Selcuk, Day 1

It was time to leave Istanbul and explore a  little more of Turkey.  We boarded a flight for Izmir and then caught our transfer to Selcuk.  The flight was a pleasantly painless one–only an hour and they even served food (I’m guessing Turkish expectations of flight service are different from those in the U.S., where you can fly from one end of the country to the other and only receive a package of peanuts).  After we checked into our hotel, we walked over to our lunch destination.  As indicated in all the Trip Advisor reviews, the owner of the restaurant, Mehmet, was very friendly and the food good.  The gozleme were very fresh and reminded me a little of Chinese pancakes with cheese.

We walked behind the restaurant to check out the residential neighborhood a little when I heard bill clapping, looked up, and saw a stork.

We walked up a hill and checked out the exterior of Basilica of St. John as well as the local mosque.  We walked around Selcuk for a bit but there wasn’t much else to see so we took a nap in our hotel room and then headed back out for dinner.  The food at the restaurant we ate at was so-so but the views were nice and I especially enjoyed seeing the pair of storks at a nest that could viewed from the restaurant.

When we returned to our hotel, the proprietors were excitedly watching an important soccer match and we went outside after the game ended, roused by honking horns and other forms of celebrating the game’s outcome.  “If you take back anything from Turkey,” one of the guys at our hotel said, “take back the knowledge that Turkish people love soccer!”