After the bustling city of Istanbul we arrive in Dikili, Turkey. Dikili is located in western Turkey and is known for its natural beauty and relaxing atmosphere. Dikili's beaches have crystal-clear waters ideal for swimming and sunbathing. We try Menemen or a classic Turkish breakfast as well as kokoreç, a delicious Turkish sandwich.
It's 12pm and our ship Celestyal Journey has docked near Dikili but because it is a small port, the cruise ship can’t dock right at the port so we have to take tender boats to shore. That means those on excursions disembark first at 12pm starting from larger groups to small and those of us like Mr NQN and I who don't have a shore excursion booked have to wait until mid afternoon to disembark the ship.
This actually is no problem, because after yesterday's frenetic pace in Istanbul, we enjoy the quiet change in speed. At 1pm we make our way to to the Taverna restaurant on board the ship for lunch. This is our first time having lunch on the ship, because we are usually out on shore excrusions or doing our own thing but I cannot keep my hunger at bay and while I had all intentions to eat at a local restaurant around 2pm my growling stomach commands me otherwise.
After doing a quick round of the buffet and saying hi to all of the friendly chefs, I choose what to order. The lunch selection is made up of a hot selection, as well as fill yourself pita, sandwiches, hotdogs and roast meats. There is even a large bowl of melted cheese to add to your hot dog or to make nachos. I start with a soft, fluffy pita bread and fill it with tzatziki, onions, tomato, lettuce, French fries and delicious seasoned chicken - all it needs is a bit of salt and pepper. It is absolutely delicious and the pita is so soft and fresh and the filling perfect for lunch.
Dessert is a cake with kataifi and cream, as well as Paris breast and fresh fruit.
We sit and eat lunch on the deck of the ship watching the tender boats go back-and-forth and listening to the music from the nearby mosques drift across the harbour. We decide to wait in our room for our tender boat to be called and it's almost 3pm by the time we set foot in Dikili as we are one of the last groups to be called.
This town with a population of 47,000 people is a nice change from the busy pace of Istanbul. Dikili is quiet and full of people enjoying the coastline. We walk along the promenade, watching people feed the fish as well as fisherman catching fish. The weather is perfect with a cool breeze and warm sun on the skin. There are steps to go down into the water for a swim - most people don't seem to use the pebbly sandy beach, instead they set up a towel on a wooden bench and walk down the steps straight into the ocean for a swim. On the grassy area nearby people set up chairs and tables for beachside socialising while dogs laze in the sunshine.
After a while we stop at Mama Moni cafe for a drink and a snack. I’m not particularly hungry, but I am determined to try a Turkish breakfast even if it is mid afternoon. There’s a large table of people eating and when we walk through the entrance, they look up and smile welcomingly. I take a seat at the table near the sleeping Labrador Bobby while Mr NQN runs around the town taking pictures.
Mama Moni is a Turkish breakfast restaurant that are known for their menemen or Turkish eggs. When I had heard that we were going to Izmir I really wanted to try menemen because it is a typical Izmir breakfast. You can also order a range of gozleme or a a breakfast set menu made up of cheeses, olives, cucumber, tomato, cigar pastries and jams.
I also order some Turkish tea and orange juice (alas the lemonade that I had read about is not in season) which they bring along with an ashtray. The orange juice is so sweet and freshly squeezed.
A woman with a kind smile and a green kerchief in her hair delivers the food. She's actually not Mama Moni, Mama Moni is sitting in front of the cafe and she's actually from Germany. The menemen is made up mostly of vegetables like tomato, onion, green capsicum and green beans with a bit of egg added to it. I opted for the spicy version and it is absolutely delicious. It’s the perfect breakfast in that it is wholesome, healthy, perfectly filling and light. For those needing a bit more sustenance, it comes with a big basket of bread.
We decide to head to the other end of the promenade where we find a range of street food, market vendors and a proliferation of barbers. I try and convince Mr NQN to get a haircut (the other day he said he needed a haircut) but he isn't convinced.
I am in search of kokoreç or Kokoretsi a delicious Turkish and Balkan sandwich made up of lamb and small and large intestines and sweetbreads. I'm looking for Lider Kokoreç but we are not sure we are at the right location. A woman who sees us looking around offers to help and directs us to the shop. The people in Dikili are lovely and regard us with friendly curiosity. It doesn't seem like cruise ships are super common so they aren't tired of cruise ship passengers.
In our very broken Turkish and with the help of google translate, we try a half kororeci. They bring a small bowl of pickles and Turkish tea and then I can hear them frying the offal. It arrives split open on a soft bread roll. I take a bite. It's absolutely divine and tastes mostly like lamb meat without the trademark flavour of offal, just its richness. Mr NQN takes a bite and doesn't even realise that it is offal until I tell him afterwards. To him it's just a delicious sandwich.
Around 5:30pm we catch the tender boat back to the Celestyal Journey and get ready for dinner at the Smoked Olive, one of the specialty restaurants on deck 8.
The Smoked Olive is the free restaurant for suite guests but is also available for other guests through their Italian menu that you can pay extra for. Service is very friendly and funny here and it's a bit more casual than Grillseekers. There's also a dedicated wine menu that is more comprehensive than the regular bar menu. We go for some non alcoholic drinks-a lemon mint lemonade for me and a mocktail for Mr NQN.
They bring an enormous bread basket to us filled to the brim with two types of pita bread, whole wheat bread and white bread as well as a giant bottle of olive oil.
There are three types of pizzas available: margarita, a calzone or prosciutto and rocket pizza. We decide to go for the classic margarita which is quite good although enormous. You could easily just have this and a salad for dinner. The chilli oil is quite mild though, a spicier chilli oil would have been lovely.
I didn't realise that all of the dishes would be such large serves but they are enormous. I love the flavour of the saffron and sparkling wine risotto and the generous amount of seafood that is perfectly cooked. The squid just melts in the mouth it's that tender.
It's hard to choose a favourite pasta but this squid ink tagliolini is probably the favourite out of the two. Not a scrap of this goes back to the kitchen as Mr NQN stops short of scarpetta-ing the bowl.
Had we known how large the meals were we wouldn't have ordered the roasted tomato and burrata salad. The tomatoes are lightly roasted until sweet and then served with quinoa pilaf with a burrata. The filling of the burrata isn't very runny, it's more a solid mozzarella ball but it's quite tasty because of the sweet tomatoes.
The desserts are from the complimentary menu so they are included in the cruise price. Alas they are out of the lemon sorbet so they bring mango sorbet which is fine although it's hard to compete with the mango gelato we recently ate in Sicily.
I haven't had much cheese on the cruise except for feta so I order the cheese selection. This is made up of four cheeses including brie, cheddar and gouda with roasted walnuts.
Afterwards as it is 8:40pm by the time we finish we catch the last half of the ABBA show in the auditorium. The shows draw a really large crowd and when the show finishes the ship becomes busy with people shopping and going to bars. After the ABBA show I am determined to scout out all of the places that I haven't yet seen on the ship. And that includes the elusive Thalassa restaurant which we bookmark to try tomorrow!
So tell me Dear Reader, have you ever tried kokoreç or menemen?
NQN and Mr NQN were guests of Celestayl Cruises but all opinions remain her own. We flew to Europe with Vietnam Airlines.
Celestyal Cruises
A similar cruise is priced from $1289AUDpp twin share for a 2025 voyage: https://celestyal.com/au/our-cruises/7-nights-au/idyllic-aegean/
Vietnam Airlines
Vietnam Airlines offers 23 flights per week connecting Sydney, Melbourne and Perth to Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi. Vietnam Airlines is continuing to add new routes having recently announced new flights to Milan, Munich and Delhi.
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