The delight of Turkish Meze

We awoke to be able to view a beautiful sunrise over the lake out of the back window as we lay in our cosy bed. Shortly after we had got up a paraglider flew over our heads down to the lake shore, and then another. It was remenicant of the ballons in Cappadocia. We decided to take a wee drive down to the lake shore on our way out, just to take a look but met the 'gliders walking back up the very steep track, (four wheel drive only) with their parachutes in HUGE heavy looking rucksacs on ther back so decided to give them a lift up insteed. They were very greatful- I had forgotten just how long the track we came down last night was. When we took them up onto the small hill above where the track began we found that there were lots of people and cars all here to paraglide. The guys told us they were here every Sunday, (which was helpul as we had COMPLETELY lost track of wht day it was.

That done, we got back on the motorway and I spent an enjoyable few hours writing postcards and catching up on my blog. I also read the guidebook and decided that there was an unmissable recomendation for a resturant at Gaziantep which was basically on our way to the ruins at Nemrit Dagi we were headed towards. I had neglected to notice that it was a fairly big town which ment that it was difficult and chotic to navigate the traffic, people and one way systems and potentially traumatising to find a parking space. Before we had even found one however I was bubbling over with excitement seeing all the shops selling exoitc things and all of the hussle and bussle about the pace. I hadn't realised that this is what I'd been lacking from our, so far, mainly scenic tour of Turkey and I drank it all it. It was a little struggle to find the reccomended resturant on foot but this just ment that we passed more shop fronts and stores which suited me! Once we found it, it was rather more up maket than we expected but we brushed the mud off our clothes from yesterday's adventures and headed in. We ordered a kebab each, (kebabs are actually a delicious sausage served in a wide variety of ways rather than the 'donner' meat in a pitta which is what I usually think of) and a salad and a small Armenian

pizza thing each that was highly recomeneded. What came was dish after dish after dish that was all included in the price. In addition to what we had ordered were two more salads, a stack of large, fresh pittas, a round flat bread with sesame seeds on, baked aubergine pulp and our kebabs came with various trimmings as well. It was delicious, enormous but delicious and we managed it all. We could not however mange any baclava. Apparently this town was the home of baclava and this place rated as the best there was so we bought a mixed box to take away and indulge on out our leisure. We did however indulge in the complementay tea served after, I seem to be coping ok with tea which is great because I'd be in a very tricky situation politeness wise on a number of occasions. We had a great waiter who's English was pretty good- apparently he was the only one in here who spoke any English which shows what a refereshingly un touristy place this was. Reassured by this I looked on the shops with even more cultural excitement that these were shops for everyday people and that the mountains of spices, sticky sweats, metal work, marquetry boxes, jewellery and dried vegetables on strings were not just for show. We bought some tasty treats and some more realistic looking wedding rings than we had for our month in Iran. Back at the car Alex was feeling a ittle anxious abut how late it now was. We were hoping to get to a highly recomened wee pension in a small village just below Nemrit Dagi but we would be getting there nearly two hours after sunset. His reluctance to drive in the dark was perfectly demonstrated by encountering various hazards on the fast road we were on, the scariest of which was a tractor with no lights trundelling along on the slow lane, completey invisible to us until the last minute. We pulled over in the less recomended town of Kahta and headed to the not hightly recomended cheap place there. I found the place a lot more favourable than the review. The rooms were a bit basic I guess but it had a comfortable double bed, hating, hot water and as many blankets as we asked for. It wad rather chilly as most of the windows and doorways on the second floor were gaping holes, open to the elements- part of some serious refubushment that was underway. They insisted we come into the communal room where a stove was on and they were drinking tea, which they shared, and watch TV. There was a collection of around seven men there aged 30 to 60. They weren't guests but we never worked out if they were friends or family or a mix but it was all very compaionable. When they started setting a table on one side of the room they asked if we were hungry and we honestly said no, even Alex was planning to skip dinner after the huge lunch but then we realised that they had already served for us so went to join them anyway. Despite being so full, it was such tasty food that we manged to both eat a big plateful- bulgar wheat, a beany, meaty stew and various extras like bread, salad and other things. We really were stuffed after this and could do little more than slump on the sofas watching TV with the others and getting useful advice about routes to take and how snowy the road to the ruins may be. Later, when we were able to move again, we found that the showers were indeed hot and there was even wifi. A very pleasant eveing indeed.