The Al-Adhan, the Islamic call to prayer, can be heard five times a day all over Turkey. In the bustling Anatolian city of Erzurum it blasts out of loudspeakers, amplifiers turned up to eleven, in a coordinated call to the faithful.
Here in the tiny mountain village of Yaylalar there is a mosque for the winter population of ten. It would be snowed under were it not for the efforts of the young, government appointed, muezzin whose Al-Adhan is a much softer call to prayer, in harmony with the peaceful nature of this remote valley.
It’s twelve years since I was last in Turkey. 2013. Back then there were 2.5 lira to the Euro, mosques were being built and Efes beer signs were everywhere. Today a Euro is worth 37 lira, mosques are everywhere, and the beer signs gone.
We telemarkers are often the butt of jokes from our alpine ski touring friends – jokes about faffing, breakages, heavy spares and general inefficiency. On this trip there were three telemarkers, followers of the one true faith, and two splitboarders. Now splitboarding really is the dark side. If you enjoy a challenge and love maximum faff then you should give it a go. It makes telemarking look like the sensible choice!