Tuesday, 19 February 2019

My lucky number: 4


4 days, 4 cities and 4 friends from 4 different countries ... ..the recipe for an unforgettable adventure in Turkey. It all started when I met the first Romanian in Ankara. This wonderful girl introduced me to her friends who became my friends as well. One of these friends is from Syria and invited us to his home because he cooked dolma and kunefe. Of course, the most impressive topics debated during the meal were food and travel.
So, what we thought, if we still have so many things in common, let's do something together. And that's how begins my greatest adventure in this country. A multicultural team was formed, considering that one guy was from Syria, another from Egypt, another from Palestine, and finally me and another Romanian. We started our travel by bus from Ankara and cheerful we headed to Gaziantep.
The first day of the trip was on the bus because the road lasted many hours. We got to the destination in the evening, so all we had to do was eat and play some games. We spent the next day in this wonderful city, visiting as much as we could and trying all the famous dishes here. The only disappointment was the zoological garden. We saw announcements that it would be the 4th largest zoo in the world. We were excited to see exotic animals or special ones, but when we got there we saw that were very few animals and most of them domestic ones, so something we can see every day, nothing special. We also visited the Castle of Gaziantep, a pretty castle full of history. Before visiting the castle, of course, I ate traditional soup: beyran, which was supeeeeeer delicious, and the well-known ali nazik. A little later, the steps headed for the stunning Gaziantep Pazarı, where we did a lot of shopping. Towards the evening we went back to the place where we were hosted and we finished the evening with a delicious  home-made kebap and Syrian sweets. That was about the first day of our journey.
 Next stop: Antakya, Hatay. Early in the morning we went to this place to have as much time as we could to see as many places as possible. Also a wonderful place, full of history, great views and of course special food. I ate here the best kunefe and kataif with ice cream. We could not leave this place without seeing Harbiye, an amazing place. We spent all day walking through this town and knowing more about this part of the country, and by the evening we went back to the place we were hosted, in the house of our Syrian friend’s  sister. She prepared for us a delicious Syrian dinner. Unfortunately, this day also has passed very quickly.
And that's how we came to the last day of our journey, which started very early in the morning. Our biggest luck was that we returned to Ankara with a friend's car, so we could stop and visit several cities on our way back. The first on the list was Mersin. Because we were hungry again, the first thing we did was ordering tantuni, knowing that the best ones are  in Mersin.
                                                            
We did not get to see too much in this city, but we enjoyed a great view of the sea while we were eating.
Then we headed for Cappadocia, because this was one of our favorite destinations, and we wanted to have more time there. Unfortunately, I did not see the balloons, but I saw beautiful landscapes and I had an amazing experience, being the first time in my life when I rode a camel. We spent a few hours in this charming town and in the evening we went home.
There were 4 very beautiful days in which I enjoyed a lot, full of moments and experiences that I will remember all my life. I could repeat this forever. Looking forward to the next trip.
Thank you my friends and thank you Iyaca for giving me this opportunity.

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