As you know, the longer you live in one place, the less you notice its beauty and the more you make up with its disadvantages. The opinion of the newcomers is always interesting… as long as they don’t criticize your home and your way of living! As many mothers like to do. Yes, you have hit it right, my mum came to visit me. I haven’t seen her for two long years (Skype doesn’t count), and when she visited me before, we lived in Antalya, so, that was her first time in Mahmutlar.
She was absolutely fascinated by this place: by its mountains, sea, richness of its natures, by the self-containment of this small place. She even started to consider the idea of moving here. Before, she refused to even think about it, telling that “it is more difficult for an old tree to take root in a new place”, but it looks like she has found Mahmutlar’s “soil” appropriate for her new life.
My mum, a healthy life devotee, found this place ideal for her. Fresh fruits and vegetables year-round — what else a vegetarian can dream of? The great advantage of the place is absence of industrial zone near here, which makes air clean, besides, my mum says, it is very humid, which is very good for skin.
She also noticed that though tapwater is rich with minerals, it is pretty soft and you don’t need very much detergent for washing. Also, it looks wonderfully blue when you fill a bath, while in Russia tapwater in the cities is usually yellow.
As many people whom we interviewed for a paper say, Turkish people are very friendly and helpful. Of course, my mum has noticed it as well. Both local people and the tourists, who come here for a holiday and leave their worries behind, make this place very positive. (Sometimes it feels too positive for us, local foreigners, who are not on holidays here and still couldn’t conceive the philosophy of stress-resistant Turkish way of living). Anyway, the general mood of the place is with a “+” sign, which we added to Mahmutlar’s advantage list.
My mum noticed fresh and healthy look of the local children, in contrast with Russian children, who look like “a grass, growing through the asphalt”. I guess, that’s the result of all the factors, mentioned above, that is fresh air, sun and fresh vegetables and fruits.
Talking about the negative aspects of the place, first, my mum couldn’t help but notice the state of a coastal road and the beach. It never accrued me as a “local” person, but fresh look to the things is always useful. She said, people who come here to hotels, especially first time, will hardly want to come again, also, I bet, nobody warns them that they will have to spend their holiday in the middle of a construction site.
Still, it is a temporary inconvenience, and as King Solomon said, “this too shall past”.
Have a good time and see you next week.
Polina Akar
