If you are following this blog in real time, you know that I am cheating with the publish dates.  We started a photo tour of Turkey in Istanbul on April 1, which ended for us on April 11, when the group returned to Istanbul.  During that time, we were kept going from before dawn most mornings (to get a sunrise shot somehow requires we get up before sunrise to get there??!), usually until 10PM or so.  With 5,122 images to edit from those 10 days, and hours like that, I had no realistic chance of catching up until we were back “home” in Istanbul, where we will spend much of the next two months in a friend’s apartment.  I will be giving an official post date on these blogs that represents the day we took the included images, to keep it all from bunching up.  With no further ado…

“Today” we we flew from Istanbul to Izmir, then drove to Selçuk, where one of the highlights is the nesting storks on top of an ancient aqueduct.  I finally had a chance to see where my mother told me I came from! ☺

Next to our lunch restaurant was a town square where men were playing cards.  We took a quick break to photograph them, as they were entranced in their games.  Immediately, it became clear that they did not mind being photographed, and they would often look up at the camera and smile before returning to study their hand of cards.

While most of the men played their cards, a few sat on the sidelines and looked on.  No women participated in the games, but they were seen strolling with their children or sitting on a park bench — or doing some shopping at the local food markets.

After lunch (and card game photographing), we drove to the picturesque Greek village of Sirince.  The center of town is clearly devoted to tourists, but the huge majority of them were Turkish families enjoying a Sunday afternoon strolling the streets.  The top two vendors above were making Turkish ice cream, and were more than happy to pose for photographs (as were most people).  We had a cone from the second ice cream maker (upper right), who turned the entire sale into a comical slight-of-hand maneuver where the cone would appear, then disappear, then appear in the other hand. Oh yeah, the ice cream was good too.  We ended up eating homemade ice cream at several other stops during the week after this.

As we walked the back streets, we came across many of the town population, all willing to take a moments break from their work for us.  One set of children (lower left — a girl is not shown here, but was playing with them) was having a grand time with a simple stick they had taken from a tree, and were slapping in a stream of water, trying to outdo each other in the biggest splash.

One interesting theme among the Turkish tourist teenage girls was wearing a garland of flowers.  The woman lower-right is making one, while the two tourist girls in the center image are wearing them.  Seemed every girl between about 13 and 21 had one on.