Turkish Wine of the Week - Turasan 2015 Misket and A Bosphorus Cruise

Recently I discovered that a new friend owns a yacht. And while I would love to be friends with the idle rich O is not idle, she and her husband have a travel agency here in Istanbul and the yacht is one of the services they offer. However she kindly offered to take a bunch of us out a couple weeks ago for a Sunday Bosphorus cruise.

Ortakoy Mosque & the First Bridge

So on a gorgeous, sunny afternoon we all met at the Kabatas dock to board the Zoe in what was going to be a three hour tour (and don't think the Americans didn't giggle at that). Three hours turned into four and half as we cruised up the Bosphorus admiring the palaces and architecture along the way and stopping near the Black Sea, practically underneath the infamous Third Bridge, for a swim.

Anadoluhisari

Of course I wasn't going to miss the chance to sip a wine as I pretended to be idle rich myself. It's not everyday a girl gets invited aboard a yacht (although if anyone does have those days often please tell me how!). What wine would go better with a Sunday summer cruise than a semi sweet? So I broke out one of the Turasan wines I had shipped from the winery in Cappadocia: Turasan's 2015 Misket.

One of the things I like about Turkish Misket (or Muscat as most of us know it) is that they are generally of the semi sweet variety; they're not cloyingly sweet dessert wines. Turasan's isn't quite dessert-level sweet but it is sweeter than I like my Miskets.

In the glass it's, a bright, extremely pale yellow and smells, of all things, like champagne. I love aromatic white wines and Muscats usually deliver in that respect with a lot of floral and tropical notes. On the palate there was little acid and it felt a bit thick however some of that might well have to do with the fact that I wasn't drinking it at ideal serving temperature. A few degrees colder would have made a world of difference. The flavor was very nice following the aromas from the nose: tropical, citrus, and white flowers. I did not get the orange blossom though that I love so much in Miskets.

Maiden's Tower

Pricing on this one is a little difficult. I ordered directly from Turasan so I got the winery price of 28TL. The Cave sells these for mid/upper 30s, and Solera has a mid 50s price tag. It's worth the 28. At the risk of sounding like a credit card commercial, drinking it on a yacht on the Bosphorus, priceless!

The best thing about it? You can do it too if you're in the city! The Zoe is for hire for private events of I think 10-12 people. It was recently written up in The Guide Istanbul magazine and you can contact them for hire information via the Zoe Yacht Cruise Facebook Page. Bon Voyage!

5 Slightly Off the Beaten Path Things to Do in Istanbul

When most people think Istanbul the images that come to mind are the Aya Sofia, the Blue Mosque, the Bosphorus...of course these are fantastic sights and I'm always happy to go back to the museums (especially since thanks to my Museum Card I don't have to pay for most of them!) but there are so many other things to do and see here that get overlooked.

1. Markets

Shop like a local and visit some of the weekly markets around the city. Some of the markets are largely food but some of them carry everything and anything you could possibly think of...and some things you can't.

Fatih Çarşamba (Wednesday) market is one of the latter, you can find just about anything at this market. It spreads out behind the Fatih mosque so if you're unfamiliar with the area it's probably easiest to take a cab.

Beşiktaş Saturday market  - located between Taksim and Örtaköy, you can either walk to this one down Dolmabahçe Cd then up Şair Nedim Cd, or take bus 43 from Taksim and get off at Ihlamur, or take a cab.

Inebolu - This Sunday market starts early (around 6) and closes early (4). It's worth the early wake up to get to this one though. Vendors from Turkey's Inebolu Black Sea area set out late Saturday night to set up their wares in Istanbul's sketchy Kasımpaşa neighborhood on Toprak Tabya Sokak, Kucuk Piyale. 

Besiktas Saturday market

Yeşilköy's market is also on Wednesday. In a classier area of town this 2,000 stall market offers a variety of products and vendors who take credit cards. Take the 72T from Taksim or the 81 from

Eminönü and get of at the Park stop. Alternatively you can take the inner city train from Sirkeci and get off at Yeşilköy where apparently there is a free transfer service.

If you're looking for a market on the Asian side then head to Kadıköy on Tuesday or Friday. The Kadıköy market is huge with over 4,000 stalls, many of them run by women. To get there from the European side take a ferry from Karaköy or Eminönü then take cab or bus 8A to Mandira Caddesi or S.Er Bulent Altinsoy station. 

2. Wander!

 Get lost, it's ok. If you're worried about getting lost make sure to get a business card from your hotel and carry it with you to show cab drivers. For me though, wandering is the best way to learn a city.

Istanbul has some amazing architecture, much of which is sadly deteriorating.Wandering is also a great time to take advantage of Turkey's tea culture. Stop in a tea house for a rest, a game of backgammon, and chat with some locals.


3. Dolphin watch

Sadly I don't have any pictures of dolphins. It seems I never have my camera on me. Dolphins are not an uncommon sight while traversing the Bosphorus. Even if you don't see them though, it's always fun to ride the vapur and enjoy a çay and a simit.

4. Kariye Müzesi

The Kariye Müzesi, or (St. Saviour in) Chora Church is my favorite of the Istanbul museums. It's probably the best example of Byzantine art and architecture left in Turkey and while it may be a mere fraction of the size of the Aya Sofia, its mosaics and frescos are far better preserved. You also won't have to Photoshop out of your pictures as many other tourists. Given its not central location, the Kariye Müzesi is not as well visited as are other museums.

It's a bit of a trip but totally worth it. To get there, take the tram to Topkapı stop then switch to the light rail and get off at Edirnekapı. From there, walk to the nearby, large intersection where you will take your life in your hands and cross Turkish-style (ie sans signal and crosswalk) and you'll start seeing signs for the museum.

5. Eyüp Cemetery

Nearby the Kariye Müzesi is Eyüp. While it sits outside Istanbul's ancient city wall, Eyüp is of huge importance to the city. It is home to the Eyüp Sultan mosque, the burial place of Eyüp Ensari, standard bearer of the Prophet Mohammed. In addition to visiting the mosque, Eyüp's market area and main square are a much quieter cousin of those in Sultanahmet and are a nice break from that area's tourist experience. 

In addition, the Eyüp cemetery is famous for its highly decorated grave markers and shaded pathways. Even if you can't read the old Turkish script (similar to Persian) you can tell a little about the person buried there by the decorations. A woman's marker will often be decorated with flowers, one for each child. Fez's adorn the grave markers of a paşa, the size of a turban reflects a man's status, and third type of hat (for which I don't have a name) indicates the grave of a member of a Sufi order. However all three of those headgear having been banned at one time or another you don't see them on the more modern graves.

There are a lot of ways to get here. If you're already at the Kariye Müzesi you could actually walk, take a ferry, or hop in a cab. But if you're starting from a little farther away take the ferry from Karaköy or Eminönü.

Whether you walk up through the cemetery or take the cable car, the views at the top are spectacular and it's worth the climb to sit and have a tea while taking it all in.

Blue Cruise - Another Check on My Turkey Bucket List

Blue Cruises are one of the things to do in Turkey in the summer. I don't particularly like the sun or swimming...but I do love boats so I've been curious about doing one of these for a few years. Then as luck would have it, a group of friends decided to arrange a trip and invited E&M and me to join!

Blue cruises are usually from four to seven days long and generally, I think, depart from Fetihye or Bodrum. We did a four day cruise over Fourth of July weekend out of Fetihye so E&M and I got up stupidly early in the morning on the Thursday to catch our flight to Dalaman (the nearest airport to Fetihye). There we joined my other friends and caught a 10TL bus to Fetihye (and then a taxi from the otogar to the liman) where we boarded the ship that would be our home from the next few days: the Seaborn Legend.

We hung out on deck while the crew stocked the ship and got us ready to put out to sea-the Mediterranean to be specific. Apparently while we at the dock something other than supplies was also introduced to the ship. After dinner our first night out we were all relaxing and suddenly a cat, terrified out of it's poor, little mind scampers across the deck, sees us and freezes, then runs and hides as fast as possible. We were all as startled as the cat. We asked the captain if he happened to have a cat on board as a pet (no, he didn't) and then in that case what should we do about it. This is why I love Turkish people. He looked at us a little bit like we were slow in the brain and very matter of factly said "We feed it." I could hear the 'duh' he wanted to tack onto the end.*

Where we hung out during the day and slept at night.

The food was amazing.

Once we were underway it took a little while to get our sea legs! There are no shoes allowed below deck but mostly we didn't think there was a need for shoes period so we ditched them as soon as we got on board. I loved, loved it when the boat was moving. We never "sailed" the sails never went up and we just used the motor the entire time but it's understandable. When you're in motion for less than an hour at a time and dropping anchor twice a day putting up and taking down sails is a lot of extra work. Still, the breeze and the salt water spray were exhilarating sails or no sails.

Tea time on the ship!

In every cove we stopped there was swimming, snorkeling, kayaking, scrambling up rocks to jump off, and more. Cleopatra's Cove even had the ruins of a bath where she was reputed to take her famous milk baths and a rope swing which we rowdily employed.

At one stop there was a chance to go ashore and hike across the island to another cover where the boat would meet us. When we were preparing for this trip that sounded like a fantastic idea to me but when it came time to actually do it...nah. I stayed on the boat with a friend. We sat on the prow and enjoyed the ride to the next cove.

I wondered how you'd store four days of food to feed 12 people on the boat but it seems I needn't have worried because there are market boats! There was a bread boat from which we got possibly the best bread I've ever had in my life. She actually bakes the bread on the boat so it was fresh and warm every morning. There was a full-on market boat with produce, eggs, etc, and an ice cream boat.

Sunrise at Cleopatra's Cove

Sleeping topside was fantastic. Most of us slept up every night. The moon was so bright that we couldn't really see any stars the first few nights but when they came out they were beautiful. I didn't even mind the rising sun waking me up because that was gorgeous too! And of course the sunset was magical. We only got one because it was either hazy or we were in the wrong place to see it the other nights so the night we did get it we were all crowded in the front near the prow snapping away.

To top it all off I got the chance to fulfill my "when I grow up I want to be..." dream. Sort of anyway. I want to be a pirate. I'm still fairly serious about this. A wine connoisseur pirate. Our last night on ship I asked if I could take the wheel a bit-mostly I wanted to get pictures of me and Klockly (the bunny in my hand-that's a whole different story) sailing the boat. So I hammed for the camera a bit and made to turn the wheel back to the actual captain but he told me, no keep going.

So I did! I sailed that boat like a pro. Well...better than I drive car. Although really only because there weren't any other boats around to hit. I'd look at the captain every once in a while to make sure I was ok and he kept giving me thumbs up. Except for the one time he came up beside me, said I was doing well but...then pointed way over to my 10:00 and said that we were actually going over there. Oops.

Arrgg me hearties!!!

* Despite looking for the stowaway cat, which was dubbed Sailor Cat, and feeding throughout the trip we never did find the poor thing. The Seaborn Legend now has a mascot. If you want to sail on her and make friends with Sailor Cat get in touch with Ali at www.mybluecruise.com