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.