It’s mid July and it’s getting hot in Alanya. Very hot. It’s the kind of heat that makes you want to spend the days either in the pool or somewhere close to an air-condition. To drink 4 liters of cold water throughout the day and eat watermelon for lunch and ice cream for dinner. This is also the reason why I changed the appearance of my blog into white by the way. Don’t get me wrong, I still believe in pink. But I associate the color white with fresh and cool and that’s exactly what I need at the moment. Also I started to practice a newly learned verb in Turkish: Şekerleme yapmak, also known in other languages as ‘Siesta’ or ‘Il dolce far niente’ or ‘taking a nap’. You get the idea.. it’s that little hour of ‘sweet doing nothing’ in the afternoon. And I’m a big fan of that.
The heat lets the air tremble and burns the streets. Hours go by slowly and it feels like the sun is gonna be stuck high up in the sky forever. From sunrise till sunset there is the constant noise of crickets sitting in the trees, vibrating till they drop dead from exhaustion. Pretty tragic. Judging by the sound there must be thousands of them sitting on the branches but it’s funny how you almost never see any. The smell in the air varies from sun lotion, sweat and exhaust fumes of traffic during the day to delicious food, often the smoke of barbeque, perfumes and cigarettes at night. During the day tourists are mostly to be found on the beach, defying the stitching sunrays to get that much desired holiday tan. But usually ending up with a sunburn at the end of the day. Thank god the sun sets around 8pm so we get a chance to cool off and breathe more easily again. I love people watching from our Restaurant terrace when the evening falls. Dressed up, excited and ready for a dinner and a fun night in town they walk by, on Alanya's boulevard, heading towards the harbor. At service hours all tables are taken, hundreds of steaks are being served and countless of cocktails are being mixed. The kitchen, the bar, the waiters and all three bosses, everyone is working full speed, perfectly in sync with the upbeat rhythm of the music. The guests are enjoying the food, the attention and the atmosphere. Around midnight the restaurant slowly but surely somewhat turns into a night club and the waterpipes come on the tables, spreading a soothing scence of apple, cherry or mint. ‘All night Happy Hour’ a sign reads at the bar. And that’s definitely a promise kept, night after night.
Happy hour until the next morning, when the sun will come up and temperatures rapidly will climb up to forty something again. Slowing down the daily life.. until it almost comes to a complete stand still for one blissful hour of șekerleme yapmak in the afternoon. Just long enough until the worst heat will decline and the anticipation for the night rises again. It’s very much like the changing tides of the Mediterranean Sea this daily rhythm in high season, along the coast of southern Turkey. I remember an ad for some travel agency in Turkey that I once saw at my arrival in Antalya with the motto: "You call it holiday, we call it every day". I think I truely get it now.
image by Pinterest.com
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