Şirince

I don't much feel like writing a lot right now, but fortunately, we had a rather laidback day so hopefully I won't need to! After waking up at 8:30 to have breakfast, I went back to sleep and didn't wake up for real until 1:00––ahhh, so restful. While I was snoozing, Marcos went and sightsaw at St. John's Basilica (did you know St. John wrote Revelations?) and took my camera to take "touristy" shots with. Even though I didn't get to see it, I feel like I did with all the photos! And now you can, too. St. John's Basilica was built in the 500s by Justinian the somethingth, around the tomb of St. John, Jesus' most trusted apostle. It is now in ruins, but has been somewhat reconstructed in parts. It's also really big! Here's a small(ish) sample of the shots Marcos brought back. (Also, for those of you who might not already know, you can click on the photos to make them bigger!)

Some lovely detailing

View of the town castle 

View of the south part of the town from the basilica

Storks!

A tortoise!!!

More lovely detailing 

St. John's Tomb from one angle 

And from another!

More of the basilica, including the tomb

Tiny amphitheater?

A model of what the basilica would look like if intact

He also visited the very derelict Temple of Artemis. It originally had 127 columns, but now only one remains (and was, of course, reconstructed). Storks live on it. I'm sure Artemis is pleased. Part of the floor of the temple is now a pool.

Marcos and I chilled out at the apartment for the afternoon, then freshened up and headed to Şirince for dinner. Şirince is a formerly Greek village about 15 minutes away from Selçuk, up a windy road on a steep hill. It's incredibly cute, which helps explain why it's become somewhat of a tourist destination.

See how cute?!

We got there after the crowds had left, though, and wandered around a bit taking footage and snapping photos before settling down to eat at Şirincem. The owner, Ali, took a liking to us and asked Marcos to take his picture, which we will email to him. Our table had an unimpeded view of the village on the hill, and I proceeded to take pictures as the night wore on:

We got the karnıyarık, split eggplant filled with ground meat (one of the words that Deniz taught us!), which was very tasty (especially with the pickled cabbage), the hummus (better than the stuff we had a couple nights ago––this reminded me of the now-gone Humble Beagle's version), and the gözleme with mushrooms, minced meat, and cheese, which was saltier and therefore tastier than the meat one we got yesterday.

Ali also gave us free watermelon afterwards, which was sweet and oh so tasty. Including drinks (non-alcoholic) and tip, it was 30 TL, roughly $7.50 each. Not too shabby by American standards, but I was glad we hadn't bought lunch!

Şirince is known for their fruit wines, so after dinner we wandered down the street a bit and tried a bunch of wines at one of the local stores.

Om nom nom

A full bottle of Şirince-made wine was 15 TL (the guidebook had said they run TL 10-20), and after taste-testing all 8 we walked away with bottles of the apple (elma), sour cherry (vişne! we all know I love my vişne), and strawberry (çilek, which the boy who was giving us tastes said women like, presumably because it's sweet––Marcos was a big fan, naturally). If we can't finish them before we leave Turkey, we can bring them to Berlin and have them on my birthday!

Tomorrow, we drive to Bodrum, where we'll purchase our tickets on the gület (boat) for the cruise the next day. Should be another relatively relaxing day! Though maybe with swimming, whee!

Ephesus

I write this on the terrace of our pension overlooking red-roofed houses, İsa Bey Camii, rolling fields, and a setting sun.

Every morning I wake up in Turkey, I feel so lucky to be here. While my bank account has decreased quite a lot, it is, as my mother likes to say, only money, and, as those Mastercard commercials trumpet, this is priceless. And I am so glad to have Marcos as my traveling companion––he's funny, he's sweet, he's the right kind of crazy driver, and he's adorable.

Obviously. [taken at lunch]

It's nice to have someone to split the costs with, too!

The library in the background for both of these, though further away in mine!

Today we woke up pretty early to head to Meryemana, Mary's supposed house, eating breakfast (with deliciously cute sigara börek, pastries shaped like cigars filled with cheese and spinach) before we headed out on the road. Upon realizing that Meryemana was not actually walking distance to Ephesus, despite what the Turks might say––we've noticed that their estimations of distance are often rather shorter than the reality: a "10 minute walk" usually means 20 minutes, and 200-300 meters is at least half a kilometer––we decided to pass and go straight to Ephesus.

We did, however, see the gold
statue of her. Good enough?

Our pension owners had told us that Ephesus is best seen in the afternoon, when there's not tons of tourists, but Lonely Planet had said you get the best light in the morning, so we decided to take our chances with the people.

Fountain (no longer operational)

Turns out he was right: there were thousands of people there, many from a Disney cruise.

Aaaaah so many people! And so many tour groups!

And relatively few signs, which was good for photographing/footaging, but not great for knowing what was going on (Troy's definitely been the most helpful in terms of self-guided tour material provision).

Part of the Lower Agora

I guess they figure they don't need to provide that, since the vast majority of people come as parts of tours.

Near the entrance: lots of stuff!

Many things were remarkably beautiful, but I didn't find it to be completely awe-inspiring.

Bath houses

This is probably because of the throngs of people––y'all know how overwhelmed I get when I'm around big groups, and this was just cranked up to 1000.

Library

The library was really lovely, though the whole time I wished there were still some of the 12,000 scrolls around to thumb through!

One of the arches next to the library

Also, it was stinkin' hot, and there were large patches with no shade (though the abundant columns did provide some cover if you stood in the right place).

As demonstrated here!

The Great Theater: Holds 25,000 people! I was tired, so I didn't walk up into it, but: big!

We spent about 2.5 hours there, and I was tired, hot, and thirsty by the end. While Marcos walked back to get the car, I sat at a picnic table at the lower entrance and read and drank a bunch of water.

Resting in the shade of the male latrines (or brothel, we're not positive which was which)

We then headed to the Grotto of the Seven Sleepers

One of the statues in the library façade

Oh hey it's apparently time to eat! Prayer is blasting out of the minaret of İsa Bey. Here in Selçuk (and Ayvalık, and Çanakkale, and even İzmir), it doesn't seem like many people follow Ramazan at all strictly, probably due to the number of tourists. The neighborhood of İzmir we stayed in was windy small streets and, when walking around, I saw very few women out, and those that were were wearing long skirts and head scarves; once we got on the main streets, though, and got closer to the waterfront, we encountered people eating, wearing high heels and strapless dresses. Just goes to show that cultural norms differ, even in close proximity. We'll have to see what it's like in Antalya!

The second arch of the Temple of Hadrian, the only photo
of it that I took, dangit; this one has Medusa on top

Anyways, we went to the Grotto but only for lunch, as we'd heard the Grotto itself is rather underwhelming. (The story is thus: supposedly, early in the ADs, seven Roman soldiers converted to Christianity and fled to hide in a cave to avoid having to sacrifice animals (/be killed). They were found by some other Roman soldiers who sealed up the entry to the cave; a few centuries later, a flood (or earthquake?) washed away the cave opening and the 7 sleepers emerged to find all their friends and family long gone. Marcos' reaction to this story: "puh-leeeze." Ha!) There's a nice restaurant nearby that serves gözleme, Turkish naan-tortilla-crepe-quesadillas, and has traditional floor seating under woven canopies.

We ordered 2, one with minced meat, onion, and eggplant, and the other with spinach and cheese. They were huge, and we could have gotten away with just one between the two of us, but we took the leftovers home and had them for dinner tonight! We also got fresh-squoze apple (elma, Marcos) and watermelon (karpuz, me) juice, and were very happily full when we left.

Back at the hotel, I tweaked our itinerary a bit (we're now going to Pamukkale; you can see the updated itinerary here [same link as original]) and then took a quick shower to wash off the dust-sweat-sunscreen layer, followed by a joint nap for me and Marcos. We woke up 3 hours later and sauntered off to the market, a relatively short (10-15 min.) walk away. We got there shortly before it closed, so some stalls were rather bare, but a lot were still fully stocked.

A selection of goodies at the market

I bought us some dried apricots (5 TL for about a pound) and dark Lambert-like cherries (3 TL for 1.1 lbs), which we ate with our gözleme out on the terrace for dinner. Marcos also picked up some peach juice (1 L for 2.5 TL), which continues to be very tasty.

Marcos likes to keep our room very air conditioned.
Strangely, I have been finding it to be very cold! How out of character.
So I borrowed his hoodie and put on my one pair of pants (pajama, of course).

Tomorrow we have another full day in Selçuk; we plan to sleep in (me) and visit St. John's Basilica (Marcos) and then do work (me) and either visit a weaving cooperative or check out the Ephesus Museum here in town (Marcos, and me if I'm super productive). It will be nice to have a relatively relaxing day!

School and Selçuk

Today, after a rather lackluster breakfast, I visited the Turkish Language Center, a Turkish school in İzmir, to get a feel for what it's like and if it's a place I would want to study.

See how sad? (Probably not, since I haven't posted any pictures
of our other breakfasts, but trust me: this one was sad.)

The woman at the front desk was not the same person I had emailed, as she only spoke German, but fortunately, I speak German, too!

They did, however, give us this nice clock tower

souvenir on our way out. But where are we supposed

to put it?!

So she gave me a tour of the facilities and we chatted about when would be the best time to start (she recommended summer). She said the classes are usually small, between 3 and 8 students, which would be quite ideal! I then had tea and talked with some of the current students, who were there for briefer periods than I would want to be, and sat in on about 20 minutes of a beginner's class. Overall, it was a positive experience! I still plan to visit schools in Antalya, Istanbul, and Ankara, but the TLC seems like a good, reasonably-priced option.

what up, Selçuk castle? (taken out car window)

After leaving the school, Marcos and I headed down the road to Selçuk, gateway to Ephesus. Our hotel is a cute boutique with lovely views and a canopied bed located away from most of the hubbub of the city (alright, town––it's about 30,000 inhabitants) but still within walking distance of sights.

Palm trees!

In fact, we are less than a block away from the İsa Bey Mosque, one of the oldest mosques in Turkey, a block and a half away from the Basilica of Saint John, completed in 565 and home to the supposed grave of John the Apostle, and a few blocks from the lone remaining column of the Temple of Artemis, one of the 7 Wonders of the Ancient World.

All photos of Saint John's Basilica, I think? It's hard to tell where one ruin ends and the next begins...

İsa Bey Mosque, from the hotel's terrace (you cannot see it
from our balcony, but hey: we have a balcony!)

Crazysauce, right? Selçuk itself is very, very cute, tropical and laidback and while the streets are narrow, there is enough room for 2 cars to pass each other, and the houses are much less closely packed than in, say, Ayvalık.

Part of the afore-mentioned terrace: mosque
in background, grapes in foreground, hello
photo op

We meandered down to a kebap place that had received good reviews; it was tasty, though a bit spendy ($12 for the both of us including kebap, grape leaves, and beverages, which...okay, not actually all that expensive, but we're working on a budget, people), and then I wanted to visit a baklava place that had received good reviews.

Our appetizer, yaprak dolma (though
they were called something else on the menu),
with yogurt and tomato dips; I failed to photograph
the kebap both here and at dinner, whoops

After wandering for a good long while and failing to find it, we stumbled upon another baklava store and I bought 2 pieces there, which totaled 4 TL: the most expensive baklava we've yet encountered! It was good, but not 4x as good as the stuff we had yesterday. Guess that just comes with the tourist town territory...

A rather baffling statue of Atatürk (I think?)

Once we got back, the hotel management came in and fixed our bathroom light (it wasn't working) and then offered to give us free tea on the terrace to make up for disturbing us. It was hot––the wind seems to have abandoned us, or we the wind, and it was 90+––but the view was beautiful, and the tea was good, and we got some ideas for places to go from one of the owners.

The view from the terrace: vaguely tropical, much less cramped

I went down to our room to rest, though was ultimately unable to sleep, while Marcos went out and took footage of İsa Bey and the Basilica.

Storks! They hang out around Selçuk from April to September

This evening we decided to wander once again, and after we took photos of some carpet sellers at their request, we solicited advice for where to eat. The place they recommended turned out to be right up the street from where we'd had lunch (as we discovered after getting lost a few times), and as we'd walked by it earlier I'd noticed they have humus and had remarked that I wanted to try some.

At the Garden Restaurant

So we had humus, and tavuk şiş (chicken kebab), and split a beer and a glass of wine. Including tip, it ended up being 38 TL (approx. $19)––another expensive meal, so we'll be eating cheap tomorrow!

Speaking of tomorrow, we're going to Meryemana in the morning, where the Virgin Mary supposedly lived the last years of her life, before going to Ephesus (Efes). Then I'll probably come back and sleep, and Marcos will either rest with me or visit one of the numerous other sites around town. Should be a fun, albeit hot and tiring, day.

How I feel about hand-washing clothing (my dresses) and
paying TL 20 per load to have the pension do it (for everything else)

There's also the weekly market, so we plan to go there (or at least, Marcos will definitely go, and I may join, depending on energy level) and get supplies for dinner. Mmm, food!