On the way to Istanbul, Turkiye

Three friends and I started our tour of Turkey with Gate 1 yesterday, flew out of IAD in the evening and arrived in Istanbul the next day. The flights were uneventful, with a 4 hour layover at Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam, one of my favorite hub airports to Europe. We got some coffee at a stand near our transfer gate, found out that the cup itself, which I thought was cardboard, was edible, sort of a thick wafer. Great recycling concept!

Some staff from Gate 1 met us at Istanbul airport, there were quite a few other passengers on our flight who were joining the tour. Two minivans took us to the Millennium Golden Horn Hotel where we will stay for 2 nights. It was a very nice hotel, but a little way off the city center. I had nice room with modern amenities. After putting down my luggage, it was time for the meet and greet session. Our tour director Metin provided a lot of information, where to change money, some basic ground rules and some do's and don't's for visitors. Among which were, don't drink water from the tap, nor bring out your own water to a restaurant; most eating places include a 10% service charge (check the bill), no doggie bags, and of course, beware of pick pockets. We were a big group of 40, many were repeat Gate 1 travellers; we introduced ourselves to each other at the meeting. Following that moved over to the hotel restaurant where we had our first Turkish sit-down dinner. The four course meal was very, very good.

The beautifully presented vegetarian appetizer plate above included yaprak dolma, cig kofte, cheese, part of an artichoke heart, ezme (the red relish in the tiny star bowl), and humus.

The next course was borek (or burek) with cheese filling, accompanied by a side of fresh salad greens and a tangy dressing. As you can see, the dish was beautifully presented as well. The borek was a piece of layered phyllo dough that tasted more like very thin lasagna filled with cheese. It tasted a bit bland to me, but I ate every bite of it!

The main course was a slice of melt-in-your-mouth beef with mushroom sauce over mashed potatoes, with a few pieces of grilled vegetables. Yep, I cleaned out that dish as well!

And to end the meal, a selection of Turkish desserts: baklava with pistachios and the other with walnut, and a very moist semolina cookie that I think is called sekerpare. Despite a full stomach, I ate all of that, although I noticed that a few of fellow travellers asked to take the desserts to their room for later.