A Quick Hop Over to Adana in pictures

A Quick Hop Over to Adana

The beauty of living on the island is being able to go to the big land, i.e. the Continent. We took the shuttle from downtown Kyrenia and in an hour we were at the Ercan airport. A few cappuccinos later we boarded the plane which stayed in the air for the whole 15 minutes, after what it descended to the welcoming land of Turkey.
After being on the island for six months coming to Turkey was somewhat different. As much as I adore Cyprus, the magnitude of things in Turkey and by that I mean not only in economical terms but also nature – the mountains, the sea, the trees – everything is bigger in Turkey. I think yours truly really missed the second motherland. Oh, it was so good to step on the red Turkish soil again.

People in Adana are very welcoming, they are so warm and loving that it is hard to make any comparisons. Most Turks are very hospitable, but in Adana it’s like everyone has a PHD in hospitality.

Yakup’s mom made such amazing food that just looking at how she was preparing it made your mouth water. The hit of the trip for me food-wise was dolma made with dried vegetables. Dolma means ‘stuffed’ in Turkish and it is a very popular dish, in summer they use fresh vegetables like tomatoes, peppers, egg-plant, zucchini, etc. and stuff them with rice, spices and meat but in winter they use the dried vegetables for dolma. I tell you - the dried version tastes a lot better than the fresh!

Meeting some new friends was wonderful too, we had a fantastic night out with Ismail and Aziz, Yakup’s good old friends and I was lucky to be able to meet them too. We were treated to a fantastic night of live music, performed by our friend Aziz, and a wonderful time drinking rakı (Turkish anis-flavored vodka) and talking about life. The table was full of delicious food in Adana style with fruit being served for dessert. The persimmon with honey and walnuts was a new taste for me, yes, we ordered a few of those!

On Sunday we went to the mountains. Yakup’s lovely brother Ayhan wanted me to see the snow, since there is no snow in Cyprus and he thought I’d miss it, so we headed up north for a day trip. It was good to spend some quality time with mom as well, as she is always busy around the house, it was a treat to have her to ourselves for the day. We had another fantastic meal by the lake on the mountain with a cat chorus and ducks competing over the scraps from the table.

Good-byes are always hard, but we made them all promise that they’d be visiting us soon in the beautiful Kyrenia.

Greetings from the Island of Love,

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