Antakya, Hatay

It’s not the most exciting title I could think of, but don’t be fooled; this area in Southeastern Turkey is WONDERFUL.

I spent the weekend with a friend and her family being hosted in the most incredible way. I have always found Turkish people to be incredibly hospitable, and generous beyond measure, and these guys were not different.

I arrived late Friday night, and Yasmin and her cousin picked me up and took me straight to Harbiye for a spicy durum kebab, a cold ayran, and a walk around the extremely beautiful site of Apollo. My immediate impression was how different the atmosphere was from the other parts of Turkey I had been to. The province of Hatay used to be a part of Syria, and that is very clear. Arabic is written everywhere, and the daily language seems to sway between Turkish and Arabic. I was told that many older generations don’t even speak much Turkish generally!

The city itself was much bigger than I expected, and also less conservative. From what I could garner from the family I stayed with, life is still fairly traditional, with traditional values and customs upheld, but with a very open-minded and fairly tolerant approach to other people. The city is home to not only a large Muslim population, but also Jewish and Christians. Indeed, the first church of St Peter is located here (though currently under renovation so i didn’t get too see it unfortunately!)

 

The food itself is also quite different. My favourite food is Antakyan (and therefore my favourite restaurant in Istanbul is Antiochia, in Asmali Mescit) and I was extremly well fed – high quality meats in ichli kofte, durum, tepsi kebabs, sish kebabs, the wonderful kunefe dessert (stringy melted cheese in pastry covered in syrup and pistachios) more coffee than I could ever drink in a week in Istanbul, and a new favourite – rose flavoured icecream, mastic flavoured ice cream, and something called “bucibuci” or something, bought from a roadside stall.

        

We went for a wonderful winding drive over to Samandag on the coast. We stopped off in a beautiful street of laurel trees ‘Dephne Yolu’ for the best gozleme I’ve had yet, hand made and cooked on a steel disc over a wood fire. We also stopped at a tiny Armenian church where I picked up some beautiful lace for my mum, handmade by the village women. (Sorry mum! I realised I forgot to send this to you!)

Samandag had a beach! And surf! The first I’d seen in Turkey. And a tunnel called Titus Tunnel. I could be less lazy and find something out to tell you about it, but I’m not going to. I’m sure you can wiki it :P

It was an incredible piece of engineering anyway, a good few thousand years old, and a few of the old stone houses were still intact to explore. One of the most incredible sites was a crypt from Byzantine times. As you can see the structure was still in fairly good shape, and I was mildly (but not overly) surprised to see all the tourists wandering all over, and throwing their rubbish into the empty burial plots.

 

      

Does anyone speak latin? Or read it? I think its latin but I’m not sure.

 

My last meal was a mangal, or barbeque amongst the greengage trees, with homemade wine and spicy chicken, kebab, hummus and babaganoush. Yasmin’s family gave me fivekgs of eriks (greengages) to take back to Istanbul, which Liz and I have tried our best to make a dent in!