Text 11625, 66 rader
Skriven 2014-03-30 19:18:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
Ärende: trip 408
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Breakfast was included. I forget anything about it.

Though our stay had been perfectly fine, I'd been looking
forward to a weekend at the Renaissance Izmir, less than a
mile up the road, so we dragged our bags there and checked
in. A quite nice circular atrium, polite staff, and a bar
in what would have been the corner if there had been one.
This also serves as the club lounge.

As soon as we entered, some guy grabbed our traps, no ifs
ands or buts. Though I am but Gold here, we were greeted
like the king and queen of Spain and given the last room
on the left on the corner of the seventh floor, a location
I will long remember.

The digs - gorgeous. The bathroom and luggage closet were
about the size of the whole room at the other place. Then
there was the bedroom and the semicircular sitting room
with its view across the street to the park and Love St.;
I thought lascivious thoughts, but this turned out to be
just another street, though with nice palm trees - they say
the most perfect in the city - lining it, so it's considered
very romantic by the locals. Bathroom with a rain shower and
a traditional dip bath; separate little toilet room half the
size of the shower if that.

Lilli said she could spend her entire weekend in the room.

But the city called, and off we went. The chic neighborhood
Alsancak didn't appeal right then, so we walked southward
down the seaside Kordon (not the spiffiest part thereof and
undergoing noisy, dusty renovations); found a place called
Hayat that had a sandwich board that I seemed to understand
some of.

For L10 there was what seemed to be a special of fish and
beer, and L20 got you a glass of wine and some lamb kebabs.

So we sat down and had a pretty good and filling though
unexpected meal. Again using my charm and impeccable
communication skills I ordered our lunch.

Salad and bread came first - perfectly respectable, enough
for a full meal, truth be told.

It took a long, long time for the food to come out. Not
sure if they had to wake up the cook or find the ingredients
or if they were trying to get us to order an extra drink.

Well. I thought I was ordering fried fish. What came was a
big pile of lamb liver cubes with French fries, some onions
tossed in sumac (good) and even more greens. At least I got
the beer right, and a frosty Efes was just the ticket. The
liver was delicious, the fries good enough, and I could
ignore that extra pile of lettuce. More than enough food.

Lilli's lamb skewers were tasty, though the first one (of
5 or 6) she tried was overcooked. The rest were fine. She
also got those fries and lettuce but in addition was given
a nondescript pilaf and some grilled hot peppers; she ceded
me both, for which I was grateful. Her wine was worse than
the Lufthansa wine.

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