I’m tired from today’s long episode of “hurry up and wait.” We woke up at 5am to finish packing and be ready for the 6am bus to the airport for our 9:35am flight. After the usual airport preliminaries, including “leaving” the country via passport control, everything seemed to be going fine. Just as boarding was about to start the announcement was made that there was a technical issue with the plane. Long story short, the issue had to do with the emergency exit which reduced the capacity of the full flight. To prioritize those going to Istanbul to connect with other flights, our group which is now down to 38 was asked to give up our seats in exchange for 250-Euro future travel vouchers and lunch and board the 3:50pm flight instead. Fortunately we didn’t have a tour planned for today, and fortunately a group of geocachers knows how to entertain ourselves in an airport (one virtual cache, one adventure lab, and lots of conversation including more games like we played on the bus).
Eventually we boarded our flight which left a wee bit late. We were pleasantly surprised to receive a reasonably healthy snack with a cheese sandwich and a chicken salad along with a small chocolate cake, not pretzels or the like during the 90-minute flight. So much for North American airlines’ argument that “we don’t have time during a short flight.” Simon Majumdar wrote that he’d tried a certain Turkish wine that tasted like camel pee, and I can confidently report that I have it on good authority that Turkish Air’s Turkish white wine did not have said taste. It took quite some time for our group to clear customs, collect our luggage, and meet our tour guide, Mustafah. Eventually we took the nearly hour-long drive to our lodging, and I was rather green when we arrived, and also desperately needed to eat.
Our lodging is lovely, and it’s a block or so away from a vibrant street with lots of restaurants. I’m incredibly lucky to have good supportive friends who understood that I needed protein as soon as possible. David, June and I ventured forth at the same time Mustafah concluded his workday and began his hourlong commute home, but he graciously offered us some restaurant advice that turned out to be excellent. Actually, he said a certain place was so-so, and we’ll have to ask him why tomorrow. We started with some hummus that was as good as any I’ve had outside of Israel. David and I both wanted to try the lamb kebab and the chicken kebab, so we ordered one of each while June got to the chicken. Huge plates with the kebab skewers hanging from a medal pendulum taller than our heads; the lamb skewer was more or less straight, the chicken skewer was a helix that seemed like a twisted metal ribbon (or a molecule of DNA). I tasted the lamb first and all I could say was Wow! — an explosion of delicious flavor, the meat served at the ideal temperature. David made the same comment about the chicken. The restaurant gave us a few things on the house — a spread much like the consistency of a thick salsa that initially tasted like a well-prepared pizza sauce but the flavor intensified after swallowing with a bit of a chile pepper kick, and the offer of Turkish coffee or tea after the meal. The server seemed quite disappointed that only June accepted the coffee.
On our way back to the hotel we window-shopped until we saw a store with Turkish delight. Not sure I’ve ever had it, but now that I’ve tasted a few flavors I definitely recommend it. For about $7US we got a nice box with about 20 pieces of various types that typically had a couple of items such as hazelnut, rose, strawberry, chocolate, pomegranate, pistachio, almond and maybe a couple of others. Methinks we have purchased plenty for desserts and treats for our time here.
A fine conclusion to a day that didn’t exactly go according to plan.
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