Snow?? In the desert??

Yesterday I briefly mentioned that the weather was mild and beautiful.  This is what most people expect to hear.  Most people (myself included) think that Turkey is a very arid, dry, hot country.  And for the most part this is true.  Along the southern part of the country, it is always temerpate (think Vancouver...) and there is very little snow.  In the summer, the temperatures can get up to the very high 40s (that's in Celsius for my American friends...).  In central Anatolia, where I presently live, we actually get snow!  I think the reason I haven't been as homesick as I thought I would be is that the climate and temperatures so far have been very much like back home...In the north eastern parts of the country, the climate is just like Ontario - cold winters (-20s) and luke warm summers.

The temperature this winter was rather mild - generally about -10C.  There is typically no windchill.  We had a few days where it dipped down past -15C and everyone thought the city would freeze over....I should say that this winter was unusually cold though - the norm is around -5C to 0C.  We had lots and lots of fluffy white snow in contrast to the Ontario winter where I believe most cities were treated to a green Christmas!  In fact, one of my favorite memories so far is one night after work when my boyfriend walked over to my place to pick me up.  All we did was walk up the high street and back to his apartment, but by the time we got home we were both soaking wet from throwing snowballs!  I felt like a 5 year old again!  And I was so happy to share my love of the sticky white snow with a Turkish person!  Other pedestrians were laughing at us we dodged between parked cars and pelted each other with hard packed balls of snow!  It was quite exhilirating!

I should also mention that when it snows like this the city shuts down completely.  There is absolutely no infrastructure for dealing with snow!  No snow plows, no snow shovels, no snow brushes for cars, no salt on the roads...it was quite incredible to see!  Ankara is made of up of a lot of hilly areas - when these hills are greased up with the tiniest layer of snow, they are virtually impassable!  Taxis actively tell you "No!" when they find out you live in a hilly area during the winter months (I found this out the hard way).  There were many times I had to walk up hill in the snow because buses, taxis and cars couldn't make it up.  I kept waiting to wake up one morning and hear a repeat of Toronto's infamous snowy day 1998 when Mayor Mel called in the Canadian Armed Forces to help deal with the snow.  However, it turns out that the Turkish military have no shovels either...