Holidays in Turkey

2024 Author: James Gerald | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 14:00

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· Hard boiled eggs

· Scrambled eggs

Cheese

· Fresh cucumbers

Tiny slices of sausage

· Cornflakes

Butter buns

· Drinks claiming the names "Tea", "Coffee" "Morse"

At first glance, a pretty decent menu. I also thought so for the first three days, while alternating between a soft-boiled egg, cornflakes with milk, or a bun with feta cheese and sausage. On the fourth day I was a little bored, and on the tenth I reluctantly wandered to breakfast and looked at the table with disgust. And by the way, leave the myths that you won't want to eat in such heat, for your family and friends! How much you want! Especially after swimming in the sea or riding scooters and other all kinds of "bananas". There is only one salvation - local markets abounding in fruits and eateries with doner kebabs and shrimps. Do not forget that it is prohibited to bring food into the hotel. Although if you are neat and don't leave any traces behind, no one will know that you ate a delicious melon in your room, right?

Now about dinner. On the very first day, dinner became the cause of nightly pangs of conscience … I, of course, was somewhat prepared by the buffet on the ferries and in hotels, but they were NOT resort and NOT Turkish.

Dinner started at 19-30 with the bang of the gong. This action was performed by the metro hotel - a very colorful personality, by the way. The tables around the pool, which turned into an illuminated fountain in the evening, were well served. People who were accustomed to see in swimsuits or shorts during the day, for the most part, went to dinner, well, not in low-cut dresses and family diamonds, but still in beautiful suits. Yes, we ourselves were not a miss: we went out beautiful for dinner, sat down at a table and waited for the gong.

On the first day, we did a big foolishness by starting the self-service procedure with cold snacks, of which there were a great many, starting with onions marinated in a special way and ending with eggplants in the most unimaginable sauces. As for me, at another time I would have remembered the advertisement for "Motilium" after taking half of these snacks, but, apparently, the impressions of the first day, as well as innate greed made me want hot, sweet and fruit.

And our foolishness was that we did not take care of the hot food in advance, and while we were enjoying the eggplants and feta cheese, a queue of sufferers lined up at the three cooks who were laying out kebabs and pilaf. In fact, it is rather unpleasant to interrupt a meal by standing in line. The next time we were already smarter and started our journey with plates by visiting the stove, barbecue and food warmers. Almost everything was delicious, but the taste and color … As for the sweet - Phew! I drove in the hope of real baklava, the taste of which has haunted me since my barefoot childhood, namely, visiting the city of Baku. So what the Turks call "baklava" is absolutely different from what I expected, it tastes completely different. And those sweets that were offered to us at the hotel could not be consumed by me in principle, because they were soaked in sugar syrup. Every evening, going to the tables with sweets, I remembered Donut and Syrup. I confess, I once tried something similar to fruit jelly with apricots and melon. It could be delicious if it was not so cloying (here I remembered the medications of another cool kid, Carlson).

Mini-Disco was an indispensable attribute of the dinner. This dance program for children started at 20-30 and lasted for about half an hour. Out of nowhere, toddlers and not quite toddlers rushed to her callsigns. The first three or four days the program was watched with pleasure and tenderness about the cute kids, by the fifth day it began to cause slight irritation, by the eighth we sang along: "Woooooo O-O Walkie-Docky !!!!!!" and by the twelfth, both the children and the animators leading the program were grimly regarded. It seemed to me that my companion clearly cherished the idea of a garotta or rat poison, or, at worst, a purgen with clonidine in a glass of water for a girl who tirelessly conducted this program without bothering to somehow diversify it.

After the children's dances, the entertainment program for the rest of the hotel population began. I will not deceive the only competition in which my mad charm did not help me, it was when I had to quickly take chairs, of which there were fewer in number than the contestants. My neighbors on the left and right had more massive hips and impact force too. I won this competition only once, and then thanks to the gentlemen's behavior of my partner - a Pole … he just gave me his place at the last moment, kissing my hand.

Before surrendering to the power of debauchery or going to bed - that's as you like, it is quite possible to have time to go 12 km to Kemer, walk along the local streets, drink beer, eat ice cream, cheer for the Turkish national football team, participate in national dances and fend off from annoying merchants.

Walking

Having thought about it, we decided that the first week we ride and rest as "savages", and the second we devote to sightseeing tours organized by tourist bureaus. (When I wrote "tourist bureaus", a solid office with glass partitions, many polite employees, office equipment and folders with a bunch of brochures appeared before my eyes. Nothing like this! A travel agency in Turkey is a glass or some other box like a market tent, sometimes complete with four crooked sticks and a kind of thatched roof. By the way, the scorching sun is very well tolerated under this very structure, and pillows on the ground, hot tea, the attention of men and small livestock will help you spend your time almost without being bored. In these same travel agencies, you can agree on anything, from an excursion in Pammukale to the rental of a video camera and beach slippers. My advice to you is to bargain! It is unlikely that you will be able to reduce the prices for excursions, unless, of course, a whole group is traveling with you, but if you need additional services, then easily. The host will lower the price if you can reach an understanding.

One of the first trips was to the mountains. On the advice of Ismail, the owner of the travel agency where we rented a car, there was a good fish restaurant near Tekkirov. However, as at every step along the mountain streams running down the slopes of the Taurus. We drove for a long time along the mountain serpentine until we found a small billboard with the name of the restaurant. We drove up to the entrance to the restaurant, another black-eyed Turk rushed to open the doors and put the car in the parking lot, and by the way, he washed it at the same time while we were having dinner.

The national Turkish song "The wind blew from the sea, the wind blew from the sea" was playing. Turkish cooks were talking loudly, laughing, someone was singing along, it smelled of fried fish. Surprisingly, everywhere there was a shadow from the huge trees growing on the slopes of the mountain - the restaurant. The tables were located on multilevel mountain ledges and on wooden platforms under which a mountain stream ran. In some places, a trickle formed a backwater, to which customers were brought and theatrically asked to choose the trout they liked. Well, yes! How! They will immediately pull with a net for your fish! Fairy tales for "naive tourists", but still nice. We sat down at a table. They brought a menu and a silver jug of ice water, just in case I looked for fish scales at the bottom: what did they scoop straight from the river? After all, they took money from us everywhere for water, why were they generous? Not for nothing! Although it seems to be still drinking.

The menu was not particularly original. Especially when you consider that it was written in Turkish, and therefore remained a mystery to me. I loved the process of choosing a snack: a cute boy brought a huge tray of plates with SOMETHING on top. Sometimes it was white, sometimes red, sometimes it was finely chopped, and sometimes it was a piece. In some places it is covered with sauce. In general, there is room for imagination!

I gladly gave the right to choose to my companion, who was in the know about Turkish cuisine, and I myself watched with disgust as he pokes his finger into some mess and expresses delight at the sight of what seemed to me like curd with onions and some green tea. Gradually they began to bring snacks … a traditional salad of fresh vegetables, the same SOMETHING on small plates, my favorite squid breaded in sesame seeds, beer … mmmmm … they have delicious beer! Still in doubt, I jabbed at what was red with a fork and, grimacing beforehand, tried it. Oooh, what is this ?! I was numb with delight and began to poke more intensely with a fork into the pieces of tasty liver. It turns out that this liver was finely chopped and made in some kind of unimaginable sauce. Without a moment's hesitation, I tried the second appetizer: something like salted homemade cheese with spices and herbs - delicious! And then the invariable grilled trout. Mmm! When is there to talk? You gotta chew!

Continuation…