Location: Small room over looking a busy market
Status: A lot better then I was
Lesson for today: the camera battery is just as important as the camera.
Auther. D with extras from
Si
We left our lovely relaxing hostel in olympos at 7pm after seriously
spending a day doing nothing. We don't do that often but we did want
to spend sometime relaxing in the beginning of the trip which we
haven't done yet. It was really lovely although after a while the
flies got a little annoying.
We caught the bus to Anatalya and waited for a couple of hours for the
night bus to selcuk... pronounced selchook. It was a lovely bus with
wifi and an young attendent in a bow tie that looked exactly like Jack
Longhurst. An annoyingly immature yr 11 from last year. Some of you
would appreciate the image of jack as a bus attendant with bow tie and
red vest.
We were told the journey would take 8 hours which got us into selcuk
at 8 am. You you could imagine our surprise when we were shaken awake
at 5.25am. We were off loaded on a dark deserted street cold, half
asleep with no idea where we were.
The town has a population of only 23000, that's about one street in
lewisham. So, of course, nothing was open. Not even a barber.
This is where the lovelyness of Turkish people come in. A man was
walking past and stopped to ask us where we were staying. He then
pointed out to us where we needed to go. He did not try and rob us,
sell us coke or offer us a funtime girl, what a weirdo. We have found
that a lot here, people will see you are lost and will offer help.
Keep that in mind for the next bit. We arrived at the hostel 2 hours
early. There was a couch by the front door and figured to have a nap
there untill they open. Suddenly the lights turned on and an elderly
couple came out. They sleep in the front room. They rang the owner who
came and let us into our room and told us to get some sleep. They
could not have been more wonderful and have helped us out with
everything we needed. ESP the old couple despite not having the best
grasp of English.
After 4 hours sleep we got up and approached the day. First was the
basilica of St John. He was the youngest disciple of Jesus and was
given the task of looking after jesus' mother Mary. They built a
massive church in his hounour which if still standing would be the 7th
largest in the world.
Then to the museum to look at some artifacts from Ephasis and then to
the beach for sunset. A lovely romantic stroll down a black beach with
the beautiful Agean sea one side lapping at our feet and litter, half
finish buildings and people who really dont have the body to wear that
on the other.
Then we blew our budget on a lovely bottle of wine over dinner. Which
we drank on the balcony watching people set up for the Market.
Today we were up early to go to Ephasis. We were however distracted by
the huge Market that happens here every Saturday. Before we left the
UK Si wanted to ensure we had everything we needed, he thought that
outside of the uk eveyone lived a barbarian existance living off what
they could grow. This is very much a narrow minded incorrect
assumption. They have everying you need and all of it here in the
Market. Lots of beautiful fruit and veg but more important was
everthing else. If we required a "abbercomby and finch" hoodie or a
"bench" tshirt, maybe a "louie vitton" bag or "G star" jeans it was
all there. So after walking around that for a while we went to some of
the oldest ancient ruins around. They were really impressive and
wanted to take loads of photos to bore you with but left the battery
in the charger in the hostel. So all we have are the ones on the
iPhone, you can all breath a sign of relief.
There was a ampitheatre with a capacity of 23000, that's as many as
the O2. It was stuning. All the way up you have a great view of the
stage but also of the surrounding landcape of montains and valleys. As
we sat at the top a group of itallian, I expect, tourists would come
in and sing from the stage and the couple of hundred people there
would clap. It sounded amazing. To have 23k people in there and
cheering would have been mind blowing.
It was in these beautiful ruins, ruins that I have wanted to see for
years that I started to feel sick. Thinking it was sun stroke ( go
early! ) we decided to leave. It was on the way out that I realised it
was something I ate.
So we went back to the hostel where i stayed close to the westernised
toilet for a couple of hours and now all is good.
We walked around the Market again for an hour and now Si is getting
ready for us to leave for Gallipoli tomorrow.
We are now on the bus. It's comfy, cool and they are playing a program
about Turkish donkies. It's the day bus and should take about 6 hours.
We decided on the day bus because the two long distance buses we have
taken so far have been at night meaning you miss seeing the land
scape. All you get are service stations "cathedrals of dispair" and
sleeping towns. Though strangly there is always a barbers open. The
rest of the town is locked up and dark but you are guarrenteed to pass
an open barbers. On this note, Si has had his first haircut. During
the day, He did not want to risk a barber that was 22hours into a
36hour shift
North we go.
Sent from my iPod
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