August 27, 2025
Our Balıklıova morning routine continues with Kyle up first to go over to main house to get coffee for me and him. Johngo is chained up during the day but overnight he is left off chain to “protect the property.” Before he gets put back on his lead, he comes onto our porch to greet us and look for belly rubs. Len had a rough morning and we thought he would benefit from a change of scenery so he joined Mehmet and Kyle on their morning run to town.
After another incredible breakfast, we went fishing from one dock and swimming/ floating from the other. Shortly after me and Len got into a mesh bottomed float, we heard big air bubbles and soon realized it had also popped. Our crew has popped or lost 4 rafts at this point.
For lunch, Mehmet continued his quest to have us try as many Turkish foods as possible. He and Dan went into town to get lunch and surprise donuts. When he got back to the house, Mehmet goes, “Good news for you guys, someone died so we got donuts! Well, bad news that someone died but the donuts are good.” He had to explain that to celebrate the life of someone that died, the local families will sometimes give out free donuts to their neighbors. The boys demolished the donuts quickly but there was plenty of other food for lunch. Mehmet got fresh pide and lahmacun; pide is an oval-shaped, boat-like flatbread, stuffed with a variety of toppings (Turkish pizza) and lahmacun is a crispy flatbread topped with minced meat that you then add fresh vegetables with a spritz of lemon on top of. I favored the lahmacun because when folded up with the fresh salad inside it reminded me of a taco.
Our family joined Mehmet on a drive into Izmir to bring Dan to the airport as he was heading home to London. On leaving, Mehmet’s family lined up in front of the house and Mehmet goes, “OK are you ready for a crazy Turkish tradition?” His sister Eileen then threw a pot of water onto the car as we drove past.
In Turkey, water is thrown behind departing travelers as a symbolic gesture to wish them a safe and smooth journey, much like the fluidity of water itself. This tradition, rooted in ancient Turkic culture and Shamanistic beliefs, symbolizes ease of movement and the hope that the journey will be free of obstacles, echoing the sentiment of the common phrase, "Go like water, return like water".
After dropping Dan at the airport, Mehmet drove into downtown Izmir to show us where he grew up. His family has had a home on the promenade in the Konak district for generations and the one time one family home is now an 8 (?) level huge condo building. The building was severely damaged in the earthquake in 2020 and still undergoing renovations and reinforcements so we weren’t able to go inside. We walked on to a bakery to get manti (like a Turkish ravioli) for dinner tomorrow night and borek and chocolatey brownies for the kids. Len was having a tough evening and was rolling on the ground for unknown reasons and generally not listening which made walking through the city unpleasant. Mehmet took to carrying him for some of our time in Izmir which helped improve his mood a bit.
Next we walked to a restaurant that Mehmet grew up going to and the staff enthusiastically greeted him when we entered. There was so much food for dinner including Iskander kebab where the sliced kebab is placed over pita bread then they pour tomato sauce and then melted butter on top at the table. Then Mehmet insisted we needed to try the kofta so he ordered that too. The boys loved the restaurant because our table faced the TV and the Turkish national basketball team was playing the Serbian team. They nibbled on chicken schnitzel and fries while cheering on the Turkish team (that ended up winning handily).
Mehmet insisted we get dessert so we dragged ourselves down the street to another cafe. He ordered this amazing chocolate cake with a praline nut layer that the adults took bites of. Ollie had an ice cream sundae and Len a few scoops of blue ice cream. No matter the flavor, if there is blue ice cream or gelato, Len is getting it.
On the drive home, we saw a few wild boar on the side of the road! We watched as they approached one of the many dogs in the village expecting an altercation, but the dog didn’t seem to be bothered at all. Back in Balıklıova, Kyle stayed up to watch the first half of the Fenerbache football game with Mehmet. Fenerbache is a Turkish club team and football (soccer) is the most popular sport but they also have other sports teams. Mehmet swam for Fenerbache and his dad played basketball— Mehmet and his family are die hard fans and despise all things Galatasaray (their rival).
We’re currently reading the Wild Robot at bedtime and the boys are loving the short chapters and comparing the book to the movie. After Mehmet mentioned that he loved the movie Remember the Titans, the boys are desperate to watch it. I promised that if they went to sleep right away we might start to watch part of it in the morning.
