A visit to Çantua

Çantua is the original name of the village and natıves changed the name to Çanta (handbag) for easier pronunciation  It is where my brother has a large piece of land and also the area where his wife's family comes from. So it was an easy decision for him to buy some land in that area. This is where my brother connects with land. 

There is a little cabin, a port-a-john, two fountains, a wooden table made from a root of a tree that I thought was beautiful and a bench where we had an impromptu picnic. It is relatively close to Istanbul, yet it is far enough that one does not feel the hustle and bustle of Istanbul. It doesn't have spectacular views but for some rolling hills and endless sky. He says that people come from all over to hunt birds and train their falcons in the area. You get there on a dirt road, so we had to drive carefully. It was a pleasant time for my brother Ahmet, sister-in-law Nevin and myself. I could imagine having horses and some sheep and couple of dogs eventually sharing the land wıth us.  He has pomegranate, walnut, pine, oak trees and many others that I don't remember. After a while, we drove to the village and found a place to get the mud washed off the truck we were driving. It was another proof that Turks are very entrepreneurial and do not mind workıng as the business comes in. The car wash place looked like no one was around and the moment we honked an 11 year old boy appeared immediately and said he would be happy to power wash the car. Several dogs followed him as he worked on our truck.

Coming home felt nice and easy after all the fresh air. We were invited to Nevin's parents for a Lüfer (bluefısh) dinner wıth three kinds of salad and deep fried patatoes, followed by rice pudding with cinnamon. Tea and fresh fruit were served while we were watching  a soccer game between Galatasaray and Samsunspor.  GS won 4 to 2 which was bitter sweet result since my father comes from Samsun but my brother and his in-laws root for GS.