Six days in Istanbul (part 2)...

Six days in Istanbul (part 1)...

We spent the following day and a half in Selcuk alternately exploring and lounging by the pool. It was great to have the time to take things at such a leisurely pace.

In the morning we checked out the museum while it was uncrowded, and then wandered into town where Mark got the full Turkish barber experience complete with flaming-wand and face massage!

Later we climbed up the hill near our hotel to check out the ruins of the Basilica of St John and the Ayasuluk Fortress before enjoying an afternoon shandy or two by the pool.

On our way into town for dinner we finally ran into the shop owner Ali, whom our friends had recommended we meet. We introduced ourselves and then headed to our reservation at Wallabies Aqueduct Restaurant to see our friend Mehmet/Jeff and enjoy the inauguration of the upgraded fountain over another excellent dinner. Afterward we stopped in at Ali's shop for a drink and some very entertaining stories about his life and business.

We had planned to take the train from Selcuk to Izmir Airport, but Ali told us there would be a free shuttle bus for us since we were flying on Atlasjet. The shuttle is not advertised by the airline, and it apparently comes to an unmarked stop in town, 135 minutes before each flight.  While the train sounded more interesting, unfortunately the train schedule was poorly aligned with our flight time, so we decided to take the shuttle.  That gave us an extra couple of hours in town in the morning where we came across the Saturday market.

As it turned out, the shuttle was almost 20 minutes late because it was stuck in traffic so we began to seriously doubt its existence. We came within a hair's breadth of bailing on the "non-existent" free shuttle and jumping in what would have been a very expensive taxi. In the end, we made our flight to Istanbul with time to spare. :-)

July 23.  We just realized that the Turkish word for Ephesus is Efes, just like the ubiquitous Turkish beer. Coincidence? I think not.

We chose to walk to the site, which is no big deal. 30 – 40 minutes, but Mark wanted to enter from the Upper Gate so there was another 50 minute walk from the Lower Gate. It was hot, and we were offered rides from all sorts of horse carriage drivers. They wanted 40 lira – no thanks. In fact, I was glad for the exercise. On the way, we each got a lovely peach from a farmer's roadside stand – so delicious!

We finally made it to the Upper Gate and followed the Lonely Planet tour down. The site was PACKED as by this time it was about 11:00 and I was already hot and tired and we hadn’t even started yet!  A lot of the magic disappears for me when it’s crowded, but when you’re at a world class historical site, you gotta suck it up.

There were two highlights for me. One was the public latrines – okay, so I’m not sorry I didn’t live at that time. The second was the library – such a fantastic building. Oh, and the third was the amphitheater. It held 25,000 people – again, I felt tiny.  Mark liked the Memmius Monument where according to the sign, "at present there is no reconstruction at the site, but instead a Cubist modern architectural collage", Sometimes it's hard to tell the difference. :-)

After recharging a bit with a tamarind soda at the gift shop, we headed back to the hotel for a well-deserved dip in the pool. I figure we did about 12 km of walking – not much in my normal life, but not bad while on vacation!

In the evening we wandered about the shopping area before dinner looking for the elusive “Ali” that LEMA spoke of. Instead we found "Marco" outside one of the shops that sells the whole gamut of good-to-high quality souvenirs. He was a no-pressure, friendly guy and recommended we try Ejder restaurant for dinner. Turns out Bill Clinton has eaten there. It was good, and we devoured a mixed grill platter (the chicken was especially tasty) but didn’t linger. Instead we explored town for a while, checking out an evening market, stopping at a Turkish delight shop for a few sweets (yum!) and finally rested at a place for raki, backgammon, and apple tobacco water pipe. Mark had all the luck -- it seems he rolled nothing but doubles. I enjoyed the apple smoke so a good time was had by all.

July22. Mark woke early to book flights from Izmir to Istanbul ($80 each – so much better than a 9 hour bus ride!) Breakfast by the pool (!) and we headed off to the “Cotton Castle”.

I was rather disappointed with the place, truthfully. There are SO many tourists (I shouldn’t be surprised) and the beautiful pools I remember from Mark’s 1991 photos have pretty much dried up or disappeared. I suppose there’s a reason that this place is a popular tourist destination and I’m glad to have seen it, but I certainly would not go back. In fact, you just can’t go back. If it was a bummer for me I can only imagine how Mark must have felt.

The ruins of Hierapolis above the travertines are pretty great. But I’m getting to the point of “another ruin” like it’s “another cathedral” when in Europe. It’s just so hard to wrap my head around how old stuff is here. That said, these ruins, especially the Roman theatre, are very well reconstructed. 

We were done with the Cotton Castle and Hierapolis by 2pm so we returned to our hotel that was holding our bags, ordered a beer and hung out by (and in) the pool until it was time to go. Much better than waiting at a bus station!

This was the first day of our daytime fasting. We both feel that we’re getting a bit pudgy and worst of all, my clothes are getting tight which makes me grumpy. So, like the Muslims during Ramadan, we’re (kind of) fasting during daylight hours, or at least between breakfast and dinner. If they can do it, so can we. We’re not all that strict, and let me tell you, it makes dinner taste GREAT!

Our digs in Selcuk were at the Akay Hotel and at 200 lira per night ($100 CAD) felt like a blow out. Unfortunately the hotel was over-hyped in the guidebook, but once we vetoed the dark room in the bottom back corner and took the bright one on the top floor with a view over the garden and pool, we were happy.

After landing at the hotel we showered and headed out for dinner. Wallabee’s Aqueduct Hotel was beckoning! Mehmet, aka “Jeff” was charming and welcoming. We received an amuse bouche of tomato soup, and I had the octopus while Mark had grilled sea bream, a local fish. A salad, a bottle of white wine, and life is great. We had a spectacular table, or it would have been spectacular if the fountain was working. J The stork nests on the nearby Roman aqueduct, and the kittens were entertaining.

After dinner we decided to stop at Denis cafe for raki and backgammon. I got trounced, and can’t really remember the walk home...

In the morning there was still a bit of time to wander through the bazaar and shopping area where we saw our first golden soother, and the spankiest men’s fashions ever! I’m guessing the suits were wedding attire, but I’ve never ever seen ties like the ones I saw there! 

We stopped at a tiny shop for our first “tost” (delicious grilled cheese sandwich) and tea, wandered around some more, packed up, and hopped on the very crowded dolmus to the bus station. Turns out the 11:00 bus was full, so we were stuck at the station for 2 hours before beginning our 7 hour bus ride to Denizli. Thankfully we had books :-)

We stopped for a 30  minute break about 30 minutes outside of our terminus, Denizli (who makes these schedules?) but fortunately made our connecting dolmus to Pamukkale with 10 minutes to spare.

Our accommodations in Pamukkale were at the Melrose House hotel. Our room was great – air con, fridge, deluxe decoration, and a ROUND bed! Ha ha ha!! We arrived late, about 8:30 pm, dropped our bags, and headed into “town”. There’s not really much of a town, maybe 3 streets, but the first thing we did was check the bus schedule to get out. We weren’t about to make the same mistake as we did in Konya! 

We soon found ourselves at the base of the famous travertines (calcified rock formations) where we found a pretty little garden restaurant with live music, cold beer, and peanuts. A very enjoyable way to end the evening, to be sure. 

We broke up our bus ride to Konya with a short pit stop about 90 km out of town at a very well preserved caravanserai called Sultanhani. The road from Goreme to Konya is part of a well-traveled historic trading road (the Silk Road) and the Seljuks built a string of trading posts and rest stops called caraverserai in the 1200’s. It was a pretty awesome stop when I think about it – just like most things around here. Canada is just so young!

We pulled into Konya at about 3:30, and did the usual. Find our place, drop our packs and explore. Our hotel was a centrally-located, cheap, cheerful, and spotless place called Ulusan Otel. The best thing about it was Ali – who was super friendly! Plus, at 70 lira, it was a bargain!

We headed to the Mevlana Museum, home of the Whirling Dervishes. There are only ceremonies on Saturdays so we were out of luck for that, but the museum has a great exhibit. And, it was free for some unknown reason!

On the way there I got to experience a bit of "real" Turkey -- the Turkey that Mark remembers, with the carpet sellers being super friendly and inviting you up for tea. We managed to hold off Nazif the carpet seller, at least for the short term, but Mark had to swear a solemn promise that we would return that evening.

Despite being PACKED, the museum was interesting. The tomb of Rumi, the mystic philosopher and founder of the dervish order, is inside and is splendid and grand. There are also tombs of other notable dervishes, all of which have slightly smaller but just about as ornate sarcophagi. They are covered in a beautifully embroidered fabric and are topped with a tall felt “hat” with a turban at the base. The number of wraps of the turban indicates the importance of the individual.

We headed for the exterior rooms which housed “a day in the life of a dervish” exhibits. It’s a rough go, at least as tough as that of a monk, I think. There was a particularly good room which showed the dervish’s practice board (looks a lot like a large Bosu board, but square) and some dervish mannequins in full spin.

On our way back to our hotel, we stopped at a grocery store in search of beer to have in our room. None to be found unfortunately, but we did run into Nazif the carpet seller. He offered to buy us ice cream (which we declined for fear of feeling indebted to him) but since we promised to stop at his shop on the way home, we followed him over there.

He didn’t do any hard sell, and was a skillful salesman, but once he realized that we really meant it when we said we don’t actually like Turkish carpets enough to want to buy one, we moved from business to pleasure. We got to talking about other subjects, and as a trio, left the shop and headed for a very pleasant tea garden for tea. We talked about many things and were with him a couple of hours in total. He also invited us for dinner, which we politely declined. We took our leave, and ventured out to find our own dinner and soon after we called it a night.