Two weeks ago, for Eid break, my friend Hacer (pronounced Hajer) and I went to
Turkey. We visited the village that Hacer is from, called Kahramanmaraş or just Maraş, it's small but
beautiful. Currently Hacer’s family is building a house there. We stayed in one
of the rooms that was finished but the place still has a ways to go.
The trip began at midnight Abu Dhabi time when Hacer’s dad
drove us to the airport. We then flew to Istanbul, and then took a short
beautiful day plane ride to Maraş.
The lake
Once we landed, we drove to her house, which is on a
mountain, and she showed me around. Her house has 4 floors, 7 bedrooms, 7
bathrooms, a pool (pictured above), a tennis court, an elevator, and 3 porches.
Lucky!
After the tour Hacer and I played with her Husky puppy Joey, who is adorable!
Then Hacer showed me her goats Cinnamon and Rice Pudding,
Cinnamon the male goat is pictured above.
Right next to the goats are the chickens who share a pen
with the turkeys, haha turkeys in turkey :)
While we were enjoying the animals the sun was setting, it
was beautiful! Although it was sunny, it was very cold and we had to wear lots
of layers. We also had heating problems so we spent a lot of time drinking hot
tea which her grandma would make us, 24/7. Her grandparents spoke only Turkish
so I picked up on a few words, Yok-No, Tamam- Okay, Sal- Thank you.
The next day the donkey that Hacer rented arrived, we named
it Donkey. But while we were taking it to its stall we opened the door and were
shocked to find another goat. We named it Fluffy.
Sadly we later found out that Fluffy was Hacer's driver's Eid
goat, that they would sacrifice on the night of Eid :(
Me and Fluffy. The rest of the day was spent riding Donkey,
playing with Joey, and pampering Fluffy. That evening we went to Hacer’s Uncle's
house, who lives on the same mountain, and had dinner there.
Hacer and her Uncle's cat
The following day we rode the donkey and
played with the goats and dog. There was always something to do.
The next day we all went to her grandpa’s farm which was 45
minutes away. Along the way we saw herds of sheep ready for Eid.
The farm was very nice. This picture shows the entry road to
the farm.
The farm’s gazebo
One of the 3 farm dogs
Hacer’s cousin Sami and his friend. After a nice day at the
farm we had a very nice Eid dinner, but were sad to hear that Fluffy was no
longer with us :(
The day that followed we went downtown to do a little
shopping. It was very nicely decorated for Eid.
The days that came after those were spent watching movies,
playing with the animals, drinking tea, skyping, hiking, shopping, and enjoying
the sunsets.
Me on the last day.
Me and Hacer on the last day.
The transferring flight had an 8-hour lay over which Hacer
and I spent in the world lounge, fancy schmancy. In the end the trip was tons of fun! It was a great experience and I'm glad that I had the opportunity to see Turkey!
