The Brucato's and Turkey II: A relaxing Sunday

Sunday, June 1, 2014

Hello!

For dinner last night we went downstairs to our pension’s restaurant, Halikarnasis, and had a very nice meal! We ate in the enclosed restaurant area, (as opposed to the open-air spot across the road) as the wind had really sprung up and it looked like a storm was moving in across the lake – I saw some wonderful lightning flashes as we were eating!

R's lake perch and chips

My steak and chips

For starters, Robert had lentil soup, which he said was great, and I had a plate of fried aubergine (eggplant) with yogurt – which I loved! For mains, Robert ordered what they call their bass (perch) caught from the lake, which came out looking like fish and chips (which meant R didn’t have to debone and take all the parts off, which I for one certainly appreciated!) and I had their steak and chips.

My yogurt with eggplant underneath!

R's lentil soup

The meat was overdone (someday, if we come to Turkey often enough, I am going to find out how to say “rare.”) but very tasty, and the chips were homemade and good. We finished up the bottle of wine we had started at lunch – so let me tell you about that! I think we were in Kayseri a week or so ago when we ordered a bottle of wine, and it turned out to be something called “BUZBAG.” And it was great! Well, they also just happen to carry Buzbag here – it’s the actual winery name, and the wine is nice and dry and white (they have reds as well) – but isn’t that a terrible name? Tonight I will try and record the two grapes that make up the blend – it’s two grapes neither of us have heard of before, but the wine is definitely really good! For dessert, we didn’t want anything, but were presented with a small plate of sliced orange, which was a good finish to our meal.

Evening view of the lake with storm moving in!

Then up to bed around 9:30 p.m. Oh! Robert was doing some channel surfing on our TV here, and we were actually able to get to an episode of “Big Bang Theory” – with Turkish subtitles! Wonder how it plays here…storm definitely moving in, as I could hear the rain sometimes during the night.

Up this morning at the usual time to a lovely and sunny day! Down to breakfast about 8 a.m. and it was being served across the street next to the lake! What a great idea! We were served about 7 different plates of things – one of cheese, another of sliced tomatoes and cucumber, bread with homemade strawberry and apple jams, olives, watermelon … the list goes on, as well as two perfectly cooked eggs, sunny side up! An excellent breakfast, all next to the lake.

Beautiful Sunday morning!

Breakfast by the lake!

Robert and I first wanted to take a walk of exploration around the end of our little island – called Yazilada, in case you were interested! It’s mostly pension after pension interspersed with small restaurants. I know that in the summer, apparently this place is absolutely swamped with people. It has been called Turkey’s best-kept secret; that it’s mainly Turkish families who come to spend their summer holidays here. And while it is lovely and peaceful now, I can just imagine it ramping up for tourist season!

Then, into the car for our one adventure today – Sagalassos, about 50 km away. But first, we needed to fill the car up with diesel, AND get it washed! One of the wonderful things about Turkey is that a car wash or spraying is included free when you get gas, and many little gas stations have the kind of mini-car wash feature that we used a couple of weeks ago in Gaziantep. Pulled up at a P&O gas station on the outskirts of town (one that had the automatic device thing-y) but of course, why use that when you’ve got man power handy? The guy who helped us literally power sprayed the car, then covered it with soap (which cost 1 TL, about 50 cents), scrubbed the car with a long brush, and finally powersprayed it again! Wow! Looks much better, but then it also was starting to rain…so, back to the pension for our umbrellas!

Small harbor near our pension

Interesting juxtaposition

Absolutely lovely drive to Sagalassos; beautiful mountain scenery – and even the turn off to a local ski area! – over great roads; it took about an hour to get there…so…getting there. We followed the signage, as the Turkish road atlas had marked the site WAY off its real location; wound up and up and up – about 7 km up a very steep mountain road – and again, shades of Nemrut Dagi – absolutely NO guard rails anywhere in sight! Robert kept saying we must have missed it – but the signage kept pointing the way!

Mountain near Egirdir; military post

More Turkish mountains!

At last we popped out at a modern (albeit small) parking lot, and there were actually several other cars there! Paid our 10 TL each for tickets, and headed UP to enjoy the site! Sagalassos was the first Pisidian city, discovered in 1806, which dates from 240 AD or thereabouts. The Pisidians were a very hearty people, similar to the Hittites, in that they preferred defensible mountain regions and were a very stubborn race. The site has been under excavation for the past 20 years or so by the Belgians, and they are doing a really excellent job! Everything was well labeled and included illustrations that showed the buildings in their original state. Because the site is near the top of a mountain, it is really, truly vertical. We first walked up to one of the big fountains, which was quite lovely, and from there, walked over to their 9,000 seat theatre. The site itself is really huge, and this was obviously quite a flourishing city in its day.

Robert in fountain!

Me in theatre!

However, two earthquakes about 100 years apart (550 and 650 AD) added to the bubonic plague, eventually leveled the city and the Pisidians moved on down the hill.

As we walked the site, it was obvious that weather was definitely heading our way! And the last thing I wanted was to be on the top of that mountain and having to drive down that road in torrential rain with no guardrails!

Shelter over mosaics

More Sagalassos

So, finished our survey and decided to head back to the pension and spend the rest of the afternoon with our books. We actually were able to beat the rain to the bottom (although it was a close call!) and we had a variety of rain and hail on our way back to Egirdir!

I had hoped to be able to browse through the local shops on our way back, but between rain and wind, decided that would just have wait! This area – with Isparta, the town about 30 km away – is known as the Rose capital of Turkey! And possibly the world! Since we were in Konya, we have literally seen roses everywhere – all different colors and sizes.

Just a bit tippy!

But this particular area actually harvests the renowned Damascena rose and exports rose oil all around the globe! Even my favorite bath-product producer, LUSH, buys rose oil from Turkey! In addition to the oil, they make rose marmalades, ice creams and cosmetics! The rose water we had the other night in Konya was just delicious, but I’m sure I wouldn’t be able to bring rose ice cream home…hmmm…

Back to the pension about 2 p.m. and a really lovely, relaxing afternoon – all with amazing weather going on around us! We have both napped, and now I’m blogging listening to thunder! How fun!