Rounding Out the Big Trip - Partying in Ankara and Istanbul

Our last days in Turkey were spent in Ankara with the final afternoon and evening in Istanbul before our 6 AM KLM flight on Thursday May 8.  

Returning from Van, we hurried Sunday night to the home of our friends, Zulfiya and Tucar Sahin.  They have a very large and beautiful house southwest of Ankara.  Arriving late we met up also with Ozge and Cevahir Sumer and Ozge's fiance Ali Oguz Tezgor.  Zulfiya had cooked some pretty delicious food that involved pasta and chicken.  Tuncar surprised Randy with two different very high end rakis and two of the copper "pleasure keepers," holders for ice to surround the raki glasses.  We have these now as treasured parts of our bar.  We also drank some wine and generally had a great time!  Thank you Tuncar and Zulfiya!

Ozge and Ali at Casa Sahin

Zulfiya and Cevahir enjoy dinner together

Tuncar and Randy get down with the raki.  Note the pleasure keeper on the table.

Alice enjoyed interacting with the younger Sahin son, a very smart and ambitious young man with trendy eyeglasses

And, talented.  Here, he plays for us after dinner.

The next day, on Monday, Orhan Dengiz helped us extensively to finish taking care of our banking business at TEB downtown.  Banking is very difficult in Turkey and TEB seems to one of the worst in terms of being customer friendly or efficient.  But, we got done what we needed to do.  Then, we all went to METU to have lunch with Serpil and Halit Oguztuzun.  Serpil is originally from Hatay in far southern Turkey and is a wonderful cook.  She made a super lunch with borek, soup, pilav and stuffed eggplant.  Orhan connected with Halit about advanced computing and we all enjoyed the peaceful setting of Casa Oguztuzun on this rainy afternoon.  Bravo, Serpil!

Serpil in her kitchen at METU faculty housing.  She is making the Turkish coffee.

Serpil and Randy at the lunch table

Serpil, Halit, Alice and Randy at Casa Oguztuzun

The very delicious yoghurt soup with spinach borek

Pilav and stuffed eggplant

What a yummy lunch!

The milky muhallebi dessert

Monday night we ate at Casa Dengiz where Berna had prepared some lamb and almond pilav with all of the trimmings.  Randy and Alice had bought some pastries from Omsted in downtown Golbasi (sadly, they were out of their unique chocolate baklava) for dessert.  We also celebrated Berna's birthday a few days early as we would gone on the actual date and she would be in Vienna on business on her birthday.

Tahir, Randy and Orhan at the comfortable dining room / sun room of Casa Dengiz

Alice and Berna are happy to celebrate her early birthday

Lamb, pilav with almonds and roasted eggplant were included in the meal

Tuesday was packing day in the morning but we made time to see the METU Lake which is near to Casa Dengiz.  Orhan took us on the road around the lake and we admired the nature.  On our next visit to Ankara we plan to walk and/or bike around the lake and soak up the nature present very close to the urban Ankara.

METU lake near Golbasi

Wetlands contain some waterfowl

The lake is a peaceful sanctuary in the midst of Ankara urban sprawl - notice the apartment highrises in the background

For lunch, Randy and Alice drove to an old part of the city, Hamamonu, which has Ottoman buildings that have been restored.  It is full of restaurants and shops.  We were meeting Zerrin Esensoy and Berrin Oktar, the two sister-in-laws of our friend in Auburn, Sadel Guven.  They both live in Ankara.  We were to meet at a historic house restaurant there that is part of Hacettepe University.  While we found the area and parking readily we walked around about 30 minutes being sent from one possible location to another by the locals.  We finally got good directions and located the restaurant.  It was a beautiful Ottoman konak (large home) that served tasty food in a refined atmosphere.  We had a really nice lunch experience and thank Zerrin and Berrin for this.  We also encouraged the ladies to visit the Van area and they seem keen to do so.

Zerrin, Alice and Berrin in front of the historic building that forms the Hacettepe University Ankara Evi Restaurant in Hamamonu

Randy and Alice in the courtyard area of the Ankara Evi Restaurant

Lovely sisters Berrin and Zerrin

At the table in the restaurant with a past

Detail of the fantastic tiled floor of the restaurant

That afternoon we visited Berna at Baskent University again to tour the university's new library and its new incubation center for start up high tech businesses.  These were both impressive and we said a final goodbye to our very special amigo, Mehmet.

The main engineering building of Baskent University

Berna at her desk at Baskent University

An iconic relief of Ataturk at the new library at the university

That night was a festive celebration for a special birthday (60!) of Cehavir Sumer at her home.  Unfairly for her but to our benefit, Cevahir herself cooked for us.  She is a fantastic chef and her dishes are always amazing and healthy.  She pulled out all of the stops and made enough for at least two meals.  Mehmet, Ali, Zulfiya and Tuncar also joined the party and we all did our best to eat as much as we could.  Ozge had arranged a great birthday cake which was the finale of the evening.  Cevahir is an exceptional lady and the years have improved her grace, humor and beauty.

Panorama sunset from Casa Sumer's balcony

Another view of the city of Ankara from the Sumer glassed in balcony

Randy and Mehmet lounge in the elegant living room of Casa Sumer

Ali shows how helpful he is by assisting his future mother-in-law

Ali and Ozge.  A few days later Ali headed to Munich for a new position with his employer Man Bus Company

Randy and Mehmet enjoy the dinner but could not hardly make a dent in the massive amount of food

Zulfiya and Tuncar at dinner

Some of the food - sarma, stewed green beans, two kinds of stewed eggplant, pureed potatoes, lamb, several kinds of salad

Alice wishes Cevahir happy birthday!

Cevahir generously cooked for us all on her birthday celebration

Ozge liked her coffee mug and T shirt from the Van Cat Home.  Alice got the same shirt and a similar mug for herself.

Every woman wants to look this good at age 60. Cevahir wears the scarf from Venice that Alice gave her.

Ozge surprised Alice with a pretty silver dish as a gift

Ozge serves the cake

Cevahir enjoys her birthday celebration

Mehmet has his typical closed eyes but otherwise it is a pretty good photo that Randy took of the group

The gang taken by Mehmet

The very delicious cake combined chocolate and other yummy stuff.  Why can't they make cakes like this in the U.S.?

We flew to Istanbul early the next afternoon from Ankara.  This short flight lands you in a world quite different from central Anatolia.   As usual, we stayed at the Cinar Hotel along the Sea of Marmara in Yesilkoy, not far from the airport.  We tried a new wing of the hotel, the cheaper but by the sea cabana annex.  These were not as luxe as the other areas of the hotel but the internet connectivity was great.  There was a balcony looking out on a garden with the sea close behind.  We walked along the seawalk as we usually and viewed the birds, cats and dogs.  It was a cloudy day but still pleasant to make this iconic walk in Istanbul and see the ships queuing for their passage north through the Bosporus to the Black Sea.

Our favorite bar in the Ankara airport - free WIFI and decently priced beer and wine, and centrally located

Our usual hotel in Istanbul - the venerable Cinar Hotel which is located in Yesilkoy

We stayed in the cabana annex this time and our room was on the ground floor (hidden from view by the vegetation in this photo

Randy chills out during our evening of the Big Trip.   The TV is old but the WIFI worked great.

View from our room at the Cinar - it would have been better on the second floor instead of the ground floor

View looking the other way from the room at the garden and the Cinar tennis court

Some of the many street cats near the Cinar Hotel along the Bosporus walkway.  Neighborhood people feed them.

One of the big ravens seen often around the Mediterranean - this one near the Bosporus (actually the Sea of Marmara) in Yesilkoy

A flock of ducks (or geese) at the Sea of Marmara (along with the trash left by careless Turks)

A lady came to feed the street cats and they swarmed around her happily

Alice and the Istanbul roses

A pretty seagull in the Sea of Marmara

We were to meet the brothers Basar and Baris Basaran for dinner that evening on the shores of the Bosphorus north of Istanbul.  Basar lived with us several years ago as an undergraduate student for a month or so and has remained almost a family member since then.  He works as a busy consultant in Istanbul and travels extensively.  His brother Baris is a first year student at Bogazici University and the men share an apartment near the university.   Basar recommended since it would be rush hour (it is almost always rush hour in Istanbul) we should take a taxi from the hotel to a new subway station in Yenikapi.  Then, take the subway to Levent and then another taxi to the restaurant.  This whole process took just over an hour, most of it in the ride from the Cinar Hotel to Yenikapi.  The metro (our first experience with it) was impressive - clean, quick and inexpensive.

The entry to the Yenikapi subway station

This nice artwork announces the station name

Even where the trains run underground the area is light, clean and filled with art

Mostly underground, the subway comes above ground briefly around the Halic

View from the metro out to the Halic and Bosporus beyond

The Galata Tower is visible behind the modern Istanbul buildings from the metro bridge over the Halic (Golden Horn)

The Nezih restaurant had tremendous views on the Bosporus and excellent food as well.   It was wonderful to reunion with the Basaran brothers and hear about their activities.  They are both smart, friendly young men with a wide variety of interests.  We enjoyed a full meal of kebab with all of the trimmings finishing with a big fruit plate.  We also watched the big ships heading (surprisingly speedily) up the Bosporus.  It was a great last night of the Big Trip.

The site of our last meal in Turkey - a fitting finale

The brothers Basaran debate the serious business of choosing mezes

View from our restaurant included the second Bosporus bridge and the Asian shore beyond

The captain finishes a dish tableside

Two smart, polite, interesting and cultured young men - their parents obviously raised them right (and provided a superior gene pool)

Alice with the Basaran brothers

The yummy yoghurt and lamb soup

One of the large ships that moved through the Bosporus to the Black Sea while we were eating.  It went surprisingly quickly (the ship, that is).

At the dinner table

A view across to the Asian side shows the early evening sunshine

The fruit ending was perfect - so fresh and delicious

Alice and Randy with one of their Turkish "sons", Basar Basaran

We taxi'ed all the way back to the Cinar Hotel and the traffic, even at this late hour, was still backed up.  We finally made it to our room and settled in the room for the several hours of sleep before our 3 AM wake up call.   This came sure enough and with the Cinar's help we loaded into a taxi and took our boxes of "to go" breakfasts.  We checked in with ease at KLM and took off on time.  The layover in Amsterdam was pleasant as Alice shopped for those minute gifts (mainly cheese and booze) and we revived at the KLM Lounge.  Landing in Atlanta, Alice made the mistake of bringing two pears from Turkey in the hand luggage.  The sniffing beagle found them and we were instructed to queue up in the agricultural inspection line after getting our checked luggage.  This line moved with glacier slowness.  Eventually, our bags were scanned and the pears confiscated.  Then we were through and headed to Gokhan Ozden's waiting car.

Early morning sun shines off the KLM 6 AM flight from Istanbul to Amsterdam and provides a fitting send off