Selcuk Turkey, Day 1: exploring the town: the weekend bazaar, storks, shoe shines and ruins.

For some reason, in Australia, I thought it would be a great idea to get up early, take a 150 km an hour drive in a taxi with seat belts that didn't work to Sabiha Gokcen airport ( a trip of about 50 km),  take a 1 hour flight to Izmir, get picked up by a driver who spoke no English and delivered us to the wrong hotel, and finally arrive at our accomodation in Selcuk, about 3/4 hour away, only to find that it was charming, but very basic after our previous hotel in Istanbul.

However, the stress faded once we met the lovely Boris, who offered us food and drink and welcomed us.  We felt we were back in east Gippsland when he apologetically explained that having rained, we were to expect frogs in our room at night, that with 4 mosques in the area we should hear a lot of calls to prayer, that we might hear a nightingale at night, but we definitely would hear cocks crowing, especially if the weasels were around, and that his cat, Charlie was a champion snake catcher.

Once we examined our simple but attractive room with its white washed walls, cotton blanket instead of sheets, traditional cotton curtains and textiles decorating the walls, we deposited  our belongings and set off to explore the rather likeable town, armed with a map from the helpful Boris.

Our first discovery was the weekly bazaar where you could admire the traditional dress of the older ladies: big, ballooning, bright floral pants, floral tops and scarves on their heads, and buy anything from antiques and pseudo antiques

 

to beautiful and very cheap fruit and vegetables straight off the farm

 

 to herbs and dried nuts and fruit

 and household wares, clothes and shoes. 

Strolling on through the shops, we came across the old Roman aqueduct with storks nesting on the tops.  The locals were very angry because a local politician had bee broadcasting extremely loud music for 2 months in the vicinity, which had scared many of the storks away.  Being stupid, I made the mistake of walking under one of the nests just as one of the parent storks backed over the edge of the nest and let go a very large shit.  Hair, clothes and handbag were covered.  I won't make that mistake again!

After I had changed and washed my hair and skin, we continued exploring.  In the centre of the main road, we came across this statue

 and this fountain

Quite a mix of styles!


Next, Bob was talked into decided to getting his shoes cleaned by this lovely gentleman while I watched the choughs nesting in the old tower.

Shoes gleaming, we went on and came across this old Roman Bath house in some wasteland

 

  and discovered that the basic style has not changed much when we came across this  modern one.

We also admired the view of the farms and hills beyond the town, looking towards the surviving pillar from the Temple of Artemis and Ephesus.

We decided that we like Selcuk.  The people are friendly and helpful, there is lots to see, it has a nice feel and it is interesting