Let's Go Here and.. umm...Here and...Oh! Here!: Byzantine Baklava

Surprisingly, Turkey is actually the 6^th most visited to country in the world. Most people are shocked to hear this. Many have thought to indicate to us other European countries that they think of when they consider “most visited.” Responding to those critics, we say, technically only a small portion of the country is in Europe, maybe 1/20^th. Turkey is mostly Asian. (If you look at this map, the area north of the Sea of Marmara is the European side http://www.infoplease.com/atlas/country/turkey.html). Questions of how European it is aside, here are the reasons this place is so awesome:

Number 1: Baklava. Ok, so we’ve tried baklava at home in all of its flaky, honey, nutty glory, but did you know there is more than one kind? We went to the flagship store in Istanbul. It’s been serving homemade baklava for over 150 years. There are only two things on the menu: baklava and Turkish coffee. They offer serious competition with Baskin Robbins for the number of flavours a store can advertise. How does one choose? Well, of course you have to try a variety, and then run a couple of back-to-back marathons to burn off the calories. Not an issue after you have had the coffee: you can almost stand your spoon in it.

Karakoy Gulluoglu Baklava = Nom Nom

Number 2: The Ceilings. As a person who has a penchant for decorating, Aislinn has always enjoyed putting together a room. A lot of effort goes into colours, fabrics, furniture, layout, etc. but never the design of the ceiling. It’s a good thing, because the Turks have it down to a fine science. Even the hookah cafes (think caterpillar from Alice in Wonderland) have intricately decorated ceilings.

Suliemaniye Mosque

Topkapi Palace Harem

Hookah Café near Grand Bazaar

The Blue Mosque

Number 3: The Grand Bazaar. Think the One of a Kind Craft Show meets Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves, only with the insistence of the squeegeers on Spadina. We’ve never seen such a variety of items for sale: carpets, pashminas, hookahs, bedazzled hookahs, hookah attachments, chandeliers, mother of pearl inlay boxes, t-shirts, fabrics, cooking supplies, pottery, coffee, baklava, jewellery, Turkish delight, evil eye amulets, antiques, the list goes on and on. Here are a few pictures of some of our favourite finds:

Turkish Lamps

Turkish Textiles

Turkish Mother of Pearl Inlay Boxes

Turkish Hookahs

The Grand Bazaar

Please note the decorated ceiling (see Number 2).

Number 4: The Food. We were dropped off by our airport shuttle at a square that is an assault on the senses. Buses, cars, motorcycles, and vans honk at each other from every angle, as you try not to step on the cats that entwine themselves in your legs, and avoid tripping on the steep cobblestone streets. En route to our hotel, we started to get worried about the vegetarian food options as we passed the 50^th Doner Kebap stand. Were we wrong! Turkey has some of the most delicious vegetarian foods we have tried. So much so, that Aislinn decided to go to a Turkish cooking class to learn how to make some of these dishes at home: lentil soup, rose borek with spinach and cheese, leeks in olive oil, split belly eggplant, carrots with garlicky yogurt, purslane salad with pomegranate molasses dressing, and revani (cornbread sugar syrup cakes). You’re all invited for dinner when we get back. Adam will need the help.

Turkish Flavours Cooking Class

Purslane Salad with Pomegranate Molasses Dressing

Lentil Soup

Rose Borek with Spinach and Cheese

Number 5: Incredible mosques. The 5 a.m. call to prayer is romantic and enticing but very difficult to sleep through. When you go into the mosques and look at the architecture, you realize after several minutes that your mouth is starting dry from the jaw-dropping. Then when you realize that the artwork is made out of individual tiles and not painted, you can hear Adam utter his favourite word: “guffaw”?!?

Several Famous Istanbul Mosques

The Call to Prayer

Number 6: The Religious History. Nothing sums this up better than the Hagia Sofia. This museum was originally the equivalent of the Vatican for the Eastern Roman Empire (Orthodox Church). When the Turks took over Constantinople including the Hagia Sofia, it along with the renamed city of Istanbul experienced an Islamic “makeover”. The new mosque had everything you would expect in a cathedral in terms of layout and architecture, but instead of holy trinity frescoes, there was Arabic calligraphy in its place. Since then, the mosque has been reclaimed as a museum and many of the Orthodox frescoes have been uncovered and restored side by side with much of the later Islamic art. It’s quite the juxtaposition to see Arabic writing alongside Jesus, Mary, and Joseph.

Awesome Juxtaposition

Uncovered Mosaic

Number 7: The Star Wars Set Landscape. One of our favourite things to learn while traveling is the myths that have been created by tour guides who are bored of the same old stories trying to ‘spice it up’. One of those is the fallacy that Cappadocia, although Star Wars-esque in its landscape, was one of the sets from Episode III. The soft volcanic rock landscape is dotted with ‘fairy chimneys’ which have been carved into churches and homes. It looks like a settlement on the moon. If Lucasfilm does do a postquel, this would definitely fit the bill. We know this because we did some film set reconnaissance work for Mr. Lucas via hot air balloon.

View from our Cave Hotel

Reconnaissance Work for George Lucas

Snow-Covered Cappadocia

Ballooning Over Cappadocia

Celebratory Champagne Toasting

Number 8: The Non-Snow Covered Mountain. As a Canadian who has avoided a full season of winter, the sight of a mountain entirely covered with the white stuff was eerily reassuring. Upon closer inspection, we saw people walking on this white wonder with their bare feet; like some sort of reverse fire walking exercise. The white stuff we learned was calcium deposits from the hot springs that were used for many years by the Greeks for their healing properties. When you reach the summit of this mountain of solid white, you see the remnants of a spa town for the ancient rich and famous, including a massive cemetery for all the unfortunate souls who didn’t recover from the illnesses that brought them there. Fortunately for tourists they have actually recreated this hot spring spa experience, complete with fallen pillars from the original town…I mean, what else are you going to do with an excess of ancient relics?

Just Swimming Next to an Ancient Pillar

Hard to Believe this is not Snow

Enjoying the Cold-Looking Hot Springs

The View at the Top

Number 9: Genuine Fakes. The amount of products you can purchase in Turkey is mind-boggling. And, everything is of course ‘genuine’: "Miss, feel this genuine silk." "Notice this genuine double-knotted wool." "Yes, this is genuine Turkish pashmina." "Sir, this is genuine handmade porcelain," etc. When we came across a retailer who advertised exactly what he was selling, we felt he deserved to have his honesty commended publicly.

Tells It Like It Is

Hmmm...

Number 10: One of the original Seven Wonders of the World: Admittedly, the temple of Artemis at Ephesus has seen better days but it was here. We swear. Also, the coliseum where the apostle Paul got the ancient equivalent of booed off the stage while preaching to the pagan Ephesians is nearby (See the Bible for more details). Muslim conquests aside, he probably got the last laugh.