drive through weekend

we spent the weekend driving around and stopping over in Canakkale and Bozcaada, an island in western turkey. we passed famous Gallipoli and Troy sites as well. Bozcaada was the main focus though, we wanted to relax a bit. there was a beach and nice taverns with famous local wine and turkish foods of course. we spent saturday evening with a friend of doctors who knew someone who knew someone and we ended up at a local grill party in a small garden, overlooking the castle which is apparently really freakin old.

Bozcaada is a romantic small island with a small town where im sure everyone knows everyone. the Greek influence is very strong. the wines were indeed great. a bus (3tl) takes to the other side of the island where there are 2 beaches. views are nice and so on... its nice for a quick visit.

shot video from beach:


pictures from the trip :p

docotr's friends flat in Canakkale. he is an ophthalmologist.














our grill evening and the castle in the background















a restaurant where the waiter brought everything to the table starting from the table cloth to the flowers and tootpicks attached to small shellfish or something... he wanted to impress the foreign tourist ;)















a street with restaurants















the way to the beach














the Ayazma beach at Bozcaada. i applied sunscreen evenly but i guess i missed a couple tiny spots as i have a little bit of sore pink skin on my right foot and thigh... also my face looks....err, tanned :( the sea water was really wonderfully clear, being there with water up to my neck i could still easily see my toes. its a very clean beach too. there are guys collecting money for using the deck chairs and umbrella (12tl for 2 people).














the port of Bozcaada. a lot of restaurants there.














a row of shops with food, wines and beach stuff, the road leads nicely to the sea :) there are no supermarkets on Bozcaada.














incredibly clean water at the Bozcaada port. plastic bags are forbidden on the island.














random shop by the road on the way to Bozcaada...














car ferries traffic between Canakkale and Eceabat (23tl per car, about 30min) and a similar ferry between Bozcaada and the mainland (45tl per car return ticket, about 30min)














we returned today and now i have been following the election results... there were no good news to come, but the question is how bad are the news. not so bad, it seems. the ruling party AKP are getting 50% of the votes which is a bit less than they expected and this means that while they will again form a government all by themselves, they cannot change the constitution without having the people vote over it. CHP is coming in 2nd with 25% of the votes, and while they are not so great either, at least they are not religious and maybe that will balance something in the parliament...

as a side note, the kurdish canditates have been running their campaigns independently like many other small party canditates. as for a place in the parliament a party should get 10% (!!) of the votes. if all the kurdish people voted, it could be possible, but they dont, so its better to run independently to get at least some seats. in this election they should get about 35 (out of 550). if only as many women got in there! but the turkish politics are shamefully male-powered. as well as important positions in turkish business.