Eurasia Mega Trip 2026 - Days Fourteen and Fifteen - Transit To And Arrival In Alanya/Mahmutlar

 Sunday was devoted to travel. It is not actually that far from Malmo to the Mahmutlar of Alanya, but the nature of the actual travel made for a long day.

 Step One - Drive from Malmo to Copenhagen Airport

This involved finding a gas station, figuring out how to pay for the gas, filling the rental car, dropping the rental car off, figuring out where to get the transit bus of death (see arrival in Copenhagen post) , and getting to the airport departure terminal.

 Step Two - Getting to Our First Flight

Required going to the Terminal research said Turkish Airlines departed from, finding out the actual check in for Turkish is in the other terminal, schlepping to said other terminal, checking in, going through security and passport control, realizing the actual departure gate is in the terminal you originally went to, schlepping to said gate, gulping down a meal at airline lounge rushing to board and then boarding said flight.

Step Three - Transferring to Second Flight

Now in Istanbul, we must go by bus from the plane to the arrival area, clear passport control and security again, find the domestic airline lounge, figure out the special system for getting from the domestic lounge to the plane, taking the next plane to the Alanya airport.

Step Four - Getting to Our Airbnb

Wait for luggage which doesn't come out. Are found by airport personnel who let us know that as we came in on an out-of-country flight, our bags must still clear customs. Finally get into our transfer. Our actually met by our Airbnb host as the transfer arrives. Are helped registering which involves a fingerprint scan for entering the building, and finally get to the apartment. It was a good 21 hours before we finally got to sit down in the apartment and start getting settled.

We slept very late on Monday. It was 11:30 before we were out trying to find a supermarket as we had no food. There are two that are literally just outside the entrance to the building. Unfortunately Google Maps seemed to imply they were much further away so we did a bunch of unnecessary walking. By 1pm I was whipping up an egg and veggie scramble for brunch after which we collapsed again. 

It is quite hot here and we decided to not go out until after 6pm to look for something for dinner, get a few other items, and walk down to the water. The waterfront is about 3/4 of a mile from the apartment. We ate our first Donner Kebap for dinner, did a small amount of walking along the waterfront then returned to the apartment for collapse 3.0.

 Morning View from the apartment 

 

 Later view from same

 

My first experience with genuine Turkish style tea making apparatus. The apartment had left in it a HUGE bag of loose tea.

 

 You make the mother tea above very strong and add hot water to reduce the strength to taste.

I don't drink tea in general, but truly love Turkish Çay (pronounced Chai).

Enjoying Çay in traditional glass on apartment deck

 

Leaving the apartment to look for dinner

 

 

 Outside a traditional Parrot Kebap house

 

(That's not true. This is a pet store)

 

 First Doner Kebap of the trip

 

Lamb Hutay style with spicy tomato-pepper sauce

 

 

Chicken German style with salad inside

 

 

Walking the waterfront at nightfall

 

 

Arriving at home sweet home for the next three weeks

 

Eurasia Mega Trip 2026 - Final Malmo and Foodie Pictures

 And on the last day of Sweden, we were graced with sun once again. After a relaxing morning, we were off again in the good hands #3 Malmo tours. 

#3 Malmo Tours...Comfort is what we are all about

 

You will enjoy our 'brooding Scandinavian' walks

 

 At #3 we specialize in warm friendly service

 

 

 Even if you are a Cephalopod!

 

And if the tour group starts to lag and tire, we bring in the big guns

THE WEAPONIZED EXTROVERT (aka Sales Manger)

 

Malmo, despite not being known as a tourist area has everything one would want in Swedish tourist site

Operating Flour Mill

 

Unique Turning Torso Building

 

 Official redeveloping water front

 

 Masted Ship (one)

 

 Reflection shot with Masted Ship

 

 Water Fountains

 

 

Modern Art with Historical Building Background

 

A church (which we decided to save for a future visit)

 

 Junior Viking Club Training Sessions

 

 A McDonalds

 

 A Bird

 

 Final Swedish Foodie Entry

Nothing says Sweden like - Asian

This was a good place

 Spicy Wonton Soup

 

 Thai Yellow Curry

 

 A Kung Pao Chicken

 

 If you think Sweden, you think potato salad that is 50% mayo

 

 And herring. All the herring here is pickled. I prefer the Dutch version which is just lightly salt cured.

 

 Fika - the Swedish Tradition of coffee and sweets

Wife learning the Fika rites

 

 Her plate presentation with a variety of traditional cakes I don't know the names of

 

 Our last meal out at an actual Swedish place

Mini-Lobsters

 

 Fries flavored with stuff (not remembered)

 

 A Shrimp Salad Sandwich - VERY Swedish

 

 Swedish Meatballs - VERY, VERY Swedish

 

 Halibut

 

 Beefsteak

 

Eurasia Mega Trip 2026 - Polish Foodie Post

With only a couple of days in Warsaw, there wasn't a ton of time to do extensive food exploration, but we did manage to get a reasonable sampling of Polish cuisine. 

 Upon Arrival, we were super tired. We didn't get into the apartment until afternoon and hadn't eaten since early morning on the plane. So we opted for 'close to us' and 'familiar' 

 

 

 It was really good pizza

But the following day, Wife said, (and I quote) "I want authentic Polish Cuisine. A bit of research on Google and TripAdvisor, account for the fact we are in a very 'touristy' part of town, and we selected our location.

The food was quite voluminous and heavy. 

I wanted to try the herring as a Rotary member I know who is from Poland had mentioned it.

 

 Herring itself was slightly pickled, it had pickled onions, crushed beetroot with horseradish, and some kind of sweet/sour pumpernickel bread crumb accompaniments. 

The herring was fine but I found the accompaniments a bit weird.

Then the mains

Potato Pancake with Beef Goulash

 

 The potato pancake itself was excellent, the best item of the meal. It was totally reminiscent of the potato pancakes I grew up with and make to this day. You will not the cream on top of the goulash. That is a very common from our limited observation.

I had Braised Pork Knuckle

 

 Braised meat, particularly things like pork knuckle and lamb shanks are a favorite of mine so I was looking forward to it. Unfortunately, the meat itself was rather bland, and once again, the condiment flavorings were just not to my liking. The horseradish was not particularly strong. The mustard was sweet. So the dish, over all left something to be desired. However, with a sample of just one, I would hate to make an overall judgment. 

Street Food

On our second day, we definitely did not want to eat as much as we had the day before. Just as we were entering Praga Park we saw this kiosk. The three items on the sign are various types of fried pies very popular throughout Eastern Europe though of Caucasus Tartar and Georgian origin. Not knowing anything at the time we opted for two kinds of Bilaszy, meat and spinach.

 

 I 

 The flavor with both were excellent and they were a great value. I jokingly told Wife that I should write a review on Google for the place not thinking a kiosk would be listed. Wrong! The place has a 4.7 rating and thousands of reviews!

Then later, Wife really wanted to try some 'good' Pirogi. Again we lucked out with a place off the main tourist area. We tried both meat and cabbage and mushroom.  

 

The dough was nice and thin. The meat filling was quite good. But the cabbage had an overpowering sweet/sour flavor that I did not enjoy. 

Overall, I found the predominant flavor combinations not particularly to my taste. But, for any in the audience with more experience with Polish food, I would be open to further education.

Airport Food

A last eating experience was at the Warsaw airport before we left. We are used to airport food in the United States which is mostly pretty dreadful. We went to a sit down place and enjoyed scrambled eggs. Not a big deal? Well these were clearly fresh scrambled and cooked, with a very good quality roll for a fraction of the price you'd pay for any sit down restaurant in the U.S., let alone an airport.