Blog 5: Adana, the apartment city

Blog 5: Adana and Apartment block city
Today Sunday the 4^th of November

Today I set out on a little walk before we were to visit with Family. I was under strict instructions to be back by 12:45pm by Aylin’s father it was to be a as it was already after 11:30am.


I passed by Ahmet Özal Türkay Cami on my way to the shops, a pretty mosque I painted with water colours from an apartment block window in the previous year. The picture also features on google maps.

http://maps.google.com.au/maps?hl=en&sugexp=les%3B&cp=7&gs_id=q&xhr=t&q=adana+airport&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.&bpcl=37189454&biw=1957&bih=921&wrapid=tljp1352065204399012&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wl

It was a perfect day for a photo of this beautiful little mosque, blue skys, about 32 degrees. I walked on at quick pace and noticed what is common on every apartment building in Turkey almost, the Turkish Flag. A very nationalistic population here in Turkey. We walked through a march in Istanbul last week and wow, people here gather on mass, standing room only to celebrate national days. Everyone with a flag or 3!!

I returned at 12:44pm! Lol and we set out to visit more of Aylins large family. Adana is a huge apartment city you can see from the pictures below. Apartment block after apartment block, as far as the eye can see! I’ve been far inland and where you expect to see a farm house, you may just find an apartment block standing instead! lol They are the bees knees to the Turks! I think Adana would be an easy city to get lost in.

 What fascinates me is the skyline, the hot water solar systems, round cylinders of every colour! Thousands upon thousands of them, for every household in every apartment block. If I had to have a business here it would be making these tanks or making Ataturk statues! Both are prevalent everywhere!! Lol

I also took a picture of an apartment building in the middle of construction so you can see the bricks and construction used. I wonder how well these places hold up to earth quakes which are also common thing in Turkey. Adana as a region suffered badly in the 1998 Quake.

In 1998 the Adana-Ceyhan earthquake  was 6.2 magnitude and killed 145 people and wounded 1,500 others. They say the most casualties and damage occurred due to inadequately engineered buildings in Ceyhan. 1 billion dollars damage. Well I hope things are better now! :-/ because I’m 10 stories up about  30 or 40kms from Ceyhan writing this blog! lol




Michael my son is simply obsessed with Thomas the Tank Engine and his friends! Lol At least it keeps him amused where ever we go.

On the way home we drove by the lake. Such a beautiful lake is somewhat spoilt by the lack of commitment to cleaning the grounds surrounding the lake by the local government here. There are picnic grounds around every curve around this lake, filled with thousands of locals having BBQ’s and drinking the local drinks and treats like Cay, Salup and Bici Bici.  It’s a shame everyone just leaves their garbage behind. The result is the grounds are awash with litter. 

They use there spaces here around the lakes so much better than what we do back home in our Lakes systems, it’s a celebration of community and a great place to spend your time. It’s such a shame they don’t look after the lakes grounds like we do. 

Seriously, the picnic  grounds around the lake here in Adana could be spectacular if it was maintained to any level. Apparently they used to be but care has dropped off these past few years.

There are hundreds of stray dogs here too that add to the equation. Today there was smoke haze around the lake also left by the thousands of bbq’s.

 The photos I took were lucky as they were taken out the window of a car.

We didn’t stop at the best view points but kept driving around the lake until we found the traditional Salup vendors with their fantastic traditional pots.

Salup is like a thick milky cinnamon drink that is delicious!! I’m hooked on the stuff. We stopped and paid 3 lira a cup. I took a couple of picture there.

And that’s where it ends for today.

Cheers
Andrew