SIRINCE (SHE REEN JAY)

 

Approximately 9km out of Selcuk, at the end of a long, narrow road that winds up through olive, grape, fig and tangerine orchards, is a collection of stone and stucco houses with red tiled roofs called Sirince.  The story goes that a group of freed Greek slaves settled here in the 15th century, after the fall of Ephesus, and it was referred to as "the Ephesus of the mountains".  The Greeks actually called the village "Cirkinje", meaning "ugly" in order to deter others from settling there.  In 1926, a Governor of Izmir province decreed its name be changed to "Sirince", meaning "pleasant or pretty", because such a nice place should not be called ugly.

We spotted these remains of an aqueduct down a narrow dirt road with a stream running across it as we made the ascent to Sirince.  Reminders of some places in the Texas Hill Country, minus the aqueduct of course.

 There were poppies everywhere, filling the underneath of the olive orchards

Sort of how we find bluebonnets on a good year in the Hill Country

 A beautiful horse was staring down at us as we entered the village.

This little lady was sitting at the bottom of the stairs from the car park area up to the city and was making hair garlands from fresh flowers and herbs she had gathered from the hillsides.  They must be popular, because you saw many on the heads of tourists around the village.

 

 

100 years ago Sirince was larger, more prosperous and inhabited by Ottoman Greeks.  It was the anchor for 7 monasteries located in the surrounding hills.  The villagers who moved there during the population exchange were ardent fruit farmers and that remains the same today, evolving into a business of fruit wines, a specialty of the town, including peach, apple, cherry, raspberry, mulberry, to name a few. Wine shops with tasting counters are every few feet it seems; they sell regular local wines as well.

 The wine shop from which we chose to purchase our cherry fruit wine and other regular wines.  There were many pallets of the empty wine bottles stacked in a lot, and outside one shop, a collection of bottles emptied from their tasting station.  And there is the ever present "evil eye" in the 'O' of the shop's name.

As well as fruit wines, the village is known for olives and olive products and handmade lace, many of the older women selling the lace outside their doors.  

This little lady was sitting on her sales table, as witnessed by her shoes on the ground

Three different villager ladies sitting outside their houses with their lacework and olive oil soaps.

A seller of fresh herbs, most likely picked from the surrounding hills....and then there is the "evil eye".

 The glass blower had a captive audience just outside the Church of St. John the Baptist. And what had he made a lot of....the evil eye!

 

There is no information on this church, other than it was named after St. John who visited there, and it has some fading frescoes.  

The cruise ships into Kusadsi have selected Sirince as their "authentic Turkish village" for day trips and have taken away a lot of the true authenticity and replaced it with souvenir shops, one after the other.  That said, it is well worth a visit, especially if you wander up and down the side streets.  There are plenty of beautifully restored houses opened as Boutique Hotels and Pansyions and a varied selection of restaurants to ensure a nice weekend in the country.

  

We chose the Ege nin Sofrasi as our restaurant of choice as it boasted a renowned chef.  We decided to try "Gozleme", a Turkish crepe if you will.  It is a hand made, hand rolled pastry, rolled extremely thin with a broomstick size rolling pin, by a cook who is seated at near floor level at a low table.  It is cooked on a circular griddle either baked alone and is called "lavas" (la vash) or filled with an assortment of fillings from meat, spinach, egg, cheese, potato, seafood or any combination, folded, sealed and cooked and is called "Gozleme", which derives from the Turkish word "goz" meaning "eye".

We dined outside on the patio, under a sour cherry tree;  we had Corban (chor bahn) Salad (Shepherd's Salad) and Geoff had a meat Gozleme and Sherry had a spinach one.  In true Turkish fashion, you finish the meal with a cup of tea, Turkish tea or Apple tea, or as we found out, there they call Apple tea "Tourist Tea".  

  One last look at the village and a look at all the buses in the parking lot, and it was time to leave the village to the other tourists and head back to Bursa.

The drive home afforded the glimpse of a castle on a hill that we had some how missed on the previous trip...

The countryside was full of freshly plowed fields, and newly growing orchards and vineyards...

The countryside was alive with the shades of spring green...these were very steep mountains, but the perspective was hard to capture...you can just make out the dark brown patch to the left in the above photo...that is the man on the tractor going up and down a very steep grade.

And a pit stop at Tavuk, a restaurant/shop owned and run by Keskinoglu, a chicken business, like Tysons.  You can have chicken just about any way you can imagine should you choose to have a meal there.