Aveylik to Setluk

I was expecting to be eating different food, but not such consistently wonderful fare. Examples include Jellied Turkish Delight covered in icing sugar, thicker Turkish Delight pistachios, soups of tripe, sheep’s head or lentils, olives and salads of lettuce and red cabbage, cucumber and tomatoes and incredible olive oil with every meal. Breakfast today was olives, cheese, bread, tea, coffee, eggs, jams, tomatoes, cucumbers, all served on a terrace overlooking the town.

I ran to a market this morning and bought fresh cherries and oranges. They were probably picked yesterday.  Where we have maple trees along the roads, Turks have orange trees. While touring we went to a carpet co-operative and watched them being woven.  The process takes four to twenty four months depending on whether silk, wool,mixture, carpet or kilim.  Gorgeous work.  It will take about five weeks for my chosen one to be delivered. 

Roses and oleander are blooming everywhere.  There are lots of greenhouses and the tiniest plots outside of apartment buildings given over to roses and veggies.  Huge fields of onions and more peach trees than in Niagara.

Dinner this evening was in the mountain village of Sirince which is full of restaurants, tourist shops, beautiful handmade lace, pottery, dream catchers and fruit wines.  Everyone agreed mulberry was the best.  The setting was incredible.  Wild olive trees are all over the mountainsides with hotels and houses tucked in between pines and olives. Sirince was a Greek village before the great migration of Turks back to Turkey and Greeks back to Greece after the breakup of the Ottoman empire.  

Scenic Tours and Emerald Waterways

Scenic Cruises currently offer an "all inclusive" River Cruise experience to clients and have introduced a new product "Emerald Waterways". One innovation on their ships is a heated swimming pool with retractable roof which transforms into a cinema in the evenings. Accommodations on these ships range in size from single cabins at 130 square feet to the owner’s one bedroom suite at 315 square feet with most cabins being 180 square feet. The variety of sizes allows them to market to clients travelling at different budgets.

Gallipoli

Gallipoli is a long journey through hills and the never ending suburbs of Istanbul.  The apartment blocks go on forever for its 15 million people.  We saw everything from highway construction to hay fields (some already mown), fields of wheat and other crops, tractors and women in long coats and scarves weeding. There are lots of roadside cafes and picnic areas full of trees for shade.

Gallipoli is big, crowded and beautiful.  Monday is a national holiday so there were lots of Turks as well as Aussies and New Zealanders.  The cemeteries are beautiful, full of flowers and well kept. The whole experience was somewhat emotional. Women in the washroom washed their faces, hands and feet to cleanse themselves before praying in the Turkish Cemetery.  There is a monument with the words of Ataturk telling Allied mothers that although their sons are buried far from home, the Turks do not regard them as enemies and they will be looked after as respected and loved comrades and sons.  I found it all very moving.

After visiting the cemetery we went on a ferry to the Asian side and Canakkale.  We walked up and down the seafront with everyone else. The older women were in patterned harem pants and headscarves, some women dressed western attire and others wore long fitted coats or looser chadors, mostly of fine, light material because of the heat. On their heads everything from tight black scarves to hijabs of every colour and pattern making a fashion statements.  For dinner we had Turkish fish and chips with salad which was delicious.