The 19th of May is celebrated each year as Ataturk Remembrance & Youth Day and is a national holiday, with the next day being an extra day off for schools. It felt like a Sunday during the middle of the week as we went for a stroll along the tree-lined boulevard in Izmit, listened to a military band in the park (who were really game and played nursery rhymes for the children), had pizza and then went to a book fair.
You would think an active little 4 year-old would get bored and restless at a book fair but it turned out to be quite magical for my little son. There was a shadow puppet game which he never tired of, and a brilliant concert by a Peruvian band - comprising 35 ethnic members, making Native American-Indian music and promoting world peace and unity - who had traveled to Turkey just for the event.
Genuine Turkish cotton yarns for knitting and crochet
