Most incredible dinner ever

[dragojustine]

Free day in Silifke. Most of us caught the dolmus to Kizkalesi, which his the public beach about 20 minutes along the coast with matching Crusader castles, one on the shore and one in the middle of the bay. We rented chairs adn umbrellas and parked on the beach, taking turns to swim. The water is quite salty, but absolutely still- no surf at all- and very warm. Melinda and I swam out to the castle- no one else was a confident enough swimmer for it. It was about 20 minutes of pretty steady but not too strenuous swimming. Most people got out there via these cute dolphin paddle boats. when we came up, one of the older Turkish guys helping with the boats did a very cute mime asking where our boat was, then if we swam in, then gave us the adorable impressed thumbs-up. You can't get into the castle, but you can pick around on the ledges and rocks outside, and it was fun.

About four hours there and then everyone wanted to go somewhere to eat. It was one of those awkward bits where no one is really taking charge but you're too intimidated to just leave the group and do what you want. We ended up having a little fiasco where we utterly failed at hailing a dolmus to another beach and ended up with a private bus trying to hold us captive for 50 lira each.

Headed back to the hotel and bummed around till dinner. Was going to walk to the fort and cistern in Silifke, but this massive thunderstorm hit. Afterwards, for dinner, Nina brought everyone to this locals pub she had found. no one there spoke any English, and we were clearly just about the only tourists ever in there. Caused much of a stir. The specialty was this dirt-cheap crab, boiled and sprinkled with paprika and chili powder and served with no implements except these wooden mallets. We ate absolutely massive amounts of crab, and it was loud and juicy and messy and fun and just wonderful. We got for 30 lira what could easily have been 60 dollars of crab at home. The local guys, when we first saw it and looked intimidated, kept coming over to show us how to crack it and feed us legs or offer one of their own claws. IT was clearly the kind of place local women don't go, also, and crab is apparently considered an aphrodisiac, so lots of thinly-disguised dirty jokes. But all in Turkish, and perfect gentlemen actually to our faces.

Most fantastic dinner ever.