Selcuk

my cheapest meal of the trip: 2 lira for a chicken kebab and ayran at the Izmir otogar

We spent the morning travelling: small bus to Bergama's bus station (otogar), a bigger bus from there to Izmir, and another bus from there to Selcuk. The bus station is Selcuk is conveniently right in the middle of town.

In the afternoon we visited the major sites in Selcuk: the Church of St John, the Isa Bey mosque, and the Ephesus Museum. These are all very close by. We also wandered through the centre of town, where there are various sections of ruined Byzantine aqueduct with stork nests on top of them.

the baptistery in the Church of St John

the Isa Bey mosque

Isa Bey mithrab

making brooms

carpet salesmen posing for the camera

central Selcuk

storks nesting on the aqueduct

an Ephesian Artemis

Selcuk must be a popular destination on the Gallipoli circuit, as it's full of ANZ-named hotels: the Wallabies Hotel (which seems to also be the All-Blacks Hotel, surely an accident waiting to happen), the Boomerang Guesthouse, the Kiwi Pension, the Canberra Hotel, etc.

Back at our pension we drank tea in the family living room, which doubles as a guest sitting room. Two boys were playing computer games while the parents and daughter played cards. The pension has its own stork nest, just metres away, and a pair of storks was busy bringing material to build that up.

We wandered off in light rain and found a little restaurant for dinner. On the way back to our pension we stopped at a travel agent, to see if they could book a train ticket for us, but the guy there told us that he'd never been able to get the TCDD web site to work either and that we should try the train station.

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