A man is not really a father until he has a daughter. This is what a Turkish man told me. Maybe it was a translation thing. I don’t know. But I thought it was an intriguing thing to say. I do not think that it meant that one should not have sons, but that one should also have a daughter. Sweet thought.
Turkiye is undergoing a downward trending birth rate. Less than the replacement rate. The birth rate has dropped by half from 1960 when it was three children per woman. Now, 1.5 per woman. The Turkish government has tried to encourage their citizens to have more children, but the cost of living is stopping people from having more children. The government called 2025, the “Year of the Family” and started paying money to families who had more children. But still, as one Turk said to me, “Who can afford it?” When I asked about his thoughts on having children.
As for the comment about having a daughter to become a “real father” — others have told me that this is not true. In Turkiye, there is still a preference for boys, so maybe this comment was a personal opinion?
There is a set price for bread.
Yes, the Turks also celebrate Fathers’ Day on the third Sunday in June. The first one was in 1910 in the United States. The Turks started celebrating a few decades ago. The Turks often celebrate Ataturk as they consider him the father of the nation. So maybe “every day is fathers’ day!”
The large mosque and the 1,700-year-old Roman bridge.
Adana is not a touristy city, but, here are the things one can do as a tourist. But, first things first. It is hot in Adana. From June through October, the temperatures can be above 86F/30C. Not super humid. In July, August, and September the temperatures are above 104F/40C. I recommend late October or April during the Orange Blossom Festival, Adana’s biggest tourist event.
Visit the old town around the clock tower and the old bazaar street.
Walk across the Roman bridge, still usable after 1,700 years.
Get a Turkish bath in a 500 year old bath house. Çarşı Hamami was built in 1529. Yes, you read that right. This bath house is located east of the main tourist street with all the shops. It is near the big clock tower.
A touristy sign in a touristy bit of Adana old town.
Visit the large mosque, Sabancı Central Mosque, the second largest mosque in the country. It is only 30 years old but is built in the style of the Blue Mosque which was built 400 years ago. While visiting the central park, walk along the river and maybe cross the hanging rope bridge.
The big clock tower and the main tourist street.
Buy some Turkish towels. I recommend venturing into the small streets downtown away from the touristy areas if you want better prices. I have seen Turkish towels range in price from $3 to $100.
For souvenirs, I recommend the womens’ cooperative, located near the clock tower.
Many years ago, I went to a fabulous hammam (the idea of it being a “Turkish bath” was introduced in 1644 even though the tradition is more than 2,000 years old and started as “thermae” in Rome) in Istanbul. Now that I live in Adana, I wanted to find the experience again.
I asked some colleagues if they went to the hammam. As one man said to me, “No, I do not like strange men touching me… and especially when I have no clothes on.” Fair comment, fair comment. I asked others who told me that they did not go the hammam. No tradition of it now that everyone has a bathroom in their own home. In the old days, people had no running hot water in the home so they went to the bathhouse.
The hamman tradition is a remnant of the Romans (again, it’s all about those roads leading to Rome). The Romans also had no baths at home. The bath houses were a place to do more than bath. One went there to exercise, eat, and socialize. Everywhere the Romans went, they built baths (and roads). Even after the “fall of Rome” the Roman empire continued as the Byzantine Empire, then as the Ottoman Empire. Fast forward a century, and the hammam still exists.
Recently I learned that in olden times (I assume Ottoman times), mothers would go to the hammam to find a wife for their sons… well, I guess that is a sure way to do a visual inspection. I cannot speak to the visual inspection thing, but what I do know is that most young people and many others do not use the public hammams anymore. On top of which at many of the hammams, they have private rooms.
A hammam in Adana which is easy to identify by the skylights.
Despite what the modern Turks prefer, I was looking forward to getting regular Turkish baths. So I went searching. Most of the hotels have Turkish bathhouses. So far, I can see that they are staffed with Balinese women. One hotel had Balinese women for the English speakers and Turkmen women for the Turkish speakers. Generally the price is around 2,000 to 2,500 for a Turkish bath at a hotel. You do not need to be staying at the hotel to use the hammam.
It may seem a mystery for many so I will explain the basics of the Turkish bath. The men and women are separated either by location or time (some days or parts of the days for women and others for men). You can make an appointment or walk in and see if they have someone available.
This is one of the hammams in Adana. They have a plunge pool. Note the Turkish towels on the shelves.
Some places will have blue “shower caps” for your shoes for you to put on before you enter the spa area.
Some of the shoe cover machines do not use blue shower caps.
Once you enter, you will be taken to a locker room where you put your belongings in a locker (including your underwear although I’m told that some people keep it on). Then put on the robe or cotton wrap and paper slippers. Some places will make you shower before, but some do not have showers at the beginning. Then someone will guide you to the sauna, then the steam room (the sauna and steam room are optional), and then to the room with the golden taps and golden dish to rinse yourself. The person bathing you will be wearing a Turkish towel as well or maybe that and a top (if a woman). After you, and they, have rinsed you enough, they will indicate that you lie down on the warm marble slab (which is usually octagonal and in the center of the room) where they have placed a Turkish cotton towel.
Then, the person will take a special scrubbing brush and scrub a few layers of skin off you. This will be all over you, except for the genitalia. But very close. They will indicate when you need to roll over, when you need to sit up, and so on. They will scrub your face and wash your hair as well. They will massage you a bit. Then you will be rinsed off again.
Then you lie down on the warm wet towel again. And the best part happens… they take a cotton “pillow case” and suds it up in a cauldron. From there, they squeeze the suds and bubbles over you. It is marvelous. The warm bubbles effervesce on you like giddy bubble bath champagne. It is bliss.
A view showing the marble bench where you would sit and rinse yourself (also from the fancy place in Istanbul).
After the hammam is over, you may be covered in more towels and taken out to a rest area. There you may be offered tea or other restoratives.
Typical rest area in a hotel spa.
And then you pay. You can tip if you want to. Some places want cash payment which I find a bit…
It is hard to escape the pull of Italy. All roads lead to Rome and sometimes, one just has to accept it.
After living in Italy, which is one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world, I am continually asked if I miss it. No. But I do miss the cooked ham. The cured ham. The thinly sliced ham. So I went back. Not just for the ham.
In a small commuter town south of Florence, I went to a fantastically wonderful deli called Prelibum. Prelibum is Latin for “before the cake” so this is a place to buy delicious savory dishes before one eats cake. The deli has proscuitto, cheeses, wine, prepared dishes, and my favorite, Norwegian salmon. If you have never had Norwegian salmon, then I recommend it. If you think salmon is too oily or fishy, then try Norwegian salmon. (I don’t work for Norwegian salmon). Prelibum is also located in a small town in Belgium as the owners are Belgium and Italian.
In this little town in Tuscany, I also had other good food. But I must admit that I was bit focussed on the ham. The one I liked was called “Prague ham” — call me weird, but I liked that it looked like ham. Not a mishmosh of pieces stuck together with meat glue. (I prefer that as spam or a hotdog — what did you think it was made of?)
Sure, I walked along the Arno, drank prosecco, and walked the passegiata, and all those other “dolce vita” things that one does when in Italy.
On the train to Rome, I ate ham. On the flight back, I ate ham.
I love living in Adana, but maybe I need to take some ham breaks…
As I wrote about when I lived in Rome, I am a huge fan of the bidet. During the pandemic, during the toilet paper shortage, some people switched to the bidet.
Typical toilet with bidet, flush, toilet paper, and trash can.
Now that I live in Turkiye, I am back in the land of bidets. But, unlike in Rome, the bidet is a nozzle of water that is part of the toilet. Usually, it is a small spout in the back of the toilet under the toilet seat. It is activated by turning a handle on the right side of the toilet somewhere on the wall. The flush is usually a flat button (usually there is a small and large flush button) built into the wall behind the toilet.
In some countries, the seatless style of toilet where one squats over a hole in the floor, is called a, “Turkish toilet.” Some consider this more hygienic as no part of the skin makes contact with the toilet. This squat style toilet is not so common anymore in big cities in Turkiye. One still finds them in public toilets at malls and out in the countryside. Most of the toilets here have the bidet function and toilet paper for drying off. Many toilets in Turkiye cannot handle toilet paper so there may be a trashcan nearby.
A squat toilet which in other countries is often called a “Turkish toilet.”
Another thing about Turkiye is that people wash their hands a lot here. Before they eat and after. With every meal, there are wet wipes and napkins available. Plus, the “cologne” that is splashed on your hands after the meal which works like a sanitizer.
One thing to note about Turkiye is that people eat with both hands. In Bangladesh, another country with many muslims, people rarely ever used their left hand when eating.
Often outside the bathroom, in restaurants, there is a sink for handwashing. And at mosques, there are places to do one’s ablutions.
A place to wash one’s feet.
Modern Turkey is a secular country so maybe that has something to do with how things are.
All I know is that I love the built-in modern Turkish toilet, the bidet.
One day, I set out to find a well known “pilaf” eatery in old Adana. I had read that they were often sold out so one should go early. I got there at around ten thirty in the morning. They told me, “Come in, come in” but as there was no food, I said that I would come back after they opened at 11 am.
A quiet street in the inner warrens of Old Adana.
As I needed to find something to do for a half hour, I turned down an alley… in broad daylight, I generally do not feel apprehensive. The old streets of Adana are usually empty, sometimes foul smelling, worn down, and there is always a tea “shop” to be had. Today’s alleys were much the same but in one there was a man putting something in a grinder. It looked like green powder or grass powder. He looked annoyed at me so I did not stop to ask him what he was doing.
Wood stools.
Another thing I find fascinating is the variety of small stools. Today, I saw a saddle style that I had never seen before. In general, even if there is no tea shop or cafe, there will still be some stools and flat surface in or around every place of business. There are an innumerable tea boys and men running around delivering tea. Tea is a social habit, sort of like a handshake, in Adana.
Always tea.
While I was wandering around, I suddenly noticed raw meat on display, from lungs, stomach, testes, feet, and head. The heads were being blowtorched. Not sure how those heads were going to be prepared as one can get head soup, head sandwich, head cold cuts, and roast head. So many ways and apparently the cheek, tongue, and brain are the tasty bits. Am I right? (This makes me think of a “cute” street vendor in Istanbul who has been going viral because of his looks. He isn’t all that cute… anyway, there is a shop selling sheep head here in Adana that has employed that same marketing strategy. They have hired a cute “chef” who preps the sandwiches. Since they started featuring him, the views on their social media have increased exponentially.)
Sheep’s heads. And a woman.
As I walked through the meat market, sellers were calling out, “Welcome,” but I was not interested in buying any meat. I was also trying to make sure that I didn’t slip and fall on the slick tiles. Also, I noticed that there were only men shopping and only men working. I guess everywhere, butchery is a male dominated business. But, I was also in “the Egyptian Mall” and that could also be the reason that there were not many women around.
The meat market.
On the side streets of the meat market, there were lots of shops selling everything for grilling and cooking meat from knife stores to grinding equipment stores and some that sell everything but the meat. Aside from meat, there were the usual cell phone stores, sneaker stalls, cigarette stalls, and oddly, fake money stalls…
A grilling store.
In this warren of alleys, one could easily get lost, but not really because this area is only one city block. Eventually, one pops out on a “modern Adana” street again.
A street in the old town of Adana.
Another time, I’ll talk about the pilaf eatery and the dramatic stories of love, family, and money woes from some of the staff there.
Adana is known for its food. It has contenders for most foodie city in Turkiye from the likes of Gazientep, but more on that later. There are certain dishes one must try when in Adana, so let’s discuss them here.
So good, it’s named after the city — the Adana kebab (or kebap). It’s made of chopped lamb mixed with spices, bits of tomato, and fat to keep it moist. Served with roasted tomatoes and chili peppers. Usually jalapeño. One makes a sandwich as one wishes. Also on the table before the kebab, are plates of salads that you can eat on their own or put in your wrap. See the ones in the background of the liver photo below. Each place will make their own but they tend to be the same, onion, tomatoes, parsley, pickles, etc.
Adana kebab.
Liver for breakfast with raki. If you are going to have it, try it here where it will be fresh and good. The liver is tender and not strong in flavor. When part of a wrap, you can hardly taste it at all. It is normally eaten after a night out, so from 5 am on.
Liver kebab.
Fermented purple turnip juice, şalgam (“shawl-gawm”) is sour and can be served spicy. It is quiet tart so can cut through anything you are eating. Served with pickled purple turnips (that look like carrots) or other pickles. Tastes like sour pickle juice. Made with a fermentation process sort of like kombucha. But doesn’t have fizz. Just sourness.
Fermented turnip juice.
Şirdan is so special that I think that it should be considered a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage. Along with the other dishes I have mentioned.
Şirdan, (“Sheer-dan”) stuffed lower sheep intestine. This is the one that is most difficult to stomach (punny!) as the smell is strong. Make sure to go to a place recommended by locals. It will taste better if you are drunk and hungry. Both men and women like this dish but it is a distinctly Adanali dish. It is a bit like haggis but is filled with only rice. The flavor of the broth and the rice is a gentle soup flavor. The texture of the sheep’s intestine is rubbery but less so at one end. Usually one removes the string and puts salt, cumin, chili spice, and lemon juice on it — before shoving it down as fast as one can. It is meant to be eaten with two hands and gobbled.
A sewn up stuffed sheep intestine.
Like in all cultures, every part of the animal is eaten. In Italy, they eat spleen sandwich and tripe. In other cultures, these parts are turned into sausages, or as Dickens called them, “bags of mystery”… or in this case, rice.
Many people will never try these dishes. There are many other things to eat that are much easier… but at least try the kebab.
Adana is closer to Aleppo than it is to Istanbul. Adana is a hot dusty sandy city of two-three million people. There are all the elements of a big city but also the feel of a small outpost on the border.
A 24-7 bakery in old Adana.
Adana is a city of contrasts. People go about their lives. This was surprising to me. I love it.
A subsidized bread hut. Dogs are common on the streets.
Like in Peru, there are mototaxis, like Bangladesh, you see women who are covered up driving mototaxis.
Mainly, for me, it is a city without tourists. Or very few. The main tourist season is during the orange blossom festival in April. But otherwise, the tourist attractions in Adana are the Adana kebab, small old town, the Roman bridge, the enormous mosque, and the Varda bridge outside town. Compared to the frenzy of tourism in Rome, this is a nice break.
A kebab shop on every corner.
In ways, Adana reminds me of Dhaka. Both in weather and religion. But, Adana is not as humid as Dhaka. Adana has almost no mosquitoes but it has flies. But in Adana, there are air conditioning units everywhere. Oddly, cloves are prevalent in both cultures. In Dhaka, cloves were in much of the food. Here in Adana, one can chew on them to freshen the breath. There is almost no pork to be found. Coffee shops abound. But, in Adana, there are many places where people drink alcohol.
Boys playing in an industrial, poorer, part of town.
Adana even reminds me of Dhaka in some of the architecture. Aside from the architecture, there are people on the streets, playing backgammon, drinking tea, running after trucks… Also the love of “holiday lights” is a similar trait of these cities. Almost every city in the world enjoys stringing up festive lights during certain seasons. Same here.
A corner in a rich part of town near the old town.
But mostly the traffic in the city is similar to Lima, Cairo, or Dhaka. Dhaka still leads in most “interesting” traffic-wise. Nothing compares to Dhaka traffic. Nothing.
A view of the lake between new construction in the wealthy north part of town.
While this town is not that spread out, six or seven miles (8-10 kms) can seem very far and takes about 25 minutes by taxi. Like New York City, the neighborhoods change every ten blocks or so. Along the lake to the north, new complexes are rising like entire building blocks, all jostling for a view of the lake.
Are the locals, the Adanalis, friendly? Yes, but not overly so. It is polite to say hello, “Merhaba” when you meet a new person, enter a store, enter a taxi, etc. It is true that the locals will almost always offer you tea or coffee, if you spend enough time in their shop. It is a normal part of life. A tea stop. I have been here long enough that I find it odd when I don’t get offered “chai” at the end or beginning of meals and transactions. To accommodate the tea culture, there are always tea vendors (often boys of ten) running around delivering tea or collecting empties. While the locals are polite (although there are lots who simply stare) in general, I would not say that they are overly friendly. They are a bit reserved. They go about their lives and expect you to do so too, without being bothered by them.
A place to sit outside, to eat a kebab, or a wrap, or drink tea.
So, what’s it like in Adana? It’s chaotic, hot, dusty, cold, meaty (they love meat), and free of tourists. Also, almost free of foreigners other than refugees. There are some university students and some Americans (due to the air force base) but one rarely ever sees anyone “foreign” out and about. The locals still find it interesting when a foreigner gets in their taxi, or store, or restaurant, or walks down their street. One guy asked me, “Where are you going?” I guess out of concern? At other places, I have met that famous muslim or middle eastern hospitality where I am offered tea and delights and where they refuse to let me pay.
I love Adana sign in north Adana, a wealthy area.
Maybe I’m still in the honeymoon period where things seem so nice (and it is winter so I’m not boiling from the inside of my head whenever I step outside), but so far… I find Adana delightful.
Everyone loves decorations. All over Turkiye, you will see lights with stars and moons all over town.
At a gas station.
But, it is also easy to find Christmas decorations depicting Santa Claus or Christmas trees. Many Turks are tolerant and open minded and as they like to remind me, there is not a state religion in Turkiye.
Türkiye, the nation, had the UN officially recognize the spelling of its name in English as Türkiye (tur-key-YAY) in 2022 to have the spelling match the pronunciation in Turkish. But it is still hard for some people to call it that. Even for the Turks, many of whom called it Turkey for decades and then had to change in 2022. By now, most remember. If one slips up, no one comments. They are forgiving.
But until then, why did the place and the bird share the same name?
The land was called, “the land of the Turks” = Turkey. Pronounced, tur-key-YAY, but in English the Y at the end doesn’t have that “yay” sound. The land, whatever its name, has had humans living on, in, it for a long, wait, really long, time. More than 12,000 years. That’s considered a long time in human history. One of the many names was “Asia Minor,” or “Anatolia” which derives from the Greek term for where the “sun rises” or “levant” which means to “rise” or “sunrise” and before that, “the Land of the Hattians.” So, even over here in Adana, all roads lead to Rome. But more about that some other time.
So how did it become “Turkey?” For that we move forward to 1077 when the Seljuk Turks set up their nation and called it the “Sultanate of Rūm” referring to the area being considered “Eastern Rome” and today rūm refers to Orthodox Christians who were in this part of the world since Christianity arose. Keep in mind that St. Paul was born in Tarsus, less than an hour’s drive from Adana. With the fall of Constantinople in 1453, Sultan Mehmed II declared himself, “Kayser-i-Rum” or “Caesar of the Romans” or Emperor. So all roads do lead to Rome… by the 12th century, Europeans, west of the Balkans, started using the term, “Turchia” which is what the modern Romans, Italians, call Türkiye. So even though the first of the Turkic groups to rule modern day Türkiye, called it something else, from this point on, the land started becoming more and more Turkish.
Chicken wing, chicken breast, and liver kebab.
Now, to the bird. By the way, as an aside, the way that the Turks give the bird is quite dramatic and done with flourish. More on that another time.
The bird, the Meleagris gallopavo, is indigenous to the Americas. When the Europeans encountered the bird, they called it guinea fowl or turkey cock/hen as they had seen pheasants and guinea fowl from Africa that looked similar. But, maybe not as big. In 1550, an Englishman William Strickland, who had introduced the bird to England (the first turkeys in Europe were taken to Spain by the Spanish from Mexico), was given a coat of arms which included the “turkey-cock in his pride proper.” Turkeys were introduced to North America by the English in the 17th century.
The bird was named after the country. Why? This article explains it well. Basically, when the birds were being traded for food, a confusion arose between the bird from the Americas with a bird from Africa…
But was it a fair trade? And should we re-name the bird? Call it the Mexican fowl? Or “huexolotl”? That’s the sixteenth-century Nahuatl, language of the central America, name. So for Americans who celebrate Thanksgiving or “Turkey-day”, they could say, “Happy Huexolotl!”
That said, here in Adana, they do not eat so much turkey. Mostly chicken.
Adana is distinctive for its river which runs through it and along the old town. The number one pastime for Adanalis (people from Adana) is to “grill” or picnic. They will set up wherever they think will be nice. Many spots along the river and lake have setups for grilling. I have been trying to “breakfast my way around the lake” because the views are so aquamarine. I love it.
The Seyhan Lake is an artificial lake that was created by the dam (and hydroelectric station) which opened in 1956 to protect old Adana, 15 kilometers to the south.
The lake is a popular place for restaurants, fishing, kayaking, and much more. Many nightclubs and shisha bars line the lake. One can drive around the lake (and on this site, one can learn more about the lake and the activities available.)
No, not true. Well, yes, it’s that hot, but not all sherbet/sorbet is iced. Sometimes it is a drink. The original word derives from the Arabic term “to drink” (shariba) and in modern Turkiye, you can still find it as a drink.
Sherbet of rosehip? With Turkish coffee and cookies.
Sherbet can be had in many flavors deriving from herbs, fruits, and other plants. Some specific flavors are famous in certain locations, such as Bursa’s peach flavor (Bursa is the old capital of Ottoman Empire) or ingredients such as musk.
I had the one in the photo at the Women’s Cooperative in Adana. We didn’t ask for it. It was offered with the coffee. I think of the sherbet drink as being similar to Ribena in Germany or fruit punch in the USA. It’s a version of electrolytes.
