Arrival in Selcuk, Ephesus

We got back to Izmir, Turkey from Cyprus on July 13. Passport control wasn't too bad.

It was refreshing to drive normally again: on the right hand side, and a car steering wheel on the left.  We have our reservation in a villa in Selcuk, an ancient town within 3 miles from Ephesus, and about 40 miles from Izmir. As we did not have internet access in Cyprus to get our reservation details from our email account we had not contacted the English lady we were renting from to confirm our reservation prior to our arrival. When we finally called her from Selcuk she responded with a shock: she had booked us for July 2013. She asked us to excuse her and that she would call us back in a few minutes. Imagine our bewilderment; what to do with 3 children with no place to stay.  We called her back in 10 minutes. The good news: the house is vacant; but it will take her about 2-3 hours to get it ready. Compared to other things she could have said--this was not a problem. We decided to keep ourselves busy; did grocery shopping, then walk around town.

We ran into an Atlanta, GA transplant managing a local carpet /rug co-op. He invited us to a demonstration of art of making carpet and silk. The kids thought it was cool. They even tried their hands on weaving. Fun!

 The making of silk:

By the time we were done with the carpet presentation and walked around a little, we got a call the house was ready. We were happy! The lady apologized for the confusion but we were ready to retire for the day.