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Kofte (meatballs) and kebabs are also rightly famous in Turkey. At Hamdi Restaurant’s romantic rooftop terrace, overlooking the night-lit New Mosque and Bosphorus Canal, our favorite is a delicious grilled minced lamb, cumin, pistachio and onion creation. For distinctive Ottoman cuisine, where elaborate dishes are flavored with dried fruits, we head to Nar. We could easily spend more time in Istanbul. But then we’d miss Bodrum, both a peninsula and a town, an hour’s flight away on the southwest coast of Turkey. And we’re keen to see for ourselves what all the buzz is about. Jutting some 25 miles into the dark blue Aegean, the hilly peninsula is a celebrity hotspot – sightings include Beyonce, Tom Hanks, Sting and Elizabeth Hurley – as well as a popular summer holiday destination for Brits and Europeans. Bodrum town is also a starting point for a multiday “blue cruise” in a gulet (traditional Turkish yacht) along Turkey’s famed “Turquoise Coast.” In July and August, the town throbs with nonstop nightlife. But you can escape the throngs by staying in one of the pretty outlying villages, like Torba or Golturkbuku, favored by the wealthy from Istanbul. Sandy beaches are few. So instead, the small resorts and boutique hotels have wooden decks on stilts extending over the sea, with ladders for entering the water to swim. We spend the days like sloths, reclining on plump cushioned loungers under shade canopies, rousing every so often to slide into the crystal water for a dip. Occasionally, we catch a dolmus (public mini-bus) into Bodrum – to tour the 15th century St. Peter’s Castle and its shipwreck museum, and for dinner at the fish market, where restaurants cook up the fresh seafood you buy from stalls. CRUISE HOLIDAYS 45
GEORGE MUCALOV; RAWDON WYATT / ALAMY; MARSHALL IKONOGRAPHY / ALAMY
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