Turkish Delight

Wednesday 30th April 2025

I know today's title is bad but feeling uninspired today.

Today was a big travel day, starting with a taxi to the airport after leaving beautiful Cavtat.  The manager of the hotel, the lovely Dubravka, was there to see us off at 6.45am in the morning. That is dedication!

And then a flight to Istanbul, about 3 hours or maybe 2 with the 1hour time difference, but that is not important. I had a row to myself at the back of the plane which was great except for the screaming baby who kept it up for the whole 2 or 3 hours. We were doing economy but still all got a box of food. Would you believe mine was not gluten free. Apparently, you have to tell them beforehand. I did have some nice meat and cheese minus the yummy bread roll and butter and jam etc etc

On arrival in Istanbul, no wheelchair!  Well, there was one, but another lady had plonked herself in it insisting she had booked it. 

After a bit of a 'discussion', I had had enough and thought we could just do it ourselves.  

Big mistake.  

It was quite a walk to passport control without the wheelchair and without the concierge whisking us through the disabled shortcuts. Lots of walking and standing and escalators. Finally, it was baggage pickup time but we(me) went the wrong way and had to do lots of extra walking to find it. And then it was not easy or quick to get out of the airport, especially with the taxi driver constantly ringing wanting to know where we were and to hurry up. He even said he was busy. No pressure......

We eventually found the exit and then more walking to the taxi and an almost 2 hour trip to our hotel, the Fes Hotel. It was meant to take an hour but the traffic was horrendous. No lanes or rules but lots of helpful honking! 

We arrived finally and it was quite a nice hotel and in the centre of things but all very hilly. This may not be ideal.

Just up the hill. Note stairs.

front door

The room

The room looking straight into the bathroom. scary until we were shown a blind that could be drawn for privacy

bed with bathroom exposed

shower with pretty mosaic

The rooms are around a kind of central opening with water at the bottom. Quite pretty going up and down the glass lifts.

After a rest, we needed food. Again the need for foraging in a strange city with lots of hills. But the nice english speaking concierge was able to suggest a restaurant nearbyish so off we went.  Hills, cobblestones, and uneven paving and cars and motorcycles seemingly able to go anywhere.  A little scary for the disabled.

The restaurant had some understanding of gluten bloody free food and the food was great. 

Nice bar

No gluten free beer for me.I had water.

We ordered mains but they also brought out all this other food. Beautiful turkish bread for Paul and hummus dip and a nice bean dish. The nice lady, realising I was unable to eat bread brought out the carrots and cucumbers to have with the hummus. So lovely and healthy and i almost felt normal.

My main of chicken skewers was very goodPaul had chicken curry, also very good.

At the end they brought out baklava for dessert and then nice fruit for me.  Very thoughtful and really nice and fresh.

A really good turkish coffee to finish our meal.  

Back to the hotel for a rest and good news, there is a gym!

Eventually we decided to have a look around and head to the blue mosque, which we were told is 4 minutes' walk away.  Given the hills and you know what,  maybe a lot longer.

He looks famous

pretty square

minaret in the distance

look a cat.

a mosque

might come in handy

outside the blue mosque

nice whatever that is

quite  a few of these vans selling roasted chestnuts and corn. The smell was amazing.

nice

The blue mosque

We will return tomorrow to actually go in and have a good look.

And then food which was completely unnecessary.




Guess who had which bread



Guess who had which meal.

We finished with a lovely turkish tea

And then on the way back to the hotel, we found another cat who was very happy to pose for a photo.  Apparently, cats are big in Turkey as well. Yeah

Tomorrow more mosques and other sights and hopefully more cats.

Kidnapped in Cavtat

Tuesday 29th April 2025

You would not believe that it could happen but yes today we were kidnapped again!! 

But before that we had another great breakfast in the beautiful dining room overlooking the front bar and water.

The view at brekkie

And then off for a nice easy flat walk along the waterfront in the opposite direction to yesterday's walk.

So tempting but no.

Beautiful from the other side of the town

But then we came upon a section of the walk that looked seriously uphill and very much not to my liking. If only there was another way up.

And then a man came along in a golf cart.  I am sure I manifested him. (Ommmm etc)

He offered us a lift up the hill or so we thought but once on the golf cart, he headed straight up the hill and then another to take us to the Hotel Croatia despite our repeated requests for him to just (#$%^) stop here!!!!

Once we were there, he suggested we have a drink in the bar, have a look around and he would drive us back down a bit later on.  The Hotel Croatia is a sister hotel to the Hotel Supetar where we were staying so this kind of made sense. Except we had not wanted to go there and did not want to buy a drink there or have a $%^& look around.  We did not feel we could leave immediately so we sat on the nice balcony looking out over the water from the opposite side to our hotel. 

nice views

Lovely and then time to leave.  We walked out unsure if the golf cart man would be there just as he wooshed away another couple to somewhere they did not want to go.  Luckily my eagle eye had spotted stairs going down the hill whilst I was looking for possible escapes.

Anyway, we found the stairs even though some people are so sceptical.

And yes I had to go down more than 100 stairs on a day of rest and no stairs!!

And some interesting water craft on the way back around to our hotel.

And more nice photos.

What an interesting and tiring morning. 

A swim was very much needed.  Our lovely 26 degree pool was very much appreciated today.

And then time for lunch! 

Paul had a burger and chips because he can

I had a salad without any of the nice balsamic cream or other nice dressing that normal people can eat.  But mine was so healthy and the best cherry tomatoes I have had in years.

And look a cat at our feet.

I think it is time to talk about the cats of Croatia.

They are everywhere and while many are strays, many are owned or just looked after by cat ladies. 

Apparently, cats are well respected members of Croatian cities, particularly in Dubrovnik where they were introduced in the 14th century to help fight the bubonic plague spread by rats.   Centuries later, they are still looked after. But also causing a problem with so many strays and possible disease etc. Not all good news.

But it has been fun cat spotting with the cat couple on the cruise and now with Paul. He is loving it!

After a rest in the afternoon after all the $%^& stairs, we had a drink on the hotel balcony looking out over the water. Lovely.

This is the Hotel Croatia right across the bay from us. It has a thousand rooms compared to the Supetar with only 16 rooms. I know which one I prefer.

Time to pack and plan for dinner. Foraging for our own food is very difficult especially now that the Lady Eleganza, our ship is in port. We walk past it over and over and look with great longing...

Dinner at the Konoba Teranj

Nice looking over the water.

Paul's gluten free stuffed capsicum

My gluten free prawn skewers

Pretty sunset after dinner

and prettier

Only our second ice cream on the trip to celebrate our last night in Cavtat.

We say goodbye to Cavtat and the Lady Eleganza.  We may never see you again.