We went on a Southeastern Turkey trip for 9 days in March, right before we came home. We flew into Gaziantep and out of Van, Turkey. Other places visited included Sanliurfa, Harran, Mardin and Diyarbakir. Just north of the Syrian, Iraqi and Iranian border.
Highlights include:
- The most delicious food ever in Gaziantep.
- The most gracious hosts in Urfa (our Kurdish friends Aziz and Farida), who took us to their extended family's house to learn how to make real cig kofte (raw meat meatballs).
- Very cool beehive houses in Harran
- A sweet Ataturk parade in Mardin
- Amazing medieval castle walls in Diyarbakir, still used for goat transport.
- And an incredible Armenian Church on Akdamar Island (where the Armenian Prince was exiled for many years) and a really sweet Persian Castle (Ishak Pasha Palace), near Mt. Ararat (where Noah's Ark is fabled to have landed).
Southeastern Turkey was seriously amazing and we definitely recommend anyone going that has a chance. We felt safe the whole time (days of PKK bombings seem to be in the past), and we rarely ran into other tourists the whole time we were down there. I was grateful for Matt's Turkish- most people don't speak English, and some don't even speak Turkish! (Kurdish is the predominant language down there). And the food has lots more spice in it, something that Matt and I gladly welcomed.
So, with that, we came home! And since then we have gone to three amazing weddings, moved into our new (old) apartment, and are enjoying Chicago again.
And thus our Turkish adventure is over! Which now begs the question- do we continue this blog? Do we abandon it? Do we find a new purpose for it?
Your suggestions, please...
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