The Yali - Home Sweet HomeI’ve apologised before for being late on updating my blog before, so although in blog world I have two and a half weeks left of work in Cide, as I type this I am about to go to bed to wake up for my last day of work on the Cide Archaeological Project. So it seems fitting that I take this post to reminisce on the lovely town of Cide, and life at the Yali Otel over the past wonderful weeks.
Cide is situated on the Black Sea coast of Turkey, it’s a small town of about 6,000 people and although it is still relatively unknown even among many Turks outside the Black Sea region, it is on the rise as a local tourist hub for vacationing Turks. Cide has naturally rocky beaches, which I had great plans to snorkel over, but I am sad to say I never made it to these natural beaches. Just minutes outside our hotel, however, is a big beautiful, artificial sand beach. This beach is perfect for everything but snorkelling since any life is covered with sand. I must say we work so hard that I didn’t get out swimming as often as I would have liked, and I am kicking myself for not making the most of the most beautiful waters I have ever set foot in. Nothing beats a refreshing swim, and floating in an aqua sea looking at the mountains. The beach itself was vacant when we first arrive, now it is home to hundreds of local tourists each day. From the bikini to the burka clad, it’s an interesting site!
Beach, before the swarms of tourists arrived!
Just outside the beach is a nightly market, selling grilled corn on the cob, grilled chestnuts, and gifts like carpets, beach toys, sun dresses in Cide’s traditional fabric and jewellery. A fifteen minute walk from the hotel will land you in the city centre which has more tourist shops, and other small stores, and some restaurants. It’s small and basic, but everything you need can be found. If you follow the beach there is a lovely walkway with fish restaurants and icecream stands. The harbour can be viewed from my hotel balcony and is a beautiful little cove with fishing boats and a lovely pier which dolphins can be spotted near! It’s a beautiful, calm location, and when you work all day you can appreciate the fact that there is nothing really to do besides enjoy the salt air, and perhaps take a walk or swim.
Peir in Cide which our hotel is in front of!The Yali Otel is the hotel which is our home base, and the team members on the project are ever changing, meaning the nightly activities at the Yali have also changed over the weeks. I arrived at the beginning of the field season with all of the other students, whom I became great friends with. Many a night was spent having beers on one of the balconies overlooking the sun set over the black sea, or tucked inside watching some sub-titled movie, inappropriate documentaries on youtube (look up Married To the Eiffel Tower, and be prepared to be creeped out!), and reruns of the absolutely hilarious Limmy’s Show (a Scottish comedy). After my peers left I became the solo student on the projects, which meant nights got significantly quieter and rather lonely, although I have enjoyed some quiet time to walk and read. I am the only female left on the project besides the co-director, Claudia, whose husband, child and mother is also staying at the Yali, which means I now have a room all to myself. Sleeping alone is still weird to me, as there was a constant change over of roomates throughout the first four weeks. I began with two roomates: Bus and Fiona, then Tuce joined us, after Bus and Tuce left Lorraine joined the room, and when Fiona left Lilith joined us for a couple nights. I really enjoyed sharing my room, myself and Fiona nicknamed our room the Celtic Corner since we are both folk music loving girls from Scotland and New Scotland. This later changed into the Ghetto Corner, because we are just that hardcore. One of my favourite memories of the Yali was buying candles in town to stick into wine and beer glasses, lighting up the balcony so we could read by the candle light, or just using the balcony as a barre to do some ballet warm ups while watching the still harbour with its little boats.
On my balcony! My final Cide memory I will leave you with is Cide Festival and the infamous Neon Pirate Viking ship experience:
Every day from the field we drove by the always intriguing and entirely out of place “Fair” in Cide, which consisted of a kids merry go round, bumper cars, and a swinging ship called The Viking, which was orange and had pirates on it… as all Viking ships would. After much harassment by Fiona and myself, the boys, Maarten and Sami reluctantly went to the fair with us. We boarded onto the ship, five of us into one row and pulled back the safety bar. At first it was nice, then it was fun, and then I was absolutely scared shitless as we almost turned upside down. I could hear the machine creeking with age, and could feel my body lift out of the seat and slip past the bar. I screamed so hard that the guy let me off while the rest continued. I don’t think we have ever laughed so hard! Next, myself and the girls tried our hand at the bumper cars, which we could barely manoeuvre so there wasn’t so much bumping involved. Definitely a laugh.
THE VIKING. Be afraid.Although Cide fairly quiet, with mostly vacant streets, one time of year gets extremely busy. Cide Festival is a four day event with various games, events, and concerts. I felt like I was walking through the Halifax boardwalk during the buskers with so many people congregated on the boardwalk and streets. Although we ventured out to see one of the concerts briefly, and some went to see the event which includes a bunch of guys swimming across the cove and climbing up a greased pole to retrieve a flag, we otherwise didn’t partake in the festivities. We all go to bed fairly early since we work such long days. Luckily I sleep very sound, because the music went late into the night. However, this isn’t suprising since I rarely awake for the sounds of nightly prayers which play through speakers from each mosque in the city, and it seems every second night there is a firework display as well!
Sami, Maarten, Fiona and me, so excited to be at Cide Fest! haha
So this has been home for the past weeks, up next will be a quick post about our day off in Gideros!
Aurora
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