21 October

As usual now, it was awake at 0600, prepare and then ready by 0630. After making sure my suitcase was packed and only the minimum was left to carry in the pack, I went over to the lobby and checked email and photo statistics.
Even though breakfast wasn’t due to start until 0700, I went in at 0645 and … it was being served already. I sat down and then wento voer – no toast again! But this time I asked and, within a few minutes,t here was toast (well, after a fashion, but still bread with a brown cooked coating) and I could have my Vegemite A couple from England sat opposite and we chatted during breakfast.
Soon it was time to return to my room, finish preparations and get ready to board the bus.
With the seat rotations I was one forward of the back seat on the driver’s side – but today I was with Lynn, as she and Sue swap occasionally. Then, on time, at 0800 we were off to Troy.
We arrived at Troy after being told that our expectations should not be too high. After an initial briefing we went into the archeological site and I was surprised at the amount of stonework visible. At each place we got a short talk on the position and relevance what we were seeing in the time line of Troy and of the world (at the time). Apart from the size of the site, one of the features was that the ses had moved so far away (due to alluvial deposits from the river) that the coastal town of strategic importance was now an inland town with no reason to be.
We left Troy and headed off again, towards Permagan (or Bermaga now) and we arrived there for lunch (after one of the now obligatory toilet stops along the way, where of course everyone has something to drink, ensuring another stop is necessary within a further two hours). At the lunch stop we could see the Roman temple and amphitheatre on the mountain above the town, so Sue, Lynn, Robert and I set off to try to find the best place to photograph it.
Due to distractions (schoolchildren love saying hello, but can’t say much more in English and so so conversation flags very quickly; small supermarkets are an attraction within themselves) we didn’t get too far down the road in the time available, but we did find a reasonably good spot – only to find that it was outside a military barracks and we weren’t allowed to photograph from there!
We got back to the bus and then headed off to Izmer. We stopped here to take photos of the old town centre (opposite) and the attractions on the coast. One interesting aspect here was tha the height of the buildings decreased down the side streets the further they were from the waterfront.
After that it was along to a toilet stop before we turned off at Ephasus for Kusadasi, our stop for tonight and our home for two nights.
The first order of business was to find out about Internet – yes, they had WiFi and I got the password – but when I went to connect, no problem with Mail but GMail and Flickr would not connect. Yet Flickr upload would!
I processed a few photos and then went down the street to survey the scene. It looked very different from the description given to me by a friend from Derrinallum – there is now no “main” street or pier, rather a plethora of both! I got some supplies for tomorrow and then went back and had tea. This I had with Carol and Christine, and after we went for a walk down the street and I explored a bit further and asked about a particular person, but got no reply.
After that it was back to the room, finish processing the photos and uploading them – and finding now all Internet connections worked! I sent out my email and replied to a few, started to write up my blog but then decided to go to sleep about 0030.