The Daily Diary of a Wandering Restaurateur
A Down Day in Selcuk

Our first temporary home away from home is Natureland Efes Pension, a fairly new building with only two guest rooms. The rooms are large, however, with a kitchenette, huge walk-in shower (yay!) and perhaps the most comfortable beds we have had on a trip. Margene had not been a fan of memory foam mattresses, but after last night she is giving it some serious consideration.

The first order of the day was breakfast on the terrace overlooking the valley that leads into town. The countryside is ancient and not at all lush, but there are bits of ruins of uknown stone structures everywhere -- an archway here, part of a wall there, to remind us we are not the first to walk these hills.

The west coast of Turkey is where Alexander the Great made his base, where the Virgin Mary is reported to have lived out her final years ... and it was all old and well-established well before they came! It really makes you realize what cultural lightweights we are in our brand new 350-year-old country!

Breakfast is part of the room rate here so we took them up on it: delicious fresh-baked bread, an egg, cheese, cucumber and the most delicious tomatoes ever, jellies, honey, sesame paste, olives, tea and some sort of savory pastry filled with cheese and olives (I think!) My brain still cannot wrap itself around the names of all these things, let along pronounce them, but our first taste of Turkish food has been promising.

Some panoramic shots of Natureland Efes. The two guest rooms are on the lower level of the building. The owner and their family live above. Looking down the valley, you can just make out the old castle (fort?) on top of the low hill in the middle.

The day dawned slightly overcast, but cool, and over breakfast we had to face the big question of what do we do on our first full day in Turkey. We happened to ask the question of the folks in the room next to us and got some great ideas of seeing Ephesus and what to check out farther down the coast. Steve and Karen are Aussies from north of Sydney on a 9-week holiday throughout Europe. They were just there for the overnight and were driving into central Turkey after breakfast. Nice people.

We chose to stop in Selcuk to see the ruins of the ancient city of Ephesus. It was once a thriving seaport, but the harbor silted up over time and now it is several miles inland from the Aegean Sea. When we drove out there this morning, though, we suddenly realized we were still too tired to take it on today. So we turned around and headed back into beautiful downtown Selcuk.

We did some light shopping (paper towels, kleenex, etc.), then set off in search of a road map of Turkey. Our GPS finally started functioning about halfway down from Izmir but it is still difficult to direct ourselves to places that don't have a street name and number. The search took us into the Selcuk shopping districe, really more of an open air mall with lots of little shops. Actually quite pleasant.

The bird on top of the tower is a nesting stork and you can see two more stork nests on top of the ruins in the middle of downtown. We don't have a guidebook to give us much of the back story of the place -- books in English are not common -- so I can't tell you anything about the fort on the hill ... just that it's been there for quite awhile!

We were still full from breakfast, so passed on lunch, went back to the room and slept all afternoon! We have a little over three weeks to wander around, so one afternoon off isn't a big deal!

We opted for dinner back at Natureland. We sat in the downstairs kitchen and had some real Turkish home cooking. We started with a platter of cold mixed meze (starters), mostly spreads for the excellent bread: spicy crushed tomatoes, carrots and yogurt, eggplant and yogurt, fresh peas and yogurt, pickled green beans and stuffed baby peppers, all with interesting spices. Then to a pleasant soup of undetermined ingredients. The main course was a stew of beef and pearl onions with rice, peas and carrots and a green salad. We topped it all off with a small pastry soaked in honey and a cup of tea ... all for about $12.50 apiece!

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