Van Tourism: Mission Accomplished

There are basically four things in Van - Akdamar Island, Van Castle, the Muradiye waterfall, and the Van cat. Look at any Coca-Cola billboard, and you'll see all four, stacked one on top of the other - the waterfall as a base, with the castle on top of it, mounted by the church at Akdamar, and finally ruled over by a humongous white cat head. Walk into any fast food restaurant in town to see this startling vision of how things could be.

Two weeks ago, Murat and I went to Akdamar; last week I went to Van Castle and was robbed by ten year  olds; occasionally I see these white cats watching me from the bushes. Who knows what they're planning? So this weekend it was time to go see the waterfall.

We took Nevzat's father's car about an hour north of the city. Nevzat has a driver's license, but that can mean different things in Turkey. It can mean that once, a long time ago, he passed a short driving test. That's just a personal guess. The car was a stick shift, and for the hour Nevzat drove, Cihat and Bulent were yelling, "Bir. Iki. Uch - no, uch! Durt. DURT!" calling out the gear names as Nevzat shifted. While this was going on, I was yelling, "CRANK THE EVANESCENCE!" The band's debut album, smash hit of 2002, was in the CD player.

You may be able to tell from the picture that I got the wrong signal about hands on shoulders. Nevzat, on the left, is obviously not going for it.

People in Turkey love the picnic. Everyone is just picnicking uncontrollably. And it shows - the area on which we threw down our Turkish blanket was littered with plastic trash. It was a little sad, and my friends agreed. It is like this in the southeast, they said. People do not think about preserving the pretty places. However, we picked up our picnic, though it was no type of picnic I've ever experienced. Cihat threw down a portable grill, filled with coals it took the better part of a half hour to stoke. That was Bulent's job. Nevzat cut up the salad, which is basically just tiny chunks of cucumber and tomato and a few other vegetables. My job was to put out the vibe. I was pretty decent at it until I got light headed because I was standing in the smoke. Bulent had to physically move me.

Not Pictured: Troll who lives under the bridge. Out to lunch.

We were there for a few hours, grilling chicken and losing in cards (may have just been me). On the way home we switched to Green Day ("CLASSIC" I yelled over the sputtering motor. For some reason we had to keep it under 90 kph. Cihat said to not pay any attention to the engine light). They dropped me off after dark; as I went to bed, I realized I had forgotten to eat dinner. I thought about the cookies I have hoarded, but then I realized I wasn't hungry anymore. Picnic indeed.