Back in Istanbul

Well we feel as though we are home. It was a funny feeling coming over on the ferry from Yalvas into Istanbull - we all felt the same. It had been an absolute action packed 6 nights. Our gamble with a car and driver certainly paid off.

We had left Pamukale about 11am and it was about 500km to Istanbull if you followed the straight roads: however our driver was reluctant to do this due to his experiences in the army when you only drove on main roads for security reasons. Thankfully some local men persuaded him it was pefectly safe saving us another 200km. The road was similar to our roads so our rally driving driver slowed down a fraction. Once again we were looking at farm lands of wheat and poppies this time. And a few tea and cotton fields. We stopped to také a photo of a young lady following a donkey home from the hills. When she saw Braydon and Bill in the car she picked up her donkey stick and truned to go the other way. She relaxed when I got out of the car but the donkey then decided to run off on its own without her. In all the confusion we all forgot to find out what the donkey was carrying. I think it was cut grass in sacks for the animals at the farm house. It seems that most people travel out from a central farming village to their work place. Plastic houses to grow tomatoes in dominated one village we passed through.

Back in Istanbull we went out to dinner with Braydon and his wife who spoke no english. They were giving us a special Turkish food meal which I can describe but not name the dishes. We started with an awesome hot bread bun baked in a wood fired oven. To go in this was butter and a small square of blue vein cheese with walnuts in the centre. Oh it was delicious. Along side this was a rice dish with an egg topping served from a small dish the size of a breakfast cup. Next came a diamond shaped meatball with yellow cheese in it. As the meat wasn't quite cooked in the middle I passsed this on. We then had a piece of mutton served with a green chilli and a tomato. Following this we had a desert of coconut shredded and soaked in honey encasing cheese. It was very rich but the taste was delicious. I think we have made a long lasting friend in Turkey.

We stayed 2 nights in Istanbull and are now in Kilyos a small fishing village on the Black sea. After over 2 weeks being on the go daylight to midnight it was time to také a break.