Turketreis, Turkey, Sunday April 6th

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It poured all night and the power went off in the morning. I gave Keith a long-needed haircut out on the back verandah. Actually, the need for the haircut changed according to the fashions of the country we were in. In Egypt, his hair was decidedly on the long side compared to other men for whom it is regular practice to visit the barber at least monthly. There would be fifty barber shops to one hairdresser in Alexandria. In Greece, any man with curling or plenty of hair tended to wear it to its best advantage, usually nearly touching the shoulders. Plenty of men wore it longer, usually out but sometimes tied back. In Turkey the shorter, neater style is de rigueur, with architects favouring long pony tails (or so we have been told, since we have only met one architect and could not have generalised from his pony tail if we hadn’t had expert advice).
After breakfast we used the internet and suddenly it was after 1 pm. The days just seem to disappear. Jim took us for an interesting tour of the coast. Everywhere recent buildings have sprung up, with some being abandoned before they are even finished. An enormous new hotel stared out at the ruins of an abandoned church and the bulldozed site where another hotel had been started, abandoned and removed. There was one gated community on the side of a hill, facing wild and rugged hillsides, seemingly in the middle of nowhere, however just over the brow of the hill, a slope led to the sea. Nearly all of the houses in that community would be only used in the summer. A little village (I think it was Akyarla) was the only area where life was apparent. It had people and about seven dogs clogging up the narrow street. There was a charming beach with a restaurant right out over the water. The road had succumbed to the rain and was in very bad condition, barely passable at one point. The mountains, valleys, bays and islands were beautiful.
We spent the afternoon eating, typing, researching our trip to Ephesus tomorrow and watching Umit make cheese and parsley borek and a potato salad.

Jim was keen to come with us to Ephesus since he had not been there. That evening we had second helpings of everything, it was so delicious. After dinner we suddenly realised that we hadn’t rung to check if the Ephesus site would be open on a Monday, usually the day that monuments close. A quick google search in both English and Turkish left us deflated - not open. Jim said that web pages are often out of date so he rang a hotel in Solcuk, the town near Ephesus, and the trip was back on. It was early to bed, ready for an early start.