M
eet Şahin ("Sha-heen") Mizrak who owns a souvenir shop in Göreme which is the village that Lei and I stayed in during our time in Cappadocia. We had spent the morning hot air ballooning and horse back riding and by the time afternoon rolled around, we only had enough energy left to stroll the stores and do a bit of shopping. We stepped into Şahin's store and the first thing that caught my eye was the rack of music CDs at the back of the store. My dad loves music and I inherited that love from him. Everywhere I travel, I try to catch a live performance of the region's music and if I can't do that, I will at least try and get a CD. When I'm lucky, I get the opportunity to do both and this was one such occasion.
After scanning the CDs on the rack, I asked Şahin if he wouldn't mind playing a few sample tracks from some of the CDs so I could pick out a CD for my dad. He gladly obliged and kindly explained the music that was being played so we could better appreciate it. In the end, Lei also bought a CD for herself.
Here's a video of Şahin playing the instrument that often gives him relief from the stresses of his daily life - something I can easily relate to. Unformately, I was not able to capture the entire performance - I ran out of memory close to the end :-(
It was awfully nice of Şahin and Yasar to accompany us especially since we had no idea where to go. All in all, it turned out to be a very relaxing and memorable way to end an activity filled day. There's nothing like good music to calm the soul!