Finding Mehmet

Our next stop is Gultepe Apartment Hotel in Kusadasi, which is the nearest port in Turkey for catching a ferry to Samos. The apartments were run by Mehmet and his brothers (as we discovered later) and we had instructions via email to call Mehmet when we arrived and he would give us instructions on how to find his place. Good plan. So we just make our way to “Ladies beach and he will meet us there. Excuse please, how do I get to Ladies beach? Where are you? At the port; just go to Ladies beach … well, you get the idea. Eventually Deb spots a bus with “Ladies beach” on the front, so we follow it, sticking like glue until we arrive at: Ladies beach! A call to Mehmet and a few turns around the neighbourhood and we finally rendezvous.

Gultepe Apartments  are quite the oasis just 5 minutes from the (Ladies) beach. He has a pool, bar, offers breakfast, lunch and dinner and a friendly and relaxing atmosphere. When we arrive, we are greeted by Brits lounging by the pool and asking for refills from one of Mehmets brothers. We discover later this is Octi, a very nice person and self-admittedly responsible for running everything behind the scenes with Mehmet as the “front man”.

Kusadasi (or at least Ladies Beach) seems to have been taken over by the Brits. There are Irish and English breakfasts at all the Tavernas, and the hotels are definitely angling for the UK market. We discover later our fellow guests at the apartments have been going there for years and actually own two of the apartments. That explains the obvious familiarity between Mehmet and these particular guests. Whilst it must be nice to have things look, feel and taste like home when holidaying away from cloudy old Blighty, I do feel Kusadasi has lost something of its Anatolian heritage as a result.

We settle in to our apartment on the second floor, overlooking the pool and pretty pleased with it. A large sized bathroom, two rooms for sleeping and modern renovations. The kitchen is not really a kitchen though, not having a stove or cooktop; this just means we eat downstairs, or get irish stew at one of the tavernas. This is also the first place that we are faced with the rule of no toilet paper to be flushed; rather it must be put into the handy bin provided. (perhaps Kusadasi has not lost all of its Anatolian charm).

The only gripe I had with Gultepe was the lack of A/C or ceiling fans. The weather has been excruciatingly hot and sleeping on our first night was nigh impossible. Mehmet was able to provide a small fan the next night, so not so bad. Again, exhibiting impeccable hospitality (for the trivial sum of 2 Pounds). But, Turkey being Turkey, you could always count on the Mullas to start chanting early – here they start at 5:00am; whilst this was fascinating in Istanbul, here in Kusadasi, it just served to wake all the dogs for at least 5 kms in all directions.

The next day we headed out to Ephesus, the ancient Greek city containing the Celsus Library. Mehmet advised to start from the lower end, so we would have a downhill walk back to the car. Good advice. The mercury hit 40 degrees and we made for the shade whenever we could. Ephesus is quite amazing, but like many of these ruins, the sheer amount of marble columns, statues and sandstone arches and walls gives you some appreciation of the task facing the archeologist. After 2000 years, thieves and natural events have taken their toll and there seems to be more of Ephesus laying on the ground, either where it fell, or in neat rows awaiting classification. Again, however, it doesn’t take long before you feel a sense of wonder at the vast age of the place and the distance in generations and culture between you and those who peopled this place.

A few kilometers from Ephesus there are two old mosques we had intended to visit, however, the heat had taken its toll and we opted for lunch instead. A friendly turk helped us with parking and then offered to give us a tour of his rug showroom which was handily nearby.  No thanks, perhaps later my friend.

Later that day, we dropped our faithful Kia back to Avis – thankyou, and bye bye. Somehow, it didn’t feel right to spoil the moment by telling them of my parking fine in Bergama.

The next day, it was time to bid farewell to Gultepe, Mehmet and his brothers and head to the port to catch our ferry to Samos. This ticket had been arranged by his good friend Ahmet (if that little bastard gives you trouble, let me know), who would pick us up the next morning for the transfer. There was some consternation from Mehmet and his other guests that we had paid too much and were told to go and threaten Ahmet with extinction if he did not give us a better price.