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Published: September 26th 2008
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Last week, I travelled to Cesme in Turkey with some friends for a relaxing one week holiday. We booked a villa for the week not far from the resort town of Cesme. We arrived late on a Sunday night, and were picked up by an excellent air-conditioned van and delivered to our villa. We settled in quickly and headed to bed early so we could make the most of our time... We all fell asleep eventually, though it wasn’t easy with the inside temperature pushing 30 degrees!
The next morning we awoke early and were greeted by glorious sunlight... something we hadn’t seen in a while living in London. Not only was it sunny, it was also hot, really hot! Although it was only 9 am in the morning the temperature was already in the high 20s. The warm temperatures only made our pool look all the more inviting. Oh and what a relief it was to have a pool! The pool was awesome, it was cool and deep, and very relaxing to have. But not only did we have our own pool, the nearest beach was only a short minutes walk down the hill. It was great to be
able to go for a swim whenever we wanted!
The first day was spent largely relaxing around the pool after an initial foray into town to pick up supplies like bread, bottles of water and a watermelon.
The following day we got a bit more adventurous and headed down into Cesme to explore. Cesme is a resort town on a small peninsular popular with Turkish tourists. Fortunately, we were outside the main tourist season. The water front is dominated by fishing boats and boats that take tourists on tours of the area. The town itself has a small castle that gives a great view over the area. While we were there we ran into a bunch of Turkish Naval Sailors who were very excited when they discovered we were New Zealanders (ANZACs). They gathered us all together and took our photo wearing their sailor’s hats.
We also had some excellent Turkish food at a local restaurant, including our introduction to cop sis (pronounced chop sheesh). Cop sis consists of many small skewers of grilled beef, which you can sprinkle with cumin or extra chilli... very delicious. Our meals were also served with huge slabs of Turkish bread. The bread
was like large flat pita bread and were served with butter and a herbed cottage cheese.
On our third day we were picked up early by another airconditioned van, which whisked us down to Ephesus for the day. We started by heading to the house of the Virgin Mary. Mary's house wasn't really worth the effort (unless you're Catholic on a pilgrimage) and involved the worst queue jumpers and rudest tourists I have ever met (including a short stout American man who threatened to punch me for not letting him push past us in the queue).
Next we headed down the hill to Ephesus. I have been to Ephesus previously but I must say it was still worth the entry fee. A bonus on this occassion was the slightly smaller crowds this time around. Once again I was amazed by the sheer size and majesty of the structures there, especially when you consider how old the features are (they date from the Roman Empire). I'm pretty sure that everyone also enjoyed this part of the journey.
After walking through the ruins we had developed a fair appetite so we asked the driver to take us for some
food... The food was pretty good, but I won't go into details here. The driver then whisked us back to our villa in Cesme (his English was ok but not great so it was difficult to negotiate further side journeys, and we were pretty tired anyway so we weren't complaining).
On Thursday, decided to check out what the neighbouring town had to offer. We jumped into a dolmus in Cesme and headed over the hill to Ilica. Ilica was a pleasant little town with a few shops and a beautiful market full of fresh fruit, vegetables, nuts, clothing and spices. We had a neat walk around soaking up the atmoshere. Ilica also had a beautiful white sand beach. Jo and I sunbathed for a while, had a wee paddle in the sea (which was lovely and warm), then headed home again.
On the last day, we spent as much time as possible sitting around the pool reading and absorbing as much sunlight as possible before we headed for home again.
Eventually, the time came to pack our bags, get back in the plane and fly back to London... Overall, I think everyone had a pretty good time
and loved the sunshine. Best of all, I don't think anyone picked up a bug (probably due to the ultra-cautious eating)! Next stop Istanbul!?!?!?
Until next time everybody,
Stay safe
Nick
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