A nice and easy day in Mersin!

Hello!

The only thing interesting from last evening is that our room had a connecting door – and boy, we have never had good luck with those! 

Beautiful sunrise this morning from our balcony!

Coastal park; hotel in the background

My own particular favorite came one night in Waikiki when the man next door started pounding on the door at 2 am – because we were making too much noise!  As there were three of us in the room – me, Robert and Mom, and we were all three sound asleep, we were, to put it mildly a bit surprised.  Since then, we have tried mightily to avoid that door.  Well, we noticed it after we had moved in yesterday but when the folks moved in next door – not sure how many of them there were – it’s amazing how much noise can come through.  So, we asked to be moved, and were given 1015 – two floors down, but a lovely corner room, with one balcony and two other huge floor to ceiling windows looking out in different directions.  Definitely a better room! 

Pied Wagtail - right, RRZ?

Quiet night, and up around 7:30 am.  Lovely shower – although to be honest, when I took mine, it was like I my core was still a bit frozen from Goreme!  It’s amazing how long the cold can stick with you!  Down for a very good breakfast about 8:30 am.  Today we didn’t have too many plans, as we hadn’t planned on being here at all this trip.  We also sent in not one but two bags of laundry for washing … I think we are going to set a record for expensive laundry being done, but as R says, we didn’t pack enough clothes to NOT do laundry for six weeks.  (Looking forward to getting back to England, as Phil and Dan have a washing machine, and there are also self-service laundries all over England!)  At this point, we shouldn’t (hopefully) have to do anything for a week or so!

Faux archeological site!

Me!

Skateboard  park with mosque in background

Our first jaunt was a walk along Mersin’s stunning waterfront.  According to Robert, in the guide books, Mersin gets rather a bad rap due to the fact that it is Turkey’s largest Mediterranean port city. There are many different ships and boats of all sizes in the harbor, some moored and some moving in to be unloaded.  A very busy place! To be honest, Mersin reminds me in some ways of both San Diego, and Chicago’s waterfront in others.  As it turns out, beginning at our hotel, and stretching for several miles, is a really lovely park that goes on and on.  Lots and lots of palm trees, and gardens.  There are children’s playgrounds, there are rental bikes, there are very clever adult exercise areas, a jogging track and on and on.  We passed a lovely band shell for concerts and events, and there were various areas made to look like some of Turkey’s archeology.  There were huge pithoi (vases like at Hattusas) as well as “broken” archeological arcades and temples.  All in all, a very, very lovely park.  We were impressed!

Trojan horse outside archeological dig!

It's really that big!

After that, we got the car out and made our way to the museum, but being a Monday … it was closed.  (I was hoping, but it didn’t pan out.)  We did find an archeological site, located in the middle of the city, called Yumuktepe, but there really wasn’t anything for us to see.  It is still under excavation, so basically the working areas were covered with plastic all up and down the hillside.  According to Wikipedia, it is a former Hittite vassal colony, and there are 23 levels of occupation dating from ca. 6300 BC.  The earliest tools are made of either stone or ceramic. Both agriculture and animal husbandry (sheep, cattle, goats and pigs) were among the economic activities in Yumuktepe.  In the layer which corresponds to roughly 4500 BC, one of the earliest fortifications in human history exists, and during the chalcolithic age an early copper blast furnace was in use.  Originally, Yumuktepe was probably a coastal settlement, but because of the alluvium carried by the nearby river Müftü, the mound is now 2.5 kilometers (1.6 mi) north of the Mediterranean shore.  However, in front of the site, was, surprisingly, a Wooden Trojan Horse!  It looks exactly like the replica that is displayed in front of the Troy site up the coast – and we have no idea what it was doing in Mersin – unless, of course, it decided to go south for the winter? 

Boy carrying Simit (type of bread) on his head!

Sound it out loud!

Lights that count down to 0!

At any rate, there was a long sign next to it, but entirely in Turkish, so we took several photos and bid it adieu.

From there, we headed for a drive up the coast.  Rather busy and frantic at times, but soon we were back out in the country, for an enjoyable drive.

Seriously--have you ever seen this many satellite dishes?

R's sea bass

My quesadilla!

Headed back around 2-ish for a late lunch at the hotel.  Robert ordered their sea bass, which came served on a bed of pureed roasted eggplant with a medley of vegetables consisting of mushrooms, carrots, zucchini, pearl onions, roasted garlic, potato and beet.  Quite a combination and he loved every bite!  (He wanted to take a picture of the completely clean plate, but I told him I thought that wasn’t really appetizing!)  I had a beef quesadilla that came with a small salad and French fries.  Excellent too, especially as they had a smoky ketchup that was wonderful!  We also had a lovely bottle of Turkish Sauvignon Blanc, after which we headed back upstairs for a nap!  Up now (it’s after 5 pm) and our clothes have all been returned in beautiful (and clean!) condition.  I seriously don’t know how they manage to fold everything so well – our t-shirts and R’s long-sleeve shirts come back so flat!  (I remember once having laundry done in Venice, and I carried one of the returned t-shirts for weeks, as it was so well folded, I hated to wear it!) 

Not much else going on!  Tomorrow is Robert’s 76^th birthday, and we are going to celebrate it in Adana.  I am definitely going to be on the lookout for a beautiful Turkish cake for him, and I am hopeful that we can find me a gold bracelet as well, but I certainly can’t insist on doing that on his birthday.  Fortunately, we’ll be there two days! 

More later!

m

xxx