Yay for şarap!!

So this weekend something amazing happened. Chris and I actually left AND returned to Izmir WITHOUT ANYTHING GOING WRONG. whoa. Let me say that again. Nothing went wrong! So those of you who thought you'd read about our latest disastrous trip, sorry, you're SOL. Not only did everything go right, I got wine out of the deal too!

So we kept seeing the name Şirince on wine bottles and hearing the name from Turks who said it was an amazing little wine village. Well, you had me at the word "wine" so we've been trying to arrange to go there for, oh, two months or so. We always wanted to go with people, but it never seemed to work out. So I finally had enough waiting, and laid down the law, which stated we were going this weekend, come hell or high water. (Plus we were down on our wine stockpile.) After quizzing 3 different people about the possible ways to get there (we've learned our lesson- NEVER trust anyone's directions, ALWAYS double-check, and ALWAYS ask multiple people), we decided to take a dolmuş (a mini-bus basically, and super cheap!) from Uçyol (near our apartment) to Gaziemir, and from there another dolmuş to Selçuk, and then a third one to Şirince. Since Chris walked up to Uçyol the night before and checked, we knew we could at least get the first dolmuş. So we did, and wow, it went flawlessly! Lots of waiting (the total trip was 2.5 hours) but we didn't mind, since we didn't have much else planned for the day.

Can I just say that Şirince is beautiful?! Of course, I forgot our camera in my anxiety and misgivings about just what would go wrong this trip ( I don't think I believed that we'd actually get there). So sorry, I only have pictures on my phone, and Chris will have to figure out how to get them onto the computer and then onto the blog, and I'm really not even sure if they're big enough to do that with. Anyways, yes, it's gorgeous. Up in the mountains, with white houses and wooden shutters, stone streets zigzagging throughout the village, and a very intimate feel. Of course, there were a billion tourists, which (going on a tangent for a second), I really felt annoyed by and disgruntled towards. But then again, how can I be disgruntled since (a) I am a tourist as well, (b) I couldn't have gotten there if there weren't tourists and a demand for dolmuş routes there, and (c) it has made it so many villagers speak English, which was nice to hear. But I'm sure you all know how yicky and disappointing it is when you expect to have some space to breathe and end up jostling with tourists and looking at hideous trinkets for sale everywhere. But I digress, sorry

So yes, it was gorgeous, and we tasted and bought bunches of fruit wines, as well as some merlot. We even got some homemade merlot, so this should be interesting :) We were only in the village for a few hours, but we enjoyed our time there, especially the church that has been excavated and restored. Then, later, we found another one, although this one was earlier in the process of restoration, so it was pretty rough. Who knew there'd be room in this tiny village for not just one but TWO churches in antiquity? Cool stuff.

Well, enough for now. This weekend is Pammukale, which I'm sure I'll have more to write about (3 day trip vs 1 afternoon) and some pictures.