Piril Otel Cesme

... days were Brian's turn and today it's mine. Best guess is that he picked up something in Athens or on the boat over to Turkey.

So we've been in Urla. Not a tourist town in the least. I did a little internet search that came up with nothing. Asking the guy at the hotel what there was to see in town came out with blank stares. But just watching the day to day workings of this little quarter of the city are interesting enough for me.
Urla, İzmir, Turkey 2totango

... not!
People are certainly kind enough through. Shop owners repeatedly showed me the same bad mps over and over again touting it’s desirability. At one gas station I found a faded tourist map in the window, and when I asked where I could get one, the man shook his head, but went to his car and brought out an extra map he had floating around. The woman at the car rental place did the same pulling ...

... and the person you're talking with takes the paper to his friend down the road for interpretation so you can continue your conversation?

Where do you smell burning coal for properly cooked tea?

Where do museums note prize artifacts with labels like: 'male statue', 'coins', and have dates of 'Roman Period'

Where do they set fire to your nostrils and ears as a part of a routine haircut and ...

... my requested trip from turkish Cesme directly to italian Ancona (2,5 days) was suspended for unknown reason. So there was the other option to use a 3-stop-strategy to get to Italy.

First stop of my ferry journey was the little hop from turkish Cesme to Chios. And that means HELLO GREECE, HELLO EUROPE!!! Ok, it also means hello high prices...

... to eat which served steak, and it was an expensive meal but one of the best steaks I've ever had. Chris said the same of hers. We had asked if they had any amaretto for Christine, but alas no. However, when we’d finished the meal the waiter brought out a couple of crème de menthe liquors on the house, so that just topped it off nicely.

http://www.umitevotel.co m

... with amazing murals and icons. There is also a famous icon of the Virgin Mary (without child) here along with some really beautiful mosaics inside the Church. The church also houses an out building which houses several bones from victims of a massacre in which the deceased were either shot in the head and killed, had a sword jammed into their head and killed or impaled through their rear ends and left to die (perhaps the worst way to to as death was ...

... of those vanity shots where I set my camera up then set the timer to allow me to restage my activities. Then I left my tripod strapped to a dead tree branck. So that was the last I saw of it.

Like most of these hikes and climbs I make, this one may appear more intimidating and difficult than it actually was.












Once I ...

... a very toothy grin. After the first look I tried to consciously ignore making eye contact with her.

Well, by the time we arrived at the Chios harbor we had become well enough acquainted. He had even lived a couple of years in Eugene, Oregon in a somewhat peripetetic life. And, as they had three hours to wait for their on-going ferry to Athens and then Italy, I suggested that we have a dinner together after I found lodging in a pension. And thus we did, Rita, Bob and I.

... ideal!' Tout 'I give you special discount on my leather jackets/carpets etc, very cheap' Punter fantasises Northbound tout meeting with a Southbound Custard Tart but, in the knowledge that it will make no difference, reverts to a polite 'No thank you.' and walks on. After a hundred metres or so the tout seems to give up and the next one takes over. In Izmir they were undoubtedly a pest whereas their more experienced brethren in Istanbul made the trips into the bazaar a genuinely ...

... in the sins of lust. Next stop, the local pub which was really behind the restaurant I had dinner in. The locals sang Turkish folk songs.. one of the guys in the group lived in America for quite a while so I was really glad that I could speak to someone properly in English for a while. Playing with guitars, singing, drinking.. I just couldn't believe my luck!! These guys actually invited another friend of theirs to the pub because that guy ...