Hi all
Well I got to read your posts whilst waiting for transfer to airport yesterday but couldn't cope with the Turkish keyboard to do more.
Well ,after coping with temperatures of up to 53 degrees and watching helicoptors carrying buckets of water up to the forests, what a beautiful country Turkey truly is. A trip to Ephesus was too daunting in the heat and I had to settle for doing very little.
But why post when the highlights of the weeks were sitting a lovely "Italian" coffee bar drinking that country's coffee eating apple strudel ( oh so local atmosphere) and watching the sun set ( a bit of a relief that was) and yachts slide into the harbour on a roof top drinking cocktails and Turkish coffee.
Because this woman saw no belly dancing (What!) no local Turkish shows but a chance trip to another town to visit on market day and lunching on pide and cola (as you do) the music changed and there arrived 2 men, playing zills and dressed in long skirts with decorated bum bags (is best description I can muster) and little matching vests (over white manly t shirts). They were wonderful dancers and that night I enquired of our retaurant manager ..had I actually seen the descenders of the Gocek dancers..he smiled and said you are very honoured madam, you have indeed they dance on special occassions and are highly regarded. Yippee...I danced with a Gocek who grinned and clattered his zills at my hips.
Oh and I also bought some cracking modern Turkish music.
Missing that azure sea,incredible coastline, crusader castle, thousands (of mostly safe) trees , pretty and quiet haven of a hotel and even notoriously hectic bar street.........