The Turk and Tulin were in Turkey almost 3 weeks before me and had their own adventures. When I arrived, we hiked my favorite local hike up the hills, past 2 artesian wells established in Roman times. Spring wild flowers were blooming and the weather cooled us off from the hard climb.
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| house behind stone wall |
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| first well on the hike |
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| 2nd hike day, 2nd well |
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| view of Selcuk from 2nd well |
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| hiking duo |
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| wildflowers picked along the way |
We spent a day in Sirince, where I got to see the changes from the past 7 years when I last visited. Lots of growth - though during the week still a bit quiet with Covid.
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| Sirince |
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| cherry blossoms |
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| Wisteria! |
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| walking the old streets |
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| At Ali's hotel overlooking the town |
We also visited the family grave at the cemetery. I have been to this cemetery over the years, but have never seen such growth in the volume of graves. I couldn't help but notice that most of the new gravestones were dated 2020 (Covid). Mark's family has two gravesites. One for his sister, One for his father and eldest brother. The older gravestones in this cemetery usually are dated using the Arabic years which makes the age of the deceased look hundreds of years!
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| Mark's dad and brother buried here |
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| Ana and Mark walk together thinking of his sister |
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| Arabic and Contemporary dates |
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| all dated 2020 |
Back at the family apartment, the neighbor decided to dry out the freshly shorn wool on the sidewalk, only to find that the birds were stealing it for their nests!
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| sheep wool...for the birds? |
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| sometimes you get creative to get around! |
We got to spend part of the day at the Ephesus Museum in Selcuk. It had been years since I was there and it was nice to see some upgrades to the building and the displays. It used to be very basic displays of over 2000 year old artifacts!
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| a fin on his belly??!! |
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| beautiful |
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| boy on dolphin |
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| hanging with Artemis |
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| ornate goddess |
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| pottery |
Ephesis was the capital of Asia, and the most populated city in Asia Minor in the Roman Imperial Period with over 200,000 inhabitants.
