Ayvalik and Sheytan Sofrasi

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Ayvalik: The hotel in Izmir was not as cheap as we thought - 50 lira per person per night not 50 lira for the room. Still reasonable value though. We took a taxi to the otogar where we easily got a bus to Avalik. We booked into the Aziz Arslan Otel (where we stayed two years ago) then headed out to Sheytan Sofrasi - the devil's dinner table. About an hour easy walk from where the bus dropped us. It is very beautiful up there. The views are immense. So immense that they are hard to take in. It was extremely windy. There are several cafes up there and some of them play loud music. Most people though go up in vehicles so the walks there and back were quiet.

In the evening we drank beer on the pier built out over the sea and watched the sunset then ate at the restaurant on the next bit of pier. Ashley had calamaris and I had red mullet.

We have been watching Turkish TV - Yemektecegiz (come dine with me) and a quiz show called 50 50 which we can sometimes answer. Both are amusing for different reasons.

Next day after breakfast we went to the market which, as usual, was both immense and chaotic. It was a lot of fun. We got a dolmus taxi out to Cunda and wandered round the countryside there for a few hours. We saw an eagle. We saw a huge house for sale in the middle of nowhere. We went back to the hotel then another evening of beer and fish dinners, though Ashley did not have fish.

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