Plunging Into Sirince

Sunday, April 29, 2018
Şirince Köyü, İzmir, Turkey
(Editor's note: "Sirince" is pronounced "Syringe-uh." Get the title now?)
After yesterday's mega-heat and mega-history expedition, our second day in Turkey was a bit more relaxed. After a later breakfast, we caught a 10am dolmus (a small 10-person minibus that you flag down, but has a set route) to the nearby town of Sirince. Our guidebook advised that Sirince was one of the most perfectly preserved Ottoman towns in the world, and had a long history of winemaking and textile making. 
The dolmus ride was just 25 minutes, and upon arrival in Sirince we were immediately charmed. Sirince is a hilltop town, accessed by a snaking, mountainous road. Its hillside is covered with flowers, greenery, and the classic Ottoman red-roofed tiled homes with white walls. We also noted that weekend mornings were the time for tour groups to descend into this tiny town, so we immediately set out to view Sirince's hilltop churches, away from the crowds.
After admiring Sirince's few sites (and truly, there isn't much to see- Sirince itself is the attraction), we settled in for what Sirince is truly known for: Hospitality and winemaking. We found a small family-run cafe high up on the hillside, cobbled together with plywood and mismatched benches, and exposed to the open air. Here, Grandma sat guard over the open terrace, chatting and arguing with everyone, while Grandpa waited tables, and everyone else in the family made dough and salads in the open kitchen (which was really just a cement alcove with a brick oven). We ordered tea and spinach pie, and given that we were in a window seat, proceeded to people-watch the hordes of tour groups wandering below. 
We struck up a conversation with Grandpa, whose English was shockingly good. He told us that his family has been making organic wine for centuries, in large clay vats in the backyard. Would we like some? We answered hell yes, but were a bit frightened by the massive, overflowing goblets he presented to us. Luckily we were in no hurry, because that was some very strong home brew. It took us over an hour to finish those glasses (Grandma was very pleased).
After imbibing what felt like a vat of Grandpa's homemade wine, we strolled Sirince. Unfortunately, weekends and mornings are the most crowded times, and that is exactly when we were visiting. I could see the charm of the town, but down the hill in the touristy parts, frankly it was a hell of selfie sticks and Tilly hats. So we decided to dodge the crowds and head into a small winery, which was offering tastings of Sirince's fruit wine.  Unlike Grandpa's classic red grape wine, Sirince is mostly known for its fruit-based wines made from raspberry, strawberry, mulberry, blueberry, peach, and many other fruits. We had expected the wines to be like brandy- 40-50% alcohol and clear in color- but these wines were standard 12% wines with fruity colors to match. We tried most of the flavors, and while personally the sweetness made my teeth ache, I thought the peach was delicious (in fact, if you mixed the peach wine with iced tea, I'd drink it every summer's day). So we spent a few hours debating the virtues of the sweet wines, and talking sports with the bartender, whose Turkish friend had been recruited to the Seattle SuperSonics back in the 1990s (yes, I found that weird too). At 4pm we flagged a dolmus down for the ride back to Selcuk.
We spent the remainder of the evening drinking tea on our guesthouses's roof, and had a late dinner at a cafe underneath Selcuk's ancient Roman aqueduct. Tomorrow we head east to the mystical travertines of Pamukkale.

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