a day in Syrince

Our original plan was to all pile into the car - 4 adults and 6 kids - and drive to a mountain village 30 km away.  (We are really using our MPV).  The past couple of days have topped out at 21 Celsius, interspersed with rain, and today was going to be 22 or 23 - the cool breeze gone and the sun shining strongly.  Paula's husband and the boys wanted to take advantage and spend time by the pool, while Paula was going to bring her daughter with me, Tolga and the kids.

where I'll have lunch next time

one of the many shops

Syrince, the town's name, means cute.  It's an extremely packed tourist town, especially on the weekends, especially in the summer.  It's wear we usually by our mulberry syrup for our pancakes. We parked and ambled down the cobbled roads - buying  dandelion crown at the first stall, stopping to sample some fruit wine a bit further down.  Tolga pushed us to buy one because we were there waiting for him gulping down shot glasses of fruit wine.  I actually don't like the fruit flavored wine - cherry, orange, mulberry, raspberry, etc. - I like a simple red wine.  But we sample them anyhow for Paula's sake ... and she didn't like them either.  That's how Tolga found us.  I kept sampling half a shot glass of fruit wine and giving it to him saying, "Ek, this is so bad, like rotten fruit, you have to try it."

doilies for sale, no thanks!

Paula enjoyed herself - or maybe it was the
few sips of wine she had - neither of us
have time for drinking anymore!

We had lunch not to much further down the way.  It wasn't especially good food - I'm finding that through most of Turkey - the touristy restaurants are not terrible, just minimal and not very Turkish - offering European style plates (everything on one rather than served in little plates as appetizers), and high prices - but like the hundreds of tourists stuck here - when its hot, you're tired, kids are pulling you every direction, and you're hungry - the dream of finding a quaint restaurant in some little nook becomes just that - a dream.

The kids loved the swing in the garden anyhow.

ice cream and shopping

After lunch we wondered the streets - not far at all, and quite slowly - it's just not really possible to "explore" or shop with kids.  I think mother's are the best targets - they can't think through anything and are getting pulled constantly away so they ended up buying souvenirs on whims and by default.

my girl

on our way back down the mountain

a touristy coffee house miming the ottoman style - carpets, pillows, and serving trays.