I stayed awake after a nap until about 03000hrs to catch up on the journal, otherwise I would never do it. When I woke up at 0800hrs I was a bit groggy but satisfied that I had done my duties. I had to make a decision as usual, on what to do and where to go and decided on Kadifekale as our next stop.

Kadifekale is assumed to have been initiated by Alexander the Great (Hellenistic period) although some researchers think that it used to be a settlement area of Lelegs in the Iron Age (100-300 BCE). It could also be possible that it was one of the Persian settlements during 200 years of Persian occupation of Anatolia (545-334 BC). Neither of the latter two views has had any archeological research to support them. Regardless Kadifekale is called Pagos in antique sources which means in Greek “hill”.

On entering Kadifekale, one would be struck by the view of some structures with vaults and cistern below the ground level. These cisterns formed the centre of the water network of Smyrna (now Izmir) which was established at the slopes of Pagos.

The story is told that one day Alexander the Great went hunting in Pagos (Kadifekale of today). He felt tired and lay down in the shade of a big plane tree just in front of the temple dedicated to the Goddess Nemesis. Nemesis appeared in his dream and told him to establish a city just at this place and have the Smyrian live here. The wise Smyrians moved to the new place at the slopes of Pagos (Kadifekale). This legend was recorded for the first time by Pausanias who lived in the second century after Christ. The geo-political possibilities offered by Kadifekale played an important role in the city maintaining a prosperous identity and today Izmir is the second largest port in Turkey.

We could have spent longer at Kadifekale but as daylight is short we decided to move on and I stopped at the clock tower to take some pics of Tuah where it wasn’t the most conducive of places to take pictures. I had to dodge traffic moving at great speed not caring if anyone was knocked down.

We stopped just outside Soke to have a meal at a stall as I was feeling rather hungry. The meal was rather nice with the lamb tender and just enough for the three of us but when the bill came, it was at cutthroat prices. Alison couldn’t believe her eyes and started arguing and the bill came down from 40 YTL to 35 YTL and it was still too much but we paid learning a lesson never to eat at a  with place where there is no menu  with prices. This was the second time we were diddled in Turkey, the first being in Istanbul by the barber who charged me 40 YTL for Adrian’ and my haircut.

When we entered Bodrum, we stopped by McDonalds to buy some nuggets for Adrian and that’s where we met Jim (an angel?) who told us that being off season the hotels were mostly closed. He however brought us to one which was open and we had a good room for 80YTL, thanks to Jim.