Bursa to Selczuk and Ephesus

Monday

Bursa is the home of the Turkish shadow puppet and there is a Museum. We were trying to get directions but were told that Turkish Museums close on Mondays. Too bad. We walked around this small church and found stairs leading down the wall in the direction of the mosque, which is famous for it’s calligraphy. We walked though a backstreet where a fresh market was being set-up. Down an alley and out onto the main street and there was the Mosque.

We found the walkway under the street and made our way to the Mosque and removed our shoes and covered hair and headed inside. The calligraphy was amazing. This certainly one of the most fabulous masques I have ever visited. There were some lovely stained glass windows as well. Islamic temples don’t have any images of people or animals so all the stained glass was abstract patterns or calligraphy.

Afterwards we walked around the covered markets. Bursa is a famous center for weaving and fabric. There were people buying fabric, dresses and scarves. I walked around and took pictures. There were some men sitting on a terrace near the mosque drinking tea. I took their picture and then showed it around. They invited me to have tea with them. I would loved to have join them but I had to rendezvous with the rest of the family in a few minutes. I managed to explain that to them and they shook my hand wished me luck and I was on my way. The girls had found a scarf shop and took me there so I could buy one. Then we met up with a young couple Huseyin and Rabia Tuluk who were staying in our same hotel and they invited us to have Kebaps with them.

Bursa is the home the Kebap. They were celebrating their one year anniversary at the hotel but lived in Istanbul. The husband Huseyin worked in the family business furnishing hotels. We walked off in the direction of the restaurant and he would periodically stop and ask directions. Finally we found it. It is either the actual first kepab restaurant or part of the first chain as it is named after the inventor of the kebap, Iskenedar. It had marble floors and beautiful wooden tables and wonderful lamb kebap. Huseyin and his wife Rabia don’t drink alcohol so we all had Ayran and Fanta with plates of really tasty meat over eggplant with a tomato sauce and browned butter poured over it. Wonderfully tender and flavorful! I was glad I ordered a small as it was a lot of food. Mehamet insisted on paying for the meal. So we insisted that he bring his family to florida to stay in our house!

We said our goodbyes to our new friends and walked back to the hotel and jumped in the car and fought our way out of Bursa to the main highway and I drove six hours south to Selczuk a small town next to Efes (Ephesus) We pulled over for a bathroom break at one point and just happened to be at a roadside mall with another Iskander kebap place and right next door an Iskander fast food place. They must be all over. There was also a Starbucks and a MacDonalds. The girls got French fries, Pippa, Randy and Martha coffee drinks and my father I went for the Magnums ( Turkish ice cream bars)

There was a candy place and I noticed they had candies shaped like fried eggs, which was a new one for me. We drove on and went over some very steep mountains with some very sharp turns with lots of crs and buses. Found the bypass around Izmir and then onto a toll road south towards Selczuk. The first toll booth had no place to pay but a big red button so I punched it and drove on.

We finally got to the Selczuk exit and there was another toll booth. We saw a man standing there and tried to hand him money but would wouldn’t take it and pointed to a building off to the side so we backed up and drove over there. Randy went inside and they sold him a card for 20 TL. We drove back to the man and he showed us how to swipe it. We did and as we drove through an alarm went off. We kept going and soon were right outside the village. I pulled over right as it was getting dark. Randy called a promising pensyione and soon we were parking outside and dragging our baggage through a beautiful courtyard and up and outside staircase to our rooms.

There was a rooftop restaurant next door and we walked through a rug and plate shop, up the stairs and sat down on carpet padded benches with pillows and ordered cold beer and mezzzes. There was a nest of storks with fledgling chicks on a pole across the street right at eye level. We ate some different eggplant, lamb and spinach dishes and then wandered back to the hotel and once again I fell exhausted from all the driving into bed!!! GOOD NIGHT!

I sleep until breakfast and then walk down the staircase into a pool of purple bougainvillea that covers the courtyard. There is a big circular wooden table with a bench on one side and chairs around. I settle on the bench and download photos while our hostess assembles breakfast. Cucumbers and tomtoes, bread, butter and jam, cheese and salami, black and green olives, boiled eggs and finally a cup of chair (tea) for me! It’s beautiful sitting in the purple shade in this wonderful country! Today we are off to Efes (Ephesus) which is a very large ancient Greek city. I saw when I was here last time and it was very cool. I hear there is a new section they have uncovered. I am very excited to see it.

After breakfast the owner of the restaurant next door loaded us into his van and drove us to the upper gate at Ephesus. The tour buses were rolling in and lots of people were milling around the vendors and the ticket booth. Half our group headed into the shops and I fought through the crowd and bought tickets. We gather our group, water, sunscreen and plunged into Ephesus. It is a huge site with a main street that runs downhill. People have been living and building here since at least 2000 BC. There are the remains of two theaters a large library and a public toilet with 44 seat and platform for a musician to cover all the noise! Now some of the walls remain and the marble benches with the seat holes cut in them.

There were lots of people speaking in many languages all trying to take pictures at once. My stepmother and Martha were absolutely entranced with the site. It really is amazing the first time you see it. Soon we came to the new section that runs up the hill and paid our 15 TL and headed in under a really amazing truss fabric roof structure that run up the hill and protected the new dig from weather. It was cool and quiet inside. There were only a few people inside which was a relief from the press of humanity outside. This section is incredible! They have uncovered a wealthy persons house or houses with beautiful mosaics on the floors an indoor fountain, marble wainscoting on the walls and frescos painted on the upper walls and ceilings. You could see the remains of indoor plumbing and one huge arched ceiling remains. It was truly fabulous to walk along on a glass walkway over the top and look down into the different rooms. There are sections were different archeologists and restorers are working. They had their tables and tools set-up. There were none working at the time but it was fun to see what their set-ups.

As we walked around I was leaning way over one of the rails to take a picture of a mosaic and one of the guards saw me and came over and took us off the walkway onto the top of a wall so I we could get better pictures. We were the only people in there at the time and the guard saw how thrilled we were and was about to take us down onto the floor but another group of people came along so he took Pippa’s camera and walked inside and took a whole series of pictures for her. He allowed me take a picture of him. We thanked him profusely and headed back up to the top and eventually out and down the side of the tent back to the main street. Amazingly the crowds were gone! We had the place almost to ourselves. So we wandered on down to the library, which was three stories tall and still has some wonderful carved statues in place. They had the walkway to the large theater blocked off as there was a huge crane lifting scaffolding up to a work site on one side.

We headed for the exit and I noticed people walking up into the theater from the other side. Pippa and my father headed for the shade while I ran up for a quick look. It is a very large theater that is still used occasionally for concerts. You can really fell the presence of actors and singers from the ages standing there gazing up at you from the stage. It’s fun to imagine what their performances were like. One the other hill next to the library I notice a Turkish soldier armed with a machine gun watching over the site. The Turks are very serious about guarding their antiquities!

As a I walked towards the exit I noticed lots of re poppies were blooming in the grass along side the ruins. It was very pretty. I found Pippa and my father relaxing in a shady breezy spot. We were in no hurry as my brother and his family, were just heading into the new section. We wandered down to the lower gate and Pippa convinced one of the guards to let her out the gate to buy ice cream and then return. We sat on the wall by the lavs under huge pine trees and listened to the wind singing in the trees and ate double chocolate magnums. Chocolate ice cream with a soft dark chocolate coating dipped in hard milk chocolate on a stick! What a great invention ice cream with a handle! After we finished our ice cream we watched some birds chasing on the many stray cats around. Pippa headed out the gate to shop and my father and I lay down on top f the wall and promptly dozed off.

I was awakened by Winfree talking about the stray cats. We grouped up and bought water and walked to the bookshop on the left. The proprietor called the restaurant and the owner picked us up and took us to the base of the Seven Sisters were he ushered us into the tent covered kitchen of a tent restaurant. There was a whole family busy cutting onions, eggplants, spinach and rolling out very thin dough with which they were making stuff flatbread and cooking them in a stone wood fired oven. We ordered some meat, some veggies and some dessert flatbreads and were ushered into another tent and asked to remove our shoes and were seated one low benches covered the Turkish carpets and pillows at a big low table under another tent. The people running the place looked like they were one step from nomadic or gypsy people. The flatbreads were excellent. One with veggies, anterh with lamb and veggies and two desserts on with banana and honey and another with peanut butter and Nutella ) chocolate hazelnut spread).

After we finished we walk up the hill to the Seven Sisters, which was a small ruin were people obviously lived and maybe were buried at some point. Soon the van appeared and we were driven back to the hotel. We headed to our rooms for a rest. Winfree and I played a couple of games of Boggle and then read for awhile. Soon it was 7 pm when we expected next door for dinner so we straggled over the and up to the rooftop restaurant and watched the stork babies practicing their flying on the edge of the nest while our food was delivered. We ordered a bunch of mezzes which came with bread and drank beer and water. Spinach, eggplant, chicken with veggies and yogurt. It was all tasty. After dinner Randy and family browsed in the ceramic and rug shop under the restaurant and Pippa and my father and I wandered up to the Church of St. Jean and walked around to the side to the see the sunset. There were two Turkish men who were just settling on the wall with half a roast chicken, salad, beer and raki for the dinner. When we appeared they smiled and asked us to share their meal. I explained that we had just eaten but thanked them and we watched the sunset and left them to their meal.

We walked up toward the fort on the hill but some young turks on a moped explain the fort is closed for repair. We headed back to our hotel and off to sleep. I am finally feeling like I am catching up on my rest! See you in the morning!