidden in flute boxes.

Turkey has an estimated 9000 species of flowers, compared to 11,500 in the whole of Europe.  Tulips are native to Turkey and it is said that the Turkish sultan sent them as a gift to Holland.  It is also suggested that tomatoes and cherries originated here.

Altogether, though I have been raving about İstanbul and what a unique city it is, the same can really be said for the whole of Turkey.  It is a country with so much to see and so much to offer and, though I understand that many of the visitors choose it because it is ‘good value’, I hope when they are here they take a little time to look around and see some of the wonders it has to offer!

The sights of İstanbul

So – getting back to İstanbul – there is so much to see and do it is hard to know where to begin.  But the city is divided naturally into sections so it is best to focus on one area in a day; this is what we did.

The historical heart of İstanbul is on the European side, south of the Golden Horn waterway.  Topkapı Palace was the home of the Sultans from 1465 until the nineteenth century.  It was home to up to 4,000 people and contained mosques, schools, a hospital and workshops, as well as a 400-room harem.  The ‘crown jewels’ are on display there – including thrones made of solid gold and an 86 carat diamond.

the gateway to Topkapı palace

Right next to this is Ayasofya, the stunning church which later became a mosque and is now a museum.   Finished in 537 on the site of two older churches, it was the largest cathedral in the world for nearly a thousand years.  The dome, which is 55 metres above the floor and not supported by any columns, was one of the most ambitious structures of its time.  Although various earthquakes have caused the dome to collapse, it has always been rebuilt and still stands almost 1500 years later!

Ayasofya

 

Just along the street from Ayasofya is the entrance to the Yerebatan Sarnacı – an underground water cistern open to the public.  What is so amazing about a water cistern you might ask?  This one was built in the sixth century under the command of the Byzantine Emperor Justinian.  It contains 336 marble columns, brought water from 19km away for use at the Byzantine palace and later at Topkapı and can hold up to 80,000 tons of water.  Bet you’re impressed now!

That’s another thing that makes İstanbul so unique – the histories of the Byzantine  and Ottoman Empires converge here to make everything bigger and grander.  One of the stories I love is that of Sultan Mehmet – known as The Conqueror – and how he took Constantinople from the Byzantines.  His Ottoman troops put the city under siege from across the Golden Horn, but they couldn’t access it by boat as the Byzantines had put a boom across the entrance to the waterway.  His solution?  To build a road of greased logs and make his men carry the ships and boats – estimated to be about 80 in number – over land! After his victory Sultan Mehmet the Conqueror made the city the capital of the Ottoman Empire and had Topkapı Palace built as the home of the Sultans there.

 Another place worth a visit in Istanbul, and one that gives you a view over the site of all this turbulent history, is the Galata Tower.  Itself built in 1348, it is situated on the European shore but north of the Golden Horn, looking across towards Topkapı and Ayasofya.  I have to admit to having an attack of vertigo when I stepped out onto the parapet – but the walkway IS 51 metres above the ground with only a waist-high wall around it.  Not wanting to miss out, I made a slow and very tentative tour of the whole walkway and then disappeared inside.  Luckily, Cem took the time to take some photos!

view from Galata Tower

İSTANBUL!

I have been feeling very ashamed that the boys have visited London many times and know most of its major sights but had yet to see İstanbul.  We decided it was time to correct this and took a night bus from Ankara to İstanbul on Thursday.  I haven’t been on a bus in the Uk for a long time but I suspect that the bus system here is rather superior.  Our journey was just 5 hours on a bus with wide, reclining seats (only 3 in each row) and a television for each passenger, a half-hour stop and a change of driver.

In the three days we have been here, we have managed to cram a lot in.  I visited İstanbul myself about 17 years ago and I enjoyed it but I can’t believe now what a relatively mild impression it made on me.  Possibly it was because I had just returned from visiting southern Africa and had cultural ‘overload’, or perhaps it was because I was on my way to spend a summer in Fethiye and decide what I wanted to do with the rest of my life; whatever the reason, I managed to forget a lot of it.  Now, I am completely wowed by the city and am going to recommend everyone to visit!

What has so amazed me?  Firstly, the layout of the city.  You can look at a map and see that it is divided by the Bosphorous into two halves popularly referred to as the European side and Asian side (Turks prefer Anatolian); but until you are here it is hard to appreciate the importance of this.  The Bosphoros is a strait that joins the Black Sea to the Marmara Sea (which opens into the Aegean), with a width of up to 3km and incredibly strong currents.  It makes the Thames look like a little stream!  Tankers and container ships queue up, their shapes looming in the distance, waiting for permission to pass through with oil from Russia or Chinese goods coming in to the docks in İstanbul.  Add to this the numerous ‘vapur’ or ferries carrying people and cars across the strait and out to the islands, cruise boats giving people the waterfront tour of İstanbul and many little fishing boats buzzing amongst them and you will start to understand what a busy waterway this is.

Kaan on the ferry

The ferries are a piece of İstanbul culture, the standard journey to work for many people but also great fun for us tourists (you couldn’t say the same about the London underground!).  You leave one side of the city (nominally one continent!) and cross to the other, getting a great view of the such sights as the Dolmabahçe Palace, Haydarpaşa Station and Aya Sofia.  You can get a glass of tea from the çaycı to warm you up and if you stand outside you can throw bread for the seagulls whose aerobatic skills are stunning – they caught every piece the boys threw in midair!

The other thing about its position straddling the water is that the mega city of İstanbul, ‘the largest metropolitan city proper in Europe’ (Wikipedia) has districts near the centre that resemble small seaside towns in character. Places like Bebek and Tarabya along the European shore, have the boats, the fish mongers and the water-front promenade.  In addition, they are full of traditional wooden buildings – very quaint and very beautiful, though I guess very expensive too!

I will save the other delights for my next blog as I have to start packing to leave but it is safe to say I will make sure it’s not 17 years before I return!

Galata bridge and Tower