Journey to myself

I woke up in my bed at my father‘s place in Kayseri well rested and later than usually. My body clock must still be confused, from sleeping in the darkness of the cave in Cappadocia, as I normally get up with sunrise. My father, who slept on the couch, laughed and said: ‘ I thought you never get up’. Then he prepared heiße Zitrone – hot lemon water – for both of us. After his morning prayers, we prepared Turkish breakfast together: homemade ceytin(olives), Kayseri katmer (flaky bread that reminds me to Indian paratha), capsicum, tomatoes, greens, peynir (cheese), bananas with bal (honey) and walnuts, tahini with pekmez and cay – delicious!

After breakfast we had an interview with some journalists, who wanted to report about my journey and the meeting with my father. The journalists did not speak English, hence I was unsure what exactly has been said.

Later on we drove to Kiranardi, the village, where my father grew up. First we went to feed some dogs, with chicken bones, we had bought, on the way there. Excited about all the snow in the village, I built a little snow man. Suddenly one of the dogs walked over, sniffed on my snowman, lifted up one leg – and peed on it. In disbelief I looked at the dog, bursting out in laughter. Then we carried on, exploring the village by car. We stopped at his summer house – people in Kayseri live in the city in winter and in summer they live in their summer houses in the villages. We then continued to Talas, on the outskirts of Kayseri, where we wandered through the adorable little alleys of the old town. While my father went for his prayer in the mosque, I waited outside taking some snaps. He then treated me to my first Salep in Türkiye. Delicious!

Before heading home we went grocery shopping together. Watching him doing anything was so interesting for me – how he walks, how he speaks, how he chooses his vegetables, his looks, his voice.

At home we made Börek together. My father likes to cook and knows how to, simultaneously however he would love to have a partner who cooks for him, he is telling me. I thoroughly enjoyed learning how to make Börek, I took notes, planning to prepare it back home in Sydney. My father also prepared Ayran, while I made some avocado salsa for us. He then went to pray and told me to set up the table and clean up the kitchen – usually the feminist in me would have probably rebelled here, however I felt more like a daughter getting told by her father what to do – an interesting and new feeling! The Börek we prepared was absolutely mouthwatering!

After dinner I did the dishes, we had tea and chatted about life and the past.

P.S. my father told me my piercing looks like snot hanging on my noise – very much a typical ‘dad comment’ I thought and smirked.

So long – hoscakal from Kayseri!