Istanbul, Turkey

After leaving Egypt, I flew to Istanbul where I had arranged to volunteer on another farm.  I took a cab from the airport across town to meet my host, Metin, and two other volunteers, Holly and Nick, from London.  We had decided to spend a few days exploring Istanbul before we headed south to his farm.  As well as the farm, Metin runs a textiles business, producing fabrics which he sells in two shops/cafes he has in Istanbul. They are called Fes Cafe.  His fabrics have also been used in movies such as Harry Potter and Troy.  He has been the most generous host and I couldn't have imagined a better person to volunteer with.  While in Istanbul he took us to some of the most amazing restaurants and introduced us to many of his friends.  

The first night, Metin took us for dinner with some friends of his at a fish restaurant on the river. He was warmly welcomed by the waiting staff who clearly knew him (as does EVERYONE else in Istanbul, it seems), and during dinner the chef and the owner came to the table to say hello and welcome Metin.This was our first proper experience of Turkish food culture. Food seems to appear endlessly, a platter of babaganoush, feta, olives, breads, almonds in ice, marinated seabass, calamari, spinach, mange tout, butter beans, all cooked in different sauces, all ridiculously delicious. Whenever a dish was empty it was replaced with something new. We had the traditional Turkish drink of raki- tall thin glasses, aniseed spirit which goes cloudly when topped with water and ice.  Unfortunately, I was not a fan of this drink. So I left that area of Turkish culture to Nick and Holly.  As dinner progressed, Holly, Nick and I realized we had eaten everything on our plates before the others had even started.  Eating is much more casual here, the food is definitely more of an accompaniment to the conversation and we had to make a conscious effort to eat slowly and force ourselves to put down our knives and forks every now and then. We were so full, and then were told that was just the starter. Luckily the main course was just one beautifully cooked fish for us all to share. 
After a few more evenings we realized that this is the norm, a huge variety of mainly vegetable meze dishes to share, followed by a small piece of meat and a small Turkish desert, Baklava or Halva, or a strange but amazing sweet melted cheese thing.

Metin

 Fes Cafe

Fes Cafe

Near the cafe is the Grand Bazaar, one of the world's largest covered markets.  There are so many different halls and passageways that I was afraid of getting lost in there! There is also a Fes Cafe in the Bazaar, but I couldn't find it.

We spent one day walking around some of the side streets and were amazed to see some beautiful architecture. We were shocked at how little was being done to preserve it.

After our long day of walking around the city, we stopped to enjoy some Turkish coffee, a drink that