Turducken

Okay okay so I haven't had duck, but I have eaten chicken in Turkey, so close enough. Sigh, sorry for the lame title, my creative juices are not running tonight.

Okay, I changed my settings, so anyone and everyone can comment, without having to register. So feel free to do so!!

Even after a sleepless night (at Gatwick!) the first day was packed with Blue Mosque/New Mosque sightseeing, the Grand bazaar, part of the Spice Bazaar, rounded up with a fish sandwich cooked on a boat off the Galata bridge. Mmmm. A chance encounter with the cafe owner of Gulmane Sur Cafe on the second day, changed the whole feel of our trip. We ended up taking to him (still can't figure out his name), his sons, and the other cafe workers for a few hours in an outdoor cafe that lines the wall of Topkapi Palace and also bordering Aya Sophia. We were actually attracted to their breakfast of eggs, cheese and spices, cooked in one large pan and eaten with white bread. I guess we looked hungry because they shared it with us.

After going across the Galata bridge and then around the another mosque, we headed back to the Blue Mosque to see a whirling dervish performance, from an outlook point above. Mai and I both agreed that it was cool, but perhaps not 75 minutes cool as actual sit down performaces touted. After the 'performance' (okay okay, it was actually a performance for patrons of the Dervish Cafe, we just errr looked in from above) we went back to Gulmane Sur Cafe, where the owner gave me a cooking lesson at his house and then where we shared a meal complete with fruit and raki (anise flavored Turkish liquor). Later we headed to Dejavu Cistern Bar, which was actually really nice. It's underground in an old Byzantine cistern. I tried my hand behind the bar (only to spill the whole contents of the second drink I made all over me) and danced the night away.

The problem with dancing the night away, is waking up the next morning. We managed Topkapi Palace (the cafe owner got us in for free. He knows the manager, or rather the ex-manager who is now a senator?), a stop at the Spice Bazaar, a Turkish bath experience (including an older, overweight, smelly Turkish woman in blue undies who scrubbed me all over...and yes I was neked, completely neked, because that's what she told me to do. Only after another Turkish woman came in with undies on did that made me think...we'll I know what I'd do if someone told me to just off a bridge. Pictures will not be posted!), and then off to Fethiye.

15ish hours later! Fethiye! A quick trip to Olu Deniz, and then a dinner at a local resto for locals, and then tea, and then here I am!

Ugh, no more writing! Pictures to follow...