Turkey: the ceramics factory

And so, after procrastinating for two days I bring you day 3 of our holiday in Turkey.

We got up unbelievably early in the morning to prepare for a 6.30am start (Turkey is two hours before UK so we effectively woke up at 3am our time). The first stop was at a roadside diner for a Turkish breakfast. Let me tell you, when your idea of heaven is a full English breakfast then hell can quickly come to resemble seven days of Turkish breakfasts. Turkey is a predominantly Muslim country and therefore they serve no pork with their breakfasts. That means no bangers, no bacon and certainly no black pudding. In addition, the Turkish style of eating breakfast is very different to the English style of breakfast. The meal consists of slices of cheese, butter, olives, green pepper, cucumber, jam, honey and tomatoes. Every day we were served watery scrambled eggs and sometimes that was mixed with a Vienna-type sausage. To me, the point of travelling is to experience different cultures and cuisine but I have to be honest and say that I did begin to crave some bacon and eggs and while I tucked into the cold portions of the breakfasts all holiday, I was unable to stomach the scrambled egg after the second day. Suffice to say, I just had some bitter Turkish black tea with breakfast that day while Stephen tucked into a bit of everything.

By the way, there are Western restaurants and indeed hotels that you can go to that do serve pork but where's the fun in that?

We drove for about three hours out of Bodrum and towards Ephesus which is 3km south of Selçuk. When we were about 5 minutes away from Ephesus we stopped at a ceramics factory. Note to self: next time I go to a foreign country, I must take a notebook and write down all of the place names. The closest description I can give of this wonderful ceramics factory is that it is on the main road near Camlik which is just outside of Ephesus. (EDIT: I contacted the tour operator and got the details! Yay! They are ART Ceramics in Selçuk).

Turkey is famous for good quality ceramics but the factory we went to is especially good quality as all of the goods are fired twice.

 

You wouldn't believe how exquisite the finished pieces are. In any event, Stephen decided to spoil me and let me buy two 7" bowls which cost about £30 each. I've struggled to take a decent shot of my precious works of ceramic art (because of the glaze) but here goes: