Serene Sirince

We caught a mid-morning bus off to Sirince following a hearty breakfast at our hotel in Pamukkale. We arrived in Selcuk (the largest city near Ephesus) and took a mini-bus 7 km further to our hotel in the quaint hillside wine town of Sirince. We were quite impressed by the rustic and homey feeling of our room and were excited to stay in a building that was more than 300 years old. 

We walked around the town of Sirince, which took less time than it takes Jennifer to shower in the morning, and stopped at a few wine establishments for some tastings. The wine ranged from poor to fair with a couple approaching the caliber of two-buck Chuck on a good day. Nonetheless we enjoyed the experience and there were no complaints about free-alcohol… especially when receiving it in a country where drinking is frowned upon by 95% of the population.

After our tastings we grabbed a quick bite to eat… making it under shelter just as a rainstorm made its way into town. Fortunately the thunderstorm passed over the next hour, giving us the chance to hike the surrounding hills and get some needed exercise. The hike was enjoyable with the exception of some extraordinarily odd stray dogs we encountered and a handful of billy-goats that gave us the evil eye whenever our paths converged too closely.

Following our scenic hike we did a little more wine tasting and purchased a bottle of wine for an early evening horseback ride. The owner of the horses was an interesting fellow who spoke little English but had the kindest heart and struggled to communicate with us throughout the ride. The ride was at a slow pace (just as Jennifer wanted) and allowed us to see the huge expanses of beautiful countryside making up this region of Turkey. We arrived at the halfway point of the journey just in time for the best part of the evening’s sunset and cracked open our bottle of wine.

Jennifer found the ride home much more enjoyable after sharing (well sorta sharing) the bottle of wine and loosening up a little. Our horses must have been ready to go home because on the way back they required much less guidance and seemed to be in a much greater hurry than the first leg of the ride. Our time on the horses was really fun and we enjoyed exploring the area via a new perspective.

By the time we arrived back from our ride we noticed that all that remained in Sirince was the locals with all the tourists headed back to the larger communities down the hill. We managed to find one of the larger restaurants still open and ordered some of the local specialties. The walk back to our hotel was dark, but Jennifer was able to spot the one market still open with ice cream. We grabbed a couple ice cream bars for the short walk back to our hotel and spent the rest of the night relaxing in our comfy room.