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| Seçuk, Ephuses, and Sirince |
Going from Fethiye to Selçuk = long-ass-bus-ride! Ugh...it killed the ultimate high that I was in from paragliding. Vilena also split from us to see a friend in Pamukale. I was still a bit in despair about my camera and that kept me from wanting to be social throughout the bus ride. I just wanted to sleep and be alone with my thoughts. Thankfully I snapped out of it by the time we got to Selçuk and settled into the Tuncay Pension. When we got to Selçuk it was incredibly convenient. One of the brothers who ran the Pansiyon was there waiting there to pick up backpackers like ourselves. It was kind of nice actually because this way we didn't have to worry about finding a cab to take us to a pension.
The pension was nice. It had a very nice courtyard with a fountain in the middle, and the pension had to two very interesting guests: a fun dog, and a very crazy cat. I enjoyed the cat a lot because it was very playful and curious. It would to playfully claw at me and bite me but I am getting used to playing with cats. By the time I get back to the states, I might actually get Boots to warm up to me more.
We walked around town for a little bit just taking in the scenery and the relaxed small town pace. Selçuk is another one of those towns that interestingly enough is built upon centuries of history. In fact some of the houses that we saw were no doubt perhaps over a hundred years old. Most of them were built on previous foundations. What is also interesting is that Selçuk is another one of those places where it is possible to see a notable set ruins right next to a fast food pide place. The town is located in a valley that surrounded by mountains that is about 4 miles away from the ocean. It is also a very liberal place.
We walked to the main center to see the Basilica of St. John who actually came to Selçuk (Ephesus at the time) supposedly twice: once with the Virgin Mary, and the second time in old age where he wrote his gospel. The Basilica was actually built in the 6th Century AD by Byzantine Emperor Justinian. However we only got to see the outside of it because it was closed by the time we got there. That was a pity. Warning to all future travelers: the antique coins people try to sell you are not authentic! IF THEY WERE THEY WOULD BE WORTH MORE THEN 3 LIRA!
We looked at a carpet store where I continued to pester the shop owners to teach me about carpets. They didn't know much and we quickly left without buying anything. We went to a kebab place that was recommended by the locals for some cheap and fabulous kebabs and they were right. We got a deal where they cooked for us a variety of kebabs all on one huge plate for the three of us to share. I also ordered Raki just to see how it went with Kebabs...bad combo. The owners of the store laughed at my combination. We also got a good look at the Byzantine Aquaduct that is still perfectly standing. This area of Turkiye can easily brag that it has more ancient ruins per square kilometer than any other place in the world. Here, history isn't just brought to life, it is kicking and screaming!
After dinner, the girls went back to rest, relax and to talk. I wanted to get out for a little bit and just enjoy the locals a little bit more, and to perhaps practice some Turkish. The first place I went to see was a carpet place that specialized not in Turkish carpets, but in Kurdish carpets. I didn't go into the store though because I was more interested in conversation at the time. The store's owner was Kemal, and he told me how Selçuk is actually suffering because of how travel agencies have allied with the Hotels in the surrounding areas monopolize the tourist industry. It is sad because when tourists come they hardly spend more then two hours in the town itself. Therefore local industries have begun to feel the pain of lost profits. Kemal was very upset by it because very few people would come in and buy his carpets and instead buy them from the factory made outlets outside of Selçuk. These guys were the first ones to give me an honest to god assessment, and lesson on Turkish and Kurdish carpets. I felt bad for them, and then I told him to give me a couple of his business cards. I told him that I could pass them out to some of the tourists in Ephuses when we would be there the next day. He was glad to hear that I was willing to help him, but he didn't think it would work. I eventually parted his company and made my way down the street.
Down the street I was intercepted by two guys who owned a restaurant. They asked if I would to order something and I said in Turkish that I have already eaten. They were taken back by me speaking Turkish, and my eagerness to learn that they asked me to sit down with them to just have a conversation. They were very surprised that I was a student because they don't typically get to many of us. Most people my age from the states that visit Turkiye are backpackers. They were some what thrown back by the fact that I was studying at Bogaziçi and they immediately thought that I was some kind of genius. Either way, I got to enjoy some free çay, bread & olive oil, and later on baklava which was brought out by a friend of the two that ran the restaurant. He was a German Turk, who goes back and forth from Germany and Turkiye to run restaurants and such. What was also interesting though was that he lit up an actual joint right in front of me. I knew it was a joint because I saw the dried up cannabis that rolled, and the smell was unmistakable. This part of Turkey is very liberal!
The next day, we woke up early to go see the mega ruins of Ephuses after breakfast. Oh my god, this was the best Turkish breakfast that I have ever had n my life. The man/woman who made the bread was freaking awesome. It was better than Panera bread! I doused it with chease and olive oil and feasted on it along with the fresh orange slices, the fried egg given to us, and the endless amount of peynir, tomatoes, and cucumbers. But back to Ephuses. We got a bus to take us there and it only took about 5 minutes. We should have honestly just walked. When we got there, I was taken back by the ungodly amount of tourists that were there! Ephuses was invaded by armies of obnoxious, ignorant, stupid camera wielding tourists! I have probably said this a hundred times on this blog and I will say it one more time: "I am not a bloody Tourist! I am a student and a resident of Turkiye!" It was so bad that two people actually took my picture as if I was apart of some ruin. One was a woman from Japan. She even motioned that she wanted me in the picture. Now either I was some hot young man who she could now fantasize about in the future, or she thought I was a white Turk because I was trying to talk in Turkish to a guard. The second person who took my bloody picture was a Turkish girl who was probably in high school. She was probably like: "Look at the pale, fair haired person who is turning red from the sun! What a funny German/American." God that was annoying. I asked her in Turkish, "what are you doing" (Ne yapiyorsun?) and she backed off thinking that I was actually just a very pale Turk.
Ephesus was pretty cool though. There is so much history here! So many famous figures throughout history have been to Ephuses. A lot of history behind Christianity took place inside modern Turkiye, which is surprising to most considering that it is almost 99% Muslim. The Third Ecumenical Council was held here in 431AD and this is where teachings of Christianity spread throughout the Middle East and Europe. One lesson you should take from Ephesus is this: if enemies are close, it is best to build walls (defenses). The tale of Ephesus can be described as being taken over by one stronger force after another all because it was in a position that was impossible to defend without city walls. It was first an Athenian settlement founded by Adroclus, son of King Cordus of Athens. Read up on the myth behind its founding. It is quite interesting. Of course at the time of its founding, the sea wasn't seven miles away but actually laid right next to where the ruins lie now. When the Persians came, all the Ephusians could do was draw out a rope telling the Persians to not cross unless they wanted to incur the wrath of the Gods. No surprise then to say that it didn't work. Then Alexander the Great retook the city, and the city grew in importance due to its beauty and location. During Roman times, it was the capital of Asia Minor.
The ruins had a lot to still offer though, and it gave you a great feel for how an ancient city was laid out with its theaters, neighborhoods, markets, hamams, and other places of interest. The huge theater was particularily fun because a bunch of tourists started doing the wave and quoting Shakespeare. Also for some reason there was this one Turkish woman who might have been one year younger then me who was eying me constantly. It was a funny game of trying to stare at each other and not get caught. Eventually we stopped caring but she left in a hurry with her group and she waved goodbye. I was about to pursue her, but I was separated by this one very fat man who was speaking I believe German. Basically the passage way out of the theater is a small tunnel and I had to go through it to follow and after the group got out, this one entered going to opposite way. From that moment on that man scarred me for life. We also went to see the church of St. Mary which was surprisingly different in architecture as compared to the other sites in Ephuses. For instance it used more clay then marble/stone, and the buildings around it definitely had a Christian like feel to it considering that many of them had concave walls creating a circular feel when inside.
After Ephesus, I went to go discuss carpets some more as the girls went back to shower. After that I returned to Tuncay Pension to find that the girls left. I assumed that they were coming to get me so that we could go and get dinner. So I waited while talking to the manager of the Pansiyon. After 30 minutes of waiting I realized they probably got hung up in a carpet store, and the owner realized it as well. He then brought out Beer and nuts for me. Soon later his uncle, the friendly neighborhood narcotics officer showed up and sat down with. Regrettably, I can't talk much more on this site as to what the conversation was about because I don't want to damage the credibility of the pension, the owner, myself, the officer, or Selçuk itself. All I will say is that Selçuk is a very liberal place. It like a hippy commune seeking a return to a more traditional, peaceful and natural life. Bottom line though is that I had fun at the pension.
After the beer and nuts, which really hit the spot, I set out to find the girls thankfully they were close by, in the same set of carpet & kilim stores owned by the same man that I talked to the night before. We had a very interesting conversation. However, to be honest, I was a little pissed at the girls for not telling me where they were and telling me to meet up with them back at the pension. Either they took the time to get away from me to have some girl time (which I have never protested to), or they were about 110 minutes late in getting back.
We hung out with the store owners then entire night, looking at Kurdish carpets and finding and playing with the cats from Van. They had these very rare cats that are only found in Eastern Turkiye. They have thick white coats, and they commonly have multi colored eye sets. For instance, one cat that I was playing with had one eye that was blue, and the other being green. They were fun because they were kittens all except for the older sister. They all spoke English very well which was nice, and they were all fun characters. I actually got into a wrestling match with one of them who was an oil wrestler. Needless to say, he destroyed me on the carpets. It was a great night though.
The next day, we just wondered around a little bit, and went inside to actually see the Basilica of St. John. It offered a fantastic view of Ephesus, the ocean out in the distance, and the mountains around us. I just found some shade, sat down, and looked out for about an hour letting thoughts just randomly pour into my head. It was incredibly beautiful and peaceful.
Afterwards we went to Sirince, a small village about 7km east of Selçuk. It could be a peaceful idyllic place but it has now been invaded by off the boat, cruise ship tourist agencies bringing loads of tourists by bus loads calling the town the "Authentic Turkish Village Experience." It had a population of about 960, and it seemed that most of the locals sold the soul of the village to turn it into a parody with high priced souvenir shops and restaurants all along the main street. The girls loved it, I felt a little encroached by all the tourists again. It made me miss touring Turkiye when it was still snowing. What was good though was that the local farmers made some pretty interesting fruit wine that I expressed interest in trying. Too bad the girls told me to go test wine so that they could go off by themselves again. Their exact words were I believe, "you came here to taste the wine and to do your whole wine tasting thing. Go and do it already!" Yeah...I wanted to go off and drink nice wine by myself even though that looks incredibly bad, especially in Turkiye.
Thank god the wine was good. I was able to find other random people to try wine with but they were a little hesitant to open up with me because I was probably a little disturbing being all alone. I did buy two bottles though: one with peach, and the other one was made from black berries. I did run around by myself for about three hours and by time I was getting extremely pissed off about the fact that I was getting ditched. This was junior high all over again. The girls pushed me away, claiming good intentions (lies of course), and then made damn certain to not run into me. So junior high. And if they are reading this, I will only say one thing more, "Do you deny it? I know you guys probably found me irritating after a couple of days but you can at least say what you are thinking to my face because both of you can't lie to me without me knowing."
I eventually ran into the girls talking to a restaurant owner off the main street. He was interested in teaching them Turkish, and he was providing them with free samples of wine. I became a little obnoxious, waltzed up to them pretending not to know that they were there and then made eye contact. Sarcastically, I blurted out, "Oh my god! What are you guys doing here?" They didn't pick up on it. So I enjoyed their free wine, Lessa would continually growl at me for tasting her wine (and on occasion slap my hand) and I tuned out them and entered my own little world until the the guys sister showed up. She was a mathematician, and as soon as I learned that I immediately became interested, and told her that I was studying math. We had a nice conversation though about how she worked in a bank and about how people who study math have a completely different mindset then just straight business people (which is for the most part true). She also told me to stick with it, and said, "If you understand math and can apply it, then there isn't anything that you can't grasp." I can now say that I am set on graduating with a double degree in Economics and Mathematics. It was fun though. We cracked math jokes at everyone else's expense, and it was even more glorious to know that they didn't have a clue what we were talking about. That ended the day on a high note because I actually got to talk to someone for more then 30 seconds!
We went back to Selçuk to catch a train to Izmir. Once in Izmir we were dropped off at the Airport where we took a cheap flight back to Istanbul (1 hour) and then a crazy cab ride from the airport. We got back home (i.e. the Superdorm) in less then 15 minutes from the airport. That is a record time! How was it done? The driver was traveling around 200 km/h (125 mi/h). Holy crap that was a fun ride. If we hit something we would have died. But we didn't and we were flying at the edge of our seats.
I am definitely coming back to Selçuk though! I loved the town, and I am quite appreciative that it wasn't invaded by tourists like all the other places. The people there though were the best!
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