After Pergamon, we still had several hours on the bus, almost due south, heading to Kusadasi, our last stop in Turkey.  Suleyman told us lots of interesting facts about Turkey on the way, though I fear most folks slept through them (and he gave up on the "public," and just came to talk to me in the back of the bus about the Kurds...).  E.g., Turkey is still a candidate for membership in the EU, but there are tensions both ways.  Europe worries about dropping borders, yet Turkey's average age is 25.5, which might nicely complement Europe's aging population.

And we heard about the 'evil eye,' the mesalik, which is used to ward off bad spirits (that blue glass circle, which I don't seem to have a picture of).  Here, too much praise is believed to invite the bad spirits, so Suleyman related hearing a group of old women gathered around a newborn, saying to him, "you're so ugly!"  I suspect American parents would need some coaching before that experience.

Driving.  An ordinary mosque...

A bus view of the countryside...

An ad on a building...with some swell tractors...

and here's a gas station.  That price isn't exactly comparable to ours.  That's lire/liter.  Suleyman tells us that since Turkey has no energy source of its own, gas often reaches what for us would be $11/gallon.  Ouch!  EF is out some bucks hauling us around the countryside...

At a rest stop, we ate this and that.  Igot this, without quite knowing what it was...

It turned out to be honeycomb and butter, which was much better when someone got some bread to go with it.  More countryside, busview...

And here 2 views of Izmir, which we zoomed through.  It's now a big industrial city, which didn't look that inviting.  I recall the last time I was here, the bus station had hundreds of chaotic offices, and no clear order.  Izmir, ancient Smyrna, also claims to be the birthplace of Homer.




and then we arrive in Kusadasi.  Views from my hotel balcony.

and Ann, delighted to be in a photo...

later, bob