John Edward Cooper’s Notes

1. When Janet purchased some earrings the other day, the jeweller first tried unsuccessfully to process the payment in sterling, then did it in euros. We feared that two payments may have accidentally been made.
2. I wondered whether there had been a transaction charge for the excursions. If there had, then I would have wanted a refund of it for the abortive Izmir trip, together with the cost of the trip itself.

There was no problem. I found that:

1. Only one payment had been taken for the earrings, with an “international transaction” charge of £1.
2. Although the payments for excursions had seemingly been processed through a Turkish bank, there’d been no transaction charge for them.

I checked e-mails. There was one from Becky asking me to include something in the weekly sheet.… There were also some Facebook birthday reminders. But I found it impossible to log on to my Facebook account. Because it didn’t recognise the computer or location it wanted to check my identity. There was a choice between identifying “friends” from photos, or answering security questions. The former proved impossible because one set of photos was of babies whom I didn’t recognise (I only knew the “friends” as adults), and the latter was impossible because it asked me what street I lived in at the age of eight, which I don’t think I’ve ever told Facebook. One of the birthday reminders was for Chris, so I sent him an e-mail:

From: Джон Эдвард Купер
To: Chris Woodhead
Date: 19 July 2013 08:11
Subject: Re: To continue...
Hi Chris,
Hope you had a good birthday.
Just logged in at an internet hot-spot in the hotel here in Kuşadası, and there was a birthday reminder from Facebook, but when I tried to log on to Facebook it asked impossible security questions, e.g. What street did you live in when you were eight years old? (I never gave them that information before!)
Been enjoying the "Efes", both the beer and the historic ruined city where Sts. Paul and (according to tradition) John were.
Postcard to follow.
John

Janet wrote the postcards, to Mum and to Chris, because I couldn’t write without difficulty. We had drinks, she a Coke Light and I a beer. She went back to the room for something, and after she came back she commented that I hadn’t drunk much of my beer. That was because when the waitress had come to collect the glasses, she’d asked me, “One more?” At 11am Jordan arrived, and we arranged the refund. She couldn’t process it with the debit card inserted in her hand-held device, so it would have to be done through the office and would take a day or two. We made favourable comments about the two activities we’d had: the “jeep safari” and the Ephesus trip, and about “Eddie” and Esra. We went back up to the room briefly before going out to catch the dolmuş. We decided to stay on beyond the town centre because we figured that it would then go the coastal route of the other day. This, in fact, is what happened; and we got off at the jetty connecting the mainland to Pigeon Island. That was our original intention: to visit Pigeon Island; but we’d planned to get off at the centre and walk there. Because of the heat of the day, though, we stayed on the dolmuş.


Friday 19 July 2013 — 11:47:18
Causeway to Pigeon Island, Kuşadası


Friday 19 July 2013 — 11:50:58
Causeway to Pigeon Island, Kuşadası

Near the far end of the jetty, we wanted a drink, and the man at the stall obligingly set up an umbrella and stools and a makeshift table. Janet had a Coke Light and I a mandarin juice drink in a bottle.


Friday 19 July 2013 — 11:55:32
Refreshments on the quayside


Friday 19 July 2013 — 11:55:54
View from that location to the Port of Kuşadası

The entrance to the castle was cordoned off with a tape, and there was evidence there of construction.


Friday 19 July 2013 — 12:05:46
Byzantine castle closed to visitors


Friday 19 July 2013 — 12:08:26
Path round to the north side of the castle

We explored round the right side till the path gave out. An old man was ill-positioned to sell any of his wares from a small stall. We didn’t want anything, but he pressed Janet to take a safety pin with the ubiquitous nazar amulet (to ward off the “evil eye”) and a little representation of a fish. I gave him 1.50₤ — I wasn’t paying much attention, but Janet wrote — “and he was surprised and delighted.” We had in mind to go to the bar just beyond the “Port of Kuşadası” that we were at the other day, but Janet was wilting in the fierce heat and sun, so after walking the length of the jetty and another slightly longer distance along the shore, and coming to a small municipal park with a self-service café, we went in the latter. Janet had a Coke Light and I a quite thick peach drink (made by Coca Cola or under its licence). The nearby public toilet charged 1₤ for its use. The attendant kept it clean, though.


Friday 19 July 2013 — 12:42:34
Pigeon Island seen from the municipal café, Güvercinada Caddesi, Kuşadası


Friday 19 July 2013 — 12:44:00
Municipal park, Güvercinada Caddesi, Kuşadası


Friday 19 July 2013 — 12:47:44
Sleeping dogs at the Tourist Information office, Kuşadası

Refreshed, we resumed our way, but didn’t get as far as “our” bar; we decided to go in a tablecloths-and-napkins fish restaurant. Janet had seen a pile of watermelons in the kitchen, and she asked for and got a big plate of them sliced. I didn’t have fish, either: I had lamb şiş, served with rice, chips, tomatoes, and green leaves that looked a bit like dandelions and tasted sweet at first and very peppery later. And there was a basket of bread provided, and bottled water in a cooler. I had a glass of dry red wine.


Friday 19 July 2013 — 13:47:06
In a quayside fish restaurant


Friday 19 July 2013 — 13:48:06
View from the fish restaurant


Friday 19 July 2013 — 13:49:42
In a quayside fish restaurant

The bill was 72₤, no more than we might pay when we eat at The Wheatsheaf at home, and I gave them 80₤. There was a guy from the USA, I think from the giant cruise ship moored nearby, though I think the woman with him was British. When I went to the loo, just before we left, someone within the building pointed out precisely which way to go. Janet hadn’t been so lucky and had found herself using the gents’ (they weren’t separately signed and the only way to tell which was which was the “furniture”). We went back to opposite the Caravanserai, and caught the “coast” dolmuş to Ladies Beach. We hadn’t planned to do so, but Janet saw “Ladies Beach” among other locations on the sign in the front window of the dolmuş.


Friday 19 July 2013 — 14:02:10
On the dolmuş to Ladies Beach

It deposited us ca.100 yards from where the road from the hotel reaches the beach promenade.


Friday 19 July 2013 — 14:08:32
Ladies Beach, Kuşadası

We walked to the same café as we went to on our first visit to Ladies Beach. “Ali” wasn’t there, though. I asked the waiter if they had Efes Dark and he said “Yes”, and again in a different way — “Yes” — but when he brought it, it was the ordinary Efes pilsner-type beer! Not a problem. Janet had Coke Light, both rounds; I had water for the second.


Friday 19 July 2013 — 14:30:42
In a café at Ladies Beach, Kuşadası


Friday 19 July 2013 — 14:32:48
Parasailing, Ladies Beach, Kuşadası


Friday 19 July 2013 — 14:34:02
Parasailing, Ladies Beach, Kuşadası

The walk back up the road to the hotel was gruellingly hot. A tree in someone’s front garden overhung the footpath at one point, and we stopped and I removed my hat and relished the shade and a slight breeze. The occupant of the house was looking, so as I left, I said, “Thank you for your tree”, and gave a hands-together little bow, which she acknowledged. We went up to the room, then down to the pool bar for a while, before music accompanying step-aerobics tuition became unbearably loud. It was all “top” and very little bass, and it hurt! Copied today’s photos from the camera (16:56–16:57), and edited them using Photoshop (17:01–17:38) — a modest 17 of them. I was weary from the heat, and lay down next to Janet. There was the danger of feeling too groggy to go down for dinner, but we got up ca.6.45pm, and were OK. The dining room doors were opened a little after the scheduled 7.30pm. I bypassed the “mushroom soup” and had some cold savoury items [before] I joined the queue for hot items. We put a 5₤ note in the “tips” box in the restaurant and also in the adjacent bar. Back in the room, Janet had her usual evening shower, and I lay on the bed and read more chapters of The Apostle. Through this week the water had a tendency to stop flowing briefly from time to time, and indeed this happened during Janet’s shower. Janet went to bed ca.10pm, but I continued reading till perhaps 11pm. Slept without using the “sling”, because it hadn’t seemed to make any difference.

[Saturday 20 July 2013]