Selcuk
Trip Start
Feb 05, 2008
1
52
70
Trip End
Ongoing
Selcuk,
Izmir,
Turkey
Monday, July 21, 2008
outside of town. Rachelle who we met in Olympos had stayed there and
it also comes highly recommended by the guide books. The place was not
unlike the spots in Olympos, $25 a night, breakfast and dinner included
but this one was much nicer with a pool and an outdoor pool table,
great tunes playing all day and a good vibe.
Jakie and Sean spent just one night before spending the next day at
Ephesus and heading back to Istanbul to catch a flight to Dehli. Talk
about from the frying pan into the fire.
Ephesus, perhaps
Turkey's most famous attraction was quite something but for me it was
not spectacular. The Acropolis kicks hell out of it for instance.
That said, it was at least the one attraction I'd seen so far in Turkey
where the 10 lira admission price was easily warranted. It was easy to
spend a couple hours enjoying the ruins. I sat up in the stands of the
massive amphitheatre--it seats something like 22,000--and read my book
for a while. Every now and then three or four tourists would gather on
the stage below and sing opera
Ephesus
. It was fantastic. There was anItalian trio and a pair of brits who really laid it out, both to
uproarious applause when they finished. Because Jackie and Sean
decided to stay on at the ruins for extra time, I managed to avoid the
requisite trip to the carpet shop that accompanies the 'free' transfer
to and from Ephesus and finished up the afternoon with a tour of the
Selcuk and the museum, which actually had a kickass gladiators
display. That movie wasn't far off the mark.
The next day I took a one-day tour, three hours each way, up to
Pamakalle. A pretty decent smorg lunch was included and the guide was
fantastic. She spoke openly and knowledgeably about current affairs in
Turkey and how some things work, like the education system for
example. She made it clear that at least she is strongly opposed to EU
membership. After a couple of weeks in the country I'd have to guess
that is the sentiment among the majority. Her reasoning was suspect as
she suggested that the transient cotton picking workers would loose
their jobs when membership in the EU forced the industry to move to
harvesting by machine. Hmmm...
Pammakalle was impressive. Apparently sometimes the water levels
in the natural pools are too low to permit soaking in them. I was
surprised to hear this and would have been bummed had I not been able
to take a dip in the waters that are fabled to be all healing
1-Ephesus
. We werefortunate. Lots of water. Lots of tourists. It was smokin' hot. One
could not help but notice the bus-loads of Russians who come to soak in
the water and strike sensual poses against the calcium white rocked
backdrops of the pools. We had about two and a half hours to enjoy the
pools, a little sun, $3 waters, $4 cokes and $6 beers before getting on
the bus at around 4:30. When I got back to Atilla's at around 8:00,
dinner was waiting and everybody asked me if enjoyed the posing
Russians...
I spent my last day wandering the streets of the picturesque and
serene nearby village of Sirince. It's known for its wine and home
made olive oil based soaps. Other handicrafts were also available at
surprisingly low prices. I joined Carlos, an El Salvadorian now
teaching math in L.A. and and auzie couple, Dana and James for lunch at
a very authentic out of the way Turkish restaurant where we enjoyed
ayran, the turkish salty yogurt based beverage and some golmeze an
stuffed zucchini flower. This was surprisingly cheap as well.
Later in the afternoon I returned to Selcuk where I ran into the
Brown brothers, fresh off their midday visit to Ephesus where they had
fallen for the antique coin scam, although I don't believe they were
cognizant of the scam until I did them the pleasure of bringing it to
their attention. Basically it involves wandering a bit away from the
throngs of tourists on the grounds of any given ruins or historic site
and stumbling upon a maintenance worker, complete with tools, who calls
you over and says that he's been working on the site for some time now
and has managed to keep a few of the coins or other artifacts he's
found. Yeah, right. I was more than a little surprised these boys
went for it. But damn, those coins do look real. We had a few beers
and some laughs before they got thoroughly pissed and got on their bus
to Istanbul. I would get the night bus to Istanbul the next evening
for another of my beloved 12 hour overnight rides. After a day and one
night in Istanbul it'll be a quick flight out to Bucharest, Romania.
