The bus had a steward and he served hot tea or coffee from a little trolley as well as coke or fruit juice. He frequently changed the TV channel so we could listen to a Turkish music channel or the news, in Turkish, or some soap opera. He also made sure we smelt nice by squirting a lemon scented cologne into our hands. It was a smooth bus ride on a smooth road and a real treat.
We headed for Mersin, a port city with not much of interest for tourists. We arrived just before sunset, which is about 5.30, and had enough time to find a hotel across the road from the station (there are no hotels listed in our hostelworld or hostelbookers site) and dump our packs before heading off to find somewhere to eat.
Stepping out in the noisy, dusty, busy street made us feel we had turned the clock back to 1977 when we were last in Turkey. What a familiar feeling!
We stopped to look into a bakery window at the trays of baklava and other sugar-soaked sweets when the window was slid open and two pieces of baklava were thrust into our hands. What a friendly place!
We had no map but managed to find a busy street with restaurants and spotted a stuffed eggplant dish that we wanted to try. The dish came with bread, a salad of giant radishes, flat-leafed parsley, fresh lemons and green chillies.
Dried eggplants and red capsicums
The people working in the shops were very friendly calling hello and smiling at us. When we returned to the hotel the receptionist brought us some tea and sat down to talk to us about his city. He explained how the city was an important processing area for dried seeds and grains. A lot of almonds, pistachios, and walnuts are grown in the area and he was a qualified food technician involved in the industry but obviously not full time.
With nothing to keep us in Mersin we took a cramped minivan (dolmush) to Adana. It stopped every few hundred meters to pick up and drop passengers off even if there was no set for them. The bus terminal was 6 kms outside of the city and there was little of interest there for us so we caught another comfortable bus onto Gaziantep.
In the minibus, from the bus terminal into the city, we were asked by two university students if we needed any help. We told them where we wanted to go and they took us to our hotel. The people are so friendly in Turkey.
While in Mersin we contacted a man on the couchsurfing website to see if he would be free to have a drink with us at lunchtime in Gaziantep. He replied and we went to see Cahit at his law office and had lunch with him. His office has a cook and we ate a delicious local dish of eggplants, garlic, mince and yoghurt, which we shared with Cahit and his colleagues. It was the first couchsurfing contact that we have been able to make from the CS project site and we learnt a lot about Cahit and his life. It's a great way to meet people who want to meet new people.
Gaziantep is quite high up so we found the 9 Celcius temperatures rather cool after the 19 degrees on the coast. We found more friendly people as we looked around the city, the pistachio seller who offered us a tasting and wanted to chat
the carob drink seller who pushed a free sample in our hands,
the nargileh (water-pipe) smoker who called us in for a chat and was happy to have a photo taken.
These two ladies enjoying a quiet sunny spot thought John was taking a photo of me by the fountain!
The old fortress above the city was being renovated but we were able to read about the history of Gaziantep. We had not known that the French and the Kurds had fought against the Turks in 1918-1921.
Below the fortress is an old bath house that is still used today.
In the same area, a cluster of artisans shops has been renovated and we were able to watch the blacksmiths making hoes and the copper makers plating jugs. In between these two was a shop selling yoghurt. It didn't seem an appropriate place for an open food stall.
We ate in a restaurant that has been preparing food since 1887 and all round had a superb time here in Gaziantep.
