Although I am always eager to experience the food in a new country, even if it’s as close as Grenada, I was especially interested this time, having had a couple coincidental communications that gave me expectations and intentions. The most coincidental, especially in timing, was an IM conversation with an old high-school friend, as I sat in the airport in Guyana all those hours. While we are in contact, it’s somewhat sporadic as he’s been in the US since high school (many years ago) so it was a complete surprise that he was online on a Saturday morning and had recently returned from a trip to Turkey. He was still raving about the experience and the food, sending me the pictures and his blog post, and being ever so excited. I couldn’t wait. Of course he’d trekked around Turkey with some Turkish friends, so he would have had a better insight into local foods, being able to learn the names and ingredients of some things, but not having known him previously for a foodie, the enthusiasm was especially inspiring.

There was my discovery of Turkish coffee, from this photo a month earlier. At the time, I didn’t have any idea I’d be heading to Turkey to try it myself, I just wanted to know how to make this. And then I had to figure out what was Turkish coffee and how to get it ground so fine etc. I never got a chance to explore this before my trip, but now I am the possessor of two bags of Turkish coffee beans – dark and medium roast. And a little grinder, turkish style. Because, this, my first cup of Turkish coffee (Türk Kahvesi) was great. Rich and with a flavour that’s more complex, and different from regular made coffee, with foam, and silty at the bottom. Yummy. As with anything, there can be bad Turkish coffee, as I discovered in the airport in Istanbul, trying to have a goodbye cup. Yech. Chain store commercial coffee can be awful anywhere. But, I am ready to try to reproduce this, I just need a small pot. I should have bought one of those cool Turkish coffee pots, but there was only so much I could justify cramming into my suitcase. I’ll find something suitable.

The Coffee Geek gives a good step by step guide to brewing Turkish Coffee, and this is an interesting post on the history of coffee in Turkey.

Then there was the mention of Tulumber, a Turkish/Yugo dessert (according to my friend Tamara) that is somewhat similar in description to Trini Gulab Jamoon i.e. fried dough, dipped in syrup. Of course, there are differences. Tulumber is made from a yeasty dough, so that when you bite into it there are little air pockets. It’s also dipped into a syrup that remains wet, unlike the hardened coating for the gulab jamoon. In fact, when we were served these, the guy dipped them into fresh syrup before serving, so we got something to dip the airy insides into. Of course, I did have other desserts in Turkey, delicious as well.

But this was just the intro.

From Wikipedia:

Turkish cuisine inherited its Ottoman heritage which could be described as a fusion and refinement of Turkic, Arabic, Greek, Armenian and Persian cuisines. Turkish cuisine also influenced these cuisines and other neighbouring cuisines, as well as western European cuisines. Ottomans fused various culinary traditions of their realm with influences from Middle Eastern cuisines, along with traditional Turkic elements from Central Asia such as yoghurt. The Ottoman Empire indeed created a vast array of technical specialities. It can be observed that various regions of the Ottoman Empire contain bits and pieces of the vast Ottoman dishes.

Taken as a whole, Turkish cuisine is not homogeneous. Aside from common Turkish specialities which can be found throughout the country, there are also region-specific specialities. The Black Sea region’s cuisine (northern Turkey) is based on corn and anchovies. The southeast—Urfa, Gaziantep and Adana—is famous for its kebabs, mezes and dough-based desserts such as baklava, kaday?f and künefe. Especially in the western parts of Turkey, where olive trees are grown abundantly, olive oil is the major type of oil used for cooking. The cuisines of the Aegean, Marmara and Mediterranean regions display basic characteristics of Mediterranean cuisine as they are rich in vegetables, herbs and fish. Central Anatolia is famous for its pastry specialities such as ke?kek (kashkak), mant? (especially of Kayseri) and gözleme.

The Wikipedia entry is quite expansive and makes for a great read, especially since I am not able to name all the foods I ate. It also makes me wish more that I’d been able to be a proper tourist in Turkey. But the food I ate was almost all good – tasting of fresh ingredients, lovely balance of flavours and seasonings, and varied treatments of meats and pastries. There weren’t necessarily a tonne of spices and seasonings in the food (not like our Trini cooking) but what was used was just right and it didn’t have that uhm freshness (in the Trini sense) that I tend to associate with meat cooked without the familiar green seasoning marinade.

Breads and Pastries

The first thing that impressed me about Turkish food was the bread and pastries. Apart from the fact that even the smallest diner/cafe gave you bread on the side (and lots of it), the sheer variety and quality of the breads was impressive. There were rich buttery breads, sweet buttery breads, fluffy and crusty breads, flaky pastries filled with cheese, meats and veggies, flat breads of all shapes, nutty biscuits, chocolate-y biscuits – all good stuff. I had flatbreads, round and dimpled, with kebabs or bought separately because they looked so good fresh from the open ovens. I believe these were pide, which is the Turkish version of pita, but not really pocketed. There were breads and croissant-like rolls with soft white cheese inside. There were white cheeses everywhere. Breads and biscuits tasting of sesame seeds, or tahini. Yum.

There were pastries made of phyllo, filled with cheeses, meats or potato. One borek in particular, I got from the food court in 5Migros – mashed potato, rolled in a long tube of phyllo, with the tube then rolled in a spiral – was excellent. At a gala dinner, one of the courses was a crepe/thin pastry wrapped around spinach, potato and diced salami (?) that was pretty good, in spite of my aversion to cured meats.

Breakfast Foods

This post from a Turkish blogger about her native breakfasts is excellent, and accompanied by photos. I should have read this before leaving, since I didn’t know how I was to eat the buffet available at breakfast. There was the regular assortment of loaves of bread and rolls, in addition to a different hot bread every morning (some sweet, some savoury, all delicious). Sausages and sliced deli-type meats were always on offer, along with an assortment of olives and cheeses. Fresh tomatoes too. The olives and cheeses were sometimes mixed with a spice mix (peppers). Lots of white cheeses, cubed or soft. Olive oil on the side. An array of honey and fruits in syrup, eaten (by me) with the yoghurt. But I really wasn’t sure what was the traditional way of eating these things, and there were no Turkish people in our party to explain. The hotel people were great, but the restaurant staff didn’t speak English so couldn’t really help. But I imagine, lots of bread, oil, cheese, olives and tomatoes are very typical, perhaps not just of Turkey, but Mediterranean.

Kebabs, Kofte and Chips

If you like kebabs, Turkey is the place to go. You may know shish kebab, maybe doner kebab, but then there’s iskender; kebabs served with rice, or chips (or, strangely, rice AND chips); kebabs on bread. And koftes – various forms of meatballs, different in the base meat, as well as the textures and techniques.

Shish (?i?) Kebabs are made from marinated cubes of meat, whether chicken, lamb or beef, skewered and grilled. I had Beef Shish in the hotel, served with a rice pilaf, grilled pepper, onion and tomato, and Chips (çips). I also had Chicken Shish out in the city, in this great little place, where I had the Tulumber. This shish was served with all its cooking juices on top a pide, with grilled pepper and onion on the side. So very good. Fresh bread, soaking in the chicken goodness. Yum.

Doner Kebabs are made from ground meat, seasoned and shaped onto a big vertical spit to cook. Strips of the doner are shaved off for serving. Beef or Lamb doner seems to be the norm, but I have had chicken doner (shawarma) in the UK. I am not sure whether this is Turkish.

Iskender kebabs are doner kebabs in a tomato sauce, served with/in yoghurt. There seem to be different ways of serving this as well – as my friends had this served with chips and bread on the side and here, atop the bread.

Köfte (kufta)or fried meatballs are another staple on the Turkish menu, also found in the Middle East. They can be made from lamb, beef or chicken, with cumin and oregano, garlic or onion, and other spices. I had some different versions while in Turkey – some seemingly made from almost pure, seasoned ground meat, while others having a lighter crispier texture, from the addition of egg and either breadcrumbs or some other starch (one tasted like potato, one like rice, but I am not sure if I was right). While there are vegetarian kuftas (made from red lentils) I didn’t have any while I was there. The picture at the top of the page has what was called chicken meatballs on the menu, while this one, from the same place was chicken kufta. Different textures and tastes. That cafe served them with fuschia-coloured pickled cabbage and other salad items, with chips and a basket of fluffy bread.

Other meat specialities

Shepherd’s Stew is a very common dish here. I had it several times, in the hotel and out. This picture is from Mermerli (where I had the coffee) which is on a cliff overlooking the Antalya Marina. Gorgeous views and friendly staff. This is diced lamb cooked with lots and lots of onions and tomatoes and peppers, with herbs like parsley, and is a pretty good dish. Of course every cook probably has a different variation, but it’s a nice, basic kind of meal. Served with rice and chips… Someone must explain this to me, the serving of chips with regular food (i.e. rice and stew, or rice and kebab). Except for the rice, it’s like being in Belgium… odd…

I also had a Turkish Pizza (Lahmacun?) which was a thin stretched flat bread topped with a mixture of meat, tomatoes and peppers, and of course, cheese. It was a light and crusty base, and a nice balance of toppings. It was served on a wooden board, fresh from the big clay ovens behind the counter, and looked so long I didn’t think I could eat it. But I managed the whole thing by myself. It was lamb. So good. I didn’t know whether this should be meat or bread…

Vegetables

Although I was eating meat all the time, a little overload perhaps given my normal travel eating habits, I did appreciate some of the vegetable offerings. Stuffed peppers, whether with bulgur, rice, or with meat. Mmmm. They really know how to cook eggplant in Turkey – eggplant stew, grilled, stuffed. Lovely. At that gala dinner, we got a plate of meze, with many offerings of such delights. Unfortunately, I can’t describe them all, but check the Wikipedia entry for some idea. I know I had a stuffed pepper, cucumber-mint-yoghurt, somethign made out of ground red lentils, something out of yellow split-peas, a orange vegetable purée (squash?), 2 kinds of cheese, hummus and a wedge of lemon.

At one of the kebab shops we also had an Antalya specialty – a bean salad, made with tahini and lemon juice. There’s a recipe here, but the version we had didn’t have eggs. It was unexpectedly good, because I am not generally a bean salad fan. This is called Antalya Usulü Piyaz.

Desserts

Ah, sweet desserts. If you’re a fan of the Middle Eastern sweet treats like baklava and basboosa, then you’ll love Turkey. You’ll find such delicacies here also, in addition to the syrup-soaked Tulumber. Honey, pastry, pistachio, walnuts, rose-water… Yummy. The dessert plate from that gala dinner is a good example – 2 pastries made with phyllo pastry, and a cake in the back made from semolina, like basboosa. And ground pistachio all over. Syrupy. There are also somewhat less sweet biscuits, with sesame seeds, or chocolate, nuts, but delightful anyway.

Tea (çay)

To end of such great meal, nothing could be better than some tea. When we were first offered Turkish tea in the souvenir shop, we were curious – what is Turkish tea? or rather, what makes Turkish tea Turkish? Well, the fact that it is grown in Turkey of course. It’s black tea and tastes like good black tea, but it’s the way it’s served that is so enticing! In these gorgeous narrow glasses, with matching saucers. Cubes of sugar and cute little spoons. I like tea.

And I like black tea in beautiful glasses, while I look at the Turquoise Mediterranean.

Other posts from this trip:

Turkey: Getting There

Turkey: Impressions and Antalya

Turkey: Touristing in Antalya

Turkey: photos on Flickr

While I didn’t get to tour the natural features of Antalya, I did make a couple short trips into the city and into the old bazaar areas. If you want a feel for the ancient in this part of this world venture into these winding cobbled and narrow streets, lined on either side by small stores, crammed to the walls and spilling out with bursts of colour, texture and aromas.

There are so many things to shop (or window-shop) for in Turkey: carpets and tapestry in sizes from bookmarks to wall hangings; fabrics like the renowned pashminas; ceramics with the classic Turkish-Ottoman designs and colours; jewellery in silver and turquoise; teas, coffees and spices grown in Turkey and sold in huge bins showcasing a rainbow of colours. It’s incredible just to walk along and ogle everything. And be served Turkish tea while the proprietor extols the virtues of his wares and enters into bargaining with you. Tea, served with cubes of sugar and elegant little spoons, in the unique curved glasses on glass saucers, in lovely designs.

It is an amazing experience, particularly, if, like me, you haven’t visited anywhere particularly eastern. Be warned however, that the stores don’t just spill their goods out on the street – the salesmen and proprietors lurk on the sides calling out for your attention, sometimes very aggressively, when all you want to do is soak it in. We even refrained from pointing out anything in particular, or staring to long for fear we’d be hounded and hassled about buying it. Since we had limited exploration and shopping time, it was hard to know whether we would get a good price or quality or be hoodwinked into tourist traps. Speaking of which, be careful about those nuts vendors. They have big carts all over the city, filled with a variety of sweet and savoury nuts and insist you try some, giving you tastes and telling you “it’s only € 2 for 100 g!” We said, “€ 2 ? That sounds good for a snack”. Right. They start filling up a bag, and telling you “you want a mix?” moving very quickly and by the time they’re done you have a 600g bag of mixed nuts for € 12 and they shrug and say, “well, if it wasn’t already mixed…” So perhaps not everyone would be caught that way. Our colleague refused to buy at first and eventually said clearly “give me € 1 ” and that worked. Please be guided. I know that there are areas in the Caribbean that have similar situations where tourists are aggressively pursued to purchase items, but it’s probably easier when it’s like my country, my people and my language to avoid or even ignore that. Once I open my mouth, they know I’m Trini (well, most of them) and the smarmy tactics have to disappear unless I do something else to make myself appear gullible.

Enjoy your shopping anyway – you can get decent quality items in the city bazaar, although it’s innate in me to want to peruse a couple times and compare. But I got the same kinds of deals and prices at the airport in Istanbul, but I think, for example, the pashminas I got in the old bazaar in Antalya were higher quality. They were certainly better labeled. And when it started to pour when we needed to look for a taxi back to the hotel, we asked the owners to direct us to the taxi stand, and they (father and son) said they would give us a lift. They were heading in that general direction, but as it turned out, they did go past their destination by a fair amount to drop us. But they were great and friendly, and the son was one of the few in Antalya who was fluent in English, and was therefore able to comprehend that we were from the Caribbean. The owner of the first tourist shop we visited also understood where we were from, because he was a yachtie, although restricted to the Mediterranean, he had dreams of one day going further on the sea. The owner of our hotel, a fairly small beachfront establishment, was also very friendly and accommodating, dropping us to the meeting, to the mall, to the museum…as far as people experiences go, Antalya was excellent. Possibly better if I had crammed a few Turkish words by sight or sound beforehand, but nonetheless!

This, as I’ve mentioned before, was a first for me really – visiting a place where English is not a common language and where the native language and I have no relationship whatsoever. Turkish phrasebook. Get one. If only to be able to recognise signs and menus. Or to figure out where the minibuses are going.

Minibuses are a good way to get around – like minibuses in the Caribbean, they stop anywhere along their route and are fairly inexpensive. For example, getting into the city centre from Konyaalte Plaj, cost 1.15 Turkish Lira. That’s less than a US dollar, a trip which would cost 10-15 Turkish lira in a taksi. We just needed our hotel proprietor to write down city centre in Turkish (I THINK it’s Kale Kapisi) and then the most intrepid of our trio hopped onto the first couple minibuses that stopped and showed them the paper. When they said no, we waited for the third and happily followed our fearless leader. Into the aisle of said minibus. No seat. Standing room only, with vertical space less than 6′. Less than 5’7″ I would say…Just like with such conveyances in our part of the world, you can pay before or after, sending the money up through the crowd and having your change relayed back. We came off when the bulk of people alit, and ended up pretty close to the marina and old city bazaar. The next time we took the minibus, we finally figured out we could try to read the sign on the front (on a little changeable placard just like in Trini maxis and buses) to see if the city centre was the destination. And along the way I spotted an actual MAXI-TAXI. Well, it was called a maksi-taksi and was smaller than the minibus (so about the size of a bread-van maxi), which made sense in the Turkish context, since the mini-bus was smaller than a bus, while the maxi-taxi was bigger than a taxi.

I managed to take a morning and visit the Antalya Museum, which is apparently famous for its archaeological collection, and is in fact award-winning. There have been many noteworthy excavations and well-preserved ruins in the region and many local archaeologists have gained fame and reputation in their discoveries here. You can see the usual display of pottery and statuary from the Roman empire and of course even older. And the impressive and beautiful displays of the Ottoman art and culture. There’s a Hall of Coins, a Hall of Sarcophagi, a Hall of Gods… You’re free to take pictures except where a display has a sign prohibiting all photos, or only flash photography (they are pictorial signs, you can figure it out). Cost – 10 Turkish lira). I don’t know if the museum has tour guides, but there were 2 large tour groups visiting at the same time, complete with their own guides. One Spanish, one American group, so I could wander around the latter and pick up anecdotes about the Roman gods and statues…or do as I usually do in such places – wander around and linger at anything that catches my eye.

Be sure to catch the statue of Herakles with the missing stolen torso! I thought that was particularly interesting. And I like the way it was displayed! I tried to line up the photograph and the remaining portion of Herakles together and got some strange looks from a couple people. But, why else would they have put it there on the wall?

There are some other nice displays, such as the tent set-up pictured above, scenes from a typical Turkish home centuries before, and Ottoman period garments, such as Turkish Bath Shoes, that I just thought were so very cool. And of course, tapestries and carpets.

A discussion of touristing in Turkey would be incomplete without mention of whirling dervishes. It’s a question everyone asks when they hear you’re visiting/visited Turkey – did you see the dervishes? did they whirl? was it cool? Yes. Yes. And Yes. The meeting organisers held a gala dinner and Turkish cultural show for us, and I saw lots of Turkish folk dancing and the famed dervishes. The folk dancers leapt and twirled and stepped high, reminding me of Celtic dancing (even the women’s costumes) as well as being similar to those stereotypical Russian dancers kicking out from a stooping position. It was filled with energy and great to watch. The dervishes on the other hand were a lot more solemn than I knew. The music is eerie and sombre, which fits the description of the nature of this Sufi practice, being their representation of a mystical journey of man’s spiritual ascent through mind and love to “Perfect.” The pictures weren’t too great, given the darkness of the room and distance from the stage, so I only include one for the moment.

Other posts from this trip:

Turkey: Getting There

Turkey: Impressions and Antalya

Turkey: photos on Flickr

(I am still in the airport in Barbados, 2 hours after the previous post! Looks like we’re waiting for sunrise to clear the fog in Guyana. And I took longer than 2 hours to write these posts; I used the extra 2 hours on the plane to start the process. Some small advantage to this situation, I suppose.)

Looking at Antalya on the map during my limited preparations, I was struck with how close it was (relatively speaking) to my grandfather’s birthplace of Tartous in Syria. Just across the Mediterranean really, since Tartous is also a coastal city. I really wanted to visit, since I’d never been that far away from home, and that close to that part of the world and the relatives there. But skirmishes in northeastern Turkey and the lack of direct travel between Antalya or Istanbul and Tartous settled my mind that maybe this was not the time. It would have been a very rushed visit in any event, and I didn’t have a visa or much time to get one.

The prospect of visiting Turkey, while exciting, was also a bit daunting knowing about the hijab-ban in government and military buildings, and universities. I’d never been in a country with that official attitude towards the hijab and I didn’t know what that meant for the daily life of Turkish hijabis. What would that mean for me as a foreign national? I got some positive assurances from Turkish nationals, through my father and brother, and since my meeting was in a hotel, I set aside those concerns (mostly) and set forth. Instead I focused on the fact that, with more than 90% of the population being Muslim, pork not on the menu and meats halaal, I could be freer in sampling food than in most of my travels. But more about the food later.

I didn’t spend any real time in Istanbul, unless you count the few hours in Attaturk airport. For those who need to know, at least in the domestic terminal, people line up at the boarding gates well in advance of the stated time for boarding, or opening of the gate, without even the hint of appearance of any airline staff or plane. It’s not quite a stampede, since they are orderly and lined up, but by the time the airline agents open the gate, people are ready to go. It was also surprising to realise that Turkish airports do security scanning before you enter the building; full works including scanning of suitcases, removal of shoes etc.

But before I properly assimilated those peculiarities, I have to admit that it was the smoking that made the first impact. I have never been to a country where people smoke so freely indoors. Well, not freely, but none of the buildings seem to be smoke-free. There are sections in the airport and in the hotels, that are smoking, and so many people smoke that despite the generally excellent ventilation, you can see the walls of smoke. And smell it. Restaurants generally didn’t seem to have no-smoking areas either – in one case we asked to be seated outside, away from the smokers and with fresh air, then they seated smokers right next to us. I am not getting into a anti-tobacco rant, merely pointing out that this is noticeable on arrival from non-smoking-in-public-places countries, and particularly when your sinus allergies are prepared to rage after 2 days in planes and airports.

Antalya is on the Mediterranean, on the Turquoise Riviera, in reference to the gorgeous colour of the water, or the turquoise that is part of the fabric of Turkey and things Turkish, or both. It is a city on the Mediterranean coast of southwestern Turkey, capital of Antalya Province. The population of the city is over 600,000 but reaches two million in summers at the height of tourism season. (Antalya on Wikipedia) There is so much history and culture in this region, coupled with the sheer natural beauty of the mountains and the water. Antalya is like a crescent with the sea in the inner curve and ringed on the outside by mountains. The combination is beautiful, even if you’re only looking from one area and didn’t get to explore. You can take cruises to various waterfalls and along the coast and trips to mountains and various sites nature attractions and sights. Plans for some time in the future. Or for any of my readers who are so lucky. We ate lunch a couple times at this beach bar/cafe right on the beach, where we could soak in the blueness and bits of the mountains, and observe the people fishing from the shore with rods, stretching out on the “sand” (which looked like grey gravel but didn’t seem to bother anybody) and even swimming.

There’s a beautiful marina next to the old walls of the city and the old city bazaar leading down to it. Hadrian’s Gate and the Antalya museum are musts. I made it to the museum and saw the 3 arches of Hadrian’s Gate (but no picture).There are mosques throughout the city and you can hear the adhan call 5 times a day for prayer. I didn’t make it to the mosque when I was in the city, but I could see spires and domes, just didn’t figure out how to get there without getting lost. The mosques in Turkey are beautiful and share some common features, in that the primary structure is very cuboid, or several cubes, with a dome, and a tall spindly minaret or two at the corner.

It is all quite breathtaking, and impossible to truly appreciate when you’re stuck in meetings 8.30 until and the days are short because it’s winter. Not that winter is too much of a problem. It’s mediterranean – warm and sunny at temperatures in the high teens and 20s Celsius, with rain of course as it’s winter, but even then, not too bad. When you’ve got days like this when you can sit out in the sun at the beach and soak in all that turquoise gorgeousness…you really can’t complain.

Well, not too much anyway…

In the next couple posts I will detail some more of the touristing activities and the food to be enjoyed in Antalya. I am currently stuck in the Barbados at 2.20 am, after leaving Trinidad 9.30 pm for Guyana, only to be diverted after circling over the airport in Timehri unable to land because of heavy fog. Who knows when we’re getting out of here.

Other posts from this trip:

Turkey: Getting There

Turkey: Touristing in Antalya

Turkey: photos on Flickr

Travel trials. It was all I could think about – the 7 hour delay by LIAT before even leaving Guyana, almost making me miss my flight to London and setting me back by an entire day. I hate LIAT by the way. Not that I didn’t before, but this time… During the 7 hour wait in the airport, they kept promising that they’d have everything sorted with British Airways to ensure I didn’t miss the flight and I had no choice but to believe them, since by the time they told us that our wait would be significantly more than an hour, the only alternative to leave the country was already taking off. Good timing by LIAT I am sure. Of course, I didn’t entirely trust them, since when they first made the announcement of the long delay, they were dealing only with a group booking of 8 people who were scheduled to connect to Virgin Atlantic in Barbados. I had to keep pushing in and reminding them I was catching the earlier BA flight. Sigh.

Of course, we landed in Grantley Adams, and the LIAT personnel helpfully asked passengers to allow those connecting to Virgin and BMI to disembark. What?? Quick check with the groundstaff confirmed it. They had no instructions to expect and deal with me, or liaise with BA. After repeated questions, the guy checked his list and surprisingly I was on it as a passenger with a connection, but the group of 8 were highlighted so they were the ones to be given special delay treatment. The LIAT guy even told me at first, don’t worry, BA leaves later these days since it goes to Trinidad on a Saturday and turns around. This, despite the fact that the BA plane was on the ground and it was barely more than an hour before it was scheduled to leave Barbados. Did he think I was blind or stupid? It was only my insistence that got the LIAT agent to finally say, “well, if you don’t get on BA, we’ll have to get you onto Virgin.”

Well, I was left to do what I have done so many times in BGI – run with my luggage all the way over to the BA counter and breathlessly check in. Which they did, thankfully. Of course, it was less than an hour before departure, which usually means the flight is closed, so I asked if LIAT had pre-booked me. No. They had not. BA was still checking-in because other passengers were late and they had been notified. So instead of waiting 7 calm hours in BGI, I rushed straight from check-in to the plane, ever grateful for timing that had nothing to do with the region’s only island-hopper.

The BA flight was fine, other than the fact they keep the cabin entirely too warm, just because it’s winter. I can’t sleep in fake heat. On arrival into London Gatwick, I had to take the bus to Heathrow and then fly more than 3 hours to Istanbul. The BA flight was interesting and would have offered great views over the Alps etc if I wasn’t dozing. And because it was headed to Turkey, we got served some yoghurt with honey that was great – not the sugary concotions that I am used to as yoghurt, but something a bit more sour, but also richer. And honey, mmmm. Good sign for the food ahead.

In Istanbul that’s where it hit me just how different a country I was in. Flying overhead, the clusters of buildings, whether in squares or circles, or in more odd shapes, all seemed to have a strange kind of organisation. It’s hard to explain, the city is clearly not all straight lines and grids, but it seemed organised, particularly in those clusters within the city. Strange and pretty. The mosques were also very noticeable, with their spiky tall minarets and large domes. Lots of them. Yay – travel to a place where I didn’t have to be a pseudo-pesco-ovo-lacto-vegetarian (term coined by Lilandra). Also, I have mostly traveled to countries that speak English, or French, Spanish occasionally Dutch. And even in those places, there is always an abundance of English. In Istanbul, the airport signs were also in English, but the Turkish seemed so strange. I couldn’t even think of deciphering some of it, as I could with French and Spanish, even German and Dutch (to a lesser extent). And people weren’t as familiar with English, although that would be even more so in Antalya as I was to find out. But first, getting into Turkey.

T&T nationals don’t need visas for Turkey. Not even on arrival. I have no idea how or why this is so, but it is. (Some connection perhaps to the fact that we get Ülker products in T&T, including my ever favourite Ülker biskrem chocolate-hazelnut cream filled biscuits?) The immigration officers aren’t too clear on it either. As I watched Americans and others being sent back to get the visa on arrival, I wondered whether my information had been accurate. Even though, just coincidentally I had found out the day before that a Trini friend from high school had just come back from Turkey and he had confirmed the no-visa issue. But still, in a strange country where you know no-one, you worry. Well, I do. When it was my turn, the immigration officer studied my passport’s front cover. And then looked for Trinidad and Tobago on a long list on his wall. No luck. He looked again. Nada. He then opened up the passport and studied the photo and information, flipped through my Schengens, my US visa, UK student visa, various stamps…then back at the wall. This time at a much shorter list. Quick glance at me. Flip through again. Shrug of his shoulders, stamp on the passport, wave me through. All without a word. Not a single question or comment. I didn’t even know for how long I was permitted entry. Nevermind. I was in. (And Barbadian nationals can also get in without a visa, but not sure who else in the region, as even the US nationals need visas on arrival).

I made it safely through Attaturk Airport in Istanbul, and arrived in Antalya on the bumpiest, cloudiest, lightning filled short flight I have ever had (later found out there’d been a big storm in the Mediterranean). The taxi driver eventually found my hotel, where I had been expected, with barely 10 hours to sleep, and start my work day in the morning. And the adventure in what is also called Anatolia. My tales of Turkey aren’t necessarily incredibly exciting, but I’ll be blogging about them nonetheless, so be prepared. Or instead, go look at the pretty pictures! As a sampler, some of the things that stand out about my trip – the blue blue Mediterranean of the Turquoise Riviera, the mountains above Antalya, and the food.