I don't think that I thought there was very much to see in Gaziantep. I didn't take any photographs. It's all rather vague. I think I must have been becoming a little fatigued by all the sightseeing. My notes say "Tavla, Lahmacun, Antep Fistig". This must mean that Rudiger spent out time playing Backgammon and that ate Lahmacun and had baklava for desert.
This makes sense. Lahmacun is a speciality of Gaziantep. It is a delicious Turkish style pizza. It was not the first time I'd had them. What I do remember is that we were in a restaurant and drank Ayran (a delicious yoghurt drink) with the lahmacun and that there was a side salad. The side salad had some small capsicum type vegetables which I mistook for green peppers. They were scotch bonnets. I took a huge bite of one expecting to be refreshed by the coolness you get when eating fresh green pepper. Scotch bonnets are in fact practically the hottest chilli peppers on the planet scoring between 80,000 and 300,000 on the Scoville pungency scale. the hottest ever recorded was a habanero which generally ranks equally with the scotch bonnet. I couldn't believe the heat generated and no amount of ayran could put out the fire!
The first time I had lahmacun was when Emma and I visited Istanbul on the second of our two trips there the year before in 1989. Emma and I were on a dolmus heading roughly towards Camlica from where you can look down on the whole of the city of Istanbul . The other passengers prevented the driver ripping us off on the fare and established where we were intending to go. A man called Turput Arici was deputed to walk us up to our destination. He did (even though he was not sure of the way himself) and stayed with us all night and then took us back to the ferry wharf so we could get back to Eminonu. We'd intended to eat but hadn't got round to it. While we waited for the ferry he introduced us to Lahmacun, spicy thin slices of Turkish style pizza base with ground lamb, chillies and other herbs spices. He did all this on his way home from work. He was a nice guy and clearly a shining example of a muslim such was his charity and the way he put himself out for us.
The reference to Antep Fistig makes sense because Gaziantep is the centre for Turkey's pistachio nut production. Theirs are the best in the world. As a matter of fact Turkey not only makes the most delicious bread but quite the best selection of fantastic confectionery.
We can't have spent more than the middle of the day in Gaziantep because my notes say that we got another bus and arrived very late at Hatay a.k.a. Antakya and formerly Antioch checking into the Hotel Istanbul for 10,000TL. This hotel can't have been to our liking because the next morning we moved to the Seker Palas at only 9,000TL. Again we seemed to have just chilled.
When Antakya was Antioch it was one of the largest cities in the world after Rome, Alexandria and Ephesus. St Peter came here to spread the word after Christ's death. It was here that the term "Christian" was first used. Is it worth saying that everyone seems to have had a go at conquering the place, after the Romans, it was part of the Byzantine empire, then it was conquered by arabs, then turks, Crusaders, Marmelukes, Mongols, Marmelukes (again) then Ottomans. It was given to France after the end of World War I and then taken back by the Turkish Army in 1938 and became where it is now namely part of the Turkish Republic in 1939.
There's not a great deal that's obvious to see and we didn't put ourselves out to look. My notes say: eating, tavla, cay, grapes/melons etc and mysteriously "free laundry". I should have thought that by this time my clothes probably needed a good wash. I have no idea nor recollection of how I managed to get them washed for free but it was certainly a great blessing.
The next day, Thursday 18 October 1990, seems to have been much the same. I think the only reason we had gone to Antakya was to be about as far south as you can go and as close to Syria as possible. My notes of my activities are very concise; "Ditto Wed."
I did have a shave.
It's not as if I hadn't had a shave since Trabzon. I did have a razor and kept myself pretty presentable (or so I thought) but most blokes out there are very much swarthier than me and a day or two's stubble seemed par for the course.
The only other photographs I took were of blacksmiths working. I don't know why.
My time in Turkey was coming to an end. In Roman times Antioch was renowned for its luxury and pleasures so I suppose it was only fitting that we should have been taking it easy.
Having played so much Tavla with Rudiger over the course of about two weeks I had begun to covet the ornate Backgammon sets one saw from time to time apparently inlaid with mother of pearl and in Antakya I found one for 27,500TL. I've still got it.
That night Rudiger and I treated ourselves to a drink. In the whole five weeks I had drunk practically nothing. Was the last the last beer (incongruously) in Konya? My notes say I had 3 beers!! Whoa! Steady on!
On the Friday 19 October 1990 Rudiger and I parted company. He was and no doubt still is a good guy, very good company and a seasoned traveller from whom I learned a lot. We got a bus from Antakya. I was going to Adana. The bus went through the same town where we'd changed buses before and I made enquiries about my missing denim jacket but no-one had handed it in (I never really thought anyone would have). I said goodbye to Rudiger and made my way to Adana to catch my plane back to where I had started. On arrival there I found the THY office and reconfirmed my flight to my next destination. There seemed to be a problem at first. It looked as if my reservation for the onward trip from Istanbul had been cancelled but it was subsequently OK'd.
I didn't have any time to explore Adana. I made my way to the airport.
