Sept. 16, 2000

Friday morning I ran various errands including a half hour wait at the bank. Due to this we didn't leave for the bus station until around 1:30. There we got tickets for the Truva bus to Ayvacik. It was a long bus ride, but the scenery around the Straits of Galipoli was beautiful.

We got to Ayvacik around 10 PM and were told a dolmus would leave for Assos at 11. We got to Assos a little after that. The dolmus driver told us we were lucky because usually the dolmuses don't run that late. We went to the Eris Pansiyon and were lucky again because the people who were supposed to take the last available room had decided to come later.

Our hosts were an American couple and a Turkish couple. The pansiyon was in a lovely stone building with a clean modern interior and a peaceful breakfast deck with a view of the hills. We had a bowl of manti from our hosts and then went to Cafe Lembas, which they recommended, for some wine.

Assos village is a peacefull hill town with lovely stone buildings and crooked rocky paths. The air is clean, the skies are clear and the sounds you hear are from chickens, crickets, the wind and braying donkeys. There are views of hills, valleys and the Aegean Sea.

Today, we walked through the ruins of the old city including the Temple of Athena, Aristotle's school, the necropolis, and by the theatre which they are in the process of restoring. We walked down the hill to the Iskele.

The Iskele is a quaint comfy town area with ornate stone hotels and restaurants, but nothing else. It seems like its only purpose is to cater to tourists. However, strangely enough, there don't seem to be any shops. There are some rocky beaches but mostly it seems people go there to breathe the air and relax in the shade of the hotel bars. There weren't many people around since the season ends in August when all the students go back to school. We didn't stick around long, because I was wanting coffee and the best place to get it was back at Lembas. I think I can have a decent vacation anywhere, as long as there is a nice quiet cafe with a garden or a view and some decent coffee.

After my coffee fix, we headed to the third part of Assos, Kadirga beach. We walked along the road hoping for a ride (it is about 4 km from the village to the beach). Eventually, a tractor stopped. The driver told us where to sit: Roshan on the front of the wheel guard, next to the driver and me behind the driver on a metal box which was dented as if several people had sat there. We bumped along and surprisingly didn't fall off going down the hill. At last we got to the beach. Kadirga is basically a long stretch of beach with a long stretch of hotels running parallel to it. We were there at the perfect time. There was hardly anyone around. I imagine in the summer it must be packed. The water was still warm enough for swimming. There were these schools of fish which flocked around our toes whenever we took a step. We fed them cookie crumbs, swam around and then relaxed on in the sun.

We got back into town and went to Lembas for dinner. Then we took a stroll around the village to watch the sun set. As we were climbing up a narrow path for a better view, Roshan got threatened by a ram. We climbed up further and found the Timur Pansiyon which had a magnificent view of the sea, the sunset and the sheep and cows going home.

September 18, 2000

Yesterday we woke up refreshed and had breakfast on the Eris Pansiyon porch. We sat for a while admiring the sun in the valley .The region is full of the typical Mediterranean dry hills, speckled with olive trees and stone walls and ruins of houses. Apparently, there is some ordinance that states you can't build a house unless there had already been a house previously on the site you want to build on. Our host said the current trend is to have a friend dump a pile of rocks on the site of your choice. Later, you go, dig around and "discover" the remenants of a house that no one had known was there. I suppose it also involves, like everything else in Turkey, some cash discretely placed in the appropriate pocket.

After breakfast we walked down to the Ottoman bridge which arched over the dry river bed. There was a puddle of murky green water where a man was trying to get a pump started. Roshan helped him, thereby filling our peaceful morning with the roar of a gass engine. As we were walking around the bridge, we found a poor donkey with his legs chained together hiding in the shadow of the bridge. He wasn't too sociable so we left him alone.

Back up the hill, we called the bus station and realized the 3:15 bus which we planned on taking was full. We ended up racing back to the pansiyon, checking out and racing to get to Ayvacik in time for the 1:00 bus. We made it in time and started our long bus trip back to Istanbul.