Vakıflı

To get to Vakıflı, the only remaining Armenian village in Turkey, for the feast, we had to take a dolmuş (shared ride) west to Samandağ and then a taxi to Vakıflı.  Early Sunday morning, Lee (who had finally arrived after deciding to stay in Istanbul an extra day), Rebecca, Jen, and I set off to find the "umarked dolmuş stand by the [old] otogar" that Lonely Planet had described.  Well, Lonely Planet was a bit off, but we found our way thanks to a friend of Rebecca's from her Ankara study abroad program two years ago who that morning just happened to be hanging out with taxi drivers in Antakya before heading off to Syria and Jordan.  

I must stop and say that Lee, Rebecca, and Jen are all wonderful to travel with.  Rebecca has traveled extensively in Turkey, Jen is incredibly nice and her Arabic comes in handy, and Lee is further along in Turkish than Rebecca and I are but never feels the need to jump in and talk for us.  

Our dolmuş dropped us off in Samandağ:

where we caught a taxi to Vakıflı:

At the church, we ran into one of the people who usually attends services at the Catholic church where we were staying.  She said her mother is Armenian and her whole family was there to attend the feast.  

The church was very small, and Lee, Rebecca, Jen, and I were some of the very few people who stayed inside for the entire two hour service.  It filled up for communion and then most people went back outside. 

The lecture I attended a few weeks ago in Istanbul explained that, while in the rehearsal room priority in the choir went to the older members, the actual church service music was led by the best singer, regardless of age.  Well, this girl here couldn't have been over 15 and was probably more like 12, but she had an amazing voice.  The lecture also said that the choir learned mostly by ear and repetition, which was why when things changed they could sound a little confused.  We saw that too.  

After the service, we went to sit at a little tea garden to wait for the bus back to Samandağ.  They served us Turkish coffee in tea glasses:

Ethnic Armenians from all over the world had travelled to Vakıflı for this event.  One Canadian woman stopped and talked to us for quite a bit, explaining some of the history of Armenians in Turkey and the specifics of the feast.  She also said that if we were going to Samandağ anyway, we should stay a while and go swimming in the Mediterranean...

So we did!  In our clothes.  Compared to other Mediterranean resort towns, this beach was very low key and the majority of people there were Turks.  It was awesome.