bills and saffron, saffron and bills.

*I am going to have a mild vent session for the first part of this post. Skip the first few paragraphs [italics will indicate the end of ranting] if you want to move onto something potentially more interesting*

Let's talk about bill payment. Turkey has a pretty interesting system. you see, no one uses checks here--they are too easy to forge. Consequently, to pay your bills you have three options: online bill payment; going to an associated bank; going directly to the bill source [electric, gas, telephone, water, etc. companies]. For all bills, there is a certain week in which you can pay. For example, your bill arrives on March 10th but you can only pay it from March 20-26th. Obviously, the bills don't all come at the same time and so they aren't all due at the same time. Additionally, you can only pay in cash if you go to a bank or directly to the source company.

The online bill payment system is great and works really well...if you have an account at a bank that will do it. Unfortunately, the bank that the Fulbright Commission uses is only associated with some random companies. Consequently, I'm only able to pay two of my bills this way.

Ok, well, no problem! I can just go to the bank. At the bottom of each bill there is a list of the banks that will take payment for the bills. Not all bills can be paid at all banks. The real downside of going to the bank to pay is that, at least from my experience so far, you have to wait in line for half-an-hour to an hour.

Going to the source is also an option, but oftentimes it's no where close to where I live and takes quite a bit to get there. So, the previous to choices are better.

Ok, so that's the background. Luckily for me, almost all of my bills this month could be paid on March 26th...that was the only overlapping day. So, I decided to go pay all my bills today. Now, let me tell you about my water bill. My water bill this month is 8.75ytl...that's about $6.00. According to the bill, I can go to pretty much any bank in Turkey to pay my dues. I also have phone bills, gas bills, and electric bills to pay. Again, they can all be paid at the same banks. And, also lucky for me, there is a branch of nearly every single bank in Turkey on the street I live on.

So, this morning around 10:45am I went to the Turkiye Is Bankasi near my house to pay my bills. I wait in line for ~45 minutes before my number gets called. I expected that, no problem. I go over, hand them my bills and money and the lady says "we can't take your water bill. you have to go to one of the other banks on the paper." But, my paper says the TurkIsBankasi will take it...but, ok, fine. So, I go down the street to the Garanti Bankasi, where I am supposed to be able to pay from the ATM...or not. So, I go to the AkBank, but there is a line forming out the door. Then I go to the Halk Bank. Again, a line out the door.

So, I walk across the street to the YapiKredi. First I stood in line at the ATM because it is supposed to also take bill payments. However, some nice man happened to see me holding my bill in my hand and elucidated the fact that I don't have the proper numbers on it. So, I have to go inside. [thank you nice man] Long line, they are on number 123, but I take my number [155] and stand there for another 45 minutes. Finally, I get to the counter! woo hoo! yay YapiKredi! Or not really. Apparently, they don't take my water bill either. For heaven's sakes, it's only 8.75ytl!!!

I gave up after that and just went home. I decided to check the Ankara water company's site online to see if I can determine where I can go. Lo and behold they have a webpage that has all the bank names that are listed on my bill...however, what else is there? what do i spy with my little eye? is it, is it asterisks? My oh my, there are indeed a number of asterisks, and all linked with the names of the five banks I visited this morning. Oh, let's scroll down to see what the asterisks stand for: ONLY SOME BRANCHES OF THESE BANKS WILL TAKE WATER BILLS.

So, apparently i picked every single wrong branch in the book and wasted 1.5 hours in bank lines. gaaaahhhhhhhhhh. You learn something new every day...I feel like I'm a much better person on the inside now.

Ok, now we can move on to...

SAFFRON, or safran as the Turks call it.

Two weekends ago I went with three delightful persons [Candas, Michael, Ryan] on a nice little day trip. We caught an early morning bus from the ASTI bus terminal [if you ever want to do any traveling in Turkey you'll likely utilize the coach bus system to no end. the buses are wonderful, nothing like Greyhound, and make for pretty comfortable trips. in Ankara, take the Ankaray subway line or a dolmus to get to ASTI]...

The little town of Safranbolu is an easy 3-hour bus ride North from Ankara. As you get out of the city you immediately begin to get some clear air, great sedimentary rock formations, and mountains (!!!).

The town has been deemed a UNESCO World Heritage Site for it's plethora of Ottoman Houses. It's also known for [shockingly] it's saffron, which is used in a number of delicacies (?),

such as saffron tea [tastes like you'd expect...saffron. added bonus: it's neon yellow] and saffron flavored lokum [lowkoom, Turkish delight]. However, to be honest, I found the most delicious delight to be the Tahini Helvasi. It was so incredibly good...and I bought myself a block, which was, not surprisingly, obliterated within days of its purchase.

The town also has the requisite mosque, a nice little pazar with the standard goods for sale, and an additional copper and iron pazar in the backstreets.

We talked with one of the blacksmiths for awhile, unable to say no [or just completely confused] as he pulled us into his workshop. Apparently he's pretty famous with the foreigners--he had us look at his little signature books where people wrote notes in English about how we should watch his hands because he's known for giving frisky massages. After reading that we decided that, yes he was nice and in all sorts of different newspapers, but we didn't really feel the need to stick around for the massages.

We decided a much better use of our time would be to go to the Havuz ve Et Lokantasi [the pool and meat restaurant]. Let me tell you, this place lived up to it's name! Not only was there a massive pool in the middle of it but they had a lot of meat...and we ate it, like one would at a restaurant.

The highlight of the trip, however, had to be the fact that we almost didn't make it back to Ankara that night. When we bought our return ticket they told us the bus would be leaving at 6:30. Well, it turns out that it was leaving Safranbolu at 5:30 and Karabuk [a nearby town] at 6:30. So, we got to the bus terminal with, what we believed, was enough time. We were subsequently informed, by pure luck, that the bus had actually already left. So, in a whirlwind runaround we got a taxi to speed us to Karabuk while the people in Safranbolu called to have the bus stopped. The bus had actually already left the terminal--we ended up only being 3 or 4 minutes late--and we caught it on the side of the road. They weren't exactly pleased...and then the people sitting in front of us were pretty pissed for most of the ride because they thought us too loud. A sidenote--an odd rule on the long-distance bus in Turkey is that you can't use your cellphone. You can't even send text messages. It's like being on an airplane...but for no apparent reason. I get the not wanting you to make calls, but having to turn your phone completely off is a little strange.





And that's Safranbolu: a really great little place for a relaxing day trip...but I can't say I was disappointed when we managed to catch the bus home. While sleeping in an Ottoman House could be cool, it could also be really really really cold.