A Cow Literally Fell Over a Table of Rummikub Players

source: haberciler.com

Rummikub or Okey is one of the most popular games in Turkey. You play it with 4 people, and you use boards and tiles. I won't get into the details of the game, but I want you to imagine a picture. Imagine a group of friends playing this game at a local cafe (Turkish people loves to hang out at those cafes, and they usually name it as "kahve" or "kahvehane"). 4 people are playing, and there are some audience on the side sipping their turkish tea and having a conversation with others. All of a sudden, a cow appears on top of their heads!? Come on!!!

Here is the translation of the article from the newsletter (July 2001):

"A COW DROPPED OVER THE OKEY TABLE

An incident that could only happen in Turkey has once happened at Avanos, a town of Nevsehir. A cow fell over the people who play Okey at the cafe of Ozkonak, a village of the same town. While the players are shocked with the incident, a 62 years old guy whose name is Ethem Sahin, has his right foot broken and head injured.

...WHEN I TURNED BACK, I SAW THE COW OVER ETHEM'S HEAD"

I have couple theories how that cow got there at the first place, but I want to save my wild imagination to myself:) Yes, I admit, we are a weird country backed up with funny incidents, but that's what makes living in Turkey fun, right?

How fanatic Turks are when it comes to Soccer?

I must start with "what do you mean by soccer?". Any European, including Turkish people find it offensive to call the actual sport people play with foot as soccer instead of calling the sport people play with their hands as football! Now that we are on the same page what Football is, let me resume with 2 other words that are considered a part of having passionate ties with this game. Fanaticism and Hooliganism are 2 mixed-up definitions when it comes to supporting teams in Turkey. In my defense, Fanaticism is being blind from all the facts when it comes to supporting your own team, and supporting the team is held over anything in the world. Look at this local team supporter from South Turkey region; supporter of Adana Demirspor:

izlesene.com/alkislarlayasiyorum | Videoya Git

Here is the translation of exact words (sorry, it is broken Turkish and translating was not that easy):

- I had tattooed Adana Demirspor logo and...In other words, it is always said that a person should always show his personality...If they ask me a question right now which they previously asked "Which one would you leave, your woman or Adana Demirspor?", my answer was "I prefer leaving my woman!"

I assume this short interview with a common guy supporting a barely known local football team clearly describes the fanaticism in Turkey. Let me define the hooliganism from my observation and personal experiences. Adding unsupported, illogical and aggressive actions to fanaticism can lead to Hooliganism such as stabbing people because of the color of the team's jersey is different than theirs, or attacking cops because of their freedom of so-called sportsmanship is under threat. People say that the hooliganism's motherland is UK, but have they ever brought a long sword-like knife to a game? Look at the picture, and what the referee is holding. It was thrown to the referee during an amateur league game in Istanbul between Gülsuyuspor- İstanbul Gümüşhanespor.

Long story short, Turks are such passionate people that they always hold supporting their team sacred over any values in life which seldomly lead to hooliganism. Unfortunately we are not good at balancing our emotions towards anything, we always over-something on everything we enjoy.

The Red Marble at White House is Originally from Elazig, Turkey!!!

Yes, you heard it right. In 1984, Italians imported the red marble from Elazig which is also the first year it has been started extracting this unique marble for the first time. This is how it got its popularity.Besides The White House, you can also see this unique red-vein marble at The Capitol Building again in D.C., The Holy grounds for Muslims in Mecca, Burj Al Arab (the 7-star hotel in Dubai), Victoria's Secret Stores and many other well known destinations and hotels. So, why those people are using this red marble?

Well, first of all it is unique and looks prestigious. It is so unique that you can almost claim it is fake and too good to be true. And secondly, the cost is under-priced (easily one third of its actual value) since the cost of labor is cheap in East Turkey. But this doesn't change the fact that, the only red marble source in the world is from this small, rarely-heard eastern city of Turkey, Elazig. Red marble is also called "purplebrown", "cherry-colored" or "Vişne Çürüğü Mermeri" in local language. However, it is commonly known as Elazığ Cherry, Rosso Levanto or Rosso Lepanto.

This unique marble is sleeping under the mountains of Elazig. It in fact requires a very dangerous and difficult process to reach and extract those marble blocks after carefully digging. The reason I said dangerous is because of the cheap and unsecured labor is involved in this process, and countless of people get injured every year because of stucking under this heavy blocks of stones. Sad but true!

People usually prefer using this red marble with the mix of white texture as we can see at Victoria's Secret's diagonal white & red flooring or at many other examples below since the marble itself has these white veins inside. If you are passionate enough to decorate your house with these amazing marbles, you should be able to import these marbles easily. You should also check your local flooring stores like Floor & Decor (for USA), or similar. If you are lucky, you can find this red marble there for a reasonable price. Otherwise, find a Turkish friend who can help you with the connection. Those marble manufacturers are poor in marketing, and reaching end users but I am sure shipping a block of marble shouldn't cost you more than couple thousand dollars ;) In the end, it is all about showing off how elegant your house is in compare to The White House or 7-star hotels; and who cares if it costs a small fortune!!!

Source:
http://www.fka.org.tr/ContentDownload/mermer_raporu.pdf
http://www.haberler.com/elazig-in-visne-curugu-mermeri-dunya-yapilarini-3017181-haberi/
http://wowturkey.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=94365

Throwing The Fridge from 2nd Floor - Only Happens in Karadeniz!

North of Turkey is hometown of very special people. Whenever a funny but weird action is taken, the one is always being labelled as "Are you from North?" or they also use "Karadeniz" or "Laz" instead of "North". Laz people mainly resides in North East of Turkey. This story is from Rize; one of the highly populated Laz town.

"IT IS AN ACCIDENT, NOT A JOKE

Yilmaz from Rize, threw the fridge from roof hoping that his brother Turan would catch it..."

Moving Accident - Hold the fridge bro..!

Turan can be seen on the picture. He tried to hold the free-falling fridge, and obvious result has happened: smashed under the 250 lb fridge! This could only happen in Turkey; but more specifically in Karadeniz! No offense my dear friends from Karadeniz :)