We only met once for these two weeks and we discussed the potential topics for my cultural presentation. In the end, I decided to talk about Turkish drinks in my presentation but I found Turkish breakfast and tourist spots are also very interesting topics that I want to share in my last journal.
Turks very value their breakfast and usually need to spend some time preparing breakfast. A typical Turkish breakfast consists of cheese (Beyaz peynir, kaşar, etc.), butter, olives, eggs, tomatoes, cucumbers, jam, honey, kaymak sucuk (Turkish sausages, can be eaten with eggs), pastırma, börek, simit, poğaça, and soup. So it is always very nutritious.
Turkish breakfast has a special dish called menemen, which is made of tomatoes, green peppers, onions, olive oil, and eggs. Turkish tea is always served with breakfast. Turkish breakfast can be translated to “kahvaltı”, means “before coffee” ("Kahve"="coffee"; "altı"="before").
Turkey's daily staple food is rice, vegetables, bread, and barbecue.
In western Turkey, olive oil is very productive. In Turkey, olive oil is used for cooking. The Turkish food, mantı, is very similar to Mantou or steamed bun in China or mandu in Korea.
Tourist spots:
The first one is the blue mosque.
Located in Istanbul, it is an important landmark of Istanbul. The walls of the blue mosque are carved with beautiful patterns on a white substrate. It makes the whole mosque blue. This building is very beautiful and historical.
The second one is the Bosporus Strait.
Bosporus strait is a territory near the Black Sea, the only way out of the open sea. It is because of this strait that Turkey is divided into two parts: Asia and Europe. If you sail through the Strait by boat, you can see the very beautiful scenery.
The third one is Pamukkale.
Pamukkale is totally made by nature, though it looks very artificial. The scenery is very beautiful. It seems to give people a sense of relaxation. This place is famous for hot spring. There are not only thousands of years of natural hot springs in Pamukkale but also all kinds of strange hills like marshmallows.
The fourth one is Goreme National Park.
The Goreme National Park is an important symbol of Turkey. This place is famous for its magnificent volcanic rocks and very ancient cave churches with beautiful hot air balloons. After years of wind and sun, it will lead to extremely uneven road conditions. So people usually take hot air balloons to visit.
The fifth one is the Troy ruins.
Troy ruins is a very famous site in Turkey. There is a huge Trojan at the entrance. The Trojan is very big. This has become one of the most important cultural landscapes in Turkey.
Comments
Absolutely beautiful! Thanks for sharing all of these pictures. Goreme National Park resembles something of Grand Canyon, Southwest vibes...the color is so vibrant. If not in Turkey, I hope to see parks like these in the United States.
Thank you for sharing this post! I want to visit Turkey someday in the future. The hot air balloon is on the top of my bucket list. I also enjoyed hearing you talking about different Turkish drinks during your final presentation. I'm looking forward to trying those drinks when I visit.
Thanks for posting such an interesting topic! I was surprised that breakfast played such an important rule in Turkish food culture because I can hardly remember a country that has similar custom. That might related to living style. People in China or the U.S. looks busy everyday and only have time to grab a cup of coffee in Starbucks every morning. So I really appreciate Turkish life which is slow and leisured.
These places look extremely beautiful! I actually barely knew anything about Turkey before I saw this post and this was just completely mind blowing to me. After seeing this post I looked up more tourist spots in Turkey and I found the swooping rock valleys of Cappadocia. I really want to visit Turkey someday now and definitely take a hot air balloon ride over the valleys of Cappadocia, and definitely get into the hot springs in the travertines of Pamukkale.