A Tour of Adana

Recently I went on a tour of Adana. Some of the sights were familiar, but some were new. Here are some pictures from the tour.


First stop was "Ataturk's House." It's a museum where this city proudly displays a house where Ataturk, the founder of this country, stayed a few times in his visits here.

Next to Ataturk's house was a home which wasn't so blessed by his presence and has been left to disrepair.


They call this the "Big Clock." It's old, but I don't know the details.


Then we went to the ethnographic museum where they had an example of a tent used by nomads 2 centuries ago. Reportedly, when you rolled down the walls and door of the goat-hair tent, it had special properties that kept out snakes and scorpions. Since goats quickly destroy vegetation, the main animal that they keep later became sheep instead of goats. I'm rather glad of this fact because reportedly lamb tastes much better than goat meat.


This picture doesn't do justice to its size, but this an entrance to the largest mosque in all of Turkey. You can see it from almost any point in the city.


The interior greatly resembled the famous Blue Mosque, with the main difference being a lack of mobs of tourists. Who needs to go to Istanbul to see 500-year-old mosques when you can come here and see one only 30 years old, and wander around as much as you want?

Pizza! Pizza!

The taste of America has arrived just 3 blocks from my house! And yes, even though they don't eat pig products in this country, there is pepperoni on that pizza I'm holding. It may be made of turkey (the animal, not the country), but it still tasted like pepperoni, which is all that matters. Hooray for globalization.

Kitten (Cat) Caboodle

Well, I thought it was time for some more cat pictures. I think our cats have reached their full size. They're certainly not kittens anymore.

They've become very studious as they get older.
Pamuk is still very much the dominant cat. She'll even guard the sink to keep the faucet away from her sister.

Today we bought a very large can of green beans because we're having lots of company. Pamuk was kind enough to pose for a size comparison.

Happy Ramadan Holiday

Or, Ramazan Bayraminiz kutlu olsun! (as they say here). Ramadan officially ended last night, and today was the first of the 3 day holiday celebrated after Ramadan ends. You heard about my iftar experience during Ramadan. Well, I wanted to include a brief picture of another way to do iftar:
That's right, our neighbors had their friends and family over for an iftar in honor of our neighbor who passed away a month or so ago. They couldn't all fit in their apartment, so the caterer came to our parking lot and they set up a sort of backyard barbecue-style iftar. The pictures were taken from our usual "spying location," our balcony.

Anyways, back to today's holiday. It's kinda like a cross between Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Halloween. The other name for the holiday is Sugar Holiday. People visit family, friends, and neighbors for 3 days. Guests are served coffee, candy, and dessert. Children stop at your door, and wish you "Bayraminiz kutlu olsun," and in return you give them a piece of candy (I love trick-or-treaters!) Today is the biggest day. Ninety percent of the shops are closed. We went out today, and everyone we saw was dressed up. If they can afford it, they usually buy a new outfit just for today. Today is primarily for spending time with family, and then the next 2 days you see friends and neighbors. So, it's been a quiet day for us, but the next 2 days should be busy.