It was a very calm weekend. I didn’t do much on Saturday, except I went out for coffee with the girls. Every time I am with them, I realize how much I need a girls-only day. Staying cosy in a cafe and gossiping about the rest of the world is simply the best.
I was so proud of myself on Sunday since I succeeded in skiing, which has always looked like the scariest sports activity to me. It was on one of the top lines of my ‘impossible to do’ list.
When I was a kid we went to a skiing resort in Turkey. I was the most shameful person of my family – I was basically hopeless. Even on the lightest slopes, I was simply screaming and falling down immediately. The worst part was that I was hardly able to get up without someone lifting me. I was so ashamed. I hated skiing so much that I have never imagined it would be possible for me to try it again.
This time we went to Vättlefjäll for hiking, not for camping as we did last year. The environment was completely different than in the summer. I could hardly recognise the lakes we were canoeing on. They were frozen, the leaves and bushes were gone and the weather was freezing cold. There were different tracks around the lakes with different lengths. Since we did not have much time before sunset, we picked the 6.6 km one.
Coffee plays an important role in our daily life in Sweden. Most Swedish people drink at least a few cups of filter coffee every day. It really helps us cope with the darkness during winter. Although I was a tea person when I first moved here, I changed over time and now I can’t wake up without my morning coffee. It is not surprising to see the Nordic countries on top of the “coffee consumption per capita” lists like this one.
It is supposed to be winter now in Turkey, but Adana is always warm! We had our morning coffees on the balcony, under the warm sunlight. That was a feeling that I haven’t had for a long time in Sweden, not even during summers.
We spent the last week of the year in Turkey. Apart from Istanbul, we visited Barış’s family in his hometown Adana. Although the city I was born in is very close to Adana, I had never been there before. Adana is famous for spicy and hot food and good kebab. I was expecting to eat a lot in the two days in Adana, and the eating adventure started with the huge breakfast table that Barış’s mom prepared for us when we arrived in the morning.
