I can not recall when I last spent 5 days in one place. How it came to be this place is bewildering. The city is grey and the hills are white. It snows and rains and is cold. Freezes at night and not much better in the day.
I have walked the town. There is little to see. There are two significant buildings from about 1300 as I probably mentioned. The curse of modern cities is here as well and I refer to kids. They pester they are rude and demand money and when refused become very agressive. They throw sticks and stones and really make cities unpleasant places. However its not all bad. There are many friendly and helpful people. The Policeman outside the Police station had a cheery word so I stopped and talked with him. I asked if he learnt English at University. Yes he said. So I responded, you need a degree to carry a machine gun in Turkey thats good ! He enjoyed the humour.
I am going to have difficulty finding a picture today. The building with the twin towers is an old one beautifully decorated and made before the days when they put the pointy tops on.
The fellow in the window is not me !
Its an old fashioned city. Men wear hats caps and skull caps, and many of the women fully cloaked, and the younger ones with long coats and scarves. Lots of beards. The city structure is like China. In this street copper pots, the next nuts and spices, then hardware, then elektroniks, and then tyres, and so on. The suprising thing is the markets, both in the street selling all sorts of items including fruit, lots af good fruit and vegetables and fish, and then behind inconspicuous doors several levels of shops.
Its a very male society. Groups of men sitting drinking tea, in tea (cay) shops playing cards or backgammon and smoking. I went into the dining room tonight. The air was blue with smoke. 30 men dining in groups and drinking Raki. Only one couple. They were drinking wine which is the first time I have seem that. I suspect romance was the cause.
The diet has sorted itself out. Hard boiled eggs bread olives and tomato for breakfast. Soup, eggplant and mince with rice for lunch: and soup, salad, and something like stuffed olive leaves, stuffed peppers, or spicy fried liver, and with all meals, bread and Cay ! But I do manage a Raki at night and its very pleasant.
So I hope I can soon report on the road again.
nzl04
