Hotel Bella Selcuk

No visits today, just travel, and it was tiring. I got to imagining Paul's itinerant life. He moved so often and made a home in so many different cities, that today I just marveled at that fact. I headed southeast to a town called Selcuk, next to ancient Ephesus. Paul spent at least two years here, and quite possibly longer. I got to wondering how much different life might have been then, such that it seemed-at least for Paul-that easy to pick up and move around so much. My Navy days notwiths...

Today was probably the most travel-oriented day of my sabbatical, with the exception of leaving and coming home. I got up and packed and ate breakfast. I checked out of the wonderful Kelebek, sorry to leave there. I made the 45-minute drive back to the airport in Nevsehir with a stop for gas. When I got to the airport, the gentleman who was supposed to meet me wasn't there, but he had sent someone else to pick up the car. Once we had that straightened out, I went in and waited for flight numb...

Selcuk is a nice little city. Just down the street from my hotel, there is a little pedestrian area with shops and restaurants and lots of friendly people. I was thrilled to discover last night that a couple I had met in Goreme who are Episcopalians from Oregon had left a note inviting me to dinner. After the crazy, exhausting day, it was so wonderful to have dinner with them. They had already been here for a couple of days and were leaving; so I got some good insight from them about the area...

Today was a long, adventurous day. I wanted to visit four sites that are well over 100 miles from here. So I loaded up what I needed for the day: GPS, camera, water, rain jacket, hat, sunglasses, money, credit card, etc., and I headed west.

The maps in the GPS for Turkey are not that great, so it seems to be a bit of a stretch to get to remote places. I used Google maps to try to locate these four sites and then download those locations into the GPS.
Well, the first problem with tha...

Well, it's been exactly four weeks since I left Denver. I'm heading tomorrow for the third country, seventh lodging (first apartment rented), seventh plane flight, and first subway, to count just a few things. I'm gallantly resisting the temptation to compare places and experiences, to say one place is "better" than another. That's really not the point, and each place has brought incredible blessings. I've gotten really, pretty good at the traveling necessities. I'm glad I packed so lightly, ...

Kusadasi, Selcuk At last, we're in Turkey! After a short, sunny ferry crossing, we arrived in Kusadasi (Kushadasee), a sprawling modern city. We began walking toward the hotel referred to us by Costas in Samos, when a man pointed to the card David carried, saying, "That's my hotel!". It was Yusuf from the Anzac Golden Bed Hotel up the hill from the port. He popped our luggage into a taxi and met us at the hotel to check us in to two delightful rooms with balconies overlooking the city. Sandra...

Flew to Istanbul and onto Ismir and then took a train to Selcuk. Must admit that I was getting nervous on the train ride in a very rustic train and very bleak countryside but was pleasantly surprised when we arrived in Selcuk. It is a quaint town with lots of shops and restaurants in a compact downtown area that we could walk to from our hotel. Turkish people are really friendly but guess I should say men since we really did not see or talk to any women!. Ephesus is the famous ruins nearby an...

Selcuk From Foca it was only a few hours drive to our next destination - Selcuk, which is a small town or large village right next to the famous ruins of Ephesus. To get there we had our biggest driving challenge yet - getting through Izmir, the 3rd largest city in Turkey (around over 2 million people - a gnat compared to Istanbul, but still full of crazy Turkish drivers). Our maps showed a ring road freeway that would be perfect for us avoiding all hassles and cutting masses of time off our ...

Awake at 3 am again (but only for a short time!) - now that it is Ramadan, there is a guy who walks the streets around 3am, beating a drum rhythmically to tell all the good Muslims who are observing the dawn to dusk fast that they should get up and have a meal before its too late. Unfortunately he's also setting off a car alarm just down the road, so the noise goes on a bit longer than it should!. He comes around again at night, after the fast is broken for the day, beating his drum - this ti...

Our last day in the Selcuk area. There are supposed to be some really nice beaches very close by, which get totally mobbed in the summer months (July & Aug), but should be less crowded in Sept, so off we go to find them. First stop is Pamukac Beach, only a few kms from Selcuk and really easy to find, Lonely Planet writes it up as one of Turkey's best beaches. We get there and its deserted - one guy fishing and a few people swimming at the far end. Plus the blokes with the digger dredging out ...