The Daily Diary of a Wandering Restaurateur
Perge and Beyond

It seems like Ruins R Us along the Mediterranean coast. Today the ruins of choice were at Perge (purr-ga), about half an hour up the road. Perge is reputed to be the second best-preserved ancient city site in Turkey after Ephesus. We found it easier to get a sense of how the city was once laid out than Ephesus with the added attraction of no hordes of tour groups and no hills to climb!

Perge was originally an ancient Greek city with some parts dating back to the Bronze Age (circa 4th century BC). At one point it was another toy in Alexander the Great's toy box and went through a few other rulers before being conquered by the Romans. St. Paul visited the city and it retained its status as a Christian city into the fifth and sixth centuries.

The ruins are mainly from the Roman period although there were many pieces adorned with Greek wording. The most intact part of Perge is the public bath complex by the old main gates, presently being repaired. In fact, we saw more restoration and excavatiopn going on here than in any site we have visited yet.

A slight breeze only delayed the inevitable and after an hour and a half of wandering in the sun, it was time to attend to the elevated body temperature issue. So it was goodby to Perge and off to ... where?

I have nothing but the highest respect for the Roman engineers who put all this together in the first place. Much of their original structure has held up to this day. I often wish there was a way to have seen these cities in their heyday. Maybe in a past life regression?

After sweating it out at Perge, we went off in search of lunch. I didn't want to drive all the way back to Side so we cut off the main road and headed toward the water, figuring there would surely be a shady cafe somewhere along the sea front ... but it was not to be. We drove through Belek with its tacky faux ruins (whose bright idea was THAT?) There were lots of golf courses but the waterfront area was claimed by a wall-to-wall line of large resorts, all with imposing ... and guarded ... entrances. Drive on.

To our surprise, the shore road eventually dropped us in Side. Margene remembered a place that had a view of the water, so we settled down at a sports bar connected to one of the big resorts in the new town. We ordered drinks, then waited ... and waited ... and waited for the waiter to take our lunch order. After twenty minutes of being totally ignored, we paid for the drinks and left. Nobody even raised a question as to why we didn't stay. Seems to me that would be an obvious point of curiosity for someone who cared. There was obviously a lot of money tied up in the resort. Perhaps they would do well to spend some of it on better training.

So we went half a block down the street and back to the Umut where we had lunched two days before. Service was prompt, the prices were lower for what I can only guess was a higher quality meal than we would have received at the sports bar. We didn't have the ocean view, but we did see a passing horse! Once again our waiter was the irrepressible Murat, an outgoing young man who speaks five languages and -- being a big fan of the movie "Scarface" -- is angling for a way to meet Al Pacino! I'll see what I can do.

In addition to his outgoing nature, what impressed me was that whenever Murat had a few minutes when all his tables were under control, he went to the front entrance to see if he could charm some of the passers-by into coming in. He didn't have much luck talking the horse into joining us, but he showed a sense of responsibility to the business itself that is all too rare.

Murat talked us into a special meze platter to start. Since this was likely to be our one meal of the day and we were in a mood for meat, Margene went for the chicken shish and at Murat's suggestion, I ordered the mixed grill with lamb, chicken, beef and chicken wings. Ably fortified with our protein fix for the day -- and a new friend -- we headed back to the apartment.

Finally we got together with John Donnelly, a displaced Irishman working as the onsite agent for the rental management firm that handles most of the owner rentals in Augustus Village. John is an interesting guy who not only showed us how to operate the washing machine but was a wealth of information about life in Turkey, especially for the non-Turks. He also answered one of our lingering questions: what's in the pots we see at dozens of roadside stands? The surprising answer? Corn on the cob!

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