Turkey Traveller

Black Cat Coffee came highly recommended to me as the best coffee in  Eskişehir and certainly didn't  disappoint . At first glance Black Cat Coffee is a fairly ramshackle affair in an endearing kind of way that adds to its charm. Its back street location a little away from the hustle and bustle of the city centre is refreshing as you can sit on a  relatively quiet pavement, chatting and smoking undisturbed.  The coffee house is filled with a collection of random objects and mismatched furniture that suggests that its primary purpose is the serving of quality coffee. The staff are relaxed and friendly and the service is unhurried in a good way, the coffee itself is superb with a decent selection of coffee beans from around the world, e ach cupful of coffee is freshly ground just before it's served (apparently this is where the magic lies).  Price wise it is also well worth a visit at just 5TL for a latte. Located in  Eskibağlar mahallesi Bayd...

Turkish coffee ( Türk kahvesi ) is extremely strong, dark and bitter. Prepared using finely ground roasted coffee beans that have been slowly heated to boiling in a small pot called a cezva . Turkish coffee is always served black and the sugar is added whilst the coffee is being boiled. If you want it with sugar order şekerli without sugar is sade or plain. Turkish coffee is sipped slowly and is so thick that the bottom of the cup is normally an undrinkable dark sludge, if your lucky enough to be drinking with a group of Turkish women they will often turn the cup upside down on the saucer allow the sludge to run down the sides and dry, ten minutes later the will read your coffee fortunes ( Falına Bakmak ) predicting your future by the patterns and pictures left in the dried coffee. If you want more European/Western style coffee order Nescafe, recently you will also find European style coffee shops selling caffe latte and cappuccino's. .

The humble Dolmuş (pronounced Dol-moosh) sometimes referred to as a shared taxi is the cheapest way to travel in Turkey, Dolmus buses vary from city to city sometimes a small minibus sometimes a converted transit van. They normally stick to a set route although I have known them to go off route to drop you off closer to you destination in Istanbul. Dolmuş stops are indicated by a blue bus stop style sign with a large white “D” on it in some areas in other areas there are no marked stops, however Dolmus buses will stop and pick up or drop off anywhere along their set route you just have to hail them like a taxi. The sign in the front window of the Dolmuş usually indicates the route of the bus saying both the departure and destination point. It is generally accepted that the Dolmus never runs on time, and in fact the name Dolmuş translates as a taxi that doesn't start until its full (stuffed full) with passengers. Once you have hailed the Dolmus take a seat and pass your money to th...