Do you Cruise to Eat?

                    or do you Eat to Cruise?

A few years ago a friend persuaded me to go on a Gullet Cruise on the Aegean coast in Turkey. With some reservations I agreed and my wife and I booked a traditional Gullet with 6 other people  for a week. It turned out to be a fascinating few days and I could spend hours telling you how we sailed the boat with the help of the crew (i.e. engines stopped and sails up) or how we snorkel dived to catch our supper. Instead I will try to explain about the ships rations by encouraging you to spend 2 minutes looking at the Utube video on the left. After all they do say a picture (or video) is worth a thousand words.   Ed.

         A typical street market (Kusadasi) 

Most towns have STREET MARKETS at least once a week and the larger towns and cities have two or three. Kusadasi has a large Wednesday market that has just been moved to a more central position in the town. I took a short 2 minute video of it the other day and it sells just about everything and everything. However, the Friday market is mainly for food and is patronized mostly by local Turkish people although you will see sightseeing tourists.

                                                                                   Click on the picture to see video>>>>>

                                                  A Wedding Celebration (Cesme)

I was in the small resort of Cesme recently and I snapped this picture. You would be excused for asking what this van was doing travelling through the middle of town honking its horn with a load of lads banging drums and blowing pipes?

Well, it's all part of a wedding celebration and is quite normal to see these processions. Some will have many vehicles and make such a din you can hear them in the next town. Others will have more people on foot with a traditional Turkish band and the bride in her traditional Turkish dress riding a donkey or a small horse. 

Out of interest Cesme (pronounced Cheshmah) is a charming Turkish small town holiday resort on the tip a peninsula that sticks into the Aegean. Travelling back along the peninsula you get to Izmir which is Turkey's third largest city. The holiday season in Cesme only last about three months when the well to do Izmir residents escape the heat for the sea breezes at the tip of the peninsular.    Tim