R116 MEAL

 

LAST POST

 Just have to record this one!

In Selcuk the other night, whilst waiting for our nightbus,we'd come across what turned out to be a municipal park on the outskirts of thr little town which turned out to contain a restaurant.

Decided to sit around there for a while to kill time then noticed that the food coming out looked pretty ok.

So we ordered 2 cheeseburgers,.....a large plate of chips,....an amazing sslad including a type of feta cheese here in Turkey,.....and 2 glasses of turkish chai.

Couldn't believe it when I went up to pay,.....what turned out to be one of our best meals here,.....total cost R116.

Without doubt the best value prize in our month here around Turkey.

ISTANBUL

 We're off home tomorrow and have managed to work out how to get to the "new" airport which is mostly only accessible via taxis.

I hate taking them and far prefer taking the available public transport where possible.They changed airports between our last trip 5 years ago and the present.

We'd thus been forced to take one on arrival a month ago and landed up on a busy freeway with a blowout.The driver eventually had no choice but to flag another empty taxi going our way,and do a deal with him to split the R400 it was costing us.

After a bit of research I've discovered a dedicated bus service to the new airport.So tomorrow we simply walk up to the Sultanhamet tram stop located 500m from our hotel,... hop on,.....hop off 4 stations later at the Yusufpasa station,.....walk another 300m to the METRO station and there's a bus every 20 minutes to the airport.Cost 35tl each,....and we know we're going to get there!

And we're now just marking time and trying to spend the remaining cash we had changed on dsy 1 and 2 of t

his trip

 

 

EPHESUS

Yesterday we were taking the night bus from Selcuk back to Istanbul.

These buses leave late at night and get one there early the next morning,so one has quite a bit of time to kill between checkout at around 11am till the bus arrives at 11pm.

We had thus decided to take a walk down to the ruins later in the day,....with the sun a little lower.Arrived at the entrance at around 2:45 and eventually left at close to 6pm.

The thing about Ephesus is the scale of the place,.....there are,in my view,only 2 other ancient ruins comparable to Ephesus in scale and gradeur,.....Pompei and Machu Picchu.

This was our 3rd opportunity to examine this marvellous Roman city over the past 20 years or more, and it has never ceased to amaze.

The site was once the second largest and most important port city on the planet,......second only to Rome.

It's been the site of an archaeologic dig since as far back as 1863 and a constant "dig" since 1902.They are still literally excavating on site today,and will probably be in 100 years time.

Here one can literally walk the very streets walked 2300 years ago by the Romans,taking in the bathhouses, the church of the Virgin Mary,who died in a house located on a hilltop just a few km away.Past the Celsus library,....the gymnasium,......an amphitheatre which seats 60000 people,....a smaller one for 5000,.....terrace houses,.....shops.

A truly spectacular experience with more of the city opened up each time one visits the site.

 

KUSADASI

 We're winding down now and Selcuk is located only 18kms from the large port of Kusadasi so we decided to take the 25 minute dolmus ,........another of those highly commercialsed port towns,hosting huge passenger liners with droves of captive tourists spilling out into the town.

Even more wall to wall "genuine fake" stores all selling the same old shit!Not much different to Bodrum.

Hell I'm pleased we decided to stay rather in Selcuk!

We'd been to Kusadasi once before, on a ferry across from the Greek island of Samos, which is  very much visible  not more than 15km from Kusadasi. I recall the overriding sentiment at the time of,......."don't stay here!" Well that's now confirmed.

A very nice 15th century castle sitting out in the bay, and now  accessible via a pier type thoroughfare built in the 60's.

Very nice but that's about it!,......another Bodrum (or Marmaris for that matter)

So,....with just 4 nights to go before our flight home (we leave here tomorrow night on the night bus to Istanbul) I can state categorically that we WILL be back in Turkey!

However it'll be ISTANBUL/ANTALYA/KAS,....really great places where weve stayed in really nice hotels ,and been able to enjoy proper turkish culture,food and hospitality.

We've done the cappadocia,pamukkale,Hierapolis,Side ruins  etc.,as well as Canakkale/Galipoli/Troy during our previous  comprehensive trips through Turkey so,....been there, done that.

However,we'll be at a loose end tomorrow and shall need to wait a good 12 hours for our night bus,after checkout from our hotel here in Selcuk,so we'll pay

a 3rd visit to the Ephesus site ,which should take a big chunk out of that wait.

TEMPLE OF ARTEMIS

 Dating back to 100BC the temple of Artemis was once considered

one of the 7 wonders of the world at the time.

Until the Romans faded away,....and the material from this ancient structure was taken to build the 15th century  crusader castle in the background,.....as well as to some of the many mosques in the town.

This single column, and a number of small sections of other columns, is all that remains and is freely accessible to the public just a km outside the Selcuk main village.

FOOD COST

 Therein lies the fundamental problem in SA!

These guys are presently experiencing huge inflation,......but no one seems to be going hungry.

Fresh produce goes straight from the farm to the shopkeeper,restaurateurs, and the man in the street.There are no middlemen pushing these prices through the roof and making virtually everything totally unaffordable to the poor.

In SA any fresh produce purchased has passed through multiple middlemen before it's purchased at PnP or Wooolies for stupid prices.

Same applies to eating out,.....poor people here can afford to sit down at a little local "LOKANTA" for a wrap and a fresh salad,at a cost of under R80.

SELCUK SATURDAY MARKET

 Selcuk and Ephesus are located in the middle of what is clearly a fertile farming community and,every Saturday the entire town centre transforms into a huge market place.

Streets are all blocked off and farmers and other merchants sell their produce direct to the local residents and shopkeepers.

The prices/kg in the pics are effectively a price in rands as presently 1Tl = R1.

A kg. of grapes cost R10 to R15,....most other fruits range between R10 to R40/kg.(max).

Brinjals and eggplants bigger than fists,....and shiny fresh for R10/kg.

The coffee/tea shops situated in tbe local areas are teeming with older guys with their traditional caps and smoking like chimneys.

Countless glasses of Turkish tea seem to be consumed here,...  not much turkish coffee ?

We ordered two cups of turkish coffee,cost R10/cup.