For a moment I felt like Adana was starting to cool down, but that was just one 'brisk' morning and by noon it was back to scorching heat again. Fortunately though, we have been getting away from the city a bit.

Last Thursday, Dilşad and I took the bus to İscanderun to stay with my host fathers family at their beach house. İscanderun is a large town, but small city with a busy center and summer houses dotting every bit of the shore line. The beach house is part of one of these little neighborhoods filled with white adobe houses with big wrap around porches where all meals are eaten. The house is owned by my host dads brother Cankat but their other brother Eran and his family stay there during the summer as well. The first morning we got up earlier than I have become used to and went for a swim in the beautiful Mediterranean Sea. The water was warm and clear and I never wanted to get out.

Instead of spending the next night at the beach house we went with Dilşad's aunt to the "yaila" which translates into summer cabin and are from what I understand are usually located in the hills, or maybe that is just this one. I'm not really sure. The road to the yaila is about 30 minutes but it felt significantly longer. The majority of the road is gravel, steep, windy and has just enough room for two cars to pass if both are going slow, which they never are. But we made it up and back fine and the view was well worth it. You could see one direction all the way to İscanderun and the see and the other direction into the sprawling hills.
the family comes to these little somewhat makeshift cabins to escape the summer heat, and it was nice and cool. Dilşad's aunt stays up there with her husband and mother about 2 months our of the year. Her mother Dilşad's grandmother is the sweetest woman and very typical Turkish. She offered to teach me Turkish, which of course failed miserably because the language is impossibly hard, but it was nice anyway.

The next morning we went to these beautiful fields in the mountains and got to pick blackberries, (which taste different from those in the United States) tomatoes, and green beans. The scenery was beautiful but the labor looks hard as there isn't any machinery to help with the work.
 
We spent the next night at beach house and then went back to hot Adana. Tonight, we are going to my host mother's village for about a week to celebrate the end of Ramadan I thınk. The celebration lasts for three days so it should be fun!