Selçuk, Oct 15 - 17

And now we return to the present, where İ currently find myself just over the two-third mark of my vacation / journey / adventure. İ have so much more to tell beyond the things İve done and the escapades İve had -- thoughts about the Turkish people, about Turkish food, about traveling alone, about traveling alone as a woman in a (pretty liberal) Muslim country, about not understanding a word of what anyone says around you, just to name a few -- but for tonight İ think it will be enough to catch up on these posts and maybe make a small dent in the small mountain of emails eagerly awaiting my attention.

On Monday İ arrived in Selçuk, a small (25000 people) town mostly notable for its proximity to one of the most legendary sites of the Greek & Roman empires: Ephesus (called Efes in Turkish)! İ hopped off the bus around midday, dropped my stuff off at the hotel around the corner from the bus station, and ignored the quizzical look from the (otherwise really friendly) guy at the desk (youre sure you dont want a tour?). No, I wanted to get on with it! :-) İ decided to walk there, and take the "long" way (5km) to the top gate. After the requisite confusion and disorientation -- İ dont have the best sense of direction, to say the least, and it doesnt help that in Turkey you can rarely tell what street youre on anyway because there are hardly any signs -- İ finally set out in what İ was reasonably sure was the right direction. After about 15 minutes walking along the shaded sidewalk by a new highway, İ followed the signs and turned right onto a two-lane road and strolled the rest of the way under the shade of mulberry trees and accompanied only by the sound of the birds and bees (and the occasional motorcyclist offering me a ride). Finally, I was there -- and it was every bit as magical as İ had imagined. Ruins, ruins, and more ruins, not a lot of statues because theyre all in the local museum, but just enough of them and of old cornices and bits of friezes to help you imagine the grandeur of the city that once housed St. John the Baptist and countless great thinkers and some really rich Roman people. İ was there until it closed and then hopped the dolmuş back into Selçuk, exhausted.

The next morning İ set out on another walk to the Basilica of St. John, an old Classıcal and Byzantine ruin of a thing (only a few of the walls and columns remain) that boasts the tomb where he was supposedly buried. The baptismal font, shaped like a cross, faces Rome in one directıon and Jerusalem in the other (or so İ overheard one of the French guides telling his crew... I may not do many tours but İm not ashamed to eavesdrop on them, hehe). Next door is the 14th-century İsa Bey Camii (mosque), where İ was both amused and upset by a tour guide who was telling her Western European group about Muslim women, about their headscarves and the separate prayer sections (in the back of the mosque). On the one hand she was right to point out that these customs are not dictated anywhere in the Koran -- but it also made me upset that she seemed to suggest that it was ok to break them or counter them, or that they were worth less, because İ believe there is a tremendous value to tradition and it is also not our place, as visitors, to barge in and tell others that we dont agree with what theyre doing (evident human rights violations aside). Something to think about, I guess...

Anyway, the day, though chilly, was too nice to spend inside so İ scrapped my original plans to see the statues in the Efes Museum and instead hopped a dolmuş to Şirinçe, an impossibly picturesque, tiny little village nestled into the hills outside of Selçuk among the grape vines (the wine here is great) and olive trees. İ spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around aimlessly and enjoying several servings of gözleme (a Turkish cross between a pancake and a crepe), which is quite possibly my favorite food here. To top off the gastronomical extravaganza, İ came back to Selçuk as the sun set and, heeding the advice of a carpet-seller İd been chatting with earlier that day, hit up a local joint for some of the best, juiciest, most delectable chicken kebap İ have ever tasted. In fact, thats where İm goıng to go now right after İ finish this post :-)

And fınally, catching up, today İ took another (and my last) tour to the old Hellenistic and Classical sites of Priene, Miletus, and Didyma. My guide book said that Miletus was the one to miss of the three, but İd have to disagree. Though little besides the enormous theater remains intact of the town, which once lay on a peninsula into the Aegean but from which the coast has since receded several kilometers (but it still floods every winter), İ thought ıit was much more atmospheric and imaginable than Priene, where the disordered jumble of old columns and stones virtually obscured any sense of the town as it was once laid out. Still, it was an enjoyable day spent doing exactly what İ came here to do -- clambering over old ruins, taking way too many pictures (even of Roman-era graffıttı!) and basking in the brilliant Turkish sun.

And now, about that kepab...