Taking this time awaiting fair winds to write a blog about the food and people on our adventure. We've experienced many a giggle reading menus and signage on our trip. Jim spotted a fine sign advertising "Friendly Food and Tasty People". Most menus have several grammatical and translation errors. We're not sure whether the restaurants actually are aware of the errors and leave them as a quaint humorous effect, or whether they actually don't know what they've printed. A menu selection of "Swollen Liver" caught our attention in Fethiye whilst "Shinbone in the Oven" was a Marmaris offering. We've seen "Reassorted Salads" at several locations and both "Mead" and "Metal" Balls. Wine, and all alcoholic beverages in Turkey are highly taxed so beer (Efes, a German brew) seems to be the preferred beverage. We have yet to find a nice wine, but that hasn't stopped the captain from continuing to sample at every opportunity. Cyprus has some nice wine selections and prices are fair.
Tea (cay -Pronounced "chai") is by far the beverage of choice in Turkey. Teenage boys are often seen running from location to location and person to person with swinging trays of the hot beverage served in tiny fluted glasses...always served black with a saucer, tiny spoon and 2 sugar cubes. Even city workers building roads and using jack-hammers will pause when the boys appear with their trays of the steaming beverage. We've been offered complimentary "cay" at several locations including travel "transit log" agents, marinas, rug sellers, and even at a small independent grocery store.
Pork is not generally eaten by Muslims so it is rarely offered on menus although it can occasionally be purchased at large grocery stores for a handsome price $20.00 for 10 very thin slices of side bacon. Oranges are spectacularly sweet and fragrant. The tomatoes are as good as our summer's best. The Mediterranean this far east is basically fish-free so most seafood offerings are from local fish farms or imported.
The Turks are born salesmen, always trying to sell their wares and trying to strike up conversation and invite the tourists into their stores for free samples or tea. They seem to have found a reasonable balance of hawking their wares without crossing the line to harassing or bothersome behaviour. We've often found the vendors to have sharp wits with a bright sense of humour, and they all surprisingly have a relative in Toronto! One vendor asked us, "How can I get your money?", or after walking the gauntlet of several vendors in Istanbul's Grand Bazaar the young salesmen at the far end said, "Is it my turn now?" It has been a pleasure to actually joke around with the vendors and share a laugh or two. With 25 -30 knot winds rattling the halyards all around us we are thankful to be safely moored in Limassol. There is a small weather window to allow us to move the boat on to Larnaca before the afternoon winds come on. So an early 5 am departure tomorrow hoping for a noonish arrival in Larnaca is the current plan.