Ginger and Curls on the Road: Gaziantep, Turkey

25th to 28th August 2010

We hitched a lift with a small Turkish guy through the Turkish border who disappeared before we could say thank-you. The travel costs were a shock to the wallet after Syria but we got a bus from the town near the border to Antep, home to the finest kebabs and fistikli (pistachio) baklava in the whole world, and therefore my new favourite place.

We met Bekir, our host for the city, in a small internet café, from where he drove us to his shared flat with two other guys who were completing their military service. He was really friendly and knowledgeable about Turkey and we talked a fair bit about the differences between Syria and Turkey. On the way to meet him we had a good walk through the city to get to somewhere relatively central and I was bowled over by the number of girls and women wearing short sleeve T-shirts and no headscarf, shock horror! It was a revelation and a very welcome one at that, Syria had felt a little too claustrophobic and far too uptight to really enjoy it especially at the end of three months in relatively strict religious Muslim countries. On the way we stopped off to try some baklava, it looked like a small slice of cake, apparently they call it a carrot slice, and it was heavenly. Unfortunately for us, unlike in Syria where they charge by the weight and so sometimes give away one or two pieces for free, the shops in Turkey charged by the piece – it was a slice of heaven and I spoke about its amazing crispy, syrupy goodness the whole way to the internet café That's how good it was.

Back at Bekir's place which was about 20 minutes out of the centre in one of the many new colourful high rises, we had kebabs, fizzy pop and Efes. Oh sweet God, beer. It didn't take much for it to go to my legs but I savoured every drop, travelling through the Middle East doesn't mean you have to be abstemious but we came damn close, too close for comfort. We sat out on his balcony which was deliciously cool, everything seemed instantly better on leaving Syria, most importantly the weather and we were only a couple of hundred kilometres from the border. Even immediately after the border, Turkey was greener, olive trees and plants in the same soil as a few miles back in Syria. We slept in Bekir's bed, he vacates it in Summer and sleeps out on the balcony where it is even cooler.

From Gaziantep, Turkey

The next day he showed us into town, we jumped on a bus and went to a small restaurant for breakfast.

From Gaziantep, Turkey

He ordered a local dish which wasn't available everywhere because of Ramazan, made of a thin flaky pastry with fresh cream and crushed pistachio inside, it actually looked pretty disgusting and although it was heavy for breakfast it was beautiful. I felt my arteries clogging up and cursing me while I chowed down and avoided Djalma's eyes – who cares if he doesn't want a fat wife – we were only going to be there once and I intended to make the most of it. After getting a fresh juice (disappointingly expensive especially after Egypt) in an effort to control cream based damage we headed further into town, Bekir took us into a small bazaar, showed us round helping us to get a sim card after we lost our phone in Aleppo and then left us to it while I went shopping.

From Gaziantep, Turkey

I bought a new dress which was close fitting enough that I couldn't indulge too much in baklava land. He showed us to a small restaurant that specialised in rolled sandwiches, filled with a chickpea paste, salad and chips, a nice change with kebab land stretched out ahead of us. Feeling enormous we headed back to his flat and chilled out for the rest of the day.

We had the next day to ourselves and at midday we headed out to the park grabbing a beautiful kebab, smooth melted cheese and perfectly cooked tender chicken with pickles and tomatoes wrapped up in a thin crispy bread/pastry. Perfection, we cooled our heels while we sat and ate it in the long park that runs through the city, a wide green belt with lush grass, fountains, benches and plenty of trees for shade. I had a little Portuguese lesson which Djalma translated from European to Brazilian Portuguese from the Ipod. We decided to wander round the city a bit more, the wander eventually turned into a search for beer and we found a small bar with an enclosed courtyard, perfect for trapping smoke and another lesson. We sat had a couple of beers, our eyes popping out of our heads when the bill came. A couple of sprites and the same of Efes was extortionate but we paid up and went in search of some baklava. We stopped at two places, I had decided that the baklava in Imam Çaģdas, the number one restaurant for baklava, would need something to compare it too and I intended to do as much background research on other baklava establishments as my husband and waistband would allow. Both were good although I think that the cream in one wasn't meant to taste like sour cheese...

From Gaziantep, Turkey

We found a small minibus which was supposed to be going in our direction and hopped on, after a good 20 minutes passed and we didn't recognise a sausage we decided to leave it in God's hands and stayed on, hoping that it would end up among the right apartment blocks, if we recognised them before it was too late. We eventually ended up where we were meant to be and chilled out back at Bekir's place.

All around the city were pictures and replicas of a famous mosaic called Gypsy Girl and so we decided to visit the original in the Mosaic Museum, unfortunately we got there 5 minuted before it closed for lunch. We sat and waited in the cool canteen attached to the Museum only to decide that we couldn't be bothered to go and look. We headed back to the park before meeting Bekir for lunch at Imam Çaģdas which we deliberately left till the last day so it wouldn't spoil all the baklava we intended to eat. It was a beautiful restaurant, big and airy and stacked full of trays of different types of baklava smelling like what I imagine heaven to smell like. We settled at a table upstairs and Bekir recommended some dishes, we chose and waited in anticipation. We tried a turnip yoghurt drink chilled with ice, surprisingly good but it didn't stop me ordering a sprite just in case it tasted as bad as it sounded. Our meals came and we were not disappointed, we shared everything which was just as well because I wouldn't have wanted to miss out on either of the others lunches. Before enough time could elapse for me to feel full, we were choosing baklava, I was practically salivating on the menu, fortunately Bekir chose a selection taking the trouble of deciding out of our hands. Djalma and I shared bites of about five different types of baklava all of them gorgeous even the pistachio paste stuff – a little green log very similar to marzipan except without the almonds. The baklava was so good I ordered a carrot slice, it was enormous and I closed my eyes to fully appreciate everything my mouth was experiencing. It was so light, so crispy, so sweet but not too sweet and full of pistachio. I could have eaten more but that would have just been piggy, although at that point piggy was looking like a good trait. I didn't eat anything for a long time after that, not just because I didn't have room but because I wanted to savour every last crumb.