A special kind of yogurt Sunday Jine 17 on the Bosphorus

Got everybody up and we walked down to the Eminou docks and bought tickets for the Bosphorus ferry at 25 lira apiece for the round trip. The boat makes five stops during the one hour and 35 minute trip up the Bosphorus. We got off the ferry at the town of Kanlica for lunch. Kanlica is famous for its yogurt and we soon found out why.
The first order of business was to get lunch. We avoided the cute places next to the ferry dock, figuring they were for tourists. We walked a couple of blocks and found a mom and pop establishment. The son came out and translated for us. He spoke very good English. We ordered some pide and kebap. We also had the Ayran which was made of the local yogurt. It had a different taste from the more commercial product across the river. It was excellent. We then had the decadent dessert known as kunefe.
We walked a couple of stores down and found one that specialized in the local yogurt. The man prepared it by putting a large quantity of powdered sugar in with the yogurt. I had not tasted anything like this before. The powdered sugar did not completely mix with the yogurt and so there were layers of sweet and sour. We had to get another one!
Then it was time to reboard the boat and continue up the Bosphorus. The scenery continued to be beautiful though with less development the closer we got to the Black Sea. We made brief stops at the towns of Sariyer and R. Kavagi and then a final stop at the town of A. Kavagi on the Asian side. We walked around a bit and then caught the return ferry back.
We got off in Besiktas and took a 7 lira cab ride to Tophane. This is next to the Museum of Modern Art and has about ten nargile places. We settled in for nargile and backgammon (tavlah)and tea. We relaxed for a couple of hours among the Turks and then caught a 8 lira cab ride to our favorite restaurant, Sur Ocakbasi, in the shadow of the ancient Aqueduct. We had another huge meal of grilled meats, salads and fresh Ayran. We ate as the call to prayer resonated through this devout neighborhood. We finished off with cay (tea) and an ice cream dessert with a cream of wheat like substance encasing vanilla ice cream (semolina halvah).
We caught the cab to Istiklal and Troy and I later headed to Ortakoy to meet his Dutch friend to watch the Holland-Portugal soccer match. Portugal won so Troy's friend was disappointed. I enjoyed walking around Ortakoy and watching the hundreds of people out on midnight on a Sunday night.
I can't help but marvel at how the people here enjoyed being outdoors as much as possible. Very opposite of our shut in air conditioned society.

Monday June 11 in Istanbul, Turkey

On Monday, we again awoke noonish, still adjusting to the jet lag. We got up and I had found a restaurant on the Internet that looked interesting. We walked down an alley and then saw the restaurant that seemed a bit fancy for lunch we then converged into a quaint stairwell street that contained many beautiful restaurants. We sat outside and had a leisurely meal and tea. We then walked down through a local commercial area with a variety of shops that appear to serve the local upscale community with interior decor items, etc. We then caught the tram to the New Mosque. It was every bit as fantastic as the Blue Mosque. We chilled out there a while in meditation. After the new mosque, we went to the spice bazaar. We quickly got swept into purchasing more rose tea, pomegranate tea and other teas that we did not need! It added up quickly as well. From there we made our way to the Grand Bazaar, the world's original indoor shopping mall. It contained a number of sellers of jewelry, rugs, tea sets, clothing, scarves, etc. It was truly amazing. We found some gifts and then got Troy a nice Ottoman ring. Then it was on for some tea outside the bazaar. We walked from there past Istanbul University with our objective to eventually get to Sur Ocakbasi, a restaurant that was featured on Anthony Bourdain's "No Reservations". On the way, Fariba and Troy wanted a beer, but we were in a more devout area and no beer was for sale. We noticed many more nargile places with young men smoking and drinking tea and watching the European championships in futbol. We then saw a place that I recognized from my tour book where they serve a fermented wheat drink called boza. It is like a pudding almost with a sour taste like lemons. We walked on from here to the Ataturk Boulevard where the aqueduct crosses. From here we went up to the restaurant. It was every bit as good as it looked on Bourdain. We were served a vast quantity of meats and vegetable and bread as well as ayran, the local yogurt drink, fresh made and drunk from ladles from metal bowls. The meat is cooked in a pit and has the flavor one would expect. We observed the many cats that you see in Istanbul. Then we saw some great honey shops with large containers of honey and the combs. We caught a cab back to the apartment and turned in for the night.