(Faithful Readers: This post is a longer one than usual, but I am trying to catch up to the present, sometimes difficult, given my fascination with the past)
After Bodrum, we took a bus to Selçuk. The bus system in Turkey is extensive, efficient, clean, and comfortable, AND the seats are reserved and assigned. What a concept! The small local ones are called Dolmuşes, meaning stuffed, then Midibuses on short haul routes and the large buses for overnight or long routes.
On our Midibus to Selçuk, a young man served us drinks and gave us sprinklings of ‘kolonya‘, a lemon cologne, to disinfect and refresh our hands and face. He quickly learned Nicole’s name and would come over and point out interesting view points. When Nicole would comment that a view was beautiful, the doe-eyed young man would reply that ‘Nicole beautiful’.
The MidiBus
In Selçuk, we stayed at the Hotel Bella, where the rooms are decorated in a charming traditional Ottoman style. On the rooftop, breakfast and dinner is served, and from there you can watch the storks who return to nest during the summer every year on top of the ancient Roman aqueduct. Just behind is the Basilica of St John the Apostle. St John was purported to have come to Ephesus with the Virgin Mary, where she is supposed to have lived out her days. His tomb is supposed to be under the basilica. The House of the Virgin Mary is not far and is a pilgrimage for both Christians and Muslims.
The first night there, I was awoken by the sound of drums outside the window. I lay there groggy, trying to decide if I was awake and attempting to recall how much I drank at dinner. The next day I remembered the drums and mentioned it to a Canadian couple on honeymoon, Tara and Robin. Tara told me that the drums are meant to wake up people to eat as it is Ramadan and they must eat before dawn. They are to tip the drummer as a thank you for his service. Apparently, someone at the hotel tips to keep the drummer away from his house. Sort of a win-win situation for the drummer.
The main reason for going to Selçuk, is to visit Ephesus. Ephesus is reputed to be one of the best preserved ancient classical cities. My family, again, grudgingly followed me around in scorching heat to look at what they called ‘More old rocks’. The site was packed with tourists and it made the city come alive as in it’s time it would have had busy and bustling streets. I love looking at this kind of ’stuff”, I am so in my element. I feel I missed my calling as an archaeologist or historian. Apparently, I am as happy as a pig in s*@t.
All the Belleaus do agree though it was worth paying the extra 15 Turkish lira (TL) for the Yamaç Evleri or Terraced Houses. First, they are covered from the heat. Second, they are just really, really cool. No pun intended. They were the Roman luxury sea view ‘condos’ of the rich of Ephesus. The walls are covered in frescoes and the floors in detailed mosaics. Socrates was obviously a big celeb as his image is painted on many of the walls. Socrates had said, “The unexamined life is not worth living” , and I would like to think that he would approve of Project Runaway.
After our time at Ephesus, and near the Grotto of the Seven Sleepers, is a small kilim-covered place where you can sit on cushions in the shade and drink Ayran or cold Efes beer, and eat Gözleme. Ayran is a mixture of yoghurt, water, and sometimes salt, that outsells Coca-cola and juice in Turkey. Dwayne has become addicted to them. Gözleme is a thin hand-rolled pancake that is filled with minced meat and/or vegetables and then sealed and cooked on a sac, an iron dome shaped ‘pan’. For dessert, there is a banana, honey, and chocolate one that is to die for.
From Selçuk, we are back on a midibus to Fethiye in the south on the Turquoise coast. From there we went to Ovacik, where we stayed a week at Sunshine Resort. Ovacik is beside Ölüdeniz, which is one of the world’s most photographed beaches. Behind it is Baba Dağ, a mountain where para-gliders jump and land on the beach below. The beach and view is great, but the bedlam of para-gliders landing willy nilly everywhere turned me off. We decided as a family that we were going to skip the paragliding, our comfort levels not being where we would like them.
Between the beach and our hotel is an area called Hisaronu, often referred to as ‘Blackpool’. It is a street filled with, well, quite frankly, horrible bars and restaurants all catering to UK travellers, with their advertisements of English breakfasts and beer. I recommend avoiding this area completely. Our hotel was O.K., but not a place I would return. The food was not good. One staff member kept telling us to ‘Give your daughter to me’. Ahhh…not likely my friend.
The one great thing about the resort was that we met some good folk. The kids especially took to a great young couple, Charlie and Steve, from the U.K. The four of them really hit it off and hung out at the pool and went quadding together to see more ‘old rocks’ and swim at a remote beach.
One afternoon, Luc and Steve went for a Turkish shave while the rest of us went to a Hamam, or Turkish bath (Turkish shaves are an experience unto themselves, I plan on writing about them separately). This was our first hamam. First is the sauna for 10-15 minutes. If you can last that long, as it was the hottest sauna I have ever been in. Sort of like being on Mars, or in Hell, if you believe in it. After the sauna, mud masks are applied and once dry you shower off and go into the bath. Oh, and I should mention that we are all in bathing suits. 
It is a large room with a low domed ceiling, marble benches and sinks around the walls, and a large marble platform in the centre. You lay on the platform as a Turkish man in a towel first scrubs with a loofah mitt and then washes and soap massages you by hand. Then you sit on on the bench near a sink where they shampoo your hair and throw alternating hot and cold water on you as you gasp and sputter.
The lovely Charlie got an especially good washing. He would scrub her arms, back, butt, legs, then scrub her butt, scrub her butt, scrub her butt…in between he would pour cold water down the front of his towel. Dwayne was also worked over, mainly as the attendant had a captive audience of us giggly girls. At one point we were laughing so hard we could not breathe as we watched Dwayne being contorted and tossed around into interesting positions while soap was running into his eyes. After all this cleanliness, we each had 45 minute massages. The end result of this being we all had skin that glowed for days. It was an excellent way to end our time in the Ölüdeniz region.
Now this tale ends much like the Greece one with one of us (me!) getting food poisoning and trying to get it together on check out day with another long journey ahead. Groan..I considered my options, none too appealing. In the end, it was our taxi driver to the bus station who presented the best option. How about he got a friend to drive us, it would be 2.5 hours versus 5-6 hours, the cost would be not much more than the combined taxi and 2 buses we were going to take, and….we could stop as much as needed, wherever the ‘mood’ struck me. I had been saved.
