A beautiful sunrise greets us this morning as we sail toward Kusadasi.  We are right back into our morning routine – coffee (oh, the urns are out early here, yes, score!), gym, then, since we have “suite” privileges, we have breakfast in Aqualina.  Well, I have a banana, Ed has breakfast. 

Then it is off to our first ship’s tour to Sirince, a little village up in the mountains.  We have a small group, only about 12, spreading out in the big bus for our 45 minute drive up into the mountains.  Along the way, our guide, Meg, tells us about Sirince: the name means pretty or cute, because the village is, duh, pretty; the full time population there is small, only about 500 people, mostly elders, there is not school any longer, so the young people have all left; Meg talks about the changes in Turkey, about the “brain drain” and that her sister immigrated to NYC and lives in the Bronx. 

She explains that the region here is famous for their fruit wines and that it is a holiday town, and many Turkish people come here on the weekend for the views and the experience.  Our first stop is at the Sirince Artemis restaurant, located at the foot of the town, where we sit on a huge patio overlooking the valley and mountains beyond.  Here we experience traditional coffee made a Turkish Coffee pit, where the “baristas” heat the coffee in the hot sand pit, then serve us in the traditional little Turkish cups.  After the coffee, we can have our fortunes read from the We are heading to left over muddy grounds.  Fun, maybe….I, of course don’t finish my coffee (yeah, way too strong and bitter for my taste), Ed does and the ladies come over for his fortune which goes like this:  Anything that comes up with health, don’t worry, it will all work out (sound logic!); There will be news coming, and then money will come; Small things will irritate you, don’t let them bother you.  All pretty direct – and excellent advice, if not true fortune (Post-Script:  we are still waiting for the news and the money, thank you).

After coffee, we of course are treated to the regional specialty:  Fruit wines.  Pomegranate, Peach, Mulberry and Cherry wine (which has 17% alcohol content – a little snifter of which is fine for me!). 

Now we have time to kill before our local family cooks us lunch, so off we go into the little touristy village, wandering up and down the steep cobblestone streets enjoying the atmosphere and views, and then becoming bored as there isn’t much to do besides wander and look at touristy shops.  Finding a bench in the sun, we hang out there for a while, watching this great old grandpa who is taking a break – with his eggs – on the bench across from us.  Pure Turkey buyukbaba!  Love it.

Meg finally corrals us all, walking us up through a little backyard garden area to the patio of sisters Phyllis and Tweela (who live in the house with papa – who makes an appearance as we are eating), our chefs for our traditional Turkish village lunch.  A nice spread – salad, Stuffed grape leaves (Yalanci Dolma), wonderful roasted potatoes and sauteed green beans, plus a main that I have now completely forgotten – but do remember was quite good – all accompanied by very good wine.  Nice different little outing for us.

Then it is back to the van, with a pit stop at Artemis for the bathroom, then on down the through the gorgeous mountains until we are once again at sea level and back in Kusadasi. 

The van disgorges us at one of the entrances to the Bazaar here for – yes, you guessed it – our obligatory rug shop presentation.  Eh, you go with the tour flow.  The shows are actually really fun to watch – we love how they snap those rugs out when they roll them at you. And of course, the beer and wine don’t hurt!  Nothing strikes our fancy (is anyone surprised?), so we take our leave at the end of the presentation, wandering through town to the Migros grocery store for supplies, then heading back to the ship, where we spend the rest of the afternoon doing our normal activities, retiring to the balcony to watch the sunset and listen to the call to prayer.

Good port call – tour (shock!) included.