Vol 53 Day 6 Selcuk

After an excellent sleep I joined my fellow travelers on the terrace of the pension for a delicious breakfast where I met Simca, from Holland. Simca is a lovley woman, probably somewhere in her sixties. She was planning to go to Osman's carpet shop to finalize selecting a carpet so I asked to tag along. I had decided it would be best to avoid Dervis for the day since he was getting so clingy.

Osman's carpet shop is one of the nicer ones I visited in Turkey. By this time I had been to quite a few, gaining a little more education in each one. I knew how to tell a new rug from an old one, a poorly made one from a well made one and an original piece from a factory produced "tourist" carpet. I had also learned how to get the rug-sellers to stop their usual sales-pitch tactics.

I watched as Simca selected a lovely, long silk runner for her home in Holland. I listened as she haggled over the price. It is always fun to listen to the haggling. Haggling is something I first experienced in Thailand and have grown used to in Oman. While some stores have "fixed prices" there are many with no prices marked at all. You simply ask how much something is and then scoff at the answer. Good naturedly. You then make a ridiculously low counter offer at which they get to scoff. Then the price will be lowered and you get to scoff again. It goes like that until you agree on a price. Simca was not much of a haggler so Osman made a good deal with her. Good for him, that is. But she was happy, so where's the harm?

Then it was my turn. For those of you who have never been to a carpet shop I'll tell you how it works. You enter the shop, they offer you a seat and a cup of tea. You give them an idea of what you are looking for and then they proceed to unroll carpet after carpet, setting aside ones you say you like into a "maybe" pile. Then they go back through the maybe pile and eliminate the ones you no longer like. When they get it down to one carpet the hard sell starts which is fine if you have found one you want to buy but in my case I had yet to find a carpet I loved enough to fork over my hard earned money for. This is the part where I usually then make my exit, thanking them for the tea and the effort.

After Simca left Osman started showing me carpet after carpet and we chatted all the while. I learned a great deal more about Turkish carpets from him. I'm afraid I am terribly picky and difficult to please. He had to unroll half of the carpets in the shop.

And wonder of wonders, miracle of miracles, I found 2 carpets that I loved.

The one towards the back is a really nice runner from the Bergama region. The one on the right is a camel bag converted into a carpet. The one on the left is a pillow that Osman offered to throw in if I bought both. I told him I had to think about it. I wanted to check out Erkan's shop too, to see if they had anything I loved more. Just like a woman. The piles of carpets you see in the photos, like the one Osman collapsed on, are all of my rejects. There were pile of rejects all over the store, (which is twice as large as it appears in these photos). He has two guys that work for him and it is their job to roll the carpets back up when Osman is done selling.

Osman and I sat around the carpet shop for the better part of the day, chatting about everything and nothing, and laughing. I even helped him sell a couple of pieces. At lunch time, when I mentioned I was hungry and needed to go get something to eat, he sent one of his workers off to fetch pide, a turkish style pizza that is soooooooo much better than pizza. This one is mushroom, tomato and green chili. It comes with a little rocket (arugula) tomato salad which is simply wrapped in plastic wrap, no container. The lemon is to squeeze onto the salad.

I found Turkish men to be gracious hosts. They fed me if I even looked like I might be hungry and I was given gallons of tea.

I had dinner with Erkan the CouchSurfer. He took me to a really beautiful European-style restaurant, overlooking the Temple of Artemis. We ate pasta, drank wine and talked about traveling and business. He has some interesting ideas for businesses in Selcuk which got me thinking. After dinner we went to his uncle's carpet shop and he gave me yet another lesson in carpets. He unrolled quite a few and there was a camel bag style carpet that I liked quite a bit.

On the way back to the pension I stopped into Osman's shop. We drank a bottle of wine together and talked into the night. Turkish wine is yummy! Very fruity.

Then it was off to bed with dreams of handsome Turkish men dancing in my head. If all men were as available and nice and handsome as the men I met in Turkey, I would never be without male company again. Wish I could import one or two to Oman- there is still a drought here.

Vol 52 Day 5 Selcuk

My bus pulled into Selcuk at 9am and after 12 hours on a bus I welcomed a bit of a walk so I grabbed my duffel bag and started heading in the general direction of accommodations. There are only 2 real CouchSurfers in Selcuk. One of them was away and the other was not able to host me at that time but he offered to meet and have a drink. So I had to pay to stay somewhere. Poop.

Why did I choose Selcuk as a destination when there were no couchsurfers to stay with? Because my guide book describes it as a city of 23,000 people that seems to have it all. After Istanbul I was ready for something smaller. I'm an island girl, remember? I like small communities. There are basically 2 types of places to stay in Selcuk. A hotel or a pension. A pension is a European style bed and breakfast, so of course I chose a pension. My guide book recommended Homeros Pension so that's where I went. (That's the balcony of the room I stayed in).

How can I possibly describe the greeting I got at Homeros? I was met by Dervis (prounounced Dervish), the owner, who immediately took a liking to me. And I liked him too. He's funny and forward and very, very charming. He showed me the available rooms all the while hitting on me outrageously. It was alot of fun. He is a very high energy sort of guy. He invited me to drive to Izmir with him to drop off a guest at the airport. I told him I would like to but I needed a shower after a long night on the bus and I needed to find some breakfast. No problem, says he. He showed me where the bathroom was and when I returned to my room I found this on my balcony:

Now I ask you, is that a pretty site or what? And yummy. And there was Dervis. He was sooooooo eager. I don't know what it is about Turkish men. I have never been as popular with men as I was in Turkey. They are just so happy when you even smile at them. Dervis was smitten. And made no bones about it. He was so excited to meet me and get to know me. Now there are nay-sayers who will swear that Turkish men only manufacture interest in foreign woman because they want to marry them, thereby gaining a visa to their country. I believe that is the case for a lot of the guys in the shops who are flirting but not all Turkish men are so eager to leave Turkey (Turks can't even get a tourist visa to most countries let alone move there). Some of them, like Dervis, love their life and just want someone to join them in it.

The view from my balcony of the building across the street, also owned by Dervis:

We had some time to kill before we left for Izmir so Dervis offered to play tour guide and we headed out to walk to the Temple of Artemis, which is between Selcuk and Ephesus (more on Ephesus later).




Selcuk is a ridiculously cute town.




I'm talkin' a seriously cute town.


According to my Lonely Planet guide book, the Temple of Artemis was once one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. In it's prime it was larger than the Parthenon in Athens, with 127 columns, with figures carved around the base.

"I have seen the walls and Hanging Gardens of ancient Babylon," wrote Philon of Byzantium, "the statue of Olympian Zeus, the Colossus of Rhodes, the mighty work of the high Pyramids and the tomb of Mausolus. But when I saw the temple at Ephesus rising to the clouds, all these other wonders were put in the shade."

Unfortunately, only one column remains. The rest of the columns have been removed to the British Museum in London. Click here to see a photo of one of the pieces on display there. Then imagine 126 more of them. There is an excellent explanation of the rise and fall of the Temple here if you'd care for a history lesson. Now, it's really not much to see. A hole in a field with some building remains strewn about.

I think perhaps this stork lives in the nest at the top of the column, which is pretty cool, but the highlight for me was these two trees:


A fig and a pomegranate. You know I'm a dork, so I was all excited- "Ooh, a pomegranate, a pomegranate!"


Dervis fetched me a fig. Yum.

On the way back to the pension we dropped into the carpet shop of a friend of Dervis' so that I would know where it was. He encouraged me to buy from him, assuring me that his prices were fair. The shop was gorgeous. Owned by Osman, his friend. What can I say? When I met Osman, I no longer had eyes for Dervis. Osman is tall, dark and handsome. And relaxed (as opposed to Dervis' hyperness) and super sexy. I was instantly attracted to him. I'm telling you, Turkish men are gorgeous! After the briefest of chats in which I warned Osman that I would be a difficult customer, Dervis and I left to take his guest to the airport.

Izmir, population 2,200,000, is about an hour from Selcuk, back towards Istanbul. I'm afraid I was unimpressed and I'm afraid I don't even remember the name of the woman we dropped off or where she was from or anything. I had fallen asleep during the drive and missed out on all of the chatting. From the airport we headed to a souk to try to find shoes and a jacket for me and beads for Dervis. Izmir was just not as pretty or interesting as Istanbul. I managed to find a polar fleece jacket at a good price but not shoes. Dervis bought 2 pairs of shoes from the Adidas store but I just couldn't hand over my money on a pair of Adidas when there was a brand new pair sitting by my door at home. I just couldn't. And really, I was only falling off of my shoes, twisting my ankle about 3 times a day now that I was clear of Istanbul's treacherous cobblestones. Why would I spend money on preventing that when I could use that money on a carpet? Dervis declared me crazy and off we went in search of lunch.

He introduced me to Kumpir which is a large baked potato with your choice of about 2 dozen toppings. Butter, cheese, chopped hot dogs, corn, peas, olives, pickles, pickled red cabbage, carrots, moutabel (eggplant/tahini spread), yogurt with cucumber, combos of veggies in mayo, chili paste and I can't remember what else. No bacon, no sour cream and no chives. I was pretty much in heaven.

Another available lunch option was this:

Which Dervis informed me was made from tripe. Hmmmmm, triiiiiiiiipe, goooooood.

We found a bead store where Dervis dropped a chunk of change on souvenirs for his guests, grabbed a fresh OJ and headed back to the airport to pick up another guest who is also a friend of the family. This unscheduled airport pick-up delayed our return, which delayed my meeting the couchsurfer that I had arranged to have dinner with. By the time we got back to Selcuk I had already sent a message to the CSer telling him to eat without me and that later we would have a drink.

The sunset view in Izmir.

I left Dervis to meet Erkan Can as soon as we returned. You'd have thought we were married and that I was cheating on him from the way Dervis reacted to my going to meet Erkan. He was so jealous! I must admit I was happy to leave him. His ardor had increased throughout the day almost to the point of harassment. Can't tell you how many times I had to ask him to calm down. He was calling me "My Darling" and "Princess" all day and telling me how wonderful it would be if we were together. In short, he had become annoying. But in a sweet, excited puppy that you're just tired of kind of way.

Erkan works in his uncle's.......yes, you guessed it....... carpet shop. And he is handsome as well. Sadly, he has a mouth badly in need of a dentist, which I encountered all over Turkey. I hung out at the carpet shop with Erkan and his brother, Serkan for a while, sitting outside on cushions, watching the tourists go by, drinking tea. Really nice guys. Serkan was funny and trying to act American and Erkan is gentle and smart. Honestly, I think I could sit in carpet shops and chat all day. We never looked at a single carpet. Erkan and I headed over to a funky Turkish tavern where we consumed a fair amount of Raki, Turkish cheese and fresh melon.

Erkan walked me back to the pension around 2am, stopping to pick me a rose from St John's Church garden. After saying goodnight, and artfully dodging his attempted kiss, I found flowers, a bottle of wine and a candle at the door to my room. The next morning a very pouty Dervis complained that he had waited up for me, hoping we could drink the wine on the roof terrace.

It's tough to be so popular.

Vol 51 Day 4 Istanbul

After breakfast with a still less than perky Ferhan, I made my way to Taksim Square to buy a ticket for the night bus to Selcuk which is in the south, on the Aegean Sea. That done it occurred to me that I really ought to try to see some of the more popular tourists sites in Istanbul. So I returned to the Sultanahmet area, this time keeping my internal compass in line. My idea was to visit the Aya Sofya, Topkapi Palace and the Basilica Cistern. These three, along with the Blue Mosque, which I had already visited, are the 4 must-see sites in Istanbul.

I started with the Aya Sofya, which, according to my guide book, is Istanbul's most famous monument. Emperor Justinian had it built as part of his effort to restore the greatness of the Roman Empire. It was completed in 537 and reigned as the greatest church in Christendom until the conquest of Constantinople(Istanbul) in 1453, which ended the Byzantine Empire and began the Ottoman Empire. Mehmet the Conqueror had it converted into a mosque and so it remained until 1935, when it was proclaimed a museum.

Aya Sofya, (Hagia Sophia in Greek, Sancta Sophia in Latin or the Church of the Devine Wisdom in English), was built on the site of a previous Aya Sofya, built in the 415 and destroyed by fire in 532.

This photo is of the porticus of the original church discovered during excavations in the 1930's. 12 lambs = 12 apostles.
Pieces from the original church are lined up cross the street.

Imagine how many feet have passed through these doors over the last 1500 years to wear the marble like that!

In this mosaic Emporer Justinian, on the left, is seen presenting the Aya Sofya to Jesus.

On entering his creation for the first time almost 1500 years ago, Justinian exclaimed "Glory to God that I have been judged worthy of such a work. Oh Sololmon! I have outdone you!" Understandable when I entered the building. It's not much from the outside, but inside it is simply breathtaking. Lovely. Perhaps you don't know this about me but my life has a soundtrack. I always have a song playing in my head. The entire time I was inside the Aya Sofya, Mozart's Ave Verum Corpus, sung by the Vienna Boy's Choir was stuck in my head. Which made it that much more lovely.

The big medallions were added in the 19th century and are inscribed with Arabic letters giving the name of god (Allah), Mohammed, and early califs Ali and Abu Bakr.



The scaffolding is part of ongoing restoration partially funded by Unesco. Though it does detract from the splendor I quickly was able to ignore it.


This tile work was in a little aisle off on it's own. There really isn't much tilework to speak of in the church so it seemed odd to find it there.

To get upstairs I had to go up a ramp which was at the end of this hallway:

It goes up and around and around, like a staircase without the stairs.
The pavers are worn super smooth but it's also lumpy. Excellent combo for those stupid wedge sandals of mine.

The lighting is much better upstairs in the gallery.

The ceilings throughout the church/mosque are covered in frescoes (paintings rendered in wet plaster that become part of the plaster).





Massive marble doors.

The mosaics are best viewed from upstairs. Most of them were covered in plaster and since the 1930's work has been ongoing to get them uncovered as best they can. This one is Judgment Day with Jesus, the Virgin Mary and St John the Baptist.


Jesus with Empress Zoe and Constantine IX, her 3d husband. Empress Zoe had this portrait changed with each husband.


Detail of a larger mosaic showing the virgin and child.

Another virgin and child, this one on the dome.

One of the angels in the dome.



After I left the Aya Sofya I decided it was time to wander over to the Topkapi Palace. On my way there I met a nice carpet seller named Mahmet and his uncles. I met Mahmet when I was trying to buy a gozemel, a sort of made-to-order pancake stuffed with either potato or cheese, from a street vendor. I was trying to ask for both potato and cheese when Mahmet came to the rescue and translated for me. He invited me to sit nearby to eat it, across from the carpet shop where he and his uncles worked. We hung out for about an hour, chatting about the carper business, traveling and stupid tourists. I never went into their shop and they never pushed me to. We were just chatting. The gozemel was delicious and they fed me tea, fetched from the shop by one of the workers.

Then I headed over to the palace. I went into the outer grounds and looked around a bit. There were about a million tourists there. I have to say, I am not a big fan of tourists which seems a bit silly because when I'm traveling I am one. But I just don't like hanging out where the tourists are and Topkapi was crawling with them. So even though it is reputed to be one of the most incredible palaces in Europe, I just couldn't do it. I left.

I meanderd back to the main street and started the longish walk towards the Grand Bazaar with the thought that I could get an idea of the kinds of things sold there. I had no plan to buy much until my final days in Turkey as I did not want to have to carry stuff around with me for the rest of the trip. Well who should walk up to me but Mahmet! He asked how it was possible that I was finished with Topkapi Palace so quickly. I confessed my aversion to tourists and my plan to visit the Grand Bazaar instead. He informed me that it is not open on Sundays. Crap. So much for that idea. Come, he said, let's have tea. So I followed him around for the next three hours as we had tea in 3 different cafes.


One of them was a rooftop terrace and had incredible views of the area. When it was time for me to head back to Ferhan's to collect my bag and catch my night bus, Mahmet declared that I was exactly the kind of woman that he would like to marry and that I shouldn't go.

Poor Mahmet. I had to break his heart. The thing that is really funny about this is that I forgot to tell you that on my first day when I met Salim, the persuasive rug dealer, he declared that I was exactly the kind of woman that he would like to marry. So that was 2 marriage proposals from 2 rug sellers. 2 gorgeous rug sellers. Nice ego boost.
I'm afraid this is as close to the Basilica Cistern as I got. I guess I'm not a very good tourist. I would much rather while away 3 hours with a local talking about his daily life than to go to a bunch of tourist sites.

I made it back to Ferhan's in time to take him to dinner but once again, he declined. Stupid cold. We ordered in, said our goodbyes and I was off to the night bus, destination Selcuk, in the south. 12 hours and 2 cafeteria stops later, I arrived. In one of the rest stop bathrooms I found this machine beside the tampon machine.

Drat, I didn't have the right change!