A scoop of chocolate, please

After the long Hagia Sophia tour on our first day in Istanbul, when Seamus declared he’s never, ever, going on another tour in his life, it seemed like a good time to treat the boys to some ice cream from the vendor in the Hippodrome.  As the boys selected their flavors, the vendor was intermittently whacking his three-foot long scooper around the edges of the ice cream cart.  We’ve since seen some vendors with cow-bells hanging overhead that get whacked as well.

Traditional Turkish ice cream is particularly gummy, and the vendors slap a scoop onto the cone and extend the end of the scooper with the entire very sticky ice cream come hanging off it out to the customer.  Customer grabs for the cone, and vendor yanks the scooper (and attached ball of ice cream) back leaving customer with an empty cone.  These antics go on and on.  Vendor sneakily puts the ice cream ball into a double cone, and when customer grabs tight to the outer cone, the inner cone with ice cream ball is yanked back.  Vendor adds a napkin to the cone and customer is left clinging to a napkin.  It’s really great fun, and we all get a big laugh every time.

The best moment came last night though, when we were walking around Ankara with an entertaining recent Georgetown Phd grad, Önür, who is now teaching Russian history here in Ankara.  After two days of bumbling around the city with not more than 10 Turkish words to my name, it was a relief to be accompanied by Önür who could talk, joke and finesse his way with all the locals along our route.  He said a few words to and ice cream vendor we passed and Booker and Seamus received another hilarious show.  Finally, they were each presented with a four-scoop ice cream cone.  Seamus was laughing but also not very happy about the chocolate scoop that was layered into the mix.  He is NOT a fan of chocolate ice cream, see.  Önür consulted with the vendor, who said it’s too late, impossible to remove.  As we were huddled trying to console poor Seamus, I looked back and saw the vendor with a special surprise for Seamus hanging from his scoop.