Sirince's Wine Festival

      It's harvest season in the old greek hill town of Sirince, celebrating an annual wine festival. By bus, its about an hour plus trip in a dolmus with final jaunt up the steep cliff road. We went with two friends from school. Sarah the librarian from New Mexico and Brant a fourth grade teacher from West Texas are great traveling companions!

      Sirince is a white wash town built on the hillside near the city of Selcuk, and Efesus. The homes of stone and terracotta roof tiles that has been functioning and preserved for hundreds of years . The stone road is well worn and polished from ancient footsteps. You should see the fantastic construction of the homes. Walnut branches uses as trusses on a stone or terracotta wall construction, washed white walls and tile rooftops. Fantastic buildings in the simplest forms and function.

      We stayed the night at the Nisanyan Pension. We were picked up at the entrance of town and driven to the pension, where we were greeted with a chilled glass of local fruit wine as we sat on the patio with a marble fountain loaded with flowers. Imagine little houses on the (600 yr old greek hillside) prairie! Charming, cozy, extremely comfortable and unbelievable. Our cottage house was on a hilltop road with a garden patio, fireplace and a marble fountain to wash your feet before entering. This two story cottage has a kitchen, with all the amenities including a private large open marble hamam style bathroom.  In a tranquil garden, on the top of the hill, overlooking the valley sits the spring fed marble pool . The kind of place were it's common to have a horse or donkey wander past.

 






   Then it was off to the festival.  We strolled down the narrow stone road passing local bread ovens and goats. We roamed the hillside town stopping to see the renovation of St. John basilica (1839) with its wooden vaulted ceilings and fresco remains, and a cold beer in a garden cafe overlooking the town and valley below. Finally, we arrived at center of town for the festival. The town is full of local artisan, oya craft (hand lace),  pottery, wine shops and the finest olive oil soaps for purchace. There was local street theater performance, parades with the sound of drums and clarinets echoing traditional Turkish folk music. The festival was small, but we shopped a bit, tasted some wine, and ate a camel sausage sandwich for lunch and enjoyed the celebrations.

     Dinner at the pension was outstanding. After Kahve in the garden patio we headed back to the festival to experience the wine. Returning to our cottage we drank Raki, played tavla and talked to the wee hours of the morning. Obviously we slept in with a relaxing Sunday morning. We had been given a basket of fresh eggs, cheese, jams and sausages and village bread for a relaxing breakfast in our cottage, and yes, Turkish coffee. Ahhhhh!!!
     Heading out of town we grabbed some fresh olive oil, ceramic bowls and a clay cooking pot before heading down the mountain to Selcuk for another adventure.