Lunch at Karaca in Rumeli Hisar with Ates/Mustafa Dilber

We woke around 7:30, relaxed for an hour, had yogurt, and then we walked for little over an hour to Hisar, just beyong the Bosphorus University campus, had a lunch of menemen at the Kale Cay Bachesi, as we watched the ferries bring tourists along the sea to see the various sights, especially Rumeli Hisar. It is always entertaining to walk the Bosphorus promenade, from Kurucesme to just beyong Hisar, all walk ways along the water. Hundreds of people are fishing, jogging, walking, with wives, chidlren, or with their dogs. Hawkers are selling fishing equipment, food like simits, and there are small huddles of fishermen, that I mentioned on an earlier day. One thing I forgot to mention was perhaps the most innovate business man; as we walked along the Bosphorus, with saw a line of about 20-30 balloons, a few yards of the edge of the bank, in the water. We were puzzled as to what they were until we go closer and saw they were targets for, I assume, some kind of pellet or bebe gun. For a price, you could see how many ballons you could break. Marvelous. We are meeting Ates, Mine, and Mustapha Dilber and his wife Leyla, for an early lunch. He is a professor from Bosphorus University; I knew him slightly from before and actually went to see him talk at KSU one evening, probably twenty years ago. I assume he teaches business or economics of a sort, and has taught in the US at times as well.
Ates picked us up with Mustafa, and we headed into Hisar to eat at Karaca, or Osman Bey’s from the old days. They had a table set for us upstairs, windows open, overlooking the water. The meal was more or less settled, as usual, beginning with a great salad, melon and bread; then the eggplant puree to finish the first course. Then, we had calamari and fried mussels, to set us up for our main course, a fish of our choice, in this case my favorite, lufer, grilled and sweet and mosit. After the fish, we had crème d’mint, then kave, then melon, grapes, pears, apples and helva, a Turkish sweet. We sat there and talked for at least two hours, as Mustafa is a neat guy, retired but still teaching three or four hours a day. His wie, Leyla, is very interesting as well. At the end of the meal, we thought we were heading home but Ates had other ideas, tea and sweets at his sister in law’s sons house, about 15 minutes from the city. They live in a gate community, a lovely home, landscaped with grass and a swimming pool, one of the kinds of communities that are springing up for white collar workers. This is actually the first single home family house with a yard that I have seen in Turkey. We had tea, of course, cheese, bread, the brownies and cheese cake to finish up. We had to leave early unfortunatley but the nephew was going to our village at the same time, so he was able to take us, driving fast but under control, through narrow back streets to avoid the traffic. Once again, we had an amazing day, a great walk, meal, conversation, and fun. We returned exhausted although it’s only six so we probably will not go out again tonight, just stay in an relax.