Turkey x2

After a luxuriously late and leisurely start and what’s turning into the usual hard-boiled egg/cheese/tomato breakfast, we drove the short distance from Assos to Behramkale. Up top of the hill here is a temple to Athena, but though there are picturesque pillars around the marble floor, and tumbles of stones in the grass, and it’s all so, so old, 6^th century BC, it’s upstaged by the location. We looked out over the Aegean towards the island of Lesbos and Greece itself, and towards the Gallipoli peninsula, and along the coast.

To get there, we climbed up the cobbled road that winds through the village where all the people, it seemed, had set up stalls selling souvenirs, food and handicrafts. Women in headscarves were crouched on the ground knitting pretty scarves of satin ribbon, or demonstrating toy spinning tops, or gesturing quite shyly towards their goods. One stall had huge striped wooden spiders that were really quite gruesome, but a lot of the stuff was attractive.

It really was so lovely, to sprawl on a beanbag in the sunshine, drinking a tulip glass of tea, and watch not just the people, but the cats, chickens, dogs and turkeys (!) doing their own things around the edges of the human activity. The birds were singing, then the muezzin began the call to prayer…

And then we had a free afternoon, to snooze, do laundry, wander across the road to the beach to enjoy the poppies growing amongst the pebbles. So relaxing.