Woylie

Our last day in Selcuk, so we took a dolmus, the small local bus, up into the hills to visit Sirince. This was a Greek village until the relocation of the population and it is known for its different architectural style and the attraction of the landscape. Very fertile hillsides covered in orchards of olives, citrus, apricot, cherry and other fruits. The slopes are terraced way up to the top and there is quite a lot of small machinery used as well as the customary donkeys and horses. The centre is dedicated to tourists with small stalls of handicratfs and food. We left this behind and took any small laneway up into the heights. There are lots of pensions and places to eat.We stopped for lunch at one with an appealing high terrace but had to wait for a loud and happy group of Turkish ladies who were out on an excursion from a nearby city (at least we think it was a birthday). It was a friendly and noisy session with a real feel of home cooking. We ate gozleme, like a crepe with a spinach and crumbly cheese filling and ayran,the ubiquitous yoghourt drink. The ladies tried to demonstrate how to eat it, to everyone,s amusement. D had a gift of a sample of the lcoal house white wine, a bit like a sherry we thought. As we meandered, some men hailed us form a rooftop and we went up for the vioew. It was the house of a potter with some attractive glazed work on white porcelain.

We ended the afternoon back in Selcuk chasing a cappucino = very hard to find, and visited a man we met last night. We were sauntering (you will notice the use of a range of vocabulary to describe aimless movement)after a meal of sis cop, and struck up a conversation with an older man. We sat on stools on the pavement in the cool of the evening, sipped coffees and chatted with him, and an Australian oil rig diver,covering politics and ancient history and linguistics. He spoke with a fierce sadness about the plight of "his Kurdish brothers".

Amongst the friendly assistance and conversations with people like the girl on the bus with her elderly dad checking our map, to the wrestler waiting on tables who stops for a chat every time we pass, it is hard to comprehend that bombs have been disrupting other parts of Turkey. Hopefully, it will not make a big impact on their tourism industry (second biggest industry we,re told) or cause too many deaths. Certainly not apparent here where most in this guesthouse comment on how little news they know.

Off early tomorrow to take the bus to Izmit then the plane to Istanbul. Coudl not master the keyboard to even log in in Istanbul so might need to leave this til later.

Lasting memory of Ephesus is the stems of single tiny pink dianthus in the crevices of the dusty marble blocks, and the stunning terracotta drainage pipes still snaking around the buildings.