turkey

Last weekend was the Turkish festival. I met Carrie down there shortly after lunch and we pretty much went straight for the Turkish coffee. We had a bit of a wait while they made some more, but it was delicious, of course. We opted not to have our fortunes told, and while I think it may have been fun, the last time I had a friend read my palm it was a good fortune and I'd rather just leave it with that.

We walked through the stands of food, inhaling the delicious spices used for the kabobs and even the smell of fresh, warm baked pitas with spiced hummus. When we arrived, the music was contemporary and sounded almost like house. If it was Turkish house, it was awesome and I would love to hear any recommendations. When we got back to the stage, the schedule was back to traditional music and next to the stage was a screen rotating images of Turkey. I watched mostly that while we listened to some music briefly and then headed back to Dupont for lunch. To keep with the spirit of the day, we went to Levante's for some hummus (which was some of the best hummus I've had in awhile), I had a grilled vegetable pita and we both finished off lunch with another Turkish coffee.

Oh, and on that, I did buy a small canister of Turkish coffee. The only downside is that the instructions are all in Turkish, so I'll have to try Carrie's instructions since hers are apparently in English. I'll let you know how that turns out.

I stopped by my apartment to put the second half of my sandwich away and then headed back to the Turkish festival right around closing to meet another friend of mine. Like earlier we went for the Turkish coffee first, but I wisely declined some, because I'd also had a big cup of coffee earlier that day, plus the other two coffees. I don't usually get wired from coffee, but when we sat and chatted for awhile, I was pretty wired.

We stood again for awhile listening to the traditional music, which at first was upbeat and yet also mysterious in a way. I really enjoyed that set. The next set was something slower, and while it was nice, it didn't pull me in enough to forget that I was standing in fading sunlight after walking and standing for most of that whole day. So we stopped at another food stall so he could get a quick bite and then sat down in the plaza and chatted and caught up, with the music in the background until it was time to close up shop.

I've wanted to visit Turkey before, in much the same way that I've wanted to visit...Peru or Germany. It was on my list, but wasn't quite up there in the top with Paris, Greece, Prague or Cambodia, the places I really, really want to visit soon. But I think that now it's moved up there. I've always loved the food (and the coffee) and have fairly recently been interested in its history, but the images on rotation and the atmosphere have really bumped Turkey up on my list.