Each country has special places where the locals take regular holidays. One of the places in Turkey is a small lake community called Egirdir. It is situated inland not far past the university and military city of Isparta, which is the rose capital of Turkey. But Egirdir also has a rose industry we found out.
We planned our trip from Selcuk by bus, not knowing quite what to expect. We were very surprised because the bus service, KamilKoc, was excellent.
Judy compared it to premium economy when flying. We had TV available (in Turkish, of course), foot rests, reclining seats, and free snack and beverage service during the trip. We also had charging stations for computers and Internet (very slow) available.
We had to take a mini bus from Selcuk to the bus depot but the whole trip to Egirdir one way was only 55 TL, approximately $30 CDN for a 6 hour trip.
We had reservations at a small pension that Judy had stayed at over the years called Choo Choo Pension. The original owner was pretty eccentric, or so I was told..... another story! but the family who owns it now are great!
The little hotel is located right across the street from the lake and it has a restaurant situated on the lakeside as well as the hotel side.
The little point of land where we were staying used to be an island accessible only by boat. Eventually a causeway was built to connect the island to the mainland.
One of the special things we did today was take a drive into the hills to see where roses are grown and harvested for rose oil. Then we went to see where the oil was extracted. It takes 3,000 kilos of petals to produce 1 kilo of pure rose oil. 1 gram of rose oil sells wholesale for 45 TL, so it is a very expensive product.
Then it was back to the city (only 15,000 people) to attend the local market that happens every Thursday. Judy picked up rose products that she wanted to take home as gifts.
I finished my time in town having a humam .... a Turkish Bath. I'll explain the process in my next blog post!
We finished off the day with yet another fabulous Turkish dinner followed by the traditional drink "Raki" which is similar in taste to the Greek "Ouzo."
We planned our trip from Selcuk by bus, not knowing quite what to expect. We were very surprised because the bus service, KamilKoc, was excellent.
We had to take a mini bus from Selcuk to the bus depot but the whole trip to Egirdir one way was only 55 TL, approximately $30 CDN for a 6 hour trip.
We had reservations at a small pension that Judy had stayed at over the years called Choo Choo Pension. The original owner was pretty eccentric, or so I was told..... another story! but the family who owns it now are great!
The little point of land where we were staying used to be an island accessible only by boat. Eventually a causeway was built to connect the island to the mainland.
One of the special things we did today was take a drive into the hills to see where roses are grown and harvested for rose oil. Then we went to see where the oil was extracted. It takes 3,000 kilos of petals to produce 1 kilo of pure rose oil. 1 gram of rose oil sells wholesale for 45 TL, so it is a very expensive product.
Then it was back to the city (only 15,000 people) to attend the local market that happens every Thursday. Judy picked up rose products that she wanted to take home as gifts.
I finished my time in town having a humam .... a Turkish Bath. I'll explain the process in my next blog post!
We finished off the day with yet another fabulous Turkish dinner followed by the traditional drink "Raki" which is similar in taste to the Greek "Ouzo."
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