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Posts tagged ‘wine’

Venice to Turkey 22

Day 22, Istanbul, May 25

We sleep in to 8AM today. We eat in the coffee shop on the first floor and they hand us a free breakfast. We stroll the hundred yards to the Tower on top of the hill and buy tickets to enter. €30 each. Priced in Euros, but only Lira and CCs accepted, interesting. The line is about 50 yards long.

The views from the top are great! We can see the whole city almost. After walking around the complete tower, we go down and head for the river, a fairly steep downhill. We walk across the bridge and almost immediately find the Spice Market. Very interesting indoor market that takes up several acres. Out the back side of the Spice Market, we step into the Grand Bazaar, a market to rival Cairo’s Souk. We walk a half mile through the Souk before turning around and heading back. Unfortunately, for reasons unknown, I lost a group of photos of the markets.

We make it back to the river and take a ferry across for 7 Lira (about 20 cents) each. Then it is almost 2 PM (remember we slept in) and the waterfront is lined with restaurants. We find one and have a light lunch of eggplant and salad.

Now we make the trek back up the hill to the Tower and back to our hotel. We take a much loved nap and head back out to find dinner.

We walk around and the crowds are fierce. We realize that tomorrow is a holiday for fasting and people are eating to prepare for it. Thoughts come to mind of people back home finding out that they can’t buy gasoline the next day so they fill up today. Okay, I know it’s a bad analogy but you get the idea.

We find a street with really good Turkish food and we sit down. First I ask the waiter if they serve wine and we are informed the entire street is dry. Well, as the wine drinkers that we are, we get up and walk away.

We settle on a restaurant named, Guney, next to the restaurant where we ate last night. The food is very good and they serve good Turkish wine.

Back in our hotel, we have a less than adequate room (after the horrible room we started with yesterday) where the AC died and we can’t even get the fan to run. This replacement room also has no windows. So it will be another uncomfortable night.

But, being the travel troopers that we are, we will make do.

Venice to Turkey 16

Day 16, Ankara, May 19

Breakfast in the Palace hotel was very good! They redeemed themselves from last night. All kinds of traditional Turkish dishes, olives, cheeses, spreads and breads!

We are in the capital of Turkey, Ankara. It’s the anniversary of Turkey’s founding in 1919 after being freed from the Ottoman Empire after WWI. The weather is quite cool here at 14C. Oz is giving us historical info on the city. Flags and banners are everywhere along with photos of the founder of Turkey and the current president.

We drive to a castle. We visit the Avrupada Zilin museum here. A travel friend poses with a statue! We see artifacts from well before 1000 BC. Amazing uses of metal, stone and colors.

Now it’s back on the bus and we entertain our cameras with sights of the architecture. We learn that the Ottoman Empire failed because they stopped progressing. Europeans developed better technology and better armies.

Next stop is the Mausoleum of Mustafa Kimal Ataturk (Father of the Turks). The mausoleum is interesting and we walk through. Cameras afre totally welcome! There are views of the city from one end. Inside and out there are very lifelike statues of guards on pedestals. Hey wait! That one moved! It turns out the ‘statues’ are live guards! We must be at the Pageant of the Masters! Not! As we are leaving, we are interrupted by the Changing of the Guard where those ‘statues’ come to life! Fun ceremony to watch. Then we are back on the bus.

We now drive for one and a half hours through the farmlands of Golbasi. I’m not sure I thought of Turkey as fertile and beautiful, but here we are!

We drive through Central Anatolya in the middle of Turkey. We see what turns out to be a ‘Salt Lake’ in the distance. Soon we make a roadside stop for lunch and to comply with Turkish law for bus drivers at “Tuz Golu”, the Salt Lake. Food was poor and barely even warm. The health department back home would have a field day with Turkish roadside restaurants.

We know Turkey has good food, sadly, just not where our tour is taking us. The ice cream stand at Tuz Golu at least had good ice cream! This part of Turkey is also known as Asia Minor.

We stop at the entrance to “Saratli”, the Underground City and vendors assault our senses with colorful displays of goods. We walk through them and enter the underground caves. Narrow tunnels with steep up and down steps that are very uneven.

We only spend less than a half hour in the caves but it is enough to experience them. We stop in the local gift shop and look around. We see a sign advertising Natural Wine and we inquire. When the lady finally understands us, she shouts, “Shaddup” or something like that. It almost sounds like she is saying, Shut Up”, only very fast. We taste what she gives us, pouring it from a refilled water bottle, a pinkish liquid, and it tastes like a crude honey mead or grappa. We decline purchasing any. Then we walk back through the vendors and board the bus.

We drive next to ‘New City’, Kapadokya around 4 PM. We know it as Cappadocia, pronounced more like the Turkish spelling! It’s symbol is Fairy Chimneys in front of Tulips and Horses. We arrive at the Avrasya Hotel and are in our room before 6. Part of our group signs up to go four wheeling in the local area but having spent decades as an off road photographer, the allure of that is over. We will take a walk and check out the neighborhood. There are a few stores in the area but no restaurants.

So we eat at the hotel and we are pleasantly surprised as they have a buffet of delicious authentic Turkish food! There is even a full bar in the hotel so we get a glass of wine with dinner. The wine is even a new grape I’ve never tasted and it stands up to the taste test!

Tomorrow will be an early morning so a glass of wine in the room and it’s time for a shower and bed.