Sounds like you are settling in to this traveling stuff - learning to navigate around strange places, shopping where the locals shop, etc. The bazaar sounds like it would have been interesting.
Nothing of note happening here. This week is supposed to be dry but cold - still no forecasts of minima below zero though.
Google is a funny thing. If I sign on here, i am automatically signed on when I open gmail, but if I sign on to gmail, i am not signed on here!
ReplyDeleteI wasn't aware of the role Turkey has had in the Syrian war. Turkey has built an enormous number of dams on the Euphrates and its tributaries - maybe 27. Syria has had a ten year drought, and in part that would have been caused by a lack of water coming downstream from Turkey. The dams are enabling Turkey to grow cotton in an area where cotton has never grown before, and to generate hydro power (there are quite a few wind farms here as well). Turkey has a lot of water. Land that looks like it should be marginal isn't. The main problem appears to be steep slopes and rocks, although there are many flat plains. Some of the steep slopes have enabled them to have very deep dams.
Of course the Syrian drought was probably only one of the many causes of the war. Today we will go past more refugee camps.
Syrians have free education and health care available to them in turkey, but there are many children on the streets. The day i arrived in Turkey two syrian children tried to get money from us as we got out of the bus at the hotel and I saw some sleeping on the pavement in Istanbul. There actually don't appear to be any more here, although yesterday we had a number of children trying to sell us things. The local police tried to move them away from us and the kids (complete with very large trays of bread rolls on their heads) tried to hide among us.
The area around Gaziantep is known for pistachios. In a shop there i counted 23 different kinds of pistachio for sale. The fields for many miles had pistachios growing. The baklava contained pistachios rather than walnuts (the usual nut in baklava elsewhere). Here they use a lot of pistachios, but 50:50 with walnuts. Some of the kofte have both mince and walnuts.
ReplyDeleteI don't know if you have seen a bazaar. The shops tend to be very small and narrow, but some are just narrow and widen out at the back because they are mainly behind other shops. They are covered, but light can come in through slits in the roof (depending on the roof construction) which is very high. The main lane in a bazaar is reasonablly wide, but the lanes get narrower and the roofs lower as you get further away from the main lane. Everyone puts some of their wares into the laneway but the shops selling spices and dried vegetables tend to go further into the laneway. It is really easy to get lost, but maybe you are supposed to work out where you are by looking at the ceilings because they appear to be different in each lane.
My phone appears to have gone on strike. Maybe it is just off and I don't know how to turn it on again. Next time i see a turkcell place i will ask, and buy a month of calls.
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