First touchdown at Oludeniz

Couldnt resist posting a picture of my first landing here :)

Flying at Oludinez

I got my first Paraglider flight of the holiday in today!

We arrived at Oludinez at about 10am this morning and were checked in to our hotel by 11am.
I was down arranging a lift to the top of the hill soon after :}

Flying here works out at about $20, which is $10 for the ride and $10 for the park enterence fee.

We started the drive at 2pm. I was mistakenly derssed in a T-Shirt when I boarded the 4WD truck for the hour long ride to the launch..
It got colder as we climbed and by the time we got to the launch point at 1700m above the beach, it was freezing.
(Remember to wear flight suit next time)
The truck was filled 1/3 by tandem flight passengers and 2/3 by pilots - They make lots of money doing tandem flights here!

The launch was a little stressful due to the height but not difficult - the time to come straight down to the beach is about 20 minutes

After taking off, I found some thermal lift and was able to climb about 200m above launch, but the thermals were very rough and a was feeling a little airsick and it was getting really cold, so after 40 minuted, I decided to head for the beach.. Great landing on the beach after a flight time of an hour!

We went out for a meal and celibratory beer - I really like the local Efes beer, anyway, its time to sleep now and I am flying again in the morning..
Below, is a not very good movie that I took during my flight!

Gastro Porn for Tony

The following is a direct quote from the website Turkeytravelplanner.com:

The story of the creation of Turkish Delight (lokum) begins in the late 1700s, when Ali Muhiddin Haci Bekir, confectioner to the imperial court in Istanbul, listens to the sultan rant:

"Hard candy! I'm tired of hard candy!" the sultan growled as he cracked a tooth on yet another sourball. "I demand soft candy!"

Ali Muhiddin Haci Bekir had come to the imperial capital of Istanbul from the Anatolian mountain town of Kastamonu in the late 1700s to hear his emperor's plea.

His mountain-man blood rose! His face turned grim with conviction! He set his jaw with determination! He was going to take bold and decisive action!

He marched into his confectioner's kitchen and thought up a recipe: he mixed water, sugar, corn starch, cream of tartar and rosewater, cooked it up, poured the mixture into a flat pan slicked with almond oil, and let it cool. Then he sprinkled it with powdered sugar, cut it into bite-sized chunks and...his hand trembling, his eyes bright with anticipation, his mind fraught with trepidation, his lips quivering to receive the morsel...he bit!

What? No crack of candy crunched by his mighty alpine jaws? No shower of sugary splinters scattering through his oral cavity? Why, this new confection was soft and easy to chew, a pleasure, a treat for both palate and teeth! It was... it was...a comfortable morsel!

Rahat lokum ("comfortable morsel"), nowadays called simply lokum, or Turkish Delight, was an instant hit, especially at the palace. Ali Muhiddin became a celebrity overnight as palace bigwhigs (or, more usually, their lackeys and gofers) traipsed down the hill from Topkapi Palace to Eminönü on the Golden Horn to buy boxes of Comfortable Morsels to thrill the jaded palates of Ottoman potentates.

This is for Clive's friend Tony in England who has a special place in his heart for authentic turkish delight. Tony, we promise to send you a box of what I deem to be the best Lokum in Turkey, after much strenuous taste-testing to ensure quality! My personal search is for kaymakli lokum which is made with clotted cream. Yum...

We are in Oludinez now and Clive had his first flight. He will write a proper blog on flying tomorrow!

Ephesus

Today we went to Ephesus, the best preserved ancient city in the mediterranian after Pompeii.

The city has existed on that site from around 1000 BC to 8th century AD. The ruins that still exist today are from the Roman era so are a bit more recent, although the Romans abandoned the city after an earthquake in around 350AD. It was originally settled by the Greeks and passed between Greek and Persion rule and was once part of Alexander the Great's empire. A large portion of the masonary was plundered for other cities and temples after the city was eventually deserted- some parts were used to build St John's Basillica which is only a few kms away and which was in turn also plundered for building materials.

Luckily we snuck in at opening time and the opposite entrance from the tour bus hoards so we got to see the two best areas- the amphetheatre and the library- in virtual solitude. Apparantly there were 10000 tourists there yesterday and 7000 expected today so we were fortunate to avoid them for a while.

The amphetheatre seats 25000 and the acoustics were amazing, you can hear someone talking on the stage from nearly the top seats (the very top was fenced off)
The library as you would expect, is a library- pretty self explanitory.
There were many beautiful wildflowers growing all over the site including snapdragons and loads of poppies. Also, a fair few cats who were totally unpreturbed by the human crowds.

The main goddess of worship in the area was Artemis and, in fact, the temple of Artemis is only a couple of kms from Ephesus. For those of you who remember their 7 ancient wonders, the temple of Artemis was one of them but all thats left is a single column and some marble slabs. The area floods in winter and ducks swim in the depression that was once the temple foundation.

Tomorrow we are on a 6 hour bus ride to Fethiye on the south western coast...

Happy Birthday Mum!

Happy birthday for tomorrow, we are travelling that day so saying it now just in case.
We know too many people born in May- more birthdays to come!

Food Bites

This is a blog for foodies only about the culinary highlights so far.
The photos are of a fantastic dinner we had in Kayseri at a very plush, very cheap restaurant.
From top to bottom:
Flatbread with a savoury tomato flavoured mince with a yoghurt dip
Walnut and tomato salad with onion, parsley, cucumbery and a zesty pomegranate dressing
Kayseri Manti- tiny ravioli in a tomato sauce, smothered in yoghurt, parsley and chilli
Spicey kayseri sausage baked with eggs
a pudding oozing syrup topped with clotted cream (nearly did for me!)
also we had turkish coffee, fruit juice and a local health drink which tasted of cranberry and wet dog
Anyone who has never tasted clotted cream, it is awesome, gooey and sticky like no other dairy product!
The serves were actually very large, which you don't see from the photos, and it came to around $30.

Turkish delight here is fantastic. It is softer and less gelatinous than the imitation stuff. The flavoured ones are boiled down from real fruits and retain a fruity flavour
which isn't sickly sweet. There is also the white variety which has a marshmallowy flavour but with a denser consistancy and covered in coconut.
So far my favourite is the kind with a fruit layer and a white layer rolled up together in a little spiral of deliciousness. There are also many varieties with nuts inside and coating the outside, Clive likes the pstacio kind.
Different areas have different varieties so it changes as we travel. We bought about a kilo for $8 and half of that was the top shelf stuff. And it wasn't all for us either!

Baklava and pastries are also a cut above what we get in Oz. The pastry is lighter, it's more heavy on the nuts and the syrup isn't as sweet.
It's a more subtle collection of textures and flavours than the old baklava brick we are used to!
Partries, bread, puddings, cakes and biscuits are all sold fresh from Pastanesi. There can be up to 20 varieties of biscuits, which you buy by weight,
similar to shortbread in flavour and some chocolate dipped or covered in nuts.

We've eaten quite a few kebabs here. Not as big and less variety in the fillings but the meat is wonderfully flavoured and they are prepared with a lot of care and it only costs $1.50 from most places.
The same goes for toasted sandwiches, usually with cheese, salami, salad and gherkins.

The worst food we had was in Goreme the tourist rap town. Not horrible but boring, expensive and small sizes. That said, there was a buffet on one of our tours which was really delicious!

That is the culinary journey so far...

Kayseri Again

This is a photo of part of an old mosque complex in Kayseri. There are mosques everywhere and most of them old and interesting looking, at least from the outside. It's too cold here though!
We will be sad to leave in a way. The guys from the hotel, Mustafa and his dad, Umar have been very hospitable. Mustafa is a published author and gave us a copy of one of his books of love poetry, sadly in Turkish but touching all the same.
Clive went for another trip to the Hamam and I tried out the ladies one. It was... interesting and very hot! By that I mean temperature wise, not naked cute women wise. In fact, I think most men would have found it pretty scary!