A great place to eat lunch: food good, cheap and the view is great.

Patricia sat across from me.  Patricia, an expat Brit and retired psychiatric nurse,  has lived in Iҫmeler, the small town down the beach from Marmaris for about 6 years or so.  She has studied Turkish so during the trip she would explain words to me. 

Keṣkek

This photos doesn’t do justice to its bubblingly colorful flavor.

  I first had keṣkek at the home of Reyhan and Selahattin Ünver.  I loved it and would have licked the bowl clean except there was a ton more food to come.  So when I saw Keṣkek on the menu for lunch I was really pleased.  It was as good as I remembered it.  It was even as good as the great humus we had in Jaffa with Eve and her son. 

The menu description and price: cheap and great tasting.

“The wheat must be soaked in water the night before.  The onions and meat are fried in the pot, along with red chili and salt, in butter.  One glass of hot water is added, and it is boiled for 15 minutes.  The wheat and 10 glasses of water are added to the pot.  Once the mixture starts boiling, its lid is closed and the edges are sealed with dough.  Only an opening the size of a finger is left, in order to let the steam off. It is cooked for 2 hours on low heat. “  Çorum Guide

Randal had the mantı, a Turkish ravioli

“Meat stuffed dumplings with garlicky yogurt and paprika butter” description in Secrets of the Turkish Kitchen by Angie Mitchell Sunkur.   There are regional differences but they’re all quite good.  I like Keṣkek better.

After lunch everyone kind of went his/her own way.   Tazeena and Els hiked up to the Kral Kaya Mezarlari, the Rock Tombs of the Pontus Kings (around 4^th century BC) up above town.  Another time I’d have gone, but it was too late in the afternoon and getting chilly and I was sort of tired and not really interested in the tombs, so I didn’t go.  I’m a bit sorry now, but so it goes.

After lunch I’d rushed off to the post office, to no avail, to be back at the meeting point at 2:15 to regroup with the group. But group plans had  gotten changed so Randal and I just sort of went off on our own and skipped seeing the Sultan Bayezid Mosque.  We could have joined up with the tour, but opted for a walk around town rather than wait the 20 minutes so we could enter the mosque.  At least I think this is the mosque they toured.  This is a photo of  the Sultan Bayezid Mosque I shot from Amasya Castle and I just saw the same photo with the same caption in the   http://www.amasyakulturturizm.gov.tr/dosya/1-280779/h/rehber-ing-mail.pdf

I just read that the Public Library has been made from part of the mosque’s medresse and I am sorry I missed that.  I’m thinking everyone else did also as no one mentioned it.  Unless this really isn’t the mosque they visited.  It really is the Sultan Bayezid Mosque.  

Randal and I went off for a walk around “new Amasya” and a visit a bazaar street, but not The Covered Basaar.   The sun came and went and the drizzle came and went.

We each bought a lightweight lined cotton zip vest with a half-dozen pockets. 

Randal bought some crocheted wash cloths.

Some street scenes I took on my early morning walk before our tour began..

Some night scenes…

After dinner I went out to take some night photos.  I learned a bit about night shots and I also learned that my camera will store photos internally.  I learned that when I returned to our hotel room and went to download the photos and saw the camera card still in my computer where it had been since late afternoon.  I was too pooped to go back out so was really disappointed.  But the camera had never “told me” that the card wasn’t inserted so I couldn’t take photos, which my other camera did,  so I hoped the photos were actually stored on the camera.  I took out the camera card, attached the camera to the computer with a cable and voila!  There they were; the camera has its own memory.  So now I know that.  

Regimental Headquarters with Atatürk statue

Amasya Municipal Tea Garden