Welcome to Goreme...

land of epic balloon rides and fairy chimneys...

Another 4am start, another crazy good experience.

 

Other highlights of Goreme were the cave house that we stayed in and the views from breakfast each morning,

and a long, hot trek through Pigeon Valley complete with tortoise sighting, random tea spot stop where I won a prize for answering who the first president of Turkey was* and various action shots of me showing Nix how it's done.

*little did he know that the reason I know who the first president of Turkey was is because we'd like to own a Turkish breed of cat one day named Mustafa Atatürk.

Gaziantep: the Friendliest Place on Earth

No really, I think you would struggle to find friendlier, more helpful and more welcoming people anywhere around the world. We'd received a taste of the Turks' world famous hospitality in Istanbul and then Malatya but they were just part of the entree. Gaziantep was the main course. 

And that convenient little food analogy leads nicely into the reason why we'd decided to head to Gaziantep to begin with - it's regarded as the food capital of Turkey. Hold the second invitation, we're on our way. 

From the first tasty morsel to the last, the city really drove home its claim.

There are three different dishes that an Antepian turns to for breakfast. The first is beyran - 12 hour mutton broth that is ladled onto melt in your mouth mutton, rice and suet (mutton fat found around the kidneys) which is then topped with chili flakes and a heap of garlic. You can imagine the result. A soup that coats your ribs and kick starts a day in which you feel as though you can accomplish anything. This day we accomplished more food. Lots more food.

Next breakfast item of choice is katmer - a thin dough envelope that contains kaymak (Turkish clotted cream), sugar and local pistachios. 

Far from the healthiest breakfast item ever but close to the best breakfast item ever. So much gluttony but so much goodness. We squeezed this in on top of a bowl each of beyran. By 10am we were ready for a rest and an extra belt notch.

The third breakfast item is a liver kebab, my great disappointment of Gaziantep. Before leaving Gaziantep we headed out looking for the most delicious sounding breakfast item that I could ever dream up to discover that Saturday morning is not the the morning for a liver kebab.

We forlornly wandered back to pick up our bags and begrudgingly sat down for one of Gaziantep's other world famous culinary treats - pistachio baklava. It was a sad, tough morning.

Let's get back on track, Gaziantep wasn't all doom and gloom.

Another thing that Antepians love and do reasonably well are kebabs.

Our first Gaziantep kebab experience was at Imam Cagdas where we destroyed alinazik (lamb with eggplant puree swimming in a garlic yoghurt) and simit (ground lamb, bulgur and pistachio) kebabs that were astonishingly good. The simit kebab was a "flavour moment" for Nix.

But our shining food moment and a moment that erased any good karma that we've ever accumulated came at Halil Usta, a man famed throughout Turkey for his kebabs. We'd hardly been seated for five minutes when out came a mixed plate of succulent, juicy kebabs, pillowy soft pide and a chopped onion and tomato salad doused in pomegranate molasses. We'd almost got to the point where we could hardly eat anymore when out came two more premium cuts of lamb "on the house". Meat heaven.

But then the knockout blow. We got up to leave and as we got to the counter the owner met us with a massive smile, told me to put my wallet away and said that our entire meal was on the house. Humbled and gobsmacked we wandered back wondering what we'd done to deserve such a gesture. However I don't think that we'd anything and that it was just the most pure example of Turkish hospitality.

However it didn't end there. When we were leaving Gaziantep a man confirmed that we were heading to the bus station whilst we were stood at a local bus stop, pretty much pushed us onto the bus that we needed, hopped off the bus before us and ran ahead into the bus station to get someones attention who knew which bus we would need to get to Antakya, at which point the man walked the other way and this new guy got us onto the right bus and promptly split before we could say thank you. All of this without ulterior motive. As I said, friendliest place on earth... 

Next stop Syria Antakya

Leaving our food utopia behind we headed to Antakya for more umm, food. Because that's what we do...

A map of Antakya shows a river running through the middle of the city on which I'd envisaged us sipping çay and indulging in its culinary delights. What we were instead met with was a dried up creek that sent wafts of human waste up through your nostrils and into your mouth.

After overcoming that disappointment we ate our way though a pretty tasty city.

Hummus and Bakla at Meshur Halepli Ibrahim Usta - proximity to Syria means proximity to hummus and it's Antakya's crowning culinary glory. Hummus smoother than a baby's bum, and packed full of way more flavour, and bakla (a kind of broad bean cooked for hours and then mashed with sesame and olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, and red pepper flakes), hummus' brother in arms in Antakya. 

Doner at Donerci Tacettin and Abdo Doner - these are famous doners that change peoples' lives. Doner just doesn't do it for us. They were nice but not amazing in our very humble opinions. Our doner experiment is over.

Haytali at Affan Kahvesi - lightly sugared pudding, scoops of vanilla ice cream, rose water syrup. Simple, refreshing and delicious.

Kunefe at Cinaralti Kunefe - a regional speciality dessert consisting of two layers of shredded pastry which is filled with cheese (yes, cheese) then baked until crispy before finally being soaked in sugar syrup. Satisfyingly satisfying.

Atom Shakes at Vitamin Centre - another regional speciality that's an ingenuous mix of banana, pistachio, honey, apricot and yoghurt.

The big bonus of Antakya was the hotel that we stayed at looked out over a mosque with a resident family of about 20, mostly teenage, cats. We lost a lot of time gazing out of the window trying to work out how we could break into the mosque. We thought that may be a bit uncouth though.

In summary, Eastern Turkey is the bomb!

Barrie-ometer of "Feel" - a song from Alien Antep...

Off our Head on Nemrut Dağı

Stop one of our road trip through Southeastern Turkey was supposed to be Nemrut Dağı to see the mysterious toppled heads of the gods. Things didn't go to plan and one of our great travelling fails (read here) meant a night in Malatya and then hopping on a tour that picked us up in Malatya, drove us to accommodation just below the mountain peak, fed us and sent us up to see the heads at sunset and sunrise.

Before I jump into the photos, here's a little bit of necessary history. Up until 1881, outside of a few locals, nobody knew anything about Nemrut Dağı until a German Engineer came across the sight while assessing transport routes for the Ottomans. It wasn't until 1953 that archaeological work commenced on the sight and it was brought to the world's attention.

The story goes that a pre-Roman local king with a serious ego filled either side of an artificial 2150m peak with statues of himself and the gods (supposedly his equals) and that his tomb and those of three female relatives possibly lie beneath the peak.

Earthquakes have since toppled the heads from the statues which makes for one of the more unique sunsets and sunrises that you'll ever see. Regardless of any of that, they look pretty f*cking cool sat up there looking out across the world.

Nemrut Dağı by sunset.

And Nemrut Dağı by sunrise.

The dicking around in Malatya and then a 4am start proved to be worthwhile.

Malatya, not really comin' at ya...

This is where I should tell you about our time driving around Southeastern Anatolia.

Instead, here's the rant that Nicola sent her Mum:

Woke up at 3am, 30min walk with packs, shuttle to airport, flight to Malatya, shuttle into town, killed 3 hours before picking up car, car place closed at 11.30 when we got there, arrives 12.15, worker speaks no English, have 5 of his friends explaining to us in broken English that there are no cars available despite our printed booking confirmation and full payment having been made, there will be cars available in a week, ask at 3 other car rental places - no cars available, walking around Malatya in the midday sun with packs and getting starred at a ridiculous amount. Moral of the story... No cars in Malatya, having a fight with cartrawler who we booked through to try and get a refund (they told brim on the phone that because we were reporting the issue after the start time of the booking that no refund could be given....how could we have known that they wouldn't have a car available...wankers!!!)

What I'm trying to say to you here is next time you're looking at booking a rental car, look no further than cartrawler.

Thankfully, we managed to catch the end of apricot season in the apricot capital of Turkey. I thought that I knew what a good apricot tastes like. I didn't.

Figs that cost .50c for half a kilo went a long way to easing the pain.

And having shop owners insist on having photos taken with us strange looking characters also made us fell pretty good.

 

Incredible Istanbul - Ten of the Best (Part II)

...following on from here

Things in and on Bread

Before we hit Istanbul we'd read something that said don't just fall into the doner, pide, durum trap. We fell into the trap but when the trap tastes so damn good why wouldn't you want to fall into it? Our three in and on bread highlights were:

Pide

We had a pide at Şimşek Pide, it was OK.

We had a pide at Hocapaşa Pidecisi, we thought that it couldn't get any better.

We had a pide at Mavi Halic, it did get better and it was crazy good.

Fish Sandwiches

Down by the banks of the Golden Horn there are a few different places where you can acquire one of Istanbul's famed fish sandwiches. Under the Galata bridge, next to the bridge from floating vendors, stalls alongside the bridge. The best fish sandwich requires a little bit more effort.

After crossing the bridge to the Beyoglu side you head west, through the fish market, and arrive at a cluster of about six or seven street vendors pumping out some seriously delicious fare. A piece of oily mackerel in a soft bun with some grilled veggies, salad, a lick of pomegranate molasses and a decent helping of chili. Sometimes less really is more.

Kokoreç at Kral Kokoreç

This one's for you Mum. The intestines of a lamb get cleaned thoroughly, are soaked in milk for a while and then get cleaned again. The intestines are then wrapped around a mixture of more intestines, lungs and sweetbreads, speared onto a spit and then roast away ready for willing customers like us.

The resulting meat package is full of lamby goodness but it's the texture that gets you and has me salivating for a kokoreç right now. In bread, on bread, on a plate. Anyway will do! 

Crawling with Cats

Istanbul is crawling with cats. No really, if you walk ten metres and don't see another cat it's because you missed it not because it's not there. Needless to say, this means hours of us making smooching noises and going psswssswssw in feeble attempts to make new pals. We made a few.

A very special mention goes to the Aya Sofya cat. Yes, a cross-eyed cat that calls the Aya Sofia home.

A very unspecial (not a word but let's roll with it) mention goes to the American who walked past and went, "it's like they've never seen a cat before. Sometimes people are so dumb". No buddy, you're dumb. This is the famous Aya Sofya cat (see its blog here) and you're just another D-bag swanning around Istanbul in a singlet with your hat backwards.

Pickles, Pickles, Pickles

There are few things, me not included, that make Nicola as happy as pickles. Her one main regret on this trip was not buying a single giant pickle in a can in Germany. Yes, you can get that.

Salgam (fermented black carrot juice), pickles in a cup in pickle juice (yes, also a thing), pickled chillies by the container load at every eatery, piles of pickles with pide. Pickles are everywhere and Nix was, and still is, in heaven.

Parklife

A big part of our time in Istanbul was finding a park to take it easy in for an hour or so before setting off again for the arvo. Moda Park over in Kadikoy was so peaceful that I squeezed in a little power nap before waking up for my afternoon tea. Naww.

Çay

Tea so strong that it coats your teeth and is a legitimate substitute to coffee. I wasn't sold at first thinking that strong black tea is just strong black tea. We're now a week in to a tea addiction that will have spiralled out of control once we leave Turkey in a months time. Thankfully there are çay stalls or men with portable çay urns just about everywhere that you look to feed the addiction. Look, even a bank blocking your card is fun with çay!

The best and cheapest so far was at 4am from a guy on the side of the road as we boarded a bus to the airport.

A big shout out to Big B, Little C and Mike and Kate (check out their time in the 'Bul here) for giving us way too much to try and squeeze in to what felt like four very short days.