Travelling in Turkey pt.2

Current mood: calm
Category: Travel and Places

Hello from Turkiye, still...

I'm in the home stretch now. After 2 weeks of chasing around lawyers, business partners and other complicated bureaucratic shit in several cities, we are at the beach. Fresh air, ocean breezes, gorgeous sunsets, amazing 5 course meals and beaches and all that.

It's been the hardest year of my life, and now my dad and I are taking some much-needed vacation time.

Anyway, it's so hard to unwind from being so wound up all the damn time!! Thank Higher Power we have a few days here. I think I actually started enjoying myself today.

Last night, at dinner, there was a cheesy duo with sequencers playing live music. GB. General Business. Covers I despise. They were playing all SAD stuff, and my father was very emotional. Crying...So I asked the maitre'd to have the "band" play something upbeat. Normally, being a musician and all, I would NEVER do this, but I couldn't take my dad getting so upset when we were sitting down to a nice meal for 2 hours. They misunderstood me, and thought I was sayng he wanted to sing a song, and, through our waiter, told me they thought I was being rude. Finally, I managed to make myself clear, and they "got happy".

Poppy kebab, in Istanbul, for Amy, who I've never even met...
It was lamb, I think, and it didn't show any signs of flowers, and I didn't get high after eating it, neither!

Saturday, my dad and I went to Afyon, er, more properly Afyonkarahisar. The town the band Black Fortress of Opium and our album proper is named after. He, almost 65!!, and I climbed all the way up to the top. There was a small boy about 11(?) who served as an informal guide. It was about 700 crude steps up, and tough in the heat. I was pouring sweat, but I had to do it.

Now, I'd seen the castle in pictures, but it was nothing like seeing it up close, or from a short distance.

So awesome! Such an impossible rock. Jagged every which way.

I think I can understand why people climb mountains now.

I had to do it for artistic inspiration and to prove something to myself. I hope it will make me a better artist. More able to express truth and reflect the depth of human experience.

I have only a few days left of this relax time and I must enjoy it.

Thursday we will travel yet again, this time to spread my mother's ashes in the ocean at Fethiye. My father has brought them from Amerika, and they have been with us all this time. My mother is with us.