Tuesday, June 4 Cauvusin Village to Silhili & Wednesday, June 5 Silhili

We packed our bags, went to the bank with our host so we could pay our lodging bill in cash* and headed cross country to Silhili.  Silhili is a city near Izmir where Cam had a meeting the following morning.  Along the way we saw fruit stands and cherry orchards.  The fellow Cam was meeting recommended we stay at the Hotel Lidya Sardes.  We left Cappadocia about 11 am and were having supper in the hotel at 10 pm.

This was the most frustrating hotel of our journey.  And we were tired which didn't help.  We ended up switching the kids to a different room after check in.  The one the hotel chose had two beds in a loft area, which sounds great, except the stairs and railing at the top were loose. I couldn't imagine coming down those stairs in the dark or half asleep.  Then we couldn't get the internet passwords to work, initially because the system hadn't been activated and then because they gave us the wrong codes.  Not an insurmountable problem except each time we had an issue, I had to walk a city block one way to the reception desk which was uphill from our room. I asked at one point if the restaurant was open.  I was told yes, but when we went in someone came and directed us to the lounge.  We ordered and just before our food arrived, a waiter tried to move us to a different table.  I shrugged my shoulders and stayed put. When I asked about towels for the pool, I was directed to the thermal spa in the basement of the hotel. Access to the spa was through a tunnel downstairs from our room or back to the reception desk and down a level.  I took the tunnel which has motion sensor lighting and creepy broken statues.  All their hotel brochures said there was a cost to use the thermal spa pool, but when I got there to get towels for the kids, I was told that it was free. So Wednesday, the kids and I hung out at the hotel.  They played in the outside pool and we all had a dip in the thermal spa.  It made us all think of Faulty Towers, except the food was better and we weren't laughing.  Which was more a function of long days in the car, cramped living conditions and a suitcase mostly filled with dirty closes.

*Turks prefer cash; that way they can avoid reporting the income to the government and paying tax which ranges from 8% -18%.  It's not unusual to make a purchase and have the vendor make change from his pocket or wallet.