I am STILL in Egirdir. Hurrah!

Yesterday we popped out on the boat to the other side of the lake, went for a fantastic swim in slightly cold but beautifully clear water, and then sat on the beach and drank wine, and life was good.

In the meantime I am still trouncing Mustafa the fisherman at tavla every time I play him. He does not appear to be giving up, however. Personally I am waiting for the bottle of raki I won off him to arrive.

The weekend got rather busy, as the base for Turkey's Commandos is just outside the town. It's difficult to miss, as 'WE ARE COMMANDOS STRONG BRAVE AND READY' is emblazoned on the side of the mountain in rather large letters. So the place filled up with families coming to see their poor darling boy. I played a lot of tavla with these poor darling boys who were busy trying to hide from doting parents. And won! I was also taken to task by a five year old who came to have a look at me writing my diary and pronounced my handwriting so awful that he gave me a handwriting lesson then and there!

In the meantime Tarık still haunts the computer unless I throw him off it, Müslüm and he both sit there gazing at me hopelessly when they think I'm not looking, Mustafa alternately sulks from losing at tavla and proposes more boat trips, Havva is in the kitchen gutting mountains of fish, and there are a few guests around as well for whom I spend a lot of time translating unless Ibrahim is around. He asks me every morning 'So how long are you staying? Two years?' and I reply, 'We'll see tomorrow!'

Müslüm is now chivvying me to drink up my tea so he can give me more and drag me off to play cards. Gosh, it's a tough life...

* posted by nat 3:01 PM

Thursday, September 23, 2004

I am in Egirdir. I have been here quite a while, mostly because it's a rather fab little place, and also because I am too lazy to really do very much any more. At any rate I am drinking vast amounts of tea and talking a whole variety of languages... So far I have met 6 Czechs at this hostel alone!

Anyway today I exerted myself and went with two Dutch and a Canadian for a little scramble along some rocks in a canyon in Kovada National Park. Went swimming in the pools, it was all wonderful at the time but now everything aches something horrible. I have slept for two hours and am now going to drink lots more tea. Yay!

... and talk to another Czech who has just turned up. Good grief!

* posted by nat 8:07 PM

Saturday, September 18, 2004

I have finally escaped from the lovely people at Homeros (they even taught me to crochet!) and moved on to the joyful tourist trap that is Pamukkale. Today I escaped that, too, and went to Aphrodisias, hurrah! Inbetween I am collecting lots of apologies from touts on the road 'I'm ever so sorry, I thought you were a tourist!' they yell after me in Turkish as I disappear down the road with my nose in the air. Also I am getting Turkish prices everywhere now, so I am feeling a lot happier.

Now just to convince erstwhile tea-offerers that you cannot offer 'Turkish tea' and then bring me a bag of Lipton and some hot water! Tea, yes - debatably. Turkish tea - no!

* posted by nat 8:21 PM

Tuesday, September 14, 2004

I am in Selçuk - still in Selçuk, as I seem to have moved into the pansiyon now. I am currently sitting at the computer of the pansiyon owner's cousin, inside his carpet shop. He has another carpet shop in Berkeley CA so he is not really trying to sell vaguely-impoverished-pretending-to-be-21-year-old-ex-teachers a carpet. Most of the rest of the people in this town have tried to sell me a carpet so there is now only about two streets left I can walk down without fear!

Anyway I have been overdosing on ancient sites and too much wine from Sirince, although I have levelled this out with a couple of visits to the beach and eating an awful lot of pansiyon-cooked veggies (cooked by mother, thus v v good). Also there is the practicing lots and lots of Turkish. This is also good for getting the village gossip, intrigue, honour disputes and all the other nineteenth-century type stuff. Loffly.

Oooh, look, another cup of tea! Yay!

* posted by nat 2:41 PM

Saturday, September 04, 2004

I seem to be in Ayvalık again. Not that there is anything wrong with this at all! I had a phone call from Loni and Jeremy saying they were coming down for a couple of days and was I in the area, so I dragged a couple of people along with me from the hostel in Bergama and along with a few more people we have met here we have been consuming much alcohol and talking late into the night. Yesterday we did a little boat cruise which involved sailing from pretty little cove to pretty little cove where everyone jumped into the water apart from me, who sat on the back of the boat kicking my feet in the water, even though everyone gallantly promised to save me if I decided to fall in and drown. We were utterly forcefed tons of istavrit-type fish and salad on the boat (I managed 5, Jeremy ate getting on for 20) followed by large helpings of watermelon and topped off by one of the boatmen forcefeeding us all lokma (fried sweet dough balls) by holding it in front of my mouth and stuffing it in at as fast a rate as he could. Well, he was amused anyway!

I have been trying to decide where to go next: if I want to explore the Çesme peninsula, or go inland searching for the treasures of Croesus, or whether to just hit Selçuk and be done with it. It will probably come down to what bus I can get on...

* posted by nat 1:28 PM