Street music and general life-improvising :)

Hello my beloved!

I know it's been a very long time I haven't posted anything but I realized it's very difficult, when you travel without a laptop, to actually find a place and TIME to write a proper post...

Although now I'm in Belgrade, Serbia, and I'm traveling alone again; So it might give me time to write proper posts about my last weeks in Turkey and the balkan-tour I am on right now. Next week I'll be heading to Prague, where I already have myself a flat with my own room! So I will start looking for a job or a job practice in Czech Republic and stay in the flat at least for april. If it works out I'll stay for may and half of june too, so you wonderful friends of mine are most welcome to come visit me!
If it doesn't work out, I will find myself some nice farm(s) in the Czech countryside :)) My main goal is to speak as much czech as possible this spring! Wish me luck :)

Also, for those of you who haven't seen these, here's a couple of youtube videos of the "band" we formed with my american travel mate Ansel! I met him at the Dikencik-farm in january (you can see him too on the previous post with the farm-video), and we travelled together with him and his friend Zeb all february; later I joined them again in their travels trough Bulgaria and Macedonia in march. We became really good friends and developed a serious addiction to card-playing. Seriously, we would sit playing cards for hours without getting bored. I also actually started to understand and to like poker! Which is quite a miracle compare to how much I used to hate it.

Back at the farm we had a guitar and so Ansel started to search tabs to songs he liked. I often used to come up with a second voice or improvised something on the side if I didn't know the song. Little by little we started to gather a little "repertoire" and to search for more songs we liked. I even taught him an entire song in french, even though he doesn't originally speak it. Now he's almost fluent! :D

After some not-so-serious farm singing we took our "skills" to the test in Istanbul's busiest street, Istiklal Caddesi. We had a lot of fun and met a lot of nice people! Some offered us beer, bottles of water, snacks, even jobs on a future farm in southern Turkey! We got photographed and filmed quite a lot, especially when two high girls without shoes decided to be our biggest fans and to dance in front of us between the hugs and kisses they were trying to give to the boys. One day we even got joined by other turkish street-players and played with them a couple of days, even though they only knew turkish songs :D It was a wonderful experience and I learned that the best way to make new friends in a foreign country is most definitely street singing!
 Now that we've gone our separate ways with my american friends, I really miss our singing sessions! It was something quite magical and always very fun! Let's hope we'll be able to have a singing reunion in Paris in may!

Here are the videos! (I do have more on my camera but I need to find good internet speed to upload them. There also not that good in quality but whatever...) Enjoy! :)

 

Youtube clip about us!

Most of you people have already seen this, but for those who haven't, here we go once more.

I am now volunteering at a farm in the middle of Fethiye's little mountains, closest village is 40 minutes' walk away. We do have wi-fi in our cottage but being all poor travellers, we don't have any device to catch the signal :D so we just hitch-hiked to the village with Ansel to get to an internet cafe. We play cards every night with him and our other volunteer friend Mahna, so much fun!! (You can also see them both on this video). Mahna is from Iran and Ansel from U.S.A. but we are all citizens of the world :P
Tomorrow I'm leaving Üzümlü, going back to Istanbul to see Celine, who is now living there because she found a 4 months' job giving art workshops to children! We also formed a band with Ansel and we'll try to go sing in Istanbul's streets, see if we can make some money or at least provoke a few smiles :) I even taught him an entire song in french, he's an excellent student, we can already have complete conversations even though he didn't know any french before!

Here is the video, it was filmed by 2 australians who were living and working with us a couple of weeks ago, they are on a biking trip around the world; they started from Holland and they will be crossing Asia towards India and end up back home in Australia, planned arrival in a couple of years :D awesome! They are making videos about their experiences, so they made this little ''reportage'' about us :)) I also definitely recommend to follow their other videos, they are super funny people! Enjoy :)

P.S. a more detailed post about this Dikencik farm coming soon, don't worry. Hopefully with pictures, when I find a good computer and a normal internet speed in Istanbul :)

The Horse-Farm Disaster

Hello you!

I am still alive, been now 10 days at an organic farm / guesthouse near Üzümlü -village. But I still haven't told you about my last farm experience with Celine and Manon so HERE WE GO!

The place was held by a brittish couple settled down in Turkey since 6 years. Of course, they still didn't speak turkish. We took a dolmuş (local mini-bus transport) from Fethiye town to Yeşilüzümlü-village (it means green grape valley) and we had to walk down to the house of our new host with brittish instructions. Frenchies got themselves lost and at the end we were brought to the place by a jendarma-car passing next to us (local police).

We had our first ''lunch''. Meaning pieces of bred with jam or cream cheese... Our inner little french-culinarists died inside us in slow and torturous pain. Luckily we got often access to the kitchen so we got to cook ''real food'' too, getting to use these little things called vegetables. Since the beginning, I was not thrilled to be around horses (I am scared of them and I also have absolutely no interest in them), and I had warned everybody in advance that I wasn't going to go near them. My tasks for that week included walking one of the dogs, preparing breakfast (sometimes pancakes sometimes omelettes, yumm), washing the dishes and helping out with the dinner. The tasks in itself were not complicated so it was okay but the atmosphere of the place and staying inside all the time were quite complicating factors. Also the girls had a much worse experience struggeling with horses that were acting crazy and not following orders.

Our host, the brittish couple, would watch TV with every single meal. In the afternoons and evenings it was hollywood movies, in the morning it was an episode of the Supernatural-serie. I cannot describe the joys of seeing zombies in front of your breakfast toasts every single morning. We also got bad luck with weather, it was raining almost all week which made the whole place very muddy so the girls had to be struggeling with the crazy horses in several centimeters of  mudd. Yes, they would bite the girls, even the supposedly nice ponies. They would also block the entrance of the stable leaving you stuck behind them. All the horses had quite bad pasts and they were quite wild... One time Celine tried to ride the pony called Lıttle Star (lol) and the pony escaped and Celine had to run after her. Manon and the brittish woman couldn't help because they were riding their own horses... Celine came back to the house feeling super frustrated and she said she would immediately leave the place if we weren't there with her... She slammed the door and went for a walk and we didn't see her for the next 3 hours :D

I am so lucky they didn't force me to be with the horses, although they would try to make me come to the stable telling hour-lasting stories about their ''touching'' stories and how the volunteers who stayed 3 months could finally gain the trust of the horse aaaand blablablaaa. I know some people are definitely into horses etc. and that's not a problem. I just wish they would respect the fact that I have absolutely no interest in them. What can I say. Some people love to tune their cars or clean their house for hours. Some don't. I could sing the whole day, others would get bored. That's life. Respect.

I did meet very nice dogs at that host's place, actually I have made great dog friends in almost all the places I've been to. I also learned to respect the fact that some people want to dedicate their whole life to a project -like horse caring- that would not be my first (or last) choice. Also learned about brittish eating habbits, so now I can definitely say they are not for me. Of course I know also that I must not generalize and some english families must eat very good food. I also learned to not be affraid of gigantic dogs in herds. The technique is to first get to know them, go sit down at their level and dedicate some loooong minutes to pet them and give them hugs. Next thing you know, they will remember you and obey your orders somewhat better than with a stranger. Yes, there was 4 dogs at that place, 2 german sheperds and 2 mıxes of german sheperd and turkish cangal (huuuuge dogs!). The 2 mixes were still puppies but they were already almost as tall as me when they were standing on 2 feet :D

But the most important thing I learned there was this: always trust your instincts.
With potential volunteer-hosts and wıth everything in life. If you feel that a place is maybe not right for you, it probably isn't. Always listen to your feelings, your instincts, your sences (all 6 of them ;) ) and make your decisions acording to them. :)

Greetings from my french travel friends Manon and Celine

Teatime with Manon (left) and Celine (right)

 
Manon:

After some fun days in Izmir, we arrived to Fethiye during the night of Friday (11.01). Ali came to pick us up at the "otogar" and we arrived in a very nice (despite cold) place. Our host was very welcoming and fond of "permaculture philosophy". He may be a better joker than a philosopher, except if you consider joke as a philosophy which may actually be the best of all.



Sunset at Fethiye's harbour

We woke up quite late and went to visit Fethiye and its surroundings with Ali and his Kangoo. "Kayaköy", the gost village, was a nice discovery. Greek people deserted the place after the end of the war in the 1920s and the village stayed empty. It is now almost in ruins but you can imagine people walking in the streets, going to the church. It is a place where time seems to have stopped and a kind of melancholy is lurking. At the top of the village, you can see the sea and it was so windy that we nearly took off! We improvised an antic play about a girl who left her love in these old stones and it appeared that she mostly just  had taken too much drugs!



Celine:



The Failed Escape

Sunday night (13.01), Manon, moved by a sudden urge to get herself lost in the streets of Fethiye, decided to take me on a trip in the city without maps, compasses or brains. In less than 30 minutes, we were completely loss. Originally, we wanted to see the seaside. We asked a lady "Where is deniz? (=sea)" but she didn't understand. Manon gestured her the water by doing silly wave mimics! Embarrased, we finally found an english speaking girl who explained us that the sea was 30min walk from there. We had promissed to come home soon so we decided to head back towards "Ali the joker farmer" 's place. But first, we enjoyed a fresh ayran. It's a salted drinking yogurt, a local specialty that I seem to have develloped a severe addiction to.




Orange break

At the olive fields, working until sunset.

Because we are clever girls, we decided to take another road to come back. Bad idea: we got completely lost and ended up wondering endlessly in the cold streets. We asked one guy where was the mosque with a green roof and a slide (it was close to Ali's place). What we didn't know, is that there are dozens of mosques in the city, and the colour of the roof can only be seen from far away. The slide is not there because it's a children's mosque, it's just that next to it there is a hotel with a slide ("toboggan"). The guy was completely comfused and didn't understand what we were talking about, so Manon started to imitate the mosque's minaret towers, without success.


Ella the olive picker



Just when I was about to imitate the muezin's prayer sing, Manon decided to gesture the muslim prayer by kneeling over the sidewalk. The guy finally understood and he said we could follow him, but he lead us to a mosque that wasn't ours. We ended up asking every shop if they knew a green mosque with a green roof and a slide. In a phoneshop they tried to help us and started to call every seller in the neighbourhood "hey, Ahmet, come here, you speak english! The ladies need help!"




 
Finally, we put our pride aside and called Ali to pick us up. He didn't even know we were lost because Ella had stayed at the hostel with the light on in our room so he thought we were all home. He spent the whole car ride laughing loudly at us: "Sooo girls, you tried to escape, huh? The olives were too much for you? And you thought shouting "mosque mosque imam imam" would get you back home? What if I was in french streets asking people for a priest? Did you want to marry somebody urgently?"





 

 

 

 

 

 





Ella:

So we stayed one week at Ali the joker farmer's place. He was the nicest host you can imagine, welcoming, very funny and caring. He was always calling us "my dear", "my friend", "my love" etc. and we spent our entire days laughing with him, sharing everyday life. In total we only did two days of "real work" at the olive fields because we were hosted in a hotel in Fethiye town (he takes care of the hotel for the owners), and to go to the olive fields we needed a 45 minutes car ride. So it always depended on our mood and on the weather if we went to the farm or not. But the 2 days we went, we spent the entire day there, taking a meal with us to heat up in the wood oven.

 

The farm is relatively new, only 3 years old, last year was first olive harvest season. There is a little house there but it's not really ready for someone to live there, that's why we were hosted in the hotel. But in the future Ali and his helper friends will probably have the oportunity to stay sleeping directly next to the fields. When it's ready, it will be an amazing place to stay, the nature is breathtakenly beautiful, there is amazing sunsets and you can gaze at a wonderful moonshine and a sky full of stars...

 

 

 

P.S. I apologize for the shitty way these pictures are disposed but blogger is making my life difficult right now and it's a shitty computer without antivirus. But at least you get a feel of what we were doing last week. Next time, a post about our next, less joyful adventures at a horse farm. Cheers everybody!



olives ahead!

Merhaba my friends! (turkish people always add ''my friend'' to every sentence)

Just a quick message to you to tell that everything is going well. On 8th of January we took a flight to Izmir to a party we were invited to (by the same people we met on new year's eve). We were supposed to take a bus but it was cancelled because of snow so that's why we had to take a plane.

We were hosted by amazing people in Izmir, they were the djs and the decorators of the psytrance party we were going to, we stayed 3 nights at their place. So funny times, so friendly people. We hope we will meet them again in some part of the world, hopefully in a place where we could host them to give them their hospitability back!

Yesterday our road was heading towards Fethiye, where ''Ali the strange farmer'' was waiting for us. We left Izmir very early and on our way there we stopped to a town called Pamukkale. It's famous for its white hill of salt and limestone, and it has hot water sources. So you actually have to take your shoes off before stepping on the hill, to protect its whiteness and to be able to walk through the hot water... I can tell you I never thought I would be walking barefoot in the middle of January. The weather is quite cold, maybe 5-10 degrees celsius. (A little bit warmer during the day here in Fethiye,  maybe 15).

The problem is that there is no heating systems inside the houses so we're kind of freezing our asses off and sleeping with 3 blankets... Today Ali our host made us visit Fethiye's greek ghost town (called Kayaköy. Kaya=ghost, koy=village). It used to be a village with a greek community but about 100 years ago there was some problems between Greece and Turkey and the countries ordered that all greeks of Turkey must come back to Greece and all turkish of Greece had to go back to Turkey. So this village was abandonned by the greeks, they had to leave in one week's time. So it was an amazing place to visit with all these abandonned houses and churches...

Tomorrow we will go to the farm for the first time (we are hosted in the city) so we will finally start some serious work... Olives are waiting for us! Wish me luck :))

Everythıng well in Istanbul!

Hı guys!

Just a mıddle-quıck message to tell you that everythıng ıs goıng great ın Turkey!

I wıll wrıte a more detaıled post later but for now let's just say hearıng the prayer call every mornıng at 7 ıs at the same tıme really annoyıng and really nıce and exotıc. Of course, turkısh men love to talk to western women, especıally when ıt's to try to get them to theır restaurant (or theır uncle's cousın frıend's restaurant), but I have to say ıt's not as annoyıng and constant as I thought ıt would be. You learn quıte quıck how to avoıd attentıon, don't look random guys ın the eyes, don't look too happy (or blond :D), pretend lıke you dıdn't hear the ''excuse me can I ask you one questıon?'' etc. (By the way, thıs sentence ıs always followed by ''where are you from'', whıch ıs the questıon I hate the most ın the world.) Also I mıght add that beıng dressed ın weırd colored hıppıe clothes really helps you to stay ın peace. There's not a lot of weırdly dressed people around.

We found an amazıng psytrance rave for new year's eve (yes, we dıd fınd the ıstanbulı hıppıes!), whıch was basıcally the fulfıllıng of every dream I ever had about thıs year's new year. I really thought we would end up ın some basıc shıtty Rıhanna-club ; so lıstenıng to ''real'' musıc was just pure perfectıon... We were a bıt lost wıth what to do. We found a restaurant wıth WıFı where a guy was sıngıng somethıng that seemed to be tradıtıonal turkısh songs ın karaoke, but turned out that ıt was all the tıme the same guy sıngıng. Edla has practıced belly dancıng so she performed a nıce solo ın front of amazed turkısh famılıes and got a free glass of wıne. Then we found some street musıcıans and I asked ıf we could sıng some Bob Marley wıth us and they happılly agreed.

In the restaurant we had randomly googled ''psytrance Istanbul'' and after a lıttle whıle of searchıng we found a party that was 90 METERS away from us :D It had been there all the tıme just waıtıng for us to arrıve! It was an ıncredıble fun nıght, we met a lot of really nıce people, everythıng was just so magıcal! The next mornıng we found out why we dıdn't stress at all or dıdn't plan anythıng for new year's eve : Everythıng was just written down for us! Unıverse had made our schedule and we just had to follow ıt peacefully :)

What else... Weather ıs quıte cold, 7 or 10 degrees celsıus, some days sunnıer and warmer than others. But next week I'll be headıng south near Izmır an Fethıye, so ıt should be a bıt warmer. And, for sure, thıs stıll beats Fınland! After a few days here I realızed how completely happy I was that I left Fınland...! So ıf there's somebody out there who mısses me, comfort yourself knowıng that, for now, I am so much happıer here! Every door ıs open. And I want to fınd even MORE doors to open them all and let the wınd float trough all of them at the same tıme. I accept wındows too. Even door holes.

All I can say from these days' feelıngs ıs thıs: I am completely convınced that 2013 wıll be a magıcal year!
Hope ıt ıs for you too, just trust ıt, let ıt come to you and yes: Anythıng could happen :)

Love,
Ella

Luise from Germany, Edla from Finland an Ella the weirdo.

Flying to Istanbul!

Yep yep, THE day has finally arrived. In 4 hours I'm taking a flight from Paris Orly to Istanbul.
A lot of people have asked me "why Turkey?". The thing is, it's the most far away and warm I can travel without having to take a visa :D and also because I know ABSOLUTELY NOTHING about that country. So exciting! I haven't been checking ANY information at all, no pictures, no maps, nothing. My other friends who are coming already checked some tourist guides etc. but I haven't. Maybe I want to keep it as a surprise :D I'm also not a very typical tourist so...

We also got an answer from a farm near Fethiye (close to Rhodos) that can host us from 8th - 9th of January. So I guess I will be spending 10 days in Istanbul and after that we'll be heading south with Céline and Manon in search of farms :) In Istanbul I'll first be hanging out with my finnish friend Edla. She's european thai box champion so I guess I'll be safe! Tomorrow my german friend Luise arrives also and she's a real farmer cowgirl, and of course there's ME! And later we'll be joinned by french girl Céline who has done some judo and other martial arts too. So I guess we have enough muscle in our team to keep us safe, heha.

Next time I'll be writing it will be from the edge of Europe :)
Ciaooooo!!

P.S. It's also kind of sad that I will be geographically so close to my birth land Syria without being able to visit it... Stupid human kind, stupid dictators, stupid wars...