Gaziantep, Again...

An exquisite spring weather.

Birds chirping resoundingly from the single tree in front of me. The only sound that never bothers me no matter how loud; the sound of nature.

My brain, callous from overworking, was urging me to throw myself to the loving bosom of Anatolia, while my other half was telling me not to do anything, to eat and drink well, to read and to understand again and again how little I know as I was wondering the streets of Gaziantep... 

Having mentioned eating well, I was talking about how I single-handedly ate a full one of the  super-sized "katmers" from Orkide Bakery, which has been one of my biggest reasons to visit Gaziantep in the recent years, as soon as I got off the plane.

Again having mentioned eating well, I have also devoured one of the famous kebabs of Mehmet Usta –he is the brother of the even more famous Halil Usta- which I have tested and approved many times before, for lunch.

After eating the katmer that smells profusely of pistachios and butter, and wondering the history-infused streets, I arrived at the pride of Gaziantep, Ali Ihsan Göğüş Museum. Göğüş, who lived between the years 1923-2011 and has been a journalist, a member of the parliament and  a minister of the state, was saluting visitors from his black-and-white photographs.

As I was overcome with admiration towards the people of Anatolia, my soul, freed by the winds of the spring, was flowing from one place to the other. A smile blossemed on my face. Doesn’t spring exist for this? For hope, to pull us away from the cold and the pessimism of the winter and fill us with hope.

Even though there have been a lot of campaigning to end our deep-seated love, I am thankful for the love I have for Galatasaray and for soccer that never dies, for becoming a means for me to see Anatolia and get the know Anatolian people through my trips to watch matches.

As we always say, our love is a romantic one. This love doesn't end whatever the other does, it continues regardless of whether the love is requited or not and it is platonic no matter victorious or defeated…

Always one-sided.

Very much joyful, seldom painful, but no matter what, always ours.

This love for our team depends only on the love we give.

Even though we’re not “the black shadows of the red dreams”, we are the lovers of the world of red and yellow.

I am very fortunate to feel such love for Galatasaray, because I have been able to visit dozens of cities of Anatolia, Europe and the world that I otherwise wouldn’t. How else would I see these beautiful cities if it wasn’t for Galatasaray? How else would I feel the light in bright eyes of children? I would have never known people who open their houses to a complete stranger and host them as if they're at home, I would have never been able to hold their hands in friendship…

One shouldn’t go through life without visiting cities of Anatolia, which are a thousand times more beautiful than many mundane European cities that have become spots of attraction because of a sculpture, a couple streets and  inflated advertising campaigns. The state of peace and calm the people have, which we –people from the metropolitan- lack tremendously, and their happiness and willingness to make their surroundings beautiful without ever losing hope regardless of the poverty and illiteracy they have been trapped into have been my biggest reward from my travels.

Only if we could stop fighting each other.

I am writing these lines 4 hours before the game. Thus I don’t yet know the result. Love for a sport, for a team is only beautiful when you are able to accept loosing as much as winning. Like loving someone with all their flaws. Everyone can love the beautiful, it is loving the ugly that is more challenging, isn't it? (There can’t be fault in comparison) For those who may be bored of philosophy, it is time to leave the depths and delve into more shallow waters.

As I often mention here, I have travelled to Sivas on Saturday and to Paris on Sunday just to watch the team. Similarly I have travelled to Sivas on Saturday and to Ekaterinburg on Sunday and back for the same reason. What I’m saying is life is short and time is flying by. We need to follow our passions whenever we can. We should even create opportunities to do so.

Don't waste your days, at least your weekends, for nothing. Visit these places even if it is just for a day. See Antep, Kayseri, Trabzon, Antakya, Mardin… Even though 2 days won’t be enough, it is better than nothing. Eat, drink, see, love… Seeing people in their own life conditions is the best way to love and show understanding to people who are different than yourself. It is cheaper, shorter and much more joyous than siting idly in Istanbul or breathing the air at a mall that is depleted of necessary negative electrical charges. You can fly an average of 2 hours with very affordable plane tickets available. I don't know why I’m advertising the sales promotions of airlines… Come on, it’s time to get yourself out of the house before the spring is gone. It's time for one to teach the other how to take photographs, like the couple below…

Since Gaziantep has been the home of the most away matches I have watched, I saw the old city streets that have developed a lot since I last visited. I have seen a couple museums at the historical city center before, but this time the streets were completely renovated and a number of new museums have opened.

I visited the Toy Museum, which I am embarrassed to say that I haven't visited in Istanbul. I am very happy to have done so. Anyone who visits Gaziantep has no excuse not to. It only costs 1 lira.

Dearest Sunay Akın has always talked about how important and effective toys were in developing creativity and imagination. I saw it with my own eyes during my visit. Take a look below at the toys of a population back in the 1950s that visited space.

And these are our toys many years after that;

Judge, I rest my case…

Now I aim to see the Toy Museum in Istanbul as soon as possible.

There isn't much to write about the match. I haven't been able to travel to see an away match since Trabzon this season. This year we have lost at home, away, and everywhere. As a classic tradition, people expect from a person who has come to watch a match for the first time after a number of losses is expected to bring luck to the team. I think this mission was laid on me this time around. I was even promised free attendance to matches as an invitee of the team’s administration for the rest of the season if the team won. -In a parenthesis I would like to note that I have been paying for my own travels for years, for those who may be curious- After watching the match and seeing the condition of the players, I can safely say that even I can’t save this team.

I wrote my diary about Gaziantep when I was there. I though I’d be able to wrap it up when ai return, but uh-huh! After leaving that atmosphere and coming back to the hurdles of the life in the city even I haven't been able to get back to my routine. Now it’s time to wind myself up, like I’ve wind you up about traveling, and finish the writings I have accumulated.

For those who’d like to read my previous posts about Gaziantep;

http://sibelakinn.blogspot.com.tr/2014/01/gaziantep-yolunda-baylttn-beni-cim-bom.html

http://sibelakinn.blogspot.com.tr/2013/05/gaziantep.html

Bursa

Bursa is one of the deplacements I rarely go. Although Bursaspor has just once become a champion in Super League to the date, it is a team that always play for the top ranks and is the nightmare for the other teams particularly due to its votary fans.  Of course for us as well….

Since we have not won against them nearly for 6 years, it is true that they are successful against us for whatever reason.

When talking about Bursa, I remembered a memory of many years ago and it does not allow me to go to Bursa. I was studying in high school and I was always wearing a yellow-red scarf since I was a fan of Galatasaray as I am now. It was a gift from one of elder buddies from my neigborhood; and it was my first yellow-red scarf, therefore very valuable as it is now. I such doted on my scarf, thus Galatasaray that I got on TV with my scarf when I was selected to make a speech on TV during my years in Beşiktaş Girls High School.

I was accidentally in Bursa one day when there was a match between Bursaspor and Galatasaray. I could not go to view the match but I was aware of the match and wondered the result. Please do no suggest me to view the match through TV, internet, facebook or twitter. Mobile phone was a fantastic dream for us during those years. We were very close to the stadium in a bus. I discovered from the fans of Bursaspor who were rushing into the street and letting out victory yells that we were defeated ‘again’. Meanwhile, one of the fans of Bursaspor saw my scarf and told me to take off it. Aha! To me! Within one instance hundreds of fans surrounded the bus after I was addressed by the first fan and they started to kick the bus. They were shouting, swearing, weaving the bus and pounding the windows.  Everyone in the bus asked me to take off the scarf but I didn’t even if I was very scared. Eventually an uncle took me to the back part of the bus, and hid me to save me from those brutals, who were unable to slow down even if they had got a victory. I was exposed to football terrorism for the first time when I was still a child. 

Here is that famous scarf of mine: 

I went to Bursa through seabus, which was newly started sailings from Kabataş, Istanbul.  It takes exactly 2 hours to arrive at Mudanya, Bursa. Although it shook a bit, I slept during my trip, which was very comfortable. Since I landed on my feet as always, I met one of my friends and one of her friend took us to Bursa. If not, the municipality busses tak you to every corner of Bursa. Anyway, you can go to Bursa from Mudanya within less than half an hour. The transportation is easy to Bursa but I am not sure if it would be safe if I went there through municipality busses.

As soon as we arrive at Bursa Atatürk Stadium, we had our photos taken while our scarves on us, because there would not be a chance to do it in the evening.

After taking photos, it was the time to eat something. With redirection of some of my twitter followers, I went  to the Uludağ Kebapcisi and it was wonderful.

http://www.uludagkebapcisi.biz/bursaeskigaraj.asp

This time we went to Kebabci Iskender, which dated back to 1864, since we have a friend living in Bursa. http://www.iskender.com.tr/bursa-merkez.html 

We lined up at the door before entering the restaurant. The wording ‘how much you want say now, you will not take once again” was true, which were thinking that it was just a joke. When we said, “ah, we are coming from Istanbul, we would like to drink coffe and tea”, the waiter firmly told me that “no coffe and tea here, you should go there if you would like to drink tea” referring us to the tea house at outside.  Let me mention this with twitter language: we were in a mood of a frustrated student who is late and sent to the management by the teacher to receive permission slip.

The Iskender kebap was wonderful but we should not let them to pour the sausage with butter on it. It reminds me itself by dancing in my stomach.

We became sure that we made good choice when we saw a team of Lig TV was shooting there.

Since we had problems to find ticket, some of us viewed the match among the fans of Bursaspor in VIP tribune. When I was entering the stadium, the security guard saw the scarf in my bag and call the authorized manager, and he told me that he had to withhold it. I took the risk of being lynched, would I give them it? Nobody can take this from me, I told. “You can’t enter in, if you do not give it to me” he said. I told him that I would enter and would not leave behind my scarf. He saw a person who is more decisive than him, he accepted me to enter in, but he advised me not to wear it. I would like to say that I would wear it but I am not crazy, I am just passionate.

Bursaspor fired Ertugrul Saglam, the four-year coach of Bursaspor, last week, and took the match under the leadership of the vice-coach Ersel Uzgur. Bursaspor had tranfered a footballer within last week. It is impossible to understand how a team can transfer a footballer without a coach.

This is valid for every team but why do they not understand that the success depends on stability for the teams such as Bursaspor and Trabzonspor, the teams that may compete the 3 strongest teams in Turkey.  Ertuğrul Saglam lead Bursa in being champion for the first time, he realized a dream; he should be allowed to do some permanent things. Again, Trabzonspor fired Senol Gunes; have they hired a better one? Whatever may come, Senol Gunes led the national team to be the third in World Cup. He gained the footballers such as Burak Yılmaz, Selçuk İnan and goalkeepers such as Tolga Zengin and Onur Kıvrak for Turkey.

Anyway, let’s turn to ourselves. Because of the cards, Fatih Terim’s choice of squad was different but Burak Yilmaz was not among the first eleven. Burak is an emotional person; he was very dispirited and reluctant while warming up. The fans of Galatasaray, who saw this, cheered on him twice calling him before the tribune. Since I was just an audience I had to be contended with viewing this scene but did not shoot. I hope Burak perceived this sincere support towards him. 

Even Sneijder could not save the match played under the influence of an unbelievable southwester and the match endud up in a draw. We had to accept 1-1, when we did not evaluate the opportunities. Even though 1 point seems to be important in such matches, we felt very sad on the other day for missing the opportunity to draw away, since the other rivals also lost points. 

There is no senseless thing such as returning from Bursa via airlines but we returned with an airplane since the scheduled trip via seabus was cancelled because of southwester. In fact, the ones who had moved immediately after the match arrived at the borders of Istanbul until we landed on.

During our return trip, I have never seen Fatih Terim such dispirited and nervous. That is not the point to win or lose but I think he was angry since the footballers did not show a strong struggle and they extenuated the match. I would say that the footballer, who is not with passion even under the leadership of Fatih Terim, deserves a beating you will be cross with me but when Ziya Pasa said “If a gentle warning is not working, try yelling and screaming. If all of the above fails, then nothing is wrong with a good beating”, you take this as a proverb…  

Anyway, as all newscasts, let’s finish the article with news on children to conclude the writing well.

Since we transferred world-star Sneijder, I was received requests for jersey, signature, and saying hello, kisses (ok, ok, I have fabricated the kisses).  The most meaningful thing in the airplane was that I had Sneijder to sign the uniforms sent by my friend who live in Netherlands and has 7-year old child. 

The moral of th story: It is good to make a child happy, do not neglect it… 

The journey of yellow & red scarf

It is the break time but no game is there.

I got bored at home.

We gathered the signed jerseys according to the year and as signed or not, and from the most important to the least important.

Scarves as memoirs and GS scarves were distributed and folded neatly. 

All the game date books were tidied and distributed according to their dates.

The game tickets were distributed according to their being foreign or domestic.

Old newspapers were tidied and the newspaper articles of the important dates and events were folded.

The books about sports and GS were distributed according to their colors and sizes.

When there were nothing 3D more to do, I started with the pictures in PC. The d.mned (!) digital technology had erased many of my pictures; however, I put the remaining ones in order. I chose the ones with flags amongst thousands of photos. Although I wasn’t ready to share some ugly photos, I shared them anyway, thinking that no one should be hidden if the god knows them well.

Be my guest please…

December 5, 2006, Champions league, Liverpool game where Ümit Karan was about to write history, and Sabri played a football which is still talked about, the famous 3-2 score game. The second picture shows me in Liverpool scarf, but what can I do? I liked the colors… you could find any colors in Liverpool store although red is the color of the team itself. It is fascinating that those people have developed in football industry, especially when you consider that your designs of orange-purple is criticized.

This photo shows us before the Sion game at UEFA 1. Stage with the excuse of the football pitch being small. Again, we lost 3-2 and this time Servet wrote history (!)

This is from Lisbon, the distinctive city of Europe. We beat Benfica by 2-0 on December 7, 2008 with an excellent game.

This is from Benfica game. I like photos that are taken with a professional camera and are taken nearby the football pitch. Look at the beauty of the colors!... not at me, look at the colors!... ;-)) 

From our constant temple Ali Sami Yen. Do I have to explain what game it is? If details are necessary, UEFA – October 22, 2009 GS: 4 - Dinamo Bucharest: 1

As you may understand from the colors on me, we were wearing purple that season. :)

This is from the second leg on November 6, 2009. We beat them by a net score of 3-0. Don’t ask me about the cold we felt there.

Bordeux on February 18, 2009. The game ended 0-0, but a 1 point without having a goal in your goal-post is always valuable.

“What is blue man?” In my opinion it is the same: What is blue?..

Another European city as cold as ice: Hamburg. I would be wasted if the flowers did not heat me up ;)

Although we left the game on March 12, 2009 by an advantageous score like 1-1, we lost the game by 3-2 with the last-minute goals although we had been paying well with a score 2-0, and we said farewell to Europe in a melancholy. The above picture is from those happy days…

Galatasaray means love, Galatasaray means passion, but at the same time international football is another pleasure. In İstanbul on May 20, 2009, the UEFA final, we became a little proud of the game in which Lucescu won in Şükrü Saraçoğlu.

In 2005 the famous Liverpool-Milan game was played in Istanbul and I was there. However, the photos were deleted by the d.mned computer. :(

These crazy photos are from Israel, a country which I probably went for the first and last time, from the Maccabi Netanya game in UEFA. Although the game was in Tel Aviv, we went to Jerusalem and visited all the religious centers. The only place where you can make use of the Turkish Passport is most probably Al-Aqsa Mosque. They put only one condition, and guess what it was… I do not step on the scene without my scarf, man!...

Meanwhile, we won the game by 4-1, and in İstanbul 6-0, and we succeded in getting to the next stage…

I don’t know the reason why, but one of the most interesting away games among men is the Estonia game. We went to Talinn with the comfort of having beaten Estonia by 5-0, and on August 27, 2009 we had a score of 1-1 in Levadia game and hardly were able to get to the next stage.

As I recall our dear neighbor Greece. When I see Athens I want to ask how they left that country in such a terrible situation but however, politics is forbidden here. We met with Panathinaikos on September 17, 2009 at UEFA groups and beat 3-1. We won the game in İstanbul by 1-0 and proved that we were strong enough to beat this powerful team of Greece.

Atletico Madrid was a boring team in those times without Arda Turan. Therefore, we left the game by a score of 1-1 on February 19, 2010 at UEFA groups.  

Another interesting place is Lvib, Ukraine. However, this time Turkish men have right for this interest. 85% of the population of this country is formed by women and a visit to such a city can be highly regarded as public service, can’t it?

In Karpaty Lviv game on August 26, 2010, we lost our donkey, and then found it, and the lost it again! On August 19, we went to Lviv with a disadvantageous score of 2-2 in İstanbul. We kept the game as scoreless till the last minute and scored a goal at the last minute and became very happy. However, after one minute they had a goal scored against us and we lost the game and the stage, too. Like Prekazi says, “Round is the ball!” :(

Another international game; but this time, we have accompany. On May 9, 2012, our beloved Arda played with the Atletico Madrid colored uniform in UEFA final. We would not be pleased if we didn’t take our places in the stadium with our yellow-red scarves.

As we were all sure, Arda lifted the UEFA Cup in his early age, and made us very happy by giving us his jersey and medal. (I talked about sharing etc. but I was ugly in that photo; so, please make do with this one!)

We have always respected Galatasaray, so we have the right to hold the Cup sometimes… we got the Super Cup on August 12, 2012 in Erzurum and beat our ancient rival by 3-2, and this pleasure is a unique one! Moreover, the Cup was in my hands on plane!..

In this picture we are at Old Trafford. That year we met Manchester in Champions League on September 19, 2012; and although we played well, we lost that game by 1-0. We made history in the past in this same stadium. As you may remember we beat this English giant by 1-0 at our home.

The streets were colorful, and as it is common before every European game, our Galatasaray fans in Europe cheered madly.

This photo is from Braga game. Those who have read my thoughts about this game may remember my ideas. On December 5, 2012, our beloved Galatasaray performs another miracle and leaves its group by winning the last 3 games, although it got 1 point in its previous 3 games, and makes us happy again this year.

With best wishes for us to be happy and smile always and our beloved scarves to travel many more places…