Camel Wrestling... "we gotta see this"

  

      Mating season for camels is mid-winter and to celebrate this event Turkey hosts camel wrestling festivals. We heard of one near Selçuk and decided it was a must. We rented our first Turkish car, packed the picnic basket, grabbed some friends and headed south along the Aegean.  Now we had  of the same thoughts....What is camel wrestling - our first question..."is it like a cock fight", "do the camels get hurt, "is this dangerous"? These are all good questions, but most importantly, our biggest concern on the drive down... "Do they wrestle if it's raining." Answer is No! Mostly the two bulls half-heartedly butt each other and lean on the other until one of them gives in and runs away and so to the victor goes the she-camel. Apparently the fun part is the losing camel runs off, usually through the crowd and everyone must scatter.  We will have to tell you about it another time because they do not wrestle in the rain.

It was Sunday  and we were driving along the coast on a road similar to US101 when we heard the camel news-"cancelled due to rain". Well, we had a car and all of Turkey. We stopped into Ephesus and headed towards the caves of the Seven Sleepers. Legend has it seven persecuted christians took refuge in these caves outside of Ephesus and the emperor sealed the cave. 150-200 years latter the caves were opened by an earthquake and the sleepers awoke to find crosses on building and there coins from Decius worthless.

Anywho, it was raining when we stopped to see the caves. We gave a quick look at the dwelling cave houses and sat in the huts nearby for tea and gozleme. Gozleme is a flat bread, hand rolled with wood dowels, stuffed with cheese, spinach, or anything you'd like. It's cooked on metal pan over open fire and is delicious!!







Then we decided to head towards Tire (tear-A). Tire is known for its hand made production of felt. It is one of the few places in Turkey that is still producing felted products. Decorative pads, slippers, handbags, and a few local  modern artists are taking the traditional techniques to create large scale landscape and abstracts. We drove around and found the felting quarter and had a look around.

In an antique shop while drinking tea we were told of an artist that lived in the owners storage house for a few months. He showed us a stack of Fatih Urunç paintings. Fantastic modern art. Amazing! The shop owner insisted we go with him to see his storage spaces that were packed to the rafters with all sorts of cool stuff- I mean everywhere you looked... something crazy! Talk about pack rat, but with an eye for intrigue. Below is a stack of trunks too high to fit in the frame and each one incredible and outside a yard full of fabulous pots.

 After this he insisted on taking us to his favorite place in Tire. He drove us to the original part of Tire. A short drive away and the girls put me in his car.  I heard Rena whisper she loves me(just in case!) as we drove off to this renovated wooden tea house. It sits in on a park with terraced pools and its original flour mill waterwheel. A nice place to stroll, enjoy tea and if you'd like, you can be served your breakfast at any park bench!     

 

We caped it all off with a drive to Yalı for a great fish dinner by the sea. 

Let me tell ya- Turkey is great!