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Just a little update on what we've been up to over the last couple of weekends.
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Kulturpark (Culture Park)
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Last Sunday, we started the day off with breakfast at a patisserie around the corner. The selection of sweet and savoury delights was overwhelming! It all looked soooo good! We ended up choosing 2 savoury treats a sausage filled bread and an olive filled bread and 2 sweet treats which included a delicious cherry muffin and a chocolate biscuit. Obviously we completed the breakfast with the class Turkish tea or cay!
Later on in the day we took a little trip to the park near where we live. The weather was nice so we decided to make the most of it and have a picnic in the park. After Mika's dismay at having to pay 50 kurus (20p) to actually enter the park we found a nice spot by some really interesting trees and started making salam and cheese sandwiches and munching on crisps and bananas! We enjoyed some good ol' people watching and particularly enjoyed a big family playing some Turkish form of dodge ball which included some of the covered ladies getting way to into it
and constantly falling over themselves!! It was amusing! We were also disturbed by a random gypsy girl who wanted to read my fortune but we paid her off with some biscuits to leave us alone!!! The park was really good for families and everyone seemed to be having a good time.
After our picnic we wondered around the park to see what else was going on. We stumbled across a slightly dodgy looking amusement park called Altin Park which was trying to resemble Disneyland with it's artwork and signs. We walked around it but decided not to risk our lives on this occasion. Asli assures me they're all safe but...well...she would say that...
Anyway, we continued to walk around the park and I got some Turkish ice cream called 'Maras'. It's this really creamy, stretchy ice cream made of goats milk, it was really good. The park was great with the views of the mountains and the general good feeling around the place. It's going to be good to have that on our doorstep throughout the summer.
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Mudanya
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Yesterday we spent most of our day on the coast in Mudanya. The day consisted of sun,
sea and spits (salted sunflower seeds for you English)! From our place we got on the Metro at our nearest stop, Merinos and got the train to Organize Sanayi. At Organize Sanayi there's always a guy selling different kinds of breads from his stall. My favourite is the cheese 'borek', it has a light kind of puff pastry with little bits of cheese throughout it. It reminds me of the inside of a boiled Pedahare (Ukrainian food). Asli got a 'tahini corek' which is a sweet pastry. Both were so good. So we got our snacks and found a minibus that was off to Mudanya, 30 minutes later we were there and the whole journey cost us 3.50 tl which is less than £1.50, bargain!
We got off the bus and started walking down the board walk. Just like the Kulturpark it had a really nice, relaxed atmosphere. It was really nice to come to the sea side and to smell that beautiful sea air. We continued to walk down the board walk until we came across some really nice old buildings, some dating back to the Ottoman era, and a small museum. We took some pictures and then
found a nice little stoney beach where people were chatting, fishing, swimming etc. We bought some spits and a couple of drinks and sat on the beach, we even went ahead and conformed to the cliché of skipping rocks along the top of the sea...had to be done though, eh? Well I say we skipped rocks...Asli 'tried' but failed miserably, the important thing is that she tried! In all seriousness though, it was really nice to relax like this after a stressful week at work.
After chilling there for a while, we sat on some bean bags and had some cay at a cafe by the sea. In Mudanya you are suppose to eat fish and drink 'raki' but we thought we would leave that to another time when we come back, maybe with some students that keep asking us to go with them.
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Cinar (Sycamore Tree)
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Today, we had the most amazing breakfast up in the mountains underneath a historical tree. After waiting for what seemed like hours for the bus to Cinar we were finally on our way up the Uludag mountains. After getting off the bus, when everyone else did, we started walking
to the cafe and the historical Cinar tree. The Cinar tree is this 600 year old tree that has these amazing thick branches that seem to stretch out in this seemingly man made way but is all down to mother nature, pretty impressive. So after taking some pictures and searching among the Sunday crowds, we found ourselves a table. It had no table cloth so a waiter brought one over but it was more like a wet rug, it had come straight out of the washing machine apparently, bad start. We ordered the full traditional Turkish breakfast with a pot of cay. After a short wait the waiter brought the most impressive breakfast I think I've ever seen, they definitely made up for their bad start! The pictures will do it better justice but it had soooo much! There was bread, boiled eggs, a selection of cheeses, cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, olives, parsley, butter, strawberries, oranges, cream with honey and hazel nuts and this really great tomato paste with pepper and bits of garlic...wow this breakfast was awesome! And it was only 22 tl for the lot...that's about £8! It's reason enough to visit us.
After the breakfast we wondered
around looking at the locals handy crafts and checking out the beautiful mountain views. We got the bus back and here we are now, sitting on our balcony writing this blog, finishing off a nice weekend.
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