Gaziantep

 

Today I am going to talk about my trip to Gaziantep. Now, some of you may be asking why is it called Gaziantep!? Well, antep means pistachio in Turkish language. You might ask why must they put antep in Gaziantep. Because Gaziantep is famous for……..Pistachios!! Before you enter Gaziantep, you will see hundred thousand millions of pistachio trees. The pistachio plantations were along the whole way. If you happen to go to Gaziantep remember to try their pistachios!

The journey was a bit fun and a bit boring. The fun part was the view of the mountains and the boring part was the long journey.

When we reached Gaziantep, we went for lunch. In that shop, there was this food called BAKLAVA. My Dad told me that he had tried it in America when he was studying. He thought that if he starts to eat the baklava here, he will get addicted to it.

Then, my mom said, “It’s ok la, you won’t get addicted to it.”                        

So my mom and dad decided to try the baklava.

When it was served, my parents and I ate it. Once my mom took a bite, she realized that it was a sweet. My Amma got addicted to the sweet instead of my Appa.  The top of a baklava is made with filo pastry, in the middle there will be pistachios or nuts and at the bottom there will be melted syrup or honey. After we finished the baklava, we left the shop.

We parked our car in town then went to a Mosaic museum. The museum is called the Zeugma Mosaic museum. This museum is the biggest Mosaic museum in the world.

We saw a mosaic which was the most important mosaic in that museum – The Gypsy Girl.

Hello, I am the gypsy girl! 

When you turn the device that you are using to read my blog and see the picture, the girls eyes will follow you wherever you go. After the museum, we went to the cafeteria outside it. My mom and I had Magnum ice cream, my dad had Fanta and my sister had chocolate ice cream. After our rest in the cafeteria, we went to our hotel. The hotel is very far from the museum and the sun was shining like it wants to burn us as we were walking.

On the way back we saw these alphabets of Gaziantep. Can you find my sister?

When we reached the hotel, we thought that our hotel will be very nice, but when we entered the hotel room we saw cob webs at the corners, there were three flies flying in our room and the room was dusty! This hotel is the worst hotel that I had been to until now. After that, we went to a chicken rice shop. The chicken rice wasn’t as good as the chicken rice in Malaysia but I tried to look happy in front of my sister because, chicken rice is her favourite food.

The next day, we went to the Gaziantep Castle and saw some soldier statues. The view wasn’t that interesting. A fun fact about castles being built up a high hill - it is not to make us climb up and get tired, but it is for the soldiers to see enemies from far. After the castle we wanted to come to Malatya.

On the way back we stopped to eat lunch in Rumkale. The shops were partially on the water which was actually a dam. We parked on a hill next to the dam then took a van down the hill. The dam had cruises but, my parents didn’t want to go on it. After lunch we saw a terrace up the same hill where we parked our car but, it was on the opposite end. We took a ride in another van that was going up the hill. When we reached up we snapped some pictures from the terrace. The view was amazing. We saw a castle in the middle of the dam and below us were some cars. They looked so cute and tiny. After enjoying the view, we got off the terrace because, some of us are scared of heights.

I liked the terrace, the baklava and the museum a lot. When you comment on my blog in Facebook, if you could, please tell me your favourite place and where is my sister in picture number 5. Be sure to read my next blog about my trip to Mount Nemrut.