where did i stay when i was on turkey
well after a long time, finnaly i have a time to write about where did i stay actually. Of course i did travel when i was in turkey, but for almost 2 months there where did i actually stay ?
i spent my whole day in two places when i was in Kocaeli, first i was on a dormitory. I stayed on dorm for almost 4 weeks then i moved to berkahn’s house till the rest of my visa, and the hostel and night buses that i took.LOL
Kocaeli Sporcu Kamp EgiTIM MERKEZI VE ATIS POLIGONU
my first place where i stayed is Kocaeli Sporcu Kamp EgiTIM MERKEZI VE ATIS POLIGONU, at first i didnt have any idea what is this. But soon after a few days then i knew that means a shooting range athletes dorm. But actually it only has a few athletes and not all of them are a shooting athletes. Just because there only a few athletes doesn’t mean that this dorm doesn’t have a shooting practice schedule.
something that i do really love about this place are i can do my laundry by myself, and got my clothes dried really soon even thought i hang it up in the night. Then we can cook our meal for sahur on ramadhan, and all of the athletes there didn’t get any trouble with it. Sometimes they helped us to prepare our meal or shared their food with us. But don’t forget to wash your dish and any other kitchen’s tool that you used because the manager ll be really angry to you.
Each room have around 3-4 exchange participant, and 1 room for 1 athletes with shared bathroom. But sometimes we didnt find any athlete using bathroom, and maybe they has their private bathroom there.
Me and my friends favourite place in there was the lobby of our dorm, because in there we got our internet connection and that really nice. As i told you before on my previous blog, we don’t have any internet connection because we can’t use any turkey’s mobile provider with our phone. Literally we did a Skype with our family, friends, call them, work on our project and presentation, and last but not least prepare our own travel during holiday.
To go to this dorm i have to use a bus from city center nor from my dorm to city centre, it took around 15-30 minute to get in to the bus, and i have to waited it on the bus stop not too far from my dorm.
Even though that many athletes there didn’t speak in english fluently, they were still a lovely people that helped us with any trouble when i stayed.
Second place was Berkhan’s house
To be honest, our organising committe can’t provide us with home stayed with local family. Because not so many turkish people want to keep a male foreigner student. And rather to choose female foreigner student. Such a pathetic situation that makes me can’t feel any turkish activity when they are at home.
Too good to be true and how lucky i am that one of my student on my project called berkhans invite me to stay till the rest of my time in turkey, such a surprise because not all of my friends on change participant got this kind of opportunities. But still i have to re think about this twice because i have to blend and be able to be really nice with my host family. And after a few consideration i didn’t want to miss this opportunities. My female friends told me that living on a host family is really nice, and you ll have a lot of free food too. Such a great deal, then here i come heading to berkahns house,leaving my lovely dorm, and left my some of my friend who didn’t get any host famility there.
When i met berkhans parents for the first time, that was the time that i recognise that berkhans parents are fucking friendly and funny too. One word, HOSPITALITY. when i arrived on berkhan’s home, i was really surprised that berkhans home isn’t really far from my dorm. like my dorm is in the valley, and berkhans home is in the peak of that hill. Turkish houses are like a mini apartment, because on one building you can find that not only one family on that building, but there are others facility there. Another most interesting about berkhans home is they have a swimming pool there. The best solution on summer time. The most epic swimming time was when me, berkhan, and his cousin swimming in the middle of the rain and storm. EPIC !
They have 2 dogs in their house, it is really fun too. Especially this is my first time having a dog in a house, because my parents don’t allow me to have a dog as a pet. A really great opportunitiy for me remembering that i am a vet students. Not only berkhans house has a dog, but also their neighbourhoods have a lot of kind of dogs that i really really like it.
Berkhans has a sister, and she is a really nice women that i met in turkey. Open minded, kind, and really great to communicate in english. So i don’t have any trouble to ask anything about turkey with her and ask her to help me prepare my travel on capadocia, pamukalle, etc. Why i do really need her help, because i was traveling in the middle of aid fitr ( moeslems holly day, the end of ramadan) and it is not easy to find a bus to traveling.
Although berkahn’s parents have a great children who are able to speak in english, berkhan’s parents doesn’t know how to communicate in english. But it stil really nice to interpret what they said in turkish and for try to speaking on turkish language.
Not only that, berkhans familiy really changed me. After several days on berkhans home, i got a bread, nutella, cheese, and olive for my breakfast that make me ate the same thing when i arrived in Indonesia . And when i ate that kind of breakfast, then i remember berkhans family.
Berkahn’s family is my first family in turkey, and they threat me like their child. They bought some T-shirt for me( maybe just because i don’t have much T-shirt there ), promise to come to my wedding in Indonesia, bought a turkish coffee set for my mom, lend me a cell phone, and made a farewell party to me with a barbecue party on their garden. It was really fun !
P.S i do really love you guys, and i want to say a really big thanks to my dorms, and berkahs family, I hope i ll come back to turkey and meet all of you again there !
Note :
- Don’t ever never try to travel on aidl fitr holiday, because most of people in turkey ll coming back to their home city then use a bus. So, BOOK YOUR TICKET AS SOON AS POSSIBLE
- Always talk to local people to help you with your problem
- Don’t be shy to get along with local people and blend with them
- On aid fit or local holiday there ll be a day that you can pass to any museum or park for free if you show them that you are a local people.
