My Vip Book Cafe

A sunny Saturday is an ideal day for going out. Even if you are an introvert, you can enjoy reading your book while drinking coffee at a cafe. If you are not a student. Well, for students, Saturdays are ‘complete-the-assignments’ days, but it is possible to make these days more enjoyable. An alternative way to enjoy these days is Book Cafes! ‘Book-cafe’ concepts became widespread in Turkey and I am very happy about it. So, this Saturday, we decided to go to My Vip Kitap Cafe located in Turgut Özal Bulvarı in Adana.

To be honest, the name and outside view of the cafe is unattractive. I can say the inside is much better. It is a two-story cafe. There is a bookshop in the downstairs while upstairs is separated for stationery and cafe. The bookstore is modern and adequate. One can find many genres: bestsellers, classics, children’s books, fantasy, manga and even test books for students. 

The stationery section has various range of products from notebooks to pens, from stickers to folders. In addition to school supplies, there are objects such as trinkets, mugs and frames can be bought as a gift to yourself or your beloved ones. You can also find decorative articles for your home.

I liked the cafe section. It has a calm atmosphere allowing you to read or study. Plus, there is Wi-Fi! (A life-saver for translators) The personnel is kind and helpful. Nobody is forcing you to buy something.

Since this cafe is new, the kitchen part has some problems. For example, you can only order hot drinks (coffee, tea, etc) or instant drinks (coke, fruit soda, etc) for now. The prices, on the other hand, are very affordable. I think My Vip made a good start as a book cafe in Adana and they can improve themselves.

Sabancı Mosque and Central Park

Sabancı Merkez Camii (Sabancı Central Mosque) and Merkez Park

As a nonbeliever, I have never been in a religious place. So, I was like a tourist

completely visiting Sabancı Mosque. The first thing that drawn my attention was its small, clean and nice garden. It was nice to sit on a bank and enjoying the weather. Unfortunately, the library in the garden was not open, which made me sad as a booklover.

In the entrance of the mosque, there are nylon bags to put your shoes into and head

scarves for whom do not have one. After you take off your shoes and cover your head,

you are ready to go. The mosque is really big, the biggest in Adana. The mosaics on the walls were worth-seeing. The big chandelier on the centre and the small chandeliers on the second floor were really authentic.

Next to the Sabanci Mosque, there is Merkez Park. It is the biggest park in Adana. You can do many things there: go for a walk, sit in the shadows of the trees, read a book, picnic, fly a kite or ride a bicycle. In a sunny day, you can spend hours while enjıying the nature. Its tranquil atmosphere will relax you. This park is also for people who loves exercising, there are exercise equipments for adults, playground for childrens and a running area. If you feel a little hungry or thirsty, there is a canteen near the playground. In the centre of park, there is a small decorative poll and a planet model.

For photographers, many spectacular shots can be captured. If you are a tourist and just want a quick trip, you can get on tourist train and travel around the park. I prefer walking. But my walking is disturbed by motorcycles. If I had headphones, I would be in trouble. I think, motorcycles should be banned in the park! If this problem is solved, everything will be better. Will I go the park again, despite of the motorcycles? Yes, absolutely.

The Orange Blossom Carnival Review

Crowded but Fun

When April comes, orange trees blossom in Adana. Walking in the street becomes more

charming activity thanks to scent of orange flowers. You can feel deeply that cold and rainy

days are over and spring is around the corner. In Adana, April also means carnival: The Orange Blossom Carnival! In its seventh year, The Carnival attracts many people to Adana.

Thousands of people have fun together. In fact, it is the first street carnival of Turkey. In the carnival areas, there are many activities one can enjoy: concerts, food stands, flower headpieces, music and more.

(Me and my beautiful friends. I am in the middle)

As an Adanian, I visited the carnival as well. In Saturday, we were

there to observe and take photos. To be honest, I got scared at first. It

was too crowded as if all the citizens of Adana were there. The place, Ziya Pasa, was colorful and lively but we could not enjoy fully because

of the crowd. Since this carnival became well known activity in Turkey,

the municipality should care of this problem. I am sure that Adana has many available

spaces that do not tie traffic up and give people personal space.

(THE WALKING CROWD)

In Saturday, there was the most anticipated event: The Costume Parade. Many people in their colorful costumes, hats, suits, makeups made the day unforgettable. However, as I stated before, because of the crowd and chaos,  these enjoyable moments were limited. If Adana Municipality

do not take improve the conditions, I will not go next year. If you want to go the carnival,

I should warn you. First, the traffic is tied up. If you travel with bus, you will have to walk. If you

have a car, there is no parking spot. So, you will have to walk. If you are a vegetarian, there will be meat and its scent everywhere. Despite of these conditions, it was an entertaining day.

Will Adana Municipality take precautions for these poor conditions? We will see.

#ResistMuseum: Atatürk's House

I visited three museums so far. As I observed, people love bragging about history, but they do not pay attention to protect it. Atatürk’s House has been opened to visitors as a museum in 1981 and was restored in the past. However, the museum, in 2019, looks like a neglected house. The walls are dirty, some doors are locked and the ground floor is separated for museum personnel. Apart from all these negative factors, I enjoyed the historic and minimalistic atmosphere. The entrance is free. The museum is open everyday except Monday.

Let’s talk about the museum. Atatürk came to Adana 5 times, and he and his wife stayed at this house two times. The house was belonged to Suphi Pasha and turned into a museum. The ground floor, as I said before, is separated for the personnel. The garden is separated for the gift shop and open area for visitors. At the second floor, there are bedrooms and other rooms such as press room, Hatay room, Turkish Revolutionaries (Kuvayi Milliye) room and a room that separated for old guns and money.

In general, I can say that the historical atmosphere can be easily sensed. The decoration of the rooms used by Atatürk is saved. When walking, one can feel the atmosphere. It is a plus point that the museum protected its minimal style. It does not tire you with lots of stuff. Sometimes less is more.

There are pictures of Atatürk when he visited Adana, Mersin, and Hatay. The pages of old newspapers announcing Atatürk's visit are also on display. These pictures enrich the content of the museum. Also, other politicians and soldiers who had contributions to the Turkish War of Independence is not neglected: their names and pictures are on display.

(The Bedroom of Atatürk)

(Sofa)

(Newspapers)

(Old pictures of the house)

PS:

the museum is not open at mondays.

Cinema Museum

Last Monday, me and my friends visited Adana cinema museum. The museum was one of the old Adana houses, then restored by Adana Metropolitan Municipality. It has been opened to visitors on September 2011. As understood from its name, the museum aims to inform people about the importance of Adana in Turkish cinema history. For this aim, many objects are on display: movie posters, cameras, model sculptures, books, old DVDs, stuffs used in the movies and belongings of the artists. The posters feature most of the space and at least one of the artists we saw on the posters is from Adana, which is the main point of the museum. The artists include Yılmaz Güney, Muzaffer İzgü, Abidin Dino, Şener Şen, Orhan Kemal and so on.

(Low budget model sculptures)

Unfortunately, I was not satisfied with the museum. First of all, the content is too general. There is no specification like ‘’Adana’s role in Yeşilçam’’ or ‘’Adana’s role in modern cinema’’. There are many things to see but the building is too small. It looks like a storeroom. All the posters and stuff tire your eyes. Second, there are many things with so little information. We see many movie posters, but what is the importance of these films? Informative texts are not enough, plus there is no translated text for tourists. Third, it is not well designed. Some of the shelves are covered with sticky tapes. The air conditioners do not suit the atmosphere. There is a ‘’library’’ but the shelves are locked. So, visitors are not allowed to read.

Opening a cinema museum in Adana was a good idea, but it was not a well-planned project. Maybe because the entrance is free, the officials do not give enough attention to this museum. For this reason, it does not attract people. Also, the location of the place is hard to find, far away from the city center. I think this museum needs a bigger building and renewals. More books, better model sculptures, and contexts can be added to the museum. There is a big potential behind this idea.

(Adana in history)

(Works of Ali Özgentürk)

(Habamam Sınıfı Illustrations)

(Library -but the shelves were locked)

A Review: Adana Museum

In the heart of Adana, there is a step into history: Adana Museum. Adana Museum Complex, with its ​​68,530 square meters service area, was opened to visitors in May 18, International Museum Day. When taking the first step inside the museum, you see the information desk and buy the ticket. It costs only 6 Turkish lira, which is a affordable amount for everybody. In the entrance area, there is also a nice cafeteria and gift shop. Cafeteria is very affordable and its atmosphere is lovely. However, the gift shop is not enough. On your left, there is ‘’Adana in memories’’ panel.

(Adana in Memories)

(Cinevision)

Walking ahead, you see a big cinevision showing the history of Adana in both Turkish and English. You can get pre-information before entering the main museum area. On the right, there is the entrance and timeline panel of Cukurova. The very first section is Paleolithic Age, and other historic ages are  systematically separated. Every historic section, there are 19, has information board both in Turkish and English. The translation of these boards is adequate. Obviously they are made by a professional translator.

(Timeline of Çukurova)

Museum utilizes different sources of information: videos, dioramas, wax sculptures, informative texts and images. Every of them makes your visit more educative and enjoyable. The pieces in the museum -potteries, pots, mugs, tombs, sculptures etc- all dug up from this area -mostly Adana and Mersin. The most interesting section was, for me, mosaic section. The stairs made of glass can be scary if you have acrophobia.

(Potters from Bronz Age)

(Translations)

(Sculptures)

(informative texts - history of glass)

(Diorama)

(Wax Sculptures - Rome)

While visiting, I couldn’t stop thinking about human nature. In every historical era, humans decorated their objects. Maybe because it’s our nature to admire beauty. Second things is about writing. When I saw people used small rocks to write, I realized that it’s also our nature to elucidate. Fortunately we love expressing ourselves, otherwise we would not know so many things about our history.

(Writings on rock)