You all know that I am usually insanely busy, and the addition of moving and making new friends has not exactly slowed me down. That being said, I really want to get this post up before I go to England, so here goes!

I left off (two posts ago) with Claire and Jeremy on their way to Cappadocia, and me back in Adana. I had to work during the week, but Claire and Jeremy returned to me on Thursday, and we decided to take off for a night in Gaziantep! Gaziantep has been high on my list for a while. There’s the other famous mosaic museum, as well as Gaziantep’s most famous export: the fıstık (pistachio). You can’t really say you’ve been to Turkey without having baklava, and if you’re going to eat it with pistachios, why not go to where they’re grown? Ever heard of Antep pistachios? That’s right… GaziANTEP.

We arrived in Gaziantep and went to the hotel to check in. The front desk was a little confused why a very tall boy wanted a room with two girls, but we quickly assured him that we wanted one room and it was totally normal. We went up to the room and made lots of cracks about our old apartment.. I suggested I get the big double bed and Claire and Jeremy could share the twin! 😉 haha

Then we were starving, so we went out in search of food. We walked and walked and walked but couldn’t find the place “most recommended” in my lonely planet guide book. We finally broke down and asked a taxi driver to take us there… well, he took us to a lokanta (Turkish restaurant kind of like a ready make home kitchen) but we don’t think it was the one we thought we were going to. No matter… the food was good and hot. I can’t remember everything we had, but I remember the içle köfte (meat on the inside with a bulgar casing; we have them in Adana but they are much different here), and yuvarlama (small balls of ground rice, meat, and yogurt soup – a Gaziantep special!). All of the waiters were really nice and accommodating (they very obviously wanted to close but also wanted to feed us) and then it was back to the hotel for sleep!

We started the next morning early… It sounded like the call to prayer was in our room! (Insert grouchy face here) But our hotel more than made up for it with the shower – hot, blasting water pressure… I had to seriously consider whether or not I wanted to leave. (If you feel like you’re sensing a theme in which I rate all hotels by their showers, you’d be correct.)

Then we set off to look for the place to buy bus tickets. I don’t know if I’ve ever talked about this before, but here’s a quick rundown: in most cities in Turkey, there’s a place in town where you can buy your bus tickets. All the companies are conveniently (yes, I used the word convenient to describe something in Turkey!) located right next door to each other, so you can check out prices and times and pick the one that best suits you. This is because the otogar is usually outside the city and somewhat difficult to get to. The bus companies also usually offer a service from the ticket-buying location to the otogar. It’s a great system.. Except Gaziantep doesn’t have a bus ticket place (or if they do, no one we spoke to knew where it was). I found one company who had a ticket to Adana, but no tickets to Antakya (for Claire and Jeremy). So we went back to the hotel we had just checked out of, already drenched with rain and desperately craving coffee (ok, that was just me but whatever).

I wasn’t expecting much because the Turkish mentality is usually “do it in the hardest possible way” but it turns out that Gaziantep is the opposite of that. First, the hotel made some calls. Next, they told us the times Claire and Jeremy (henceforth CJ; takes a long time to type “Claire and Jeremy” and I’m on my tiny iPhone) could leave. Then, they told us the price which was 5 lira cheaper than we expected. Next, they ushered us upstairs, brought me coffee, and we waited while someone brought us the tickets. After that, they called a hotel in Antakya for CJ. 10 minutes and BOOM! Bus + hotel + coffee = done. So efficient. So happy.

And we were off! The mosaic museum was calling, so we set off to the location my guidebook called for. Turns out, the mosaic part of the museum had recently moved. What was in the old location? The archeology museum. And a map, describing how to get to the new museum. A MAP! (Speaking of maps, I have FINALLY come into possession of an Adana street map thanks to my friend Ömer. Very exciting! …6 months after I moved here) But even more helpful was the ticket seller who left the museum for 10 minutes to find us a cab and give him directions to the new museum. Efficiency, your new name is Gaziantep.

The museum, called the Zeugma Kültür ve Müze Merkezi, was awesome. Brand new and state of the art, we started off watching a short film (in English!) about the history of the mosaics and from where they came: a Roman city called Belkıs-Zeugma that is now mostly underwater thanks to the Birecik Dam. Then we walked around the museum, gazing at the gorgeous mosaics and the setting in which they were displayed: someone thought it was a good idea to set up the museum almost like it was a home, so you could get the feel for what the mosaics were like if you were (literally) living on top of them. Guess what? They were right. The museum was incredible. They had columns up everywhere and rooms blocked off in their original sizes and you just got this incredible feeling that you were there. I liked several mosaics, so I’ve decided to share with you these highlights:

The gypsy girl (the most famous mosaic at the museum; done in 3/4^th style similar to the Mona Lisa so she always looks like she’s looking at you, also her hair is more wild and her head scarves are slightly disheveled so she doesn’t really fit in with the styled and sophisticated Gods in all the other mosaics).

In addition to the museum itself being awesome, the people working there were amazing. They realized very quickly that I understood some Turkish, and we stood there for a good half-hour/45 minutes, having a conversation “yavaş yavaş” (“slowly slowly”) and they asked tons of questions about us and why we were in Gaziantep and where we were from. After they decided they LOVED us, they showed us all the ins and outs of the museum: how the iPad-esque monitors worked, how to play the games, where to stand so it looked like the mosaics were following you. They were so proud of their museum, and we all had such a good time talking.

We were sad to leave, but excited to set out for our next destination: the Kale (castle)! A bit of Gaziantep history before I set into the castle though…

There are traces of Hittite settlements in Gaziantep dating back to the 4^th millennium BC, and was settled by the Seljuk Turks at some point between 1070 (my Lonely Planet guidebook’s date) and 1183 (the date I found on a Gaziantep tourist website). Arabs had control of the town after 638 AD, and before them, the Persians, Alexander the Great, the Romans, and the Byzantines all popped by for a visit.

Before the Turks conquered, it was predominantly a Syrian town named ‘Hamtap.’ Selim the Grim, leader of the Ottomans, took over in 1516 and renamed the city ‘Aintab’ which means “good spring.” The Allies, victorious after WWI, were eager to carve up the Ottoman territories for themselves which led to the British occupying Antep in 1919 and then the French seized control in 1920 (adding to their holdings in Syria and Lebanon). There was a long and arduous fight for control of the city, but eventually the Turks surrendered the city to the French on February 8, 1921. Then in 1922, the French apparently decided the city was not worth keeping, so they just gave it back. It’s pretty confusing to try and understand why the French did it – they’d won and then it just kind of seemed like they gave up. Anyway, the word ‘Gazi’ means “war hero” in Turkish, and was added to the city’s name Antep in 1973 to pay homage to those people who had fought against the French, and voila! Gaziantep as we know it today.

Now, back to my story: we arrived at the castle which was thought to have been built by the Romans. It was restored by Emperor Justinian in the 6^th century AD, and rebuilt extensively by the Seljuks in the 12^th and 13^th centuries. Tragically, the castle wasn’t open so we couldn’t climb to the top, but we went into the “Gaziantep Defense and Heroism Panoramic Museum” (no joke, that’s what it’s called) inside the castle.

The GDHPM is a reeeeeeally long room that twists and winds and displays metal panoramas detailing the Turkish peoples’ fight with the French. I wasn’t in the mood to read all of them, so I just went through the highlights… it was very interesting, although I still don’t exactly understand what happened. The final plaque at the museum reads that even though the Turkish people surrendered, the French decided they didn’t want to mess with those powerful Turks anymore, so they gave the city back. Yeah… I’m pretty sure it didn’t go down exactly like that, but whatever. It gives a very interesting account of how the Turkish saw it. Besides, isn’t history written by the winners? 🙂

After the kale, I desperately wanted to go to the Emine Göğüş Culinary Museum and luckily, CJ were willing to go! As I mentioned before, Gaziantep is known for its incredible food… and let’s be honest, a whole museum dedicated to cooking and food?! It was SO great! They had tons of examples of cookware through the ages, and signs posted everywhere giving tips and tricks for cooking Gaziantep cuisine. Two things I learned:

1. You can’t have spices without food nor food without spices. Spiceless food has no taste…
2. The ideal times for a picnic are spring, autumn, and winter’s warm days.

Ok, but in all seriousness, I did learn some cool things. The word for picnic is “sahre,” which means “meadow gathering.” I also learned that different spices are useful in so many things (some of this I already knew, but it’s all so interesting!):

Saffron: potatoes with yogurt, okra, rice

Allspice: meatballs, the inside of içli köfte, stuffed vegetables

Cumin: muhammara (red pepper-pomegranate sauce-walnut dip)

Mint: yogurt soup, yuvarlama, kabaklama

Cinnamon: aşure (winter/Christmastime dessert), sweet tarhanna (soup), semolina helva, and tea

Cloves: desserts, tarhana, aşure

Sumac: bean salad, vegetables, and salads (this one I knew – sumac is my new favorite spice for salad dressing)

The museum also had a place where you could taste Gaziantep foods, so we decided to try something (as we were all also getting STARVING by this point). After much deliberation, we decided to try ekşili ufak köfte, a soup with meat and bulgur balls that was SO AMAZING. I also decided to buy a small cookbook that lacks a little bit on measurements but has everything we ate in Gaziantep and I cannot wait to try to make some of this stuff. Yum yum yum.

At this point, we were really ready for a full lunch and really determined to find one of the places most suggested by my Lonely Planet guide (hasn’t let me down yet!) so we decided on Imam Çağdaş, which, unbeknownst to us, is one of the most famous restaurants in Gaziantep. When I got back to Adana, every time I told someone I’d gone to Gaziantep, their first questions was “Did you go to Imam Çağdaş?” haha

It took a while to find (and a lot of awkwardly asking for directions!) but we finally found it (I may have screamed and done a little dance of excitement when we finally saw the front doors). We sat down for a feast of lachmacun (Turkish pizza) and ali nazik kebab (pureed eggplant with yogurt and meat on top). It was SO GOOD.

For dessert, we had (of course!) baklava, which was amazing.

Claire and Jeremy had their first Turkish coffees, on the house thanks to our incredible waiter who spoke near-perfect English and was adorable. Claire wasn’t a huge fan, but Jeremy drank all of his and then was a bit jittery for the rest of the day 🙂

By this time, it was getting late and we had about an hour to kill, so we decided just to walk around. After getting a bit lost, we finally found the Zincirli Bedesten (Coppersmith’s Market). It was super touristy, but we did manage to hear some tap-tap-taping metalworkers which was very exciting! We also saw tons of spices, handmade shoes, and in the Elmacı Pazarı area, we found the original Güllüoğlu baklava shop, where we got some of the last pieces of baklava for the day before they closed. Soooo yummy!

After that, we took a cab to the otogar, and shortly after that, I was on my way back to Adana and they were off to Antakya!

I’m going to fast-forward two days now to Sunday, when Claire and Jeremy came back to Adana to hang out for a day before they left for Istanbul. They loved Antakya (yay!) and while I really wanted to show them some cool sights in Adana… there just aren’t a lot. We went to Merkez Park and the Sabanci Mosque, and out to dinner.

Monday ended up being a lazy and relaxing day of just hanging out and drinking coffee/tea and playing tavla/backgammon (I beat both Claire and Jeremy!!!! So so exciting!). It was super fun though – I brought them to two classes with me and the students had a BLAST asking them questions. I’m pretty sure it was some of their first times meeting an American boy, and the boys went wild asking about cars and sports and video games and all that boy stuff. I just sat back and enjoyed the show!

After class, it was time for Claire and Jeremy to leave. I was so so so so so sad but they promised to visit me in Australia next year, so I cheered up. All in all, a wonderful trip with some of my favorite people, and a good dose of home. Also a good dose of remembering why I love Turkey – moving to a foreign country can be stressful at times and lonely if you’re overcoming a language and culture barrier. It was good to show other people how much I’ve learned and seeing it through a new tourist’s eyes made me excited to do more exploring. After all, I do love Turkey and there is still so much more to see and do!

That being said, t-minus 1 day til Turkey break… England for a week! I cannot cannot wait – a week of Indian food and Italian food and bacon and a Black Keys concert and English speakers and… oh right, my awesome and wonderful boyfriend! Yay!!!!!!