Thursday, November 29, 2012

Blog 12: Adana Park


Blog 12: Adana Park and Park Café.
29 November Blog, 2012


Well it’s been a few days since last blog and that’s mostly because I haven’t done too much out of the normal routine. I have walked the streets of Adana again, sampled another Adana Kebab which I will describe shortly and visited a few uniquely Turkish venders.
We went to the wonderful Central Park, Adana again and enjoyed the gardens, a picnic with family and small hobby train ride with hundreds of other locals on a Sunday afternoon. On a Sunday afternoon it’s a very popular place to be in Adana. Last time we went on a train ride there was about 7 on the carriage. This time, our one little train carriage had 18 people crammed into 8 spaces! Lol) There’s about 15 or more carriages and one little small, built obviously very powerful engine to tow them.  That’s over 200 people on this little train!! Omg!

We have also taken a train trip to Mersin to see the ocean and walk through the markets and a country drive to a village by the see to visit more family. I my blog about that later but today I just wanted to blog about a positive experience with The Park Café, Adana.

 THE PARK CAFÉ’ “RESTORAN”

This restaurant is in the heart of Adana business and market district (Explored a lot now in my blogs) It was my next choice to sample Adana Kebab because last year in 2011 I sampled a pizza there and it was pretty good.

The first thing that is a positive about this restaurant is it is totally upstairs off the main street but still very visable to find. The Park Café is roomy and has a view of the park next door (hence the name).

It’s also has a view of the very busy main road but I ask you, what restaurant in Adana doesn’t have a busy road next to it?? Traffic in Adana is very noisy as people mostly use horns rather than indicators to move about.
Tables at this restaurant were plentiful, lots of choice in location to sit, clean and the whole place looked more cared for. This is nice because many affordable restaurants here in Adana, even though the food is generally good, lack pride in the presentation of the space you eat. In Australia we take alot pride in the presentation of the space because that’s what attract the customers. Although we  also charge a much higher price for food maybe as a result of the expensive decore??

The impression is good first off. I chose to sit by the window (or lack of a window it was open air) so I could have a view of the park. But quickly retreated to a more shady table due to the heat of the sun. Even in late November the sun has heat here.


From the outset the service was great. A nice gentleman attended to us (my 2 year old son and I) straight away. When he discovered I spoke English (isn’t hard to realise I’m not a local! Lol) he quickly introduced another gentleman waiter that had a very good understanding of English. He was very good to my son also, suggested a dish my son may like to go with my order of Adana Kebab. He went on to engaged me in a nice conversation to make me feel welcome.

When the food arrived I was very pleased and relieved because of my last experience (last blog) Firstly, the kebab had the pleasing appearance with salads that appeared both tasty and fresh.

The rice yogurt dish was great and they provided a smaller spoon for my son. Little Michael-Emre still hasn’t developed the Turkish obsession for yogurt but he certainly polished off (ate all) the rice which was delicious!


As for the salads; Fresh, they obviously took some pride in the appearance of the salad and the taste did not disappoint me. Well-proportioned for a meal for one, I felt quite fill at after eating. The tomato salad was tasty, moist but not sloppy like the last place I went. The salad was crisp and fresh. You can’t ask for more.
As for the lamb Kebab strip. Very tastily and like I have grown to expect from a  good Adana Kebab, spiced very nice so you can taste each proportion that you break off to wrap in the Turkish bread. And the bread was thin but fresh and tasty. Much better than the thick stuff I encountered elsewhere and perfect for wrapping kebab pieces together with salad.

But the real plus with The Park Café’s Restaurant was the service. They went out of the way to make me welcome, see that I was enjoying the food and also a real plus for me was the way they welcomed my son. They did things to engage him like a tomato bottle trick and talking with him and giving him a lolly pop as we left.
The owner / manager even came over to greet me in English, hoping I enjoyed my meal and thanked me for eating with them. Wow. It really was great service and they gave me a complimentary Turkish coffee at the end. This a nice touch from the waiter.


All three (2 waiters and the manager) wished me well as I left and the waiter assisted my me with the pram down the stairs.


All-round a good experience.
1 x Adana Kebab and salads
1 x Yogurt / Rice dish
1 x Cola
1 x Water
Complimentary Coffee
= 20 lira
 9/10 Congratulations and thank you to The Park Café staff. J

Cheers

Andrew

Friday, November 23, 2012

Blog 11: KEBABS, SWEETS, AND STREET DANCING


Blog 11: KEBABS, SWEETS, AND STREET DANCING
Thursday and Friday 22nd and 23rd November
My wife Aylin in Ataturk Park, Adana
Today Aylin and I took to the streets in search of some gifts for back home and also beads! :-/ We ventured into the old Adana town districts and after making a few turns to throw of a man we suspected of following us, we found a few interesting places to eat and look for gifts. Besides some wonderful shoes, some colourful authentic costumes, we also stopped by a great shop they make fabulous hand calved jewel boxes and chests. (one street back from the clock tower – look at previous blog for map)  I wanted to buy but taking wood back to Australia presents problems with customs. We looked, admired and had to move on.
My wife managed to walk us in circles in our attempt to find bead shops (beads, beads, beads!! My wife eats them at night I’m sure! Lol) We worked up quite an appetite so I suggested we eat Kebab. Aylin said there was a famous Kebab restaurant not far from us. She remembered the shop from teenage years. It was establish in 1940.

ASMAALTI (kebab Restaurant)

Famous “apparently” for great Adana Kebabs.

The shop its self was larger than most middle to low range Kebabs shops which are just a few tables big. The tables were simple with plastic table cloths and reasonable clean though my wife had to ask for a new plate as the one they supplied was dirty and there was an injured bird as few feet from us which was a little sad and not nice to look at whilst eating. (not a good start)

I had high expectations as this place has existed for the past 72 years for some reason and according to my wife, made great Kebab. I also have high expectations because all the Kebabs I’ve eaten in Adana were reasonably good. Adana Kebab is my favourite food in Adana.

Well I was to be extremely disappointed as too was Aylin.

The salads were poor and tasteless. They had some resemblance to Adana Kebab salads but that was all. (I love salads so always leave a clean plate after a meal.) This is the first time in Adana I couldn’t eat all the salad because of its taste. It turned me off.

The bread was thicker than usual and less plentiful than other Kebab stores. The actual Adana kebab lamb strip lacked the spice and normal fabulous flavour that makes an Adana Kebab famous. In fact it tasted like beef mince rather than lamb, little taste.

I was so disappointed I just wanted to leave. It turned me off Kebab for the day. Whatever made this restaurant famous many years ago, wasn’t there. Maybe “Asmaalti” need to go back to the old formula and start over because they have obviously lost whatever they may have had.
To restore my faith before I leave I will go back to HACI SALiH Restaurant (earlier blog) for a good Kebab or to Mass Kebab who  make a fantastic Kebab. (Mass Kebab is a bigger and more expensive Kebab restaurant but they are worth the money for the taste, service and salads.
Asmaalti restaurant get a 4/10 for me.
I won’t give directions other than it’s also close to the old clock tower. I won’t return there.


“TAS KADAYIF” is a “MUST TRY” when in Adana.
Next stop the sweet stores you will find along any main street in Adana. They make great “stand and eat” pastry sweets.

For about 30cents Australia you can help yourself to a choice of little pastry treats. You just pick one out, they wrap in paper for your fingers not to get sticky, and you just stand and eat it, pay and move on.  Everyone does it here.
My favourite is this little pastry wrapped around walnuts and soaked in liquid sugar (They are called “TAS KADAYIF”). Sounds fattening and no doubt is but yummmmy!!! There are many types to choose from. Kind of like Baklava but lighter.  I took some photos because they explain better than I do and a link to pictures also below.


Turkish fate “KERMES”


Yesterday afternoon we were out also looking for beads and we stopped in to a “Kermes” which is like a “fate” back in Australia. A whole group of ladies cook some delicious foods, use some off street space and sell their home made treats for very low prices in aid of some good cause or charity.

We had some chocolate cake type sweet and a sago custard desert topped with coconut and Chi (tea) of course. All for a few lira.  Very nice.

Ataturk Park

Lastly for this blog today, something new to say about the beautiful Ataturk Park that I didn’t mention before.  The flowers and sun was out late in afternoon when we past so I snapped some nice pictures of my wife - below.
Hip pop and wrap dancing at Ataturk Park

But I wanted to point out that Ataturk Park has a great little area set up for dancing. Hip pop and wrap dancing! Frequently when you walk past you can be treated to some skilful examples of this type of dance. These guys are obviously very fit and really very talented. They are happy enough for you to stand by and watch and I recommend it! It’s amazing to see these guys spin on their heads and hold themselves up one handed. A great feat of strength and agility.






A “MUST SEE” if you like dancing.

And that’s a wrap for these past two days.

Cheers


Andrew

Thursday, November 22, 2012

Blog 10: ADANA Road trip 2 ANTALYA (2012)


Blog 10:  ADANA Road trip 2: ANTALYA
Hi folks.
I’m back in Adana once again. Back from 6 great days in Antalya.

Although this blog is really only about Adana, I will detour briefly for the purpose of giving some tips about visiting tourist areas in Turkey.  

The blog is called  ADANA Road trip 2 ANTALYA but we cheated, we went by plane. You see it's an 8 hour winding road trip and although that might be nice and by the coast, I had a 2 year old son on this trip, so... lol

Antalya, outside of Istanbul is the 2nd biggest Tourist Destination in Turkey. It’s not so well known in Australia as Aussies tend to head to Istanbul, Gallipoli and inland tourist attractions like Cappadocia.   

But Antalya is a huge destination for firstly, Russians and then Germans and then European’s from all over. It was funny to find so many tourist books written in Russian rather than English.




Set midway up the Turkish Mediterranean Coast, Antalya enjoys the best of Turkish weather, a lot like Adana in that in November both cities experienced temperatures still ranging from 20’s to 30’s and sunshine! Which is very nice considering December is when Winter hits here!  Beware, like Adana also, Summer (June, July, August) can be scorching hot. But in Antalya this is easily remedied by the beautiful warm and calm waters of the Mediterranean Sea.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antalya
So many wonderful photos, I have only loaded a small sample here.






Antalya is a 40 minute, 40 lira plane trip from Adana (Pegasus Airlines) Book early and you will get the cheap price we did and don’t fall for the choose a seat and food for extra fee. You get a seat anyway and no time for food really. Just get the cheap ticket and your there! (Be aware – 15kg check in only and payment required for extra)

Pegasus Airlines have the best inflight safety demonstration I have seen. It’s done all by kids in a video presentation and takes your attention and makes you smile. Well done to them!

Antalya is a Tourist city




Antalya is a Tourist city because like Adana, it’s surrounded by amazing if not spectacular ancient ruins, cities and amphitheatres to amaze all. There are islands not too distant and many fabulous seaside destinations to explore.

The difference between Antalya and Adana is Adana is 1 hour inland and this city doesn’t capitalise on the tourist dollar. They don’t seem to understand just how great the potential is for Tourism there is in Adana. As a result, the Adanians (my word for people in Adana because it’s easier for Aussies to understand that way) really don’t look after the ancient ruins of the past, leaving them often to neglect and open to vandalism.
best preserved Amphitheatre in the World

There are some exceptions of course but on a whole I was shocked at the many fantastic sites that had no protection. Still, that’s also the beauty of sites around Adana. You can feel like you really are among the first to discover sites and they are still raw, undiscovered, unexcavated. Ironically only 4% of all discovered archaeological sites in Turkey have been excavated! That’s an amazing statistic when you see the vast number of sites that have! So much to yet be unearthed!


But Antalya also has the sea. There are beaches, increably elaborate 5 star resorts unlike anything in Australia and wonderful harbours, romantic views and tourist shops in their thousands… 

And so what comes with such a wonderful destination like this, is the many Tourist traps….
First thing a tourist visiting these areas should remember is Traffic rules. All the things mentioned in my past blog about traffic in Adana apply here in Antalya but add to those points the following.

Taxi’s are more expensive in Tourist destinations.

Certainly double what you would pay for a taxi in Adana anyway.
Always enquire what will be the approximate price first before you ride and then you have a basis to argue when they literally try to “take you for a ride” (charge you a much higher price). If you can, ask someone what you would be expecting to pay before you get to the taxi. Or, take a bus from the airport, 5 lira is better than 50 lira to the same destination.  But some knowledge of Turkish helps in this regard.

Illegal Taxi’s

In turkey they sometimes have illegal taxi’s. (often recommend to you by a shonky coast driver or person waiting to help you with baggage – also wanting you to pay for that help) Illegal Taxi’s are drivers in private cars without a Taxi licence. They often will charge you a lower price for the same journey. I wouldn’t trust these as I’ve already been burnt. They could take you anywhere and then request a higher price, or even rob you.  Stick with the yellow cabs or better still, take the bus. (In Adana, Taxis are cheap so when in Adana, Taxi’s are generally ok.)

Cars, taxi’s and motorised bikes and scoters will use the same narrow roads and pedestrian pathways as you.

So always be on the lookout. Take nothing for granted! In Antalya cars and bikes also will use the Tram ways as well so there is nowhere you can trust to be free of traffic. Be aware! Cars rule, they will go through red lights more times than less and they will frequently fail to stop at pedestrian crossings with traffic lights. (They totally ignore pedestrian crossings without lights).

Read my earlier blog about traffic.
Tourist price and Turkish price.

There are two prices at Tourist shops. Tourist price and Turkish price. Be prepared to barter hard and walk away easy. If they really want the sale they will chase you.

To be fair, I need to set some perspective or you may get angry or tense at the bold, if not down right (Aussie expression sorry) aggressive approach most tourist shop workers use.

In turkey, the average wage is between 450 lira to about 850 lira. That’s per MONTH!! Not per week or fortnight as most westerners work on. Given the lira to Aussie dollar, that’s about $300 to $450 a month. Some things in Turkey are cheaper, like fruit, market clothing, rents, house prices but you are still paying much higher prices for things like alcohol, electric, electronics and way higher prices for petal!! So that leaves very little to live on.
Now most of these Tourist industry workers live on commissions or a small retainer plus commission. They work 6 to 7 days a week, some up to a 13 hour day or more depending on where their shop is located.

They have to be very skilled to get your dollar, often learning 2 to 4 languages (which all costs money). Add to this, the Tourist season might stretch for 4 to 6 months, after which many are not wanted in the down time. So what they make in Summer often needs to sustain them through the non-season months. Or they need to travel elsewhere to find work.

It’s a tough life so when you walk past them, in your designer clothing, simply being able to afford international travel means you look like $$$ and they need them.

So try not to be too offended by their aggressive approach. In Antalya it’s not as bad as the Grand Bazar in Istanbul (a place in which you are literally hunted!!) but it can be intimidating to the Aussie Tourist.

Understanding the Aussie customer (For my Turkish Friends)

For all my Turkish friends reading this, you need to understand the Aussie mentality.
Back home in Australia we like to shop quietly, “browse before we buy”  (bakiyorun!).  No body anywhere yells at you when you shop in Australia.

An Aussie shop keeper generally, lets you into their store without pressure, stands back and watches, waits till they see a sign from you that you want help or waits for you to ask a question. Sometimes they may approach and say “may I help you?” but never will they stand outside the door of a shop and harass you to come in.  We do have what we call “sprookers” to stand outside maybe 1 shop in 1000 advertise a one off sale (normally people with Irish accents are best at this), but they are rare and like only for 1 day.

Aussie shop keepers always wait inside, often behind the counter. So to an Aussie, the Turkish way of selling can be intimidating and scary. Often the result is we Aussies will walk past shops we really wanted to look inside, simply because we didn’t want to be harassed.  Aussies can become angry at this style of selling. This is made worse by the fact that Aussies and naturally sceptical, mistrust what you tell them anyway. Sorry, that comes from our Convict heritage and our mistrust of authority! Lol

Example: In Antalya this trip, the food shops venders were the worst of all for me as made very much intimidating pressure for us to eat there. One even picked up my son and proceeded to carry him up the stairs for us to encourage us to eat there! (three times my son was picked up by venders whilst in Antalya) Talk about seeing RED! My wife and I took our son back and turned away only to be pressured by another food shop vender who cornered us into eating with them. The seat and place to eat was perfect, but we got up and left before he could take the order because on principle, he was too aggressive. I did not want to eat at a place I was intimated into eating. If there was no pressure I would have eaten there no problem! It’s just like that for Aussies. 

Friends in Antalya

But to save the day, I met some really great Turkish Tourist shop venders and made some great friends. I am so pleased to make new friends with Savas and Can and their friends. These guys gave me some great insight into their lives and also life in Turkey. They have a great little store beside a coffee shop and are very friendly and as a result, we spent most of our tourist dollar there. Trust is a good thing! Thanks guys for making me feel welcome in Antalya.  And the beer was great too! lol

SIMPLE TURKISH SHOPPING WORDS

So saying all that, here are some simple words to use when shopping and any Tourist place in Turkey. I have spelt them how they sound to Aussie ears.

“Bakiyorun” pronounced “Buck-u-rum” which means “just looking” or “just browsing” (Buck = look) That’s a great word I use often to gain a bit of space to look and breathe.

When they say Hoshgalden, (Welcome) you can say either “Merhaba”(Hello) or if you feel like it “Hosh-bull-doc” (good to be here)

If you don’t want something you can just say “York” (I don’t want). Depending on the circumstance you can simply then walk away then, or keep walking if you’re walking past the store (they strongly encourage you to come in as you walk past shops). Or, if you want to look at something else when you’re in the shop, or if bargaining, say “York” to indicate you’re not happy with that price. “York” is a wonderful word!

“Ev-vet” means “yes” “Hi-it” means “no” but I just use “York” for no mostly. But if you really want to stress “no means no” then use “Hi-it” nice and firm. Body language and simple hand (but polite) gestures work too.

If you buy something or are pleased with something, say thank you “tes-sheck-ular” or “tes-sheck-ular  ar-din-um” (I thank you) They will reply “Besh-shed-de” (You’re Welcome)

If they want you to come into stalls they will say “Bod dem” (Come in) or “Gel” (come)
If you want something you can say “Is-stu-rum” (I want) and point.

To ask the price of something, say either “uch lira?” or “uch Euro” how much lira or Euro depending what currency you have. Or you can say what I say “nic ca da?” (How much) and point.
If you don’t understand something say “Oz Turk ghair” (“Little Turkish”)

 NUMBERS
Simple numbers in Turkish

Beer = 1
Icky = 2
Doosh = 3
Dirt = 4
Besh = 5
Altern = 6
Yetty = 7
Sea-kissed = 8
Doocost = 9
On = 10
Then the numbers below in front of each numbers above to make numbers 11 to 100

15 would be "on besh" 24 would be"year dirt" and so on.
10 = on
20 = year
30 = off tooz
40 = kurk
50 = el lear
60 = art mish
70 = yet mish
80 = sec san
90 = doc sun
100 = youz

Lastly

When you walk past as Turkish tourist shops they will be lined up all along the street waiting for you.  By the time you get to them they would have made some speculation already on what nationality you are and try to engage you in simple language of your own saying the following things;
My friend, my friend, can I show you something??

Do you want to look inside? Very interesting things
Where are you from? Germany? Russia? Aussie Aussie Aussie, oy oy oy? Etc lol
My friend can I tell you something?
My friend, you break my heart!

You from Australia? I have an uncle in Australia! (Turks are everywhere remember so this could be true, or just a pick up line! Lol)

In Adana they simply say “Bod-dem” which is basically “welcome, please come in”. (good approach to this Aussie)
The strategy is basically to engage you and draw you into their shop. Once they have you there they will probably offer you chi (tea) different types which they may also try to sell you the tea leafs or tea flavoured powder. (it’s nice tea and won’t cost you anything to drink but listening to a sale pitch normally)

It’s a different matter if you accept things like nuts, or napkins or somebody thrust food in your hands, they will argue you accepted and so need to pay. Be aware!

Remember earlier blogs. Wallets front pockets, deep. Always beware of you money and valuables. Body belts below clothing are great.

The Tourist shops in Antalya are incredibly interesting and there is much to see, so do explore. Many shops may be a repeat of the last so get used to hearing the same things over and over, but generally they all have something different aswell. But there is so many great things to buy, just don’t rush, despite what they say, there’s always time to come back and yes they will accept the lower price offered later also.
Remember if you really want something; go to a few shops so you can gauge the prices. Then make an informed choice.

Never accept their first price.

When I go in alone to a shop as a Tourist, because I look like a foreigner, I generally get given a price sometimes twice as high as Aylin, my wife who is Turkish. The same item, 5 minutes later can be so much lower when she asks in Turkish. So be prepared to bargain. Normally you should be able to bring it down by a third. But remember, these shop workers really rely on commissions to live so don’t expect wholesale prices. But it is nice to feel you have a bargain though.

 The next blog will be back about Adana.

Good to be back here.

Cheers

Andrew