The Wishing Crack

Today was a very long and tiring day. I did a whirlwind tour of the Antalya region of Turkey. We hugged the coastline, visiting a number of really fascinating sites, and took in the general amazing beauty of this region of the country. I was out the door at 7:30 this morning and not back to my room until 11pm. I’d love to know how many miles we covered. Since it is so late and I’m exhausted, I’m going to put off doing a post about this day until tomorrow. It was filled with ups and downs, literally and figuratively.

It was a strange experience – feeling like a stranger in a very strange land at times – but also a great one. And I really did love the windy little roads cut into the side of the mountains with gorgeous vistas of the Mediterranean below.

I do want to just write about one anecdote from the day. About 45 minutes into the drive, right before we got to our ‘comfort stop’ so that we can take care of ‘all our urgent toilet needs’, we approached a tunnel carved into the rocks of the mountains far above the Mediterranean Sea. During the tunnel's construction, two workers were killed and it's thought that their souls remain in the tunnel.

Our (incredibly talkative) guide told us that this was the ‘wishing crack’ and that it is Turkish tradition to hold your breath as you drive through the tunnel and wish for something. If you hold your breath the entire time and concentrate very hard on your wish, then your wish will come true (thanks to the workers' souls still hanging around). So, I thought, what the hell. I held my breath.

Now, the past couple of days, I’ve been having a crisis of confidence about my job. A couple things have come up that are really testing my confidence and this is along with the general frustration with my job that most of the people who read this blog have heard me go on at length about (thanks for listening, guys!). So, I held my breath and wished some vague thing about my job getting better. I’m not generally very superstitious so I was pretty half-hearted about my wish. Anyway, another 20 minutes later and we were at our ‘comfort stop’.

While ‘refreshing’ and ‘taking care of the toilet needs’, I saw my colleague, Kate, beckoning me over enthusiastically. I thought she wanted me to go up to the little rooftop patio to take in the view with her and apparently she was very excited about it. I had been up there and, while nice, the view was certainly not anything to get quite that excited about. As we walked up the stairs, Kate pulls out her phone and says, ‘I’m not sure if I should be telling you this. I’m going to tell you anyway. But you have to act surprised later. Here, read this.’ She gives me her phone and… oh my goodness…

Apparently, I’ve been promoted.

Twelve hours later, as we were driving home, we approached the ‘wishing crack’ again. You can bet a million bucks that I was holding my breath and raising my hands in the air, concentrating like hell on another wish. I’ll let you know how it works out.

The attached gallery is a teaser for the more detailed post...

[gallery=27]