With the recent first snowfall of the season, I’ve started
to preoccupy myself with thoughts of snow. Logical. Now, I don’t have much
experience in snow or living in places where it snows so I’m a bit of a
neophyte. What I do enjoy about it is how the ordinary landscape scenery morphs
into some kind of wonderland. I mean, even Gaziantep appears ‘mystical’ when
viewed with snow-cover…
Gaziantep also appears ‘mystical’ to me when I think of its
ancient history, but that is another matter entirely. Gaziantep mostly just appears… ordinary to
me. Ordinary in the sense that, let’s be honest, it’s not a really pretty area.
It’s not the mountains and it’s not the beach. The landscape is just ordinary.
What is extraordinary to me, when I’m in my office at work looking out the
window to the south from the 5th floor is the view- unimpeded
rolling hills straight to Syria, which is involved in a shitstorm of human
rights violations right now.
But I digress. This is supposed to be a happy blog post
where I keep to the weather report, as well as my esoteria thoughts which some
of you get and perhaps many of you can’t even begin to piece my abstract
thoughts together into a logical puzzle.
Anyhow… uhm yea. The weather. So, all this snow has put me in the mood
for 2 things: a semi-deserted beach (populated with my own storyville
characters that I have exquisitely brewed up in my alternate reality world
complete with names and even pet names) OR going snowboarding. I feel I should
make use of all this snow that is surely to continue to fall, right?
Even though I am a snow-neophyte, I have been able to spend
quality time in some of the best snow resorts in the world. Most precious on this list includes
snowboarding in the Andes of both Argentina and Chile. Vancouver also ranks on the list (a bit
slushy, but what views from mountain to ocean. As does the Snowy Mountains in
Australia (well, you can’t see the ocean from that vantage point, but it was
still lovely). As does Alaska. What a great ego-booster mountain to snowboard
Alyeska is! As is various parts of
Amerika. I will even include that silly little Hunter Mountain just outside of
New York City a few hours.
I’d like to add Turkey to this list. This year seems like
the likely year. It’s unfortunate that I have 2 sets of board gear in 2
separate states in a country far, far away… Anyway, if any of you phantom
readers (that refuse to identify yourselves properly by officially following my
blog…) are from Turkey and have knowledge of snow parks here, let me know your
opinions.
Erzerum is high on my
list. I suppose just for the novelty.
The place (city?) seems enshourded in mystery. It is like an ice-city perhaps in the
wintertime as it seems the coldest temperatures come from there. I know there is a quaint little ski resort
there. Yes, this sounds sweet. Sweet meaning that you don’t have to wait 20
minutes in the chairlift line to get back up the mountain like you have to do
in many places.
Kayseri holds some intrigue as well. Perhaps mainly because it is so close to Göreme- which I love, and have
spotted some seriously handsome men residing in… So there is that. I assume
that there are a few ski areas there and nearby.
What is odd, though, is that nobody talks about these
places. They exist. Do locals go there? Do ex-pats go there? Who
skis/snowboards in this country? I don’t recall anyone at work talking about
going skiing. I don’t recall any of my Istanbul friends talking about going
boarding. So, here lies the mystery of who is populating these mountains of fun.
Speaking of fun, I do hope there are powder days at these places. Nothing
better than wiping out in feather-light fluff!
So, I will conduct some investigations and create an
action-research plan accordingly complete with a reconnaissance survey. Implementing
a data recovery plan would be the icing on the cake… Perhaps in
Cappadocia?
Something that goes well with snow is apres snowboard
session cocktails at the lodge. Sitting
amongst other ‘pleasantly exhausted from tearing up the slopes friends’ is just
plain awesome. Everybody is exhausted, exhilirated, telling tall tales of epic
adventures of snow-surfing down near-vertical faces of untracked mountains. In
reality this means I successfully didn’t fall while warily traversing a ‘Blue
Diamond’ labeled run…
People watching is always a thrill while partaking in adult
libations at said lodge. Seriously, who can frown after a day on the mountain.
Everybody looks shiny and beautiful and glowing from an inner knowledge that
hanging out in nature and exercising ROCKS. Anyway, I’ll stop here before this
becomes x-rated…
But of course, there is also the tales of the ‘infamous
hottub party’ apres ski as well. You know, you see the picture all the time in
rated R B-grade Hollywood movies that center around colleges and frathouses,
etc. Well, it happens in the real world as well. With very similar results too-
usually, or not… Again, I’m trying to keep this rated R so I stop here.
In conclusion, the
‘big day’ is coming in a little over 48 hours.
Yes, I’m talking THE Mayan prophecy.
What does this mean, I ask myself. I’d like to think that the only thing
erased from the face of this Planet Earth is my graduate student loan debt.
Yea. I said it. I’m actually fantacizing about it. Well, actually racists can disappear too. And
gun-totting cray-crays. And shitty politicians. And shitty dictators. And all
the fast food joints. And dis-ease. Blah blah blah. You get the picture.
Well, it’s not snowing at the moment. All the rain has made for a slushy mush.
Cold, wet slushy mush. You know what goes really well with cold, wet slushy
mush? Peppermint Schnapps Hot Chocolate, that’s what. Do I have any? No. You know what went well with
snowfall last night? Tequila. That’s right folks, tequila. Just 1 shot mind
you. Girlfriends, cats, tequila and snowfall. That was my quad-fecta last
night. I just thought I’d mention that…
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