Best vacay ever

Winter vacays

The best vacation I've had is not specially because of the places I went or the things I did. When I was like 13-15 years old I went to see my mother's family (around 2013-2015, don't remember so well). They live near Victoria area, in La Araucania region. My mom lived there until she was 18 and then moved to Santiago. I remember I went for my winter vacations on July-august to my grandmother's house and stayed at my aunt's home. I was there for like 3 weeks or so. I went with my mother and siblings (brother and sister, I'm the middle child). My dad couldn't make it because of his work (and also we didn't have a car at that time). 

We didn't do many things actually. There's a lot of native rainforest to take a walk, very old buildings and cemeteries and the same as always, getting together for lunch, the talk after lunch, the discussions between my family, and dinner (till 2 am when everybody is drunk af) and cooking traditional sweets while it rains. I always eat so well when I go, specially stir fried "changles". They are a typical mushroom from the zone, very rare. My grandfather used to have a cured meat factory, he would give me and my siblings a sheep or chickens. We liked playing and taking care of the sheeps or scaring the chickens, but my grandfather always killed the animals he gave us and cooked them. One of the reasons why I'm vegetarian is because of such trauma.

I like going because I get to see my family, getting near firewood to warm up and not being able to get out because of the intense rain is such a delight for a city kid. A funny thing that happened is that one night, we were together at my grandmother's house, a very old (I think is impressively ugly) wooden house. My family didn't clean the gutters for my grandma and it rained so much that the water was falling from the ceiling aggressively. I swear we used every single pot we had to contain the water, I think it was so hilarious! like, seriously, those were REAL water leaks. I remember these vacations with a lot of heart-warming feelings, because I had such a great time that, when I came back to Santiago and entered my room and stood there I felt such emptiness and loneliness. I never in my life have experienced that sensation ever. I really missed so much being there with my family. And it is rare because I always go (till this day) and never experienced that feeling again. 

My blog number one

My blog number one

If I have the chance of going to Turkey I would probably pack my bags right away and leave as soon as possible, forgetting a lots of things on the way. It's really difficult to decide which country would I like to visit, specially because I try to avoid those thoughts since I can't afford those luxuries at this very moment of my life by my own. 

I am deeply interested in other cultures and learning stuff from the local people. I honestly don't know much about Turkey besides what I've seen in tv soap operas (a lot of misogyny), Fun fact is that the name Turkey is like turkey, the animal, I know a few people who have been there and they told me that their culture is a mix of very different things, they are not completely part of Middle Eastern culture group neither European as well, they are kind of a unique mash-up of both culture groups. Many historical civilizations have taken part of the history of the country, like the Romans, the Ottomans, the Arabs, the Byzantines and many other. So to me i believe there must be a lot of different things to do (and to eat) with a lot of variations depending of the region and so on. As I said, I really don't know much about it but it intrigues me a lot, specially the capital Istanbul and the Arab heritage they have in the architecture, history, food and society (It's very different from ours). My plans would be visiting the historical sites while trying to go to small villages and actually getting to know people and how they live, drinking Turkish coffee also an unforgivably to-do (It is boiled on hot sand).

I had a classmate during high school as well who was originally from Turkey. She told me lots of things about her country and many reasons why I wouldn't live or study there, mainly the violence and corruption problems they have. Terrorism is very common, and religious or ethnic problems between the nationalities are also known for their violence. I don't believe we will ever know how that feels since we don't suffer that type of violence yet. At least at the scale of bombing marches or churches. I may change my mind if I go and visit, but I couldn't live or study there.