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. :-)