Waking up in Doğanyurt
We woke up on the beach in Doğanyurt and had the place all to ourselves. Though oddly enough, once we started preparing our breakfast, our dog friends from dinner-time came out of the woodwork (link to idiom definition)! They are impressively well adapted to surviving on the street. It was quite interesting to contrast these dogs with photos we received of Tinkerbelle, my family’s lovely chihuahua!
Meet Tinkerbelle
Tinkerbelle lives a life of comfort spending winters in the suburbs of Philly and summering at the shore. (The shore is the term for the New Jersey coastline in US dialect.) Tinkerbelle eats whatever my mom eats plus her own special dog food. She sleeps in a bed and my mom repairs her beloved Monster Ball dog toy by hand and launders it regularly. She goes on long walks with my Dad when she wants and is carried when she doesn’t want. She even has an outdoor cat friend named Rusty who visits her regularly of his own volition. Tinkerbelle has a very good life and I’m grateful for my parents for taking care of her like the furbaby she is! Overall, she is an amazing ball of love and loyalty and brings us lots of joy 🙂
Selim would ask me how it was possible that Tinkerbelle’s ancestors were once wild animals. I didn’t know but now that I have time to look into it, here’s some information.
Chihuahua History
According to this article from the American Kennel Club, 1,000 years ago the Chihuahua’s ancestor was the Techichi. Now believe it or not, the Techichi were mute! They were the favorite breed of the Toltec people in Mexico. The Aztecs then conquered the Toltec people and bred the Techichi into a smaller version of itself, the Chihuahua which gets its namesake from the Mexican state of Chihuahua. Chihuahuas are known to be fast learners especially if trained with treats! They have a bad reputation for being a bit sassy but they just need good training and are very small so are easy to frighten. Imagine if you were six pounds.
Anthropomorphism
In the United States, it is part of the culture to attribute human characteristics to dogs and cats. Yes, I called Tinkerbelle a furbaby. Case in point. Another way of saying that is that we anthropomorphize pets. Here is a more academic approach to this subject and takes a look at the negative consequences of such a perspective. Taken to the extreme, this looks like dying your dogs fur or even giving your pet a tattoo. One question that I get a lot from my students in non-western countries is effectively…”Why are westerners so obsessed with dogs?”
Islam and Dogs
Folks in different countries have varied ways of understanding the place of domesticated animals in society. One important factor in muslim-majority countries is the teachings of the Qu’ran. In conservative Islam, dogs are not allowed in the house as they are considered dirty. They can be kept outside, though. Nowadays, many folks who are religious have reconciled this and don’t consider it to be as haram as perhaps their ancestors did to keep dogs indoors as pets. Haram is effectively the word for a sin in Islam, something you shouldn’t do.
Cultural and Family Differences
Selim’s History with Dogs
When Selim was growing up, there was a bit of a toxic relationship between dogs and humans where he lived. The dogs living on the road were scared of the adults who might yell at them, throw stones at them, or otherwise threaten them. The humans were scared of the dogs who might chase them, bite them, or frighten their children. His family didn’t keep dogs at home so there wasn’t the possibility for a companion-type of relationship to form. Then when Selim became a cyclist, he was barked at and chased relentlessly in Tunisia and in other countries.
Alyssa’s History with Dogs
On the other hand, during my most formative years my family had a dog named Candy. My dad had found her on the side of the highway when he was in university. She was a huge mutt and so, so sweet. There were a lot of dogs around me growing up and I have zero negative memories as a child of being menaced. To be fair, there are certainly folks in the States that are scared of dogs. So yes, this is also a family of origin difference, as well as a cultural one. In the neighborhood where I grew up, there were not any street dogs. I’m sure there are neighborhoods in the States where that relations between humans and dogs might look different. But overall, Selim and I came from different contexts so it was really a marked difference between us in relating to animals in Turkey.
Back to Doğanyurt
Surrounded by our new friends, Selim enjoyed his typical bowl of oats and other goodies. If you eat two meals together, I think you can call yourselves friends! We drank our coffee with a view of the sea. That’s one thing I like about dogs, they don’t ask for your coffee. And since it’s not good for dogs to eat chocolate, my two most favorite edible items I get to keep to myself. (Dogs can’t have chocolate because of the caffeine.)
Today’s ride would be 37,6 km and an elevation gain of 1425 meters so we tried to fuel up appropriately for the hills. We packed up and took off.
The Ride to Uğurlu
On this ride, I don’t have much of a story but we got to see and capture some incredible views. Please enjoy:
Blackberry Thief
We noticed a couple picking berries on the side of the road. Selim stopped to get a closer look and they offered him some blackberries to share with me, as I was about 200 meters ahead. He decided it would be easier just to eat them. It’s a bit difficult to bike ride with berries in hand and he was famished. He glanced behind him and the man had seen it all. The man called after him that he was supposed to share it. Oh well, won’t see those people again! Fast forward to the next day and it will come back to bite Selim 🙂
Our Camp-Site
We arrived to Uğurlu, kind of. It turned out that Uğurlu was actually a few kilometers inland. In Uğurlu, there were grocery stores and all of the conveniences of a town. The area we had arrived to was more so a village. We didn’t have any more energy to head to the town so after a quick ikram çay, we got the groceries that we could from the small markets and headed to the beach. I just wanted to take a nap! This was a day that had pushed my physical limits to the max and I was completely drained of energy. I set up the tent on an area of the beach with large rocks. Selim came over and shared his concern about the rocky sleeping surface. I offered to move the tent and he said, later would be fine as he was going swimming now anyway. I laid down and rested, exhausted from a grueling day. The huge rocks massaged my back. I tried to explain this to Selim later with zero success.
Hazelnut & Honey Spread
After a moment to catch our breathes, it was time to snack a bit. I pulled out a new purchase, a combination of honey plus hazelnut butter. We ate it as a spread on biscuits. Really delicious and filling.
Dinner and a Show
Around dinner time, the fishermen came in with their day’s catch. They brought their boats onto shore with brute strength and what looked like a wooden launch. It took perhaps six men struggling to bring the boat onto shore. After it was out of the water, they hooked the boat up to a rope which was attached to what I would call a machine, further away from the water. The machine was effectively a lever made of metal and wood. When you spun the pieces of wood, the rope would wind around it, getting shorter and therefore pulling in the boat. I have included a video below so you can understand better.
We were quite taken by this display as it looked awfully difficult and took many attempts to be successful. There was lots of yelling, folks getting hit by waves and falling down in the water, etc. As we made dinner, we watched the men like a theatrical performance.
Tatlı
While we were enjoying dinner, one of the men who had helped with the boat came over with a tupperware full of something! He explained to us that it was tatlı, which is just the Turkish word for sweet. Though at this point, we didn’t know that word so we thought it was the name of the cake. We thanked him for his gift and saved it for dessert. It appeared to be a syrup-drenched semolina cake with some coconut shavings on top. Selim really liked it. He also gave us a piece of simit which was more up my alley, especially with the hazelnut-honey spread.
Goodnight Karadeniz
And to think, we just stumbled upon this beach. We were so amazed by how gorgeous it was here, and there were no tourists (except us)! If this same beach was in the South, it would be a much different scene. Not only that, but there was a bathroom just behind the beach attached to a boathouse. And a fountain along the road to the village with clean water. We had everything we needed. We were pretty amazed at our luck so we decided we would stay the next night, as well. Going to sleep and knowing that the next day is a rest day, at a beautiful location, amazing feeling!
The sun sets on our camp site
