Yavaş (slow) improvement

Yesterday we experienced just how much our Turkish is improving..........or not.

A woman started speaking in Turkish to us.
LC:  I think she needs food.
BC:  No, I think she has a problem with her tonsils.

Turns out she had high blood pressure and needed her medicine refilled.

Fish Bread. Yum or Yuck? You choose.

Along the water front of the Golden Horn, there are brightly colored and elaborately decorated floating boats that can be seen easily from the bridge. We had not seen them up close before and I assumed they were tour boats of some kind where the rates were probably inflated and the tour guides wore Ottoman themed outfits and tried to tell tourists that their boats were thousands of years old. I couldn't have been more wrong...they are not tour boats, they are floating kitchens that only serve grilled fish sandwiches!

Here are the "cooks" sanding around the huge grill in the center of their boat. What you can't tell by looking at this picture is how badly this boat is rocking back and forth because ferries are constantly coming in to the port behind them.

Close up fish grilling

Once they have a sandwich made, they wait until the boat is rocking towards land and they hand the sandwich over to be sold.

Most popular lunch spot we've seen!

Termessos in Southern Turkey

This weekend, we decided to go to see a part of the southern coast of Turkey at Antalya. It is a beautiful place. We rented a car and drove to several nearby sites of ancient ruins. The most impressive city was Termessos. In 333 BC, Alexander the Great couldn't capture it despite his attempt because of it's location protected by a valley hidden between the mountains. We were so impressed with the structures that still remain. This site is unrestored but you can still tell how grand it must have been. The theatre was enormous, and there's also a temple, homes, marketplace, the cistern, and rock quarry.