With our friends from laroutedusoja in tow and the border between Georgia and Turkey crossed, we set off on a long journey by bus and train across the length of Turkey. Our journey aboard the famous Dogu Express was one of our most memorable Turkish experiences: 22 hours in a comfortable cabin with our friends, admiring the spectacular scenery, drinking Turkish tea and then Georgian chacha and wine, chatting, laughing and taking part in a 2-tonne workshop run by Victor.
A good night's sleep and a change of train later, we arrived in Istanbul.
Our discovery of Turkey has already begun.
Our favourite place
After enjoying Istanbul and a long night sitting in the bus, we arrived in the Cappadocia region. Following the advice of a friend, we chose to hire a car. Well done! We were able to get out of Göreme, the town where most of the hotels and tourist activities are concentrated, and visit the rest of the region, which is actually very vast. We hiked between the fairy chimneys and in the Ihlara valley, visited troglodyte churches and monasteries like Keslik Manastiri, went to see the ruins of ancient cities near Karkin and, of course, got up at 5am to watch the hot air balloon show at sunrise in Göreme.
The Cappadocia region is superb and deserves its reputation!
Our most memorable meeting
In Cappadocia, on our way to camp in a tiny village near a superb mountain, we came across three Turkish men feeding adorable puppies by the side of the road. Expectantly, we stopped to see the puppies and tried our best to chat with the Turks. Very quickly, one of them insisted that we sleep at his place.
We were then invited into the home of a Turkish family and welcomed like royalty: they offered us tea and a big, typical Turkish breakfast!
This welcome is very typical of Turkey: everywhere we went, the men were eager to talk, very enthusiastic, full of humour, generous and sincere.
On the other hand, we had very few opportunities to talk to the women. In the family that welcomed us, the woman's role was not to make conversation, but rather to serve tea, prepare the room and make breakfast. In general, in Turkey even more than in France, public space belongs to men. You'd never see a woman sitting in the street outside her front door, watching passers-by. It's always men who spend their day in the local café, playing tavla or cards and drinking tea.
It made us sad to think of all those talented, intelligent women who probably never even noticed, condemned to the role of wife and mother.
What's for dinner ?
The dish we ate the most in Turkey was definitely cigkofte. Literally, it means "raw meat" in Turkish. Did we change our diet overnight?
Originally, cigkofte was a wrap with raw meat flattened over the whole pancake, raw vegetables and a pomegranate sauce. Except that all that raw meat wasn't always well preserved and its bacteria caused a number of illnesses. Since then, cigkofteurs have preferred to use a paste made from bulgur, tomato paste and a few spices.
Cigkofte are very inexpensive, and almost always vegetarian (ask every time for more precautions). A sure bet! We may have overindulged in them, and since then Dune has been disgusted.
How can you talk about Turkey without mentioning its pastries? We also over-indulged in the famous baklavas, and we can now say that not all are created equal... The prices, almost always per kilo, vary enormously from one shop to another, as does the quality, and the two are not proportional! Dare to try something other than the pretty shops in the main tourist streets.
Our favourite pastry is surely the ghribia with tahini. It's a small, round, crumbly, melt-in-your-mouth shortbread made with sesame paste. We're going to try making them as soon as we get back to France!
Here are two addresses that stood out to us for eating pastries in Istanbul:
📍Baklavacı Anteplioğlu, Google Maps location. The baklavas are very good and very reasonably priced!
📍Cihangir Tarihi Simit Fırını, Google Maps location. A very large selection of pastries and shortbread, at small prices. We recommend this shop to try the tahini ghribias :) You can also sit here for tea or coffee, but there are only a few tables available.
Our newsletter on Turkey would be incomplete if we didn't tell you about all the experiences that made this stay unforgettable:
In Turkey, the first thing we did was blow our piggy banks: we chose to dive to discover the wrecks of Kas, and we tried ... paragliding! We'd been dreaming of it for a long time, so we did it. Oludeniz was the perfect place to do it, as its mountains on the edge of a peninsula and turquoise blue waters make it a very popular destination for flying. We loved the experience, even if the pirouettes didn't leave one of our stomachs unscathed (🤮)
In Turkey, we also spent (many) hours playing the national sport: backgammon, or tavla in Turkish, accompanied by (far too) many litres of tea and (really too) sweet Turkish pastries. In the middle of the afternoon, we spotted the cafés with no menu or fuss, where lots of little old Turks gather to chat or play. Once the tea was ordered and the game started, there was nobody to stop us, except the frustration of Dune who never managed to win.
Finally, we were impressed by the diversity of landscapes and experiences available in Turkey. From big bustling cities like Istanbul, to ancient sites like Pamukkale, to the hiking, pretty beaches and thrill-seeking activities of the superb Lycian coast and the troglodyte monasteries of Cappadocia, Turkey has something for everyone. The country is so vast and varied that it would take years to discover it, and we'll definitely be coming back to visit.
join us on our journey!
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