Adana Hilton Sa

Destination 393<br><br>km193'922<br><br>Claudio and me were going to see the last sight in Syria: Qala'at Samaan. Although a touristy place, it was the sidetrip and the cost of entry worth it. A beatiful place with great views.<br><br>Just a short ride north I was struggling to find a petrolstation before leaving Syria to fill up ...

... and 40 years. The *nly int**esting thing ab*ut the wh*le place was the DJ upstairs, wh* was dancing, kicking, and playing air guitar like s*me aspiring b*y band auditi*n. Curi*us h*w little regard he seemed t* give t* m*nit*ring *r fiddling with the s*und system, especially when pink shirt went upstairs and started dancing with him, we then n*ticed a white gl*w behind him reflecting *n the face *f a man seated in fr*nt *f a lapt*p. Aha ... <br><br>Once we m*ved *nt* the ...

... very basic dormitories with shared bathrooms, which meant very little privacy. This was largely made up for in the fact that it had a roof top bar and free internet access. And at the equivalent of &#8364;10 a night it was good value for money. Istanbul seemed to be a very popular tourist destination in early September and around the Blue Mosque where I was staying you had to fight your way through the crowds. Fortunately the vast majority of the tourists seemed to stay in the ...

... a joke, and what was just a comment. Also, I complained enough after the first hour that they threw in just enough English to keep me satisfied. We managed to stop four times during that 6 hour drive so that the bus driver and teem could smoke cigarettes. This I found most amusing. A bus full of athletes that could not go more than 2 hours without a nicotine fix. We arrived in the city of Eskishier around 2 ...

... and the most beautiful too. It sits on a river, which is lined with well kept gardens and has the second highlight of Adana facing it: a 2000 year old stone bridge. The Hilton overlooks this amazing view of the mosque and the bridge. Personally, I don't know what else there is to see in Adana. Its not in the Middle East Lonely Planet but I would suggest it for a day trip on your way in or out of Turkey. I got here by chance really. When I was in Cappadocia, I had decided to hitch-hike to ...

... masallah", meaning wonderful or magnificent. A colleague decided to use this in a meeting and was greeted with a sort of bewildered amusement. "When did she say that you?" they asked him curiously. Turns out this is a "flexible" word and could be uttered in the throes of passion. We have relegated this term to the back of the drawer and when I know my Turkish tutor a little better I will ask his opinion.

Before we left Antakya we took a detour to the Mediterranean coast and swam for a few hours. It was unbelievably beautiful! It was a little chilly for the Turks (who are always cold I think) so we were the only ones on the entire beach. Once we all got in though, we realized that slowly more Turks started to come out on the beach to stare at us crazy foreigners in the water. The water was warm and perfect so there was no problem with us ...

... it. But the hike was well worth it as well. The structures are amazing to look at. It makes you wonder how they were able to build such things. The castle was built in the 11th century and the castle was named Govara, but introduced as Sahmaran (Medusa, the Gorgon). From there, we drove west to Tarsus where we saw Cleopatra's Gate. This is the gate that Anthony and Cleopatra went through when they came to Tarsus to meet. At that time, the sea was right up to the gate and ...

... will hardly be any people left in Adana. The heat, oh my, I wasn't planning on heat like this. Or the humidity. But after you've been here for a while, you start to get used to it. In 1999, there was an earthquake in Adana and the damage really shows in Old Adana. There is lots of construction and repairs always going on. All the buildings here are cement, so they also take a long time to build or repair. I had the famous Adana Kebap here. It was really good. They even ...

... with cheese and dress with pomegranate molasses. We didn't really encounter baba ghanoug until we hit Syria. In Hama it was invariably a smoky velvety spread. In Aleppo and Damascus it is diced, more like a fine salad, with tomato, onion, parsley and garlic and dressed with zingy, sweet, sour pomegranate molasses. Our other mezze standby was mutabal, a paste of mild char-grilled red chillies served with parsley (this is an excellent ...