Goodbye to Turkey

It is hard to believe we are now in Europe, we have been in Turkey for seven weeks and had become quite settled into the routine of travelling in Turkey and now we have a new currency and a whole new culture to fit in to.

We will miss the cay, (tea) served in tiny glass hourglass cups. Mike is glad to have eaten his last Kahvalti, (Turkish Breaksfast) consisting of a hard boiled egg, soft cheese freshly sliced tomato and cucumber, olives, honey and bread and always included in the price of hotels.  Kofte (meatballs) has been a reliable favourite as has Menemen (eggs, tomoates and capsicum). We stopped eating schaslick, gozleme and kebabs weeks ago, they are available everywhere.

Petrol is about $3.30 per litre and gas $1.80 per litre.  No self serve petrol in Turkey or Central Asia. Remember the days when you pulled into a petrol station, the car was filled and the windscreens washed?  This is what a petrol station is like here. We became very fold of them. Peddling along on a hot day the petrol station is what we were looking for when we needed a cold drink. They did not overcharge us like some of the small markets did, they often offered us cups of tea, found us a seat to sit on and on five occasions we camped at them when we could not find accommodation, they found us a place, often on grass and let us use the wash rooms.