Ok, you'd think from this photo (lack of patrons) that everyone is doing great over here. I'm guessing their motto doesn't cover gastrointestinal issues.

This is the hilltop village of Ildir (ancient Greek city of Erythe). Founded by the Ionians with Hellenistic and Byzantine ruins speckled around. It's so easy to take all the history here for granted because it's everywhere.


Church ruins on the hilltop.


Now who wouldn't want to pet the lonely donkey on top of the hill...


Ah, he's guarding the hill and we have a rental car that won't start. I went ahead and coined the phrase "don't pet the donkey" at this time. Be sure to click this photo for a close up - is that not the meanest looking donkey?

Ok, so back to the rental car issue. We didn't know at the time what was wrong with the car, it ran ok (with a little extra knocking) but would only start after sitting still for about an hour. It turned out later that the gas station attendant put gas in instead of diesel (yep, all stations here are Full Service). But we managed to drive the car back to Izmir without blowing it up. I read later that diesel is heavier than gas, so I think that's why it would start after sitting still a bit, because there was at least a 1/4 tank of diesel in it. I was expecting a hefty bill from the rental company, but they topped it off with diesel and it ran fine, whew!

This is the town of Alacati just inland from Cesme. We stayed in the Tas Otel pictured above. This was a wine region when the Greeks were here. When they left, the Turks and Eastern European immigrants didn't know viticulture so the vineyards were destroyed and replaced with tobacco plantations. Since then the vineyards have been restored (as has the town) and the area is also becoming popular with windsurfers.

http://www.tasotel.com/index.html

This is the seaside resort area of Cesme. Behind Anke is the Cesme Castle built by the Ottoman Empire in 1508. If she looks a little nervous, it's because the rental car doesn't want to start (later it turned out the gas station attendant put Gas in our Diesel car) nice!

Inside the Castle. Lots of torsos - heads, not so much.

If the ferry passengers only knew.

I forgot to ask why all the tombstones are lined up in here. Seems as good a place as any.