After some weeks of relaxing in Turkey, I felt the strong urge to set up the castle again. I stayed with my friend Evrim in Findikli, in the Eastern part of Turkey at the Black Sea. And whoever has not been in this area, should book his tickets now. The area is famous for its tea and hazelnut growing, and therefore everything is so green and juicy that you directly want to take a bite from the mountains.
Evrim’s newly opened Bageni Pansiyon
Anyway, Evrim is probably the most famous guy in Findikli. We were walking around at night, and literally EVERYONE on the street shared a joke or said hi. Therefore, the permission to put the castle on the central square was a piece of cake. We walked into the major’s office in the morning, Evrim wrote a note saying “We will put the bouncy castle on the square today for all the children to have fun. Evrim” and it was done. THAT is how bureaucracy has to work!
Wishful thinking: chilling with cay
The castle started and a few kids gathered on it. At first I was a bit disappointed by their small number, but then I realized I could just sit around the whole day, drink cay and enjoy the compliments from the children’s parents what a good thing I do. I could not have been more wrong.
Slowly, but steadily the number of children increased. They started to come from all the corners of the city, from the nearby restaurants, from their homes, some even from the sewer! The castle was fully crowded, and this time me a my friendo Ozan had to organise the party all by ourselves. My Turkish is fortunately good enough for some basic conversations with the kids. When I told them “üc dakika sol” (three minutes left), and they begged me “bes dakika, lüüütfen!” (five minutes, pleeease) I could answer “taman, bes dakika, ama hizli dakikalar” (alright, 5 minutes, but quick minutes). And they even listened!
When all the children were tired and exhausted, they begged me to close it and put it back into the car (alright, I begged THEM if we could stop). In the evening, Ozan and me wanted to have a drink on the successful day, I went into the next shop and found myself buying drinks from one of our kids. The End.
hupf und weg 