turkish coast through a gritty lens and too much caffeine
woke up in mersin with that mediterranean light slicing through cheap hostel curtains-you know the kind that makes everything look vaguely sepia even before editing. grabbed my bag and three cups of burnt coffee from a street vendor who kept pointing at my camera saying ‘instagram? instagram?’ like it was a prayer. just checked the weather-10 degrees but the dampness clings like stage makeup after a punk show. hope you’ve got decent socks.
the whole city feels like two worlds elbowing each other-docks stacked with shipping containers the color of rotten fruit, then BOOM, those taurus mountains punching up behind them like a badly trimmed matte painting. shot dockworkers hauling crates under cranes until some guy yelled in turkish (probably ‘stop being creepy’). local photog at the fish market told me tarsus is worth the bus ride for the old stone alleys, but warned me the chasms of heaven and hell get swarmed by influencers doing yoga poses at noon. ‘go at twilight,’ he mumbled, ‘when the sinkholes eat the shadows.’ find his gallery buried somewhere on the mersin tourism board site maybe.
someone told me the local kebab spot by forum mall uses some illegal chili blend that makes you see god, but all i found was overpriced ayran and stale bread. ended up chasing stray cats through toroslar district instead-their eyes caught the streetlights like disposable camera flashes. if you get antsy, konya’s north with its whirling dervish halls or adana’s kebab gut-bombs are close enough for a day trip. check the adana kebab wars thread on tripadvisor if you want drama thicker than yogurt sauce.
the light here dies violently-one minute you’re framing the port sunset reflecting in a puddle of motor oil, next minute it’s just neon from casino signs and the sad glow of 24-hour pharmacies. heard from a bartender that paul the apostle’s hometown’s got a secret underground river perfect for long exposure shots, but my Turkish is roughly ‘merhaba’ and ‘çok para?’. gonna try sneaking into the industrial docks again tomorrow. maybe they’ll throw me in the sea. yelp’s mersin coffee map better not fail me this time.
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