SELÇUK

Just as we thought all of our traveling was behind us for the next two weeks, we boarded yet another plane. Although this one was a short ride from Istanbul to Izmir, it was still torture considering we had just completed a near 24 hour travel day. Pulling out of the airport, we started the adventure of driving in a foreign country. Most buildings are much more run down and there are a lot of very steep roads up the hills. Joelle made a fairly good analogy to Turkey being similar to Mexico. The hotel we will be staying at for a few nights is very cute. There is a beautiful view of the city, a small little pool, and a nice little courtyard. We headed up to a small town, Şirince, to do a little shopping and eat dinner. All of the shops are super small and locally owned. One of the shop owners was making a felt wall hanging and let Joelle and I try it out. To start with he uses warm water and soap and pushed down on the felt for at least three hours. He finishes them with salt water to set the colors. Turkish people made and sold all sorts of things. Anything from a simple bracelet to a purse. There were things like fruit wine, lamps, journals, purses, dolls, and so on all made by hand. It was incredible. The dinner was….interesting, to say the least. I am certainly not a huge try new foods person. It wasn’t horrible though. The sunset on the drive home and at the hotel was beautiful. It set behind a castle that we will see a little closer up on our tour tomorrow.

Family

Small town shops

Beautiful sunset

The village with small shops

Purses made by a Turkish man

Fruit wine

Jet lag

Fruit wine shop

Felt wall hanging