Imagine – 1½ month ago we were at my in-laws (my kids grandfather) andsimply enjoyed every minute. It’s always so surreal, when you get home from a vacation, that you for not that long ago, were in a completely different part of the world. As if you just have to blink your eyes twice to find out where you really are …

So the first days we are in Turkey, I spend a lot of time blinking my eyes – so to speak 😉 Finally, finally, we are here. Sometimes the trip has been planned for half a year, sometimes only for a few months. This time we only knew it 14 days before, so it was a bit of an impulse trip because of a really bad summer at home, a lot of work etc, etc.

To miss:

And above all, we really miss to get down there. Even though sometimes (and so it was this year), we say that “this year we will not go down there. We are going to see the world, see some other countries, we have to stay home and enjoy the danish summer, do something at the house … “etc., Etc. Of course, we naturally miss our father (-in law)/grandfather – it’s never fun to miss such a central part of one’s family. Especially not for the grandchildren (our kids). But we also miss the experiences to go out and eat every day if we feel like it, the sun and the heat, not least, to swim everyday and choose whether it’s going to be in the sea or in the pool today and so much, much more. But most of all, we miss the sounds, the smells and flavors of Turkey.

Yes, that might sound a bit crazy, but that’s how I can best describe it. But don’t you recognize the feeling of something unique and special for a certain place, a unique smell of the land and you find another pace, when you’re there?

DNA?

Perhaps this feeling only excists, when you really know a place and have comed there for several years? When it crawls underneath your skin and becomes a part of one’s DNA. In any case, I enjoy the smell of the sun, the earth, the sea and the heat in another way, when we are in Turkey. The smell of warm big city (which is not always the scarest smell depending on whether the city and its inhabitants have cooked at 45 degrees in the summer or fired with coke, when only 15º in winter). And in one way or another, all the barking dogs that have already gotten up in the village with grandfather do not bother me as much as they will do at home. Or the pushing cars (which for some reason almost stopped pushing this year ???).

Grandfather lives in a small village called Duaci aprox. 15 minutes drive from Antalya city. The village is at the foot of the mountains on a plateau just above the million city of Antalya. So here is quite peaceful, even though the village becomes a bit bigger and bigger from every time we visit.

Size is important

I’m not quite aware of how many inhabitants currently lives in Duaci köyu, but at least quite a few compared to the 1.8 million, which at the last count was in Antalya City. Holy Moly this is many !! So we enjoy the peace and quiet of being in a small modern village close to the big city. Something that grandfathers two wind-catchers really helps to emphasize. Have you ever discovered how the pulse and breath goes down, when you are sitting in peace and quiet in the hot breeze and hearing such two instruments (yes, what should you call them?) ring just as nicely in the wind? It will not be much more relaxing (in the city the sounds would drown in honks and shouts).

My father-in-law’s house is located directly along side a protected forest. If you are lucky, you can encounter both loose dogs, snakes, scorpions and wild boar (sounds exciting right?). My father-in-law has contributed chickens to the collection (they go right outside his wall and find things and cases and contribute with an egg once in a while). In the morning you can hear the shepherd guide the goats through the woods and out to the grazing areas not far from there. It’s just the nicest sound to hear them walking with their individual sounds and bells. Then you really know, that you are in another world far from home.

Just peace and quiet:

So, what I enjoy most is to get up early and go for a walk all alone in peace and quiet – sometimes early enough to see the mountains be colored completely pink by the sunrise. There it’s often the Yalla man who wakes me up (aka the muessine who calls for prayer). It always happens around 5 o’clock in the morning, so one can count on him. However, I do not always hear him, because I do not notice anymore, that there’s a call for prayer 5 times a day. It has just gone to a shelf on the hard disk, where it says …. sounds from turkey …. . And that’s okay. Now, the laughing speakers, the prayer and the penetrating “BIIIP” afterwards, is just a part of being in my other home country.

There are many benefits of living privately. One of them is quite obvious, that you experience a different peace and quiet and rhythm, than you do in a hectic environment at a hotel, where everyone seems to be hoping to get the best sun lounger, the freshest food from the buffy dishes at the buffet and by all means the best vacation for the hard earned money.

Up with grandfather, you are included in the daily life. Yes, he is a senior citizen, so there is not much happening. But then you can keep a close eye on the neighbors’ everyday life, when they shout at the kids, when it jangles a bit from the kitchen, etc.

And then you can go for a walk. Like to the local baker in the morning. In peace and quiet. All alone.

When I was alone in Turkey in the spring, I walked to the local bakery a couple of times. And my father-in-law put a bigger search on for now, I had gone away and couldn’t find back. Not at all. I just enjoyed the trip and, like this time, pictures of the swelling fig trees should be taken, the always beautiful olive trees when the light filters through their dusty leaves, fights between the freestanding turkeys, the old man sitting with his wife guarding their two goats, the ever changing landscape and the beautiful mountains, the many creative gardens, and not least of all the activity at the busy bakery.

The bakery is one of the funniest places to visit. I think they have gradually become accustomed to me suddenly showing up once or twice a year and taking pictures of them. I can’t say, that we can really make ourselves understandable with each other. My Turkish is simply not good enough. But I can say a bit. And you can always smile and laugh. They always pose willingly, I get my pictures and most of the village has something to laugh about until my next visit, where the clown come and take the same mysterious pictures.