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Tales of Touring Turkey by Fred Moore:
© 2010 by Author
 It’s December and once again, where do the months go? It’s our 29th wedding anniversary and I’ve decided to surprise and treat my lovely bride to a weekend getaway. We’re actually going nowhere; I’ve booked an executive suite at the Hilton Hotel in Adana about twenty minutes from our house. The hotel sits alongside the Seyhan River and towers over the historic Roman Bridge (this structure was built during the reign of Emperor Hadrian around 135 AD). We’re also diagonally across the river from the newest and largest mosque in Turkey, the Sabanci Mosque (completed in the late 1990s and adorned with six minarets). It won’t be long and this modern hotel will sit between the ancient and the ultramodern; very soon there will be a 21st century shopping mall a half a block up the street and just diagonally down the street the Hilton overlooks the 19th century bazaars. Adana is a Turkish city like many others; it’s home to many old traditional areas and simultaneously home to many modern suburbs.
 I’ve been working with the hotel reservation office to make certain everything is in place and ready for our special weekend. Damla Ozturk (cluster sales executive) and Mehmet Lezki (reservations office) have confirmed everything with me and they assure me they look forward to our arrival. Their assistance and the service to this point have been superb; these two people make it a real pleasure to work the details of my reservation. They asked me several questions and make certain that nothing can be left to chance, great customer service.
It Friday the 17th, the day before our anniversary and the day I’ve set for check-in at the hotel. I’ve waited all morning and I know Carol has now made assumptions about her weekend because we’ve not left the house yet. She’s said nothing but I can read her thought waves as they process, . I pack the car with our bags and we leave around 1:30 pm, headed for Adana. As we make the right turn into the Adana Hilton, Carol says, “I was hoping this is where we were going”. I pull up to the door in front of the hotel and the attendant opens Carol’s door to help her out. I punch the button for the trunk and he calls for a bellman to get our bags from the car. I give him my car keys and slip him a tip for valet parking and we enter the hotel.
Once inside, I go to the reception desk to check-in. They’re pleased to see me and in minutes I have my plastic key card. I return to the bellman and he points us toward the elevators on the left as he goes the other way with all our bags – we hope to meet up wherever we’re going, . As we arrive at out suite, on the 15th floor, the bellman is already here at our door with our bags; he obviously has a faster elevator than we do. He carries all our things into the room and I tip him as he excuses himself. We’re assigned to suite 1501/3 on what I believe is the southwest corner of the building. With this room, we are also given excess to the Executive Lounge up on the next floor.
 The room we enter is the bedroom portion of the suite, immediately on the right is the bathroom (large and very well appointed marble floor and sink with both a bath tub and a shower stall), then the king size bed and the massive window! The exclamation is necessary because the window is the opposite side of the room from the door and it’s two thirds of the wall on that side of the room. The window starts at about waist high and fills the width of the room. The view is panoramic and remarkable! We can see both the Roman Bridge and the new mosque from here. Between the bed and the window is a small round table and a swivel lounge (space age modern design) chair with ottoman (comfortable enough but far too low down for “old” folks, ). On the left, as we enter, is a closet with ironing board and laundry bag, a floor to ceiling wall mirror, a bag caddy (a low shelf unit) for the luggage, a chest of draws topped by a large (maybe 40 inch) flat screen TV and then a desk outfitted with all the ‘plugs’ you need to be in the computer age and an office chair.
There’s a bed stand on either side of the bed and between the bed and the table with chair is a short walkway into the adjoining room; this is the living room. In here there are two chairs (one like the other room) and a couch with a lovely oval glass coffee table, there’s another chest of draws with the same size TV and another bathroom same as the other. Each room has a clothes closet with a light inside that illuminates upon opening the closet door (very nice touch). There’s a wet bar in each room, as well as a coffee and tea service bar should you care for either. This room also has the very large window and it’s another wonderful viewing opportunity. I do a quick review of the content of each bar frig (curiosity mostly) and find they’re full but not at all cold (seems the same story in every hotel in Turkey). I check the list of prices and decide to pass on retrieving anything; a coke is 850 Lira--about $5.50 and hard liquor is 18 to 20 Lira or about $13 a shot! Remember, this is a first class experience and one pays for those amenities.
In the living room on the coffee table we’ve been given fresh fruit (banana, orange, kiwi & apple) and baklava (excellent too – by-the-way), along with two bottles of spring water. I find this little detail most fascinating: on the bedside table is a card that’s entitled “pillow menu”. On the card you can indicate your preference for goose down (standard in all the rooms, by the way), cotton filled or a hypoallergenic pillow. Both TV units have a built-in clock and there’s an electric clock in each room but none of the four clocks offer the same time; none of them offer the correct time either (one TV clock comes closest). We decide to sit and relax in our weekend home; Carol turns on the TV to BBC News and we catch up on the latest from around the globe. Snow and bad weather seem to dominate the reports today; we’re very pleased to be where we are (I’ve never been a fan of snow) and out of Adana’s rain. Once the commentators begin to repeat themselves, as is standard with the news today, we turn off the TV and do other things; Carol pulls out her crocheting and I get my latest magazines to read.
As the day marches on our light begins to fade; so annoying, it gets dark far too early in the winter months. We decide to go up to the Executive Lounge and check it out. Our weekend stay includes it and we get complimentary snacks and two alcoholic drinks of our choice. This is very lovely, I show the receptionist our room key and he welcomes us. There’s a light buffet along the left wall; snacks, sodas and coffee/tea are readily available. There are 12 or 15 small table and chair arrangements in the room, an internet set up at the far end on the left, a large screen TV on the far wall with couch and chairs at its feet. On the opposite end here behind me are local and some international newspapers and magazines. We’re too early for the drinks (we’re not all that big on drinks anyway) so we’ll not bother with those even later in the evening, more than likely. We get a few snacks (mostly pastries) and sit down to enjoy the view from the ample windows.
The sky looks pretty angry and the darker it gets the less we can see of the gathering storm. It’s raining on and off but we’re not going out so, let it rain! We sit watching the lights of the old city spread across our vista; we’re trying to guess where this light is or that light is when there’s more than a simply illumination. One building in particular has an amber/red glow and is most curious looking, we can’t imagine what building it might be (the next morning on a walk we find it, it’s an electronic center painted on all three floors above the street with electrical cords and other gadgets as well as a smiling salesman). The lights along the river are green and the big mosque is lighted from ground to minaret tips. Every once in a while an airplane takes off just across the cityscape and we can watch it disappear into the clouds above the city. Since it’s pitch dark we don’t know where the cloud cover begins until the airplane marker lights evaporate from sight.
 After an hour or so we return to our room and decide to go down to the lobby for dinner at the “Spice Market” restaurant. It looks as though there are a couple large parties due; we’re seated at a table for two and offered the choice of buffet or the menu, we opt to order from the menu. Carol orders lamb shank and I order the lamb chops; neither of these selections comes with any appetizers or salad. The waiter does bring us bread and a plate of butter and cheese. It’s a wait for our dinners to arrive but both are quite good and we’re pleased (next time we’ll do the buffet though, I believe). We eat leisurely and opt out of desert; we can get something else in the Executive Lounge if we decide to. Once we’re through, we ascend to our suite and I set up the laptop so we can watch the DVDs we’ve brought along (would be nice if the TV had a DVD player but then they would have to have a DVD library!).
It’s eleven o’clock now and we decide the day has been long enough (we’ve really enjoyed the relaxing afternoon & evening); we retire for the night. Oh my lands! This bed is heavenly; this has to be the softest, most comfortable bed in Turkey! The pillows are even first rate! We’ve brought our own as we usually do when traveling by car where we can easily do it; but tonight we won’t even unpack ours. Good night.
Morning comes to me far later than usual; the drapes block out 99% of the morning light and I don’t awaken before eight (depending on which clock you chose to view, ). I go in to shower and it’s great, I just let the almost instant warm water fall over me forever; usually in Turkey you shower in the bathtub with the curtain flowing in the breeze. This shower stall with its glass door makes a shower relaxing and nearly too good to get out of; well, not really, but it’s very nice to not have a curtain fighting you. Then, you slip into a wonderful heavy Turkish terrycloth bathrobe --- this is the topping on the cake! Carol follows my lead using some of the complimentary Crabtree & Evelyn toiletries and once she’s dressed we go up for breakfast. Here we get the standard Turkish breakfast but with bacon included; the buffet is plenty well stocked and if you can’t get enough, it’s certainly not the hotel’s fault. I eat and read the local Turkish paper (English language) provided for us.
The morning is blue skies and almost warm; after breakfast we decide to go for a walk to the culture center across the Roman Bridge. We’ve never been in the local culture center and there’s little to see today; the souvenir shop has nothing for us either (over the years we’ve purchased most everything they offer) though they have many lovely handmade items, lots of books and music CDs. After a stop at the center we walk into the old city and Carol stops at her favorite yarn shop for a different pair of colors for the baby afghan she is working on this weekend. We spend some more time just window shopping and see all the displays of what we call “Christmas Trees” and what the Turks call “New Years” trees, complete with the trimmings. New Years is a big holiday in Turkey; most families give each other presents and everyone buys new RED lingerie or underwear. (Don’t ask – we don’t quite know why ‘new’ or ‘red’ – maybe greeting the new year with innocence and purity, or at least that’s what the red ribbon a bride wears signifies!)
 We walk through the park by the river on the opposite bank from our hotel and spend a couple hours out in the beautiful morning before we stroll back across the bridge and back to the hotel and our room. I can’t get the card to activate once we’re at the door; Carol waits and I return to the lobby and the reception desk. Through a number of profuse apologies the desk clerk reactivates the card and I return upstairs. We get in and sit down to read and relax; we’re only just getting settled when the there’s a knock at the door. When I answer it, there’s a young gentleman standing outside with a push cart filed with fresh fruit and baklava. He offers us a tray of each and I politely decline; during the exchange he also hands me a bottle of wine and a pail of ice. He tells me this is compliments of the hotel on our anniversary; as it turns out it’s our favorite Turkish wine and were very pleased to have received this thoughtful gift. It’s just after 1:00 and Carol says, “let’s open it”; I get the corkscrew and we toast to our 29 years together. We talk about how 29 years has slipped by and it seems only months ago we were married; we sit calculating how many of these we’ve celebrated in this wonderful country (twelve we believe) and Carol teases me about having to spend almost half my life married to her!
Shortly after the wine is delivered, there’s another knock at the door; when I open it another young man is standing there with a dozen red roses; these I ordered to be delivered on ‘our’ day. They are a dark, dark red and wrapped in yards of white netting, but have no water vessel. We search the room to ‘find’ a vase and settle on the base of the ice bucket. Back to the wine - this is very delicious and before we realize what we’ve done, the whole bottle is history. We relax – not all that difficult now after a bottle of wonderful wine.
 Once again the afternoon slips away; darkness once again fills our window and we need lights but opt for dinner instead. Tonight we decide to go out; we go to Uz Evlar a wonderful restaurant in the city. We get a taxi from the hotel and in less than fifteen minutes we’re sitting for dinner. The waiter brings us five or six appetizers and our drinks; Carol orders chicken shish and I order cop shish (it’s a small lamb shish, you get about fifteen skewers of meat) for our main courses. We have a wonderful dinner and return to the hotel.
We decide to watch a few more DVDs; again, we stay up late but enjoy the films. I shut down the laptop and draw the drapes. We’re tired and retiring from a wonderful day; it’s over far too soon but then that’s how life is. We’ve had a great anniversary; we’ve done what we’ve wanted to do, no strings, no worries, no hassles and we still enjoy each other’s company more than anything else on this planet. Good night and thanks for joining us on this extraordinary occasion.
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