To Efes

Hitch hiking from Fethiye to Selcuk, we first encountered an air force officer on the street. The girls were standing in the road with their thumbs up as he approached me. We chatted for a bit and he offered to give us a ride to the highway. We accepted and he slowly taxied us around for 10 minutes or so, pointing out places and offering information. He also offered to take us for some tea. A nice gesture that I would normally accept...but we were running late and had a lot of ground to cover. Fortunately Riaki spoke up and asked for a ride to the highway, which he provided while explaining his views on Islam.
Our next driver was a barber. Nice guy with very limited English. Seems to be the norm. He drove us for awhile and left us with some fresh tomatoes to devour beside the road. Next up: trucker! These guys travel long distances alone so they tend to be a bit lonesome and curious. I'd say nearly 50% of our rides were from Turkish truck drivers!

A couple and their toddler picked us up in the afternoon. They were headed to Kusadasi, near Selcuk to look at an apartment. They dropped us off by the beach and promised to come back in one hour to take us to Selcuk. I stole some sand from the beach, grabbed some food, and waited. The guy showed up an hour later as promised and drove us to Selcuk.

We met our CS host, Serkan, at his carpet shop in the city center. Serkan runs the shop with his uncle/flatmate, Aydin, and a bunch of cats. He took us out to try nargile, Turkish water pipe. It was interesting but I don't really get the appeal.

In the morning we set off for Ephesus, a quick 2.5 km walk from Selcuk. It's worth the price of admission. We wandered through the ancient Greek/Roman city ruins, tripping over cats and dodging hordes of tourists. There were literally bus loads of tourists. Gross. But there's a reason everyone goes to Ephesus: it's awesome.

After Efes we hitched a short distance to Sirince. Some locals recommended that we check out the town for it's fruit wines and charm. I wasn't all that impressed with the wine - it was too sweet - but we had a nice time wandering around and trying free samples.

In the evening Ria and Sarah decided to get a haircut. Serkan took us to his barber and the girls got the Turkish flag shaved into their heads (Ria has a crescent, Sarah has a star). Allah Allah!

Before

Our host, Serkan

After!