Saturday 19th December - Gaziantep

What a surprise, it was raining this morning as we left the hotel to go for a wander around Gaziantep.  We made our way down the bazaar area, much of which is fortunately covered and has been undergoing restoration. 

Anne liked the stores supplying horse “tack”, and the place was full of little workshops welding, repairing shoes and making barrels. 

Again, not a bit of tourist tat in sight, and if you are after spices, pulses or dried fruit this is the place to come.

We stumbled across the Mevlevihane Vakif museum which focuses on the dervish order, with displays of rugs, manuscripts, clothing and metalwork.  I’m not sure the three armed guards were really necessary, but they were nice enough to offer us tea and a place to shelter from the rain after we looked around.

Deciding to leave the castle until later (or tomorrow) in the hope that it stops raining, we returned to the hotel with Syria map and Lonely Planet in hand to decide what we wanted to do during our time in the country.  We did stop on the way back to buy some bakalava (layered filo pastries with honey and nuts) from what is considered by many to be the best bakalava shop in Turkey, Imam Çagdas, opened in 1887.  Gaziantep is famous for pistachios, so we had the pistachio bakalava, which was tasty, if not a little sickly sweet.

Late afternoon and a supermarket run was completed to stock up on some basics to ensure we had a few days worth of food in the Land Rover for when we go over the border; I’m sure they have supermarkets in Syria, but we’re always happier knowing we can be self-sufficient for a while.