Sirince & Selcuk

A short drive away is our stop for the next two nights. Getting into the town of Selcuk early, we first headed to the nearby village for Sirince first for a wander and lunch. In the wintertime, it's a bit of a sleepy village though village shops of the local wineries are open for free tastings and some shops of local artists as well.

The area I think is more known for fruit wines, there's certainly a variety to try. We sampled 2 reds, their version of sangria as well as cinnamon, mulberry, strawberry and peach. The latter two I came across at a very friendly shop on a different street. Sadly the wine only comes in the large bottle and I'm now very limited on space in my backpack to go home. Perhaps another return trip should also be in the works.

Ended up skipping lunch to wander felt shops, leather shops and simply taking it all in. I think another half hour or full hour would've been nice, but as is with group trips, we always need to take into account what everyone's interests are. I did get to sample Turkish coffee that is brewed by being heated with hot sand though, very different from others. It was really neat to watch it being prepared and then boiling to being poured into a small cup.

Back in Selcuk, we checked into our rooms, and my roommate and I headed out to explore the town in the short free time we were given. A good idea since we got to see a lot more than our orientation walk later. We even found a shop that sold fried dondurum (fried ice cream) that we would take our group to later. Not sure if we fully sold our guide on it, but it was delicious and something different but local.

We had dinner at another local restaurant, this time, the recommendation came from our driver and it was a delicious offering of mini shish kebabs on my plate. Yum yum!Read more