To Market, To Market

When we travel, one of our favourite things to do is to visit the local markets.  We love the atmosphere - the smells, sights and sounds - created as folks go about their daily life in the towns we visit and open-air markets seem to be a focal point in that regard.

This morning we asked at the hotel front desk about shopping opportunities. Yesterday we had been in the centre of Bodrum and decided that the souvenir shops and other businesses were so geared to tourists (and FULL of tourists) that we just couldn't be bothered.  The young woman at our hotel helpfully advised that we order a taxi and go down the road about 5 kilometres to the shopping mall called Oasis.  "Ah! said I. "At last I will see some real shops selling genuine goods, as opposed to the knock-offs we've been seeing since arriving in Turkey."

Unfortunately, the mall did not fulfil our intention to be parted with our money, although D2 did purchase a good pair of shoes at a very reasonable price. The range of shops was simply not there, so I didn't find what I was looking for.  Never mind that - I was looking forward to visiting our SECOND Wonder of the Ancient World for this trip!  We had already been to the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus earlier in the week so we could tick off one Wonder.  The opportunity to visit the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus was going begging.

We caught a taxi from the shopping mall to the Mausoleum.  I'm not even going to include a photograph, such was our disappointment.  Rubble.  Just rubble.  And not even very much of it.  A few broken bits of old columns - ionic, I think. Rubble, all the same.  Still, two out of seven Wonders is pretty good in anyone's language.  I'd still like to see the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, though.

Deciding that we should probably do a little exercise today and ignoring the ascending temperature of the day, we decided to walk back to the hotel. First good decision of the day.  We accidentally came across the fresh food market, which is apparently open only two days each week.  Not only did we have a wonderful time just wandering down the aisles, looking at all sorts of delicious fruit and vegetables at RIDICULOUSLY cheap prices compared with Melbourne, but we discovered that the outer rim of the market is where the local housewives bring their freshly prepared cooking and baking, to sell. They sit one beside the other, probably catching up on gossip, sharing recipes, talking about their children, complaining about their husbands but most importantly offering their wares for purchase - some baked goods still on oven trays, some cooked items still in pots.

My two favourite Turkish foods are gözleme (very fine pancake filled with spinach and feta, then cooked on a griddle) and börek (also fine flaky pastry with filling, traditionally rolled and curled around and around before baking).  These were both on offer, amongst other things (for example, we tried the stuffed zucchini flowers filled with buttered rice, then stewed together).  Of course, each of the ladies wanted me to say that her cooking was better than her neighbour's, so I had to buy more than one of each. Poor me.

Börek

Gözleme

Here are some images from the market visit.

To finish our impromptu lunch, of course we needed baklava (layer upon layer of filo pastry filled with crushed pistachios and soaked in lots and lots of syrup) and my new favourite Turkish dessert - these amazing circles of deliciousness which are rather like a cross between a Spanish churro and a donut, but also drenched in syrup.  These are available in every Turkish town, from street vendors with carts laden with mountains of them.  It's a good thing we can't get these at home.

D1