Merry Christmas

A band dressed in Saint-Nicholas' red suits and hats with their white beards is playing in the streets of the mall (Izmir, Forum in Bornova), accompanying a tall Santa-Klaus on stilts. The attraction surely pleased children and parents and made a great success despite the relative cold weather.

The carferry late afternoon

The late afternoon sun spreads his rays low above the steel bridge and heat enough the dark plates to make the trip with the carferry comfortable.

The fishermen

When the sun slowly lowers his rays and get closer to the horizon's line fishermen head toward the small harbour.

Last Ferry Home

Life along the sea takes romantic tones at night, nothing compare to ferries when it comes to cross a city and certainly not empty trains or deserted coaches, at least this is my opinion. Here are some pictures I took on a trip back home after some meeting I had downtown.

Pelican lunch

Pelicans wait for fishermen to return to shore after the night campaign and profit of the easy prey to feed a solid midday lunch

The Workshop

A street portraitist build up a dedicated workshop to pursue his craft even in the winter months. The painter shop is located in the Alsancak district of Izmir.

The Hunters' association

The front of the local hunters' association in a small village close to Seferihisar (Izmir). The small building is used as a coffee-shop as well.

Portrait

This is not really street for where he lives the sea and the sky take a much more important place. He has seen more sunny days that the whole population of Scandinavia and burned his skin under more suns than the charters full of tourists have ever seen. I am not sure he cares about Obama or Erdoğan either.

Turkish Coffee break

Telling someone's fortune in coffee dregs is an art and a pleasant custom in Turkey. Still not every woman is fluent in the art of reading the signs left by the coffee in the cup and the plate. It is more a matter of reading and interpreting the the cracks and shapes than of any sort of miraculous divination. Enjoy your coffee break.

Autumn Colours

In most temperate climates Autumn shows her flamboyant and soon falling leaves to announce the imminent venue of Winter. Her we are nowhere close to see snowy days and most of our trees are evergreen. But houses windows and shops fronts exhibits drying and dried vegetables to be use in the wintertime to prepare delicious meals. Here are some of our autumnal colours.

Enjoy your meal

This is part of an assignment. This is Çiğ Köfte ("Cig Kofte" if Turkish characters do not read). This is made with raw beef meat mixed with spices and bulgur. The meal sources in Anatolia probably from Urfa and a specialty of the Gaziantep Region.

Kitchen on wheels

Fortunately we still have street vendors who propose affordable hot meals such as our famous Kororeç, chickpeas and rice or fish&bread. Here we have a small company on wheels, the kitchen being a converted Skoda and the dining room some plastic furniture on the sidewalk. The kitchen is very clean and the fishes are fresh, delicious and cheaper than a McDo ;) a selective clientele is waiting patiently :)

Savarona anchored in Bozburun Bay

The State Yacht Savarona is anchored in the Bozburun bay near Marmaris. Too large with her 136 meters to pass the narrow straights around the island that guards the harbour she has to stay far from the smaller cruisers you can see in the far. The Savarona is immediately recognizable thanks to her red hull, pair of yellow funnels and bow ornaments.

The ladder vs the Crane

Slowly new construction methods replace the "old way" based on Le Corbusier use of concrete and pilotis instead of supporting walls. Most the buildings where limited in height and need constant maintenance due to relatively poor delivered quality. This helped a workforce of "Usta" (masters) educated by their peers to work with relatively low skills and equipment. I have seen entire houses deconstructed with one sledgehammer and tubes of gas for the steel. But now the expectations are increasing for higher buildings and better quality and this old Usta's ladder can't fight with the cranes.

Bozburun harbour

Bozburun is a small village on the south of the Aegean cost, where the Aegean waters mix with the Mediterranean's. Around 2000 people spread in different quarters, the Center shows a few shops and pharmacies but not a single hotel but small 2 or 3 storey houses with kitchen we call "pansiyon". This is a yacht and sail harbour with no luxury infrastructure but everything one needs except the superfluous. In brief a best place to recover from the city noisesand stresses and where time flows slowly and the most complex dilemma is "do we drink one more tea now or later?".

The harbour at night

Sloops, schooners, motoryachts and cruisers rival at night to offer the most attractive silhouette, from aging 30 feet sloops to the largest brand new cruisers every type of leisure boat and vessel can be see in the bay.
The Marmaris based schooner "Baron" offers her elegant silhouette in Bozburun harbour, a regular stop for the "Blue Voyage". She is one of the most beautiful schooner around, 36 meters made of mahogany and teak. You can find more information on the net using keywords as blue voyage, gulet and baron.
She is a true schooner or goelette and has a very elegant design and ornaments.

Thursday's live concerts

Every Thursday during the long summer holidays free live concerts are hold in the ancient gasworks behind the harbour. A young girl holds the bouquet she received from the band singer, and keeps it tight on her heart.

Southwest Turkey, a small harbour

the small town of Bozburun is a center for classic boat production. From the jolly-boat to the 40 meter three masts, from wood to steel, all these elegant hulls cruise in the waters along the Mediterranean Sea and Aegean Sea.

The Teashop

Tea takes a predominant part of Turkish daily life. Just not only a beverage it is a social activity as important as shaking hands. We drink tea all the day long in small glasses. Black tea from the Black-Sea region is infused in a Semaver (Samovar), a combined boiler and tea pot that allow to mix the requested amount of clear hot water to serve a tea clear, regular or dark on demand. In busy centers there is a teashop for every block. Cables hanging along the buildings allow client to use the connected interphones to order tea from the shop. Here is our years old teashop Aykut. By the way our name for tea "Çay" (pronounce Tchay) is an eastern word passing to Persian and than to Turkish, Arabic and Russian, so if you desire to drink some tea in this region of the world just ask for tchay!

Alsancak District at Night

First a romantic dinner in the gardens of the "Centre Culturel Français" in the restaurant La Cigale. 

Passing by the French Consulate bars and restaurant of the seaside are quiet busy.

On the promenade one can see large and small vessels and the lights of Karsiyaka (Karshyaka or cordelia in ancient time). His name means literally "the opposite shore".

At 11:00 watering starts and it becomes hard to sleep in the grass.

Streets peddlers propose cold beverage, "kuruyemis" or dried seeds and nuts or mussels filled with rice to the one who can't afford the bars and restaurants of the shoreline.

Morning sun's heat

A seagull warm herself in the morning sun after a winter cold night

Stormy day

A Cruise Ship is leaving the bay, it is hard to distinguish the "tiny" ferry in front of the 300 meter long vessel. This day of March 28 was quiet stormy and the light disputed the sky to the clouds for the whole day.

Evening route

On the pale evening winter sun the Mary Schulte is living the harbour at low speed while ferries crossing the bay have to sail around to avoid her path and other mooring ships.

Morning Mist

Early morning in December 2010 ferries leaving for the south shore slowly disapear in the mist. The passengers are only 10 minutes away from Konak but they hardly see the shore.

The ferry to the north shore

The trip across the bay lasts around 20 minutes, sometime the captain having to tack between heavy ships preparing to dock or leaving the harbour, or just mooring in the bay waiting for they turn to approach the huge cranes. We can distinctively see the fog due to the pollution comming from the heaters of hundred thousands of housholds and offices. The harbour stays in the very center of the city and even if the port of Aliaga 80 km north is becoming a very busy alternative the frequentation is still high in the Aegean city.

Barinak Café

The Barinak Café (Barinak is Shelter or Refuge) was erased in autumn 2011 because of new regulations about the gestion of restaurants on the sea front. It was a perfect place to profit of the sun in winter time and also a beautiful spot to watch the sun disappearing behind the marshes.

After the rain

I appreciate especially a walk after the rain at the seafront. The shore is almost deserted, the air is clear and the light beautiful. It is easy to like the rain when it is so rare, only around 60 days like this one, with always a pale sun projecting his weak rays between two clouds and two downpours, an alternace of grays and hilights.

moorings

Any chain can keep a boat away from the open sea, she will let herself die and sink in the water she loves instead.
Today looking at this picture from my archives (my pocket camera Lumix LX2 with the Leitz zoom) Azanavour's song came to my mind. Here are links to Youtube french vintage copy, a recent french version and a recent concert with the English version too. If you read french profit of the original, the poesie of the french text is not found in the english version, unfortunately. At the time of the song was first published most of the French Colonies had been granted independence, there were no way to spend holiday time abroad for the concept of holiday by the sea was quiet new and reserved for a class with some financial capabilities, owning a private car and thus able to reach the mediterranean and atlantic shores.

After the rain

After the rain the shore is almost deserted, it is a perfect time to stroll along the seafront.

Carferry

The bare decks of the carferry Esenköy remain silent, even the waves frapping the hull in a lazy rhythm do not succeed to awake the mass of steel of the old lady. She seems deserted right now but in less than an hour the barriers will open and she will be assaulted by trucks and cars and hundreds of passengers rushing up the long and straight stairs leading to the upper deck and to the saloon with his hot glass of tea and cups of Turkish coffee awaiting. Late comers will probably not find a place for their cars and have to take the ring and its 50 km to meet the city south-west end.

Morning frost

The pale morning sunrays wash out the cold of the night but pain to warm this wasteland of the industrial zone and dissipate the frost.

Windy day

The seafront is almost deserted, lonely walkers fight the wind.

After Xmas Eve

The picture is taken early morning in the last days of December 2005 with my old friend Om-1n with the Zuiko 85mm. The weather is so quiet there is even not the lightest breeze to blur the canal's water. A lonely silver glass ball floats as a metaphor of the past celebration.

Rain Drops

waiting for 2012

The new year eve is also a commercial event and for many the occasion to fill the safe with fresh cash before the year closure. This empty restaurant is prepared and expecting his last 2011 clients. 

Concrete Crown

The Atatürk Stadium was build for the 1971 Mediterranean games and designed to host 50'000 people, it hosted indeed up to 80'000 for a derby in the early 80ies. The Stadium was long the second largest in the country and is dedicated to athleticism beside his regular (soccer for US friends) football ground. Here is a part of the stadium upper structure.

The Fishermen

A 3 hours rotation is requested to place the nets for the night. The next day the fishermen leave the pier at 7 am for another 3 hours trip to collect the nets. Than back to the port they have to collect the fish if ever there are, clean and repair the net for the next night. 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year. Sometime they do not pay even the fuel with the sales. Even when the nest are filled up to crack open, the prices drop at the level a loaf of bread. I wonder if we will still see fishermen and fishes in ten years from now because I do not seen young man willing to learn the craft. Wich one will desappear first, the fish or the fisherman?

(note: except the close up on the hand coming from an other boat it is a single team who is reported here)