Mmm, künefe...

Künefe

Yesterday I had the best dessert I ever had in Turkey! Künefe!
What got me first was the smell, it comes warm from the kitchen and smells like toast with melted butter! And then tastes so good! Not exagerated sweetnes like it's usual in the turkish sweets, but just sweet enough!
Man, I couldn't ge enough of it!

A Fayton in Büyük Ada.

Büyük Ada

This sunday I went to Büyük Ada, it's an island close by Istanbul. The island belongs to a group of islands known as the Prince islands. It basically has 2 mountains and some beaches, not many because most of the coast seems to be made of rock.
Cars with motor are forbidden on the island, so the biggest transportation there is the Fayton, a wood car pulled by a pair of horses! I felt like I went back a hundred years, the village center is filled with faytons, gotta be carefull with those horses when crossing the road!
Also, many people rent bycicles, and that's what I did, I cycled all around the island! It's not easy because the island is never plain! And watch out for those Faytons riding fast behind you!
I didn't study much information about the island, I forgot to bring my tourist guide. But one thing was obvious, the greek influence in the island. There are many christian crosses around, and I understood that many people there were speaking greek.
When looking for a place to rest from all that cycling I found the Büyükada Resort. I was looking for a cafe inside but the place is closed now, it only opens in May. Still the guy taking care of it was very nice and let me look around. They rent rooms with all meals included for 45€ person/day. The place has the beach, swimming pool and several restaurants, it seemed very nice.
In the end of the day I decided to try one of the fish restaurants. I selected the Dil balık, which seemed like the portuguese "Linguado", the name is similar too because they both mean something like "tongue fish". Unfortunately the fish was fried and not grilled, and it didn't taste that good to me... When the bill came it was painfull, 90YTL for 2 persons, that's way more than I expected.
So, for all that may be searching the net for restaurants in Buyuk Ada and find this page, here is one advice: Don't go to Kapri restorant!

In Turkey you can allways find someone playing backgammon. In this case it was on the captain's bridge of the boat crossing the bosphorus.