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Wednesday 21st July

Kusadasi is busy, touristy and not our style but provides the step-off point for a visit to the ruins at Ephesus.  It provides the step off point for the cruise ships too.  There were always two moored in the harbour and they seemed to stay no more than 2 hours so the headcount through the town just from the ships every day was significant.  Not for us the air-conditioned coach waiting on the quay with guide standing by but a walk through the town to the Dolmus (minibus) stop.  Dolmus literally means ‘squashed’ in Turkish and indeed they can be but mostly they are a fast, comfortable, frequent  and cheap way to travel pretty much everywhere.  Probably due to the number of tourists that needed controlling there was an additional refinement to the system in Kusadasi in that the main stops were manned by a chap with a radio.  Here is the chap with the radio (and an impressive moustache) in Kusadasi town centre.

He knew exactly when the next Dolmus was due and got us onto the right one with lots of bonhomie.

Coming back there was again a man with a radio at the bus stop who welcomed us as though we were honoured guests.  The stop had two benches; a parasol over one, the other under a tree.  Those already waiting shuffled up so we could sit and the man in charge then got a bottle of lemon cologne out of his bag and poured some onto our hands for a bit of a freshen up and cool down.   Having attended to our comforts he then called the next Dolmus and told us it only had four spare seats, two other being booked already by a hotel further on.  The one after would be fifteen minutes and he had reserved our seats.  Blimey.

Over the next fifteen minutes Mike learned that he had retired from his barbers business and was doing this to help fund his daughter through university.  All a completely unexpected delight at the end of a very hot visit to the ruins, of which more in the next blog.