Castles and Police Stations, The Kastamonu residency excursion

Myself and Gywen at Kastamonu Castle

I will admit, I am more than a few days behind on this blog, but I will do my best to catch you all up. After settling in for the day in Cide, more of the crew began to arrive. Truly a great team, and hands down the best and most diverse group of archaeologists I have gotten to work with, we have team members from all over Turkey, Scotland, the Netherlands, Germany, England, Finland and of course, one North American, yours truly. Since many of us are from away, we needed to collect residency booklets to allow us to live in the country for the duration of our research. We all received Research Permits/Visas from our respective Turkish Consulates, and now we needed to pay the Turkish Police a visit to acquire the rest of the needed documentation in the city of Kastamonu, about two hours outside of Cide. This is a long process and a full day affair, although we managed to have some fun at the same time.

I slept most of the ride in, unfortunately the turbulent road got to some and there were some quick pull overs to the side of the road. Once we arrived in Kastamonu we headed straight for the police office, and the waiting began as the directors answered questions to the police and collected our passport and photographs. We sat there for hours, and then were able to leave to explore the city. We grabbed lunch inside a market restaurant. The menu had few photos and was only in Turkish, so ordering was a bit of a gamble. Perhaps I should take up at the Casino, because I managed to get a delicious meal which was a thin bread with a spinach spread baked in the centre, called etli ekmek (sorry if I am butchering the spelling), as well as salad and pop (which the rest of the crew like to make fun of me for saying, they call it Soda). After lunch the directors went back to handle more logistical stuff with the police, and the crew went to explore the city, primarily Kastamonu’s Castle (the only main tourist attraction).

The Castle was beautiful, mostly ruins now, but had an excellent view of the entire city. We tried to count the mosque towers we could see, but there were too many. The Castle was built in the Byzantine, which is my interest area, and was commissioned by the Emperor Commenos, later it was reconstructed by the Ottomans and was deemed a national archaeological site after its destruction in an earthquake. As we rounded the corner of the castle I was approached by a woman wearing a full hijab who was speaking feverishly to me, but I couldn’t understand. I found out she wanted her picture taken with me, and before I knew it I had about seven people asking to have their photos with me and some of the crew. They were tourists from Baghdad and seemed genuinely excited to find out I was Canadian, and had some very nice things to say about Canada. After the castle we went to a café to wait for the directors who were still at the police office. I had been craving mojitos for days and they had a virgin mojito slushy, which was just perfect.

Finally enough of the legalities were finished that we each received our little blue booklets which make us temporary Turkish residents, although Bleda, one of our directors still had more things to work out. One car was able to go home to Cide, while the rest of us stayed in the city to wait some more. In the meantime we went to a large shopping mall, and wandered around some more. Once all was completed it was far past supper so we grabbed Pide, a bread egg and cheese dish and headed home. It was a long day, but I enjoyed exploring and the city of Kastamonu.

The survey still has not begun as we are waiting for the representative who will monitor our work to arrive, so we are behind schedule. Stay tuned for our first survey experience, and the Aurora vs stray dog vs rabies vaccine tale.

Spinich bread dish

mint and lime fresh slushie