Приятный отдых Pleasant stay

My wife (64 years old) and I (71 years old) rested at the Asena hotel from May 29 to June 12. We chose it according to the following criteria: Kusadasi, in the city, on the seashore, half board, quiet, inexpensive, good reviews. Tour packages were purchased from Transaero for 40300 rubles for 14 nights with breakfast and dinner. Arrived and departed with no problems in the morning flights. But it took 2.5 hours to get to the hotel from Bodrum Airport. Closer to get from Izmir airport.
The hotel met all criteria. True, at first they gave a room under the roof overlooking the wall, but they changed it to the third floor overlooking the sea. There were only two Russians in the hotel. Many Bulgarians, Serbs, Romanians, Turks, Poles, British, Germans, a couple of French. I communicated with the staff at the reception in English and a little Turkish. In the restaurant and with the cleaners in Turkish. Everyone was very kind.
In the room, they kept the door to the balcony open around the clock, breathed the sea air and slept well to the sound of the surf. The room is quite decent, TV with a Russian channel. Air conditioning is old but we didn't use it. The biggest drawback is the lack of refrigerators in the rooms. The water in the shower is brackish, but we quickly got used to it. The hair dryer is old but we didn't use it. The cleaning lady did a great job cleaning the shower room. But in the room, the wife herself maintained order, the towels were changed by themselves as needed. And so they hung a sign on the door: do not disturb, once every two or three days they removed it, left a dollar, and everyone was happy.

Rooftop dining with great sea views and when it was windy and chilly at the start breakfast was on the first floor. Breakfast from 7 to 10. Yoghurts, eggs, tasteless scrambled eggs, chopped warm sausages and sausage (I don’t undertake to determine the composition, but edible), olives, tomatoes, cucumbers, watermelons, fresh oranges, apples, watermelons, tea and coffee from the boiler, butter , jam, honey, raisins, etc. There were buns and dried apricots at the beginning, but after a couple of days they disappeared.
Dinner from 19:00 to 21:00. The usual Turkish abundance of various salads and cold appetizers, pomegranate sauce, olive oil. Of the hot (or rather warm) dishes were regularly chickens, turkeys, beef, 3 times lamb. Everything is usually stewed and deliciously cooked. Once (! ) there was some kind of rancid stewed fish (horse mackerel? ). Lots of vegetable side dishes, but all cold. Every evening some soup-puree. Watermelons, apples, oranges. Desserts did not appeal to us.
The sandy beach was in front of the hotel via a walking path. The entrance is gently sloping sandy. The sea is very clean, if there was no excitement. But it pleased us with good waves. On Friday evening, many Turks came from the surrounding settlements, who spent the night right on the beach and stayed until Sunday evening.
On the day of arrival on Tuesday, May 29, we visited a fruit and vegetable market. We got to it from the hotel and back for 20 minutes on a dolmush (minibus) for 4.50 lira one way for two. Dolmush meandered around the city for a long time with a stop at the port. The next day we came on foot to the port, at the information center they gave us free brochures and a detailed map of the city. On the map, we decided on the location of bazaars, shops (Migros, Tansash) and walked only on foot, visiting local attractions. We got everywhere in about 30 minutes, although sometimes we had to cross a high hill. The following Tuesday, they reached this market in the same 20-25 minutes, climbing the hill. In the markets they bought very sweet strawberries, peaches, apricots, melons (which they did not give at the hotel). In the port, I liked to sit at a table on the shore, drink invigorating Turkish tea for half a lira (9 rubles) and feed sea fish with bread. In Turkish stores, my wife did not see anything attractive from things. In Marmaris, the shops were more attractive. We saw Bulbul (Nightingale) restaurant in the city and visited it three times at lunchtime. A lot of Turks ate in the restaurant. Communicated with the waiters in Turkish. For the first time, we took one serving of pide (Turkish pizza) with mushrooms and cheese for two. I liked it very much. The waiter brought another plate of tomato salad and so on. We took coffee and two Turkish teas. With a tip it cost 10 lire. The second time the waiters greeted us as acquaintances, took one portion of the so-called "special" pide. The portion was almost twice as large as the previous one and even more salad was brought. I was sure that they would count two portions, but no - they took one. True, I liked this pide less: liquid minced meat was smeared on top. But they ate it all. For the third time, we ordered one of their most expensive dishes - grilled meat platter for 16 liras and two Turkish teas. The assortment consisted of chicken and beef meat (they, unfortunately, do not have lamb on the menu). They immediately brought two large cups of tea. I tried to explain to them in Turkish that, firstly, we asked for small glasses, and, secondly, after the meat. In response, the waiter tried to explain something to me at length in Turkish, I didn’t understand anything, but at the end he said “no problem”, took away these cups, and brought small cups after the meat. As a result, there was no tea at all in the bill. I suspect that he was trying to explain to me that tea is free from the restaurant as regular customers. Then I found on the Internet that local Turks appreciate Bulbul for good food and low prices. We have verified this ourselves. True, after the visits to Bulbul and the daily fruits in the room, they did not have time to get hungry for dinner.

We went from Transtour on an excursion to the ruins of Ephesus with a visit to the so-called house of Mary. At my request, the guide took us to the place where the Temple of Artemis was located. There were only seven of us in the minibus. The entire tour from departure to return to the hotel lasted about 5 hours. At the same time, we also stopped at two outlets where people bought sweets and looked at ceramics and jewelry. As a guide, we were promised a Russian woman, Irina, and there was a Turkish graduate student, Roman. But he did a very good job and everyone was happy. True, people from another hotel were afraid to be late for lunch and hurried the guide. Each paid $65 for the tour. Of course, it would be cheaper to go to Ephesus on a dolmush and buy entrance tickets. But I went to Kusadasi for this excursion. We ourselves went to Selcuk by dolmush. On the way back, vacationers from the Aqua Fantasy Hotel (Gazprom) sat down to us and said that it was bad for them to swim in the sea, because. the bottom is clayey and the water is dirty.
In general, we were satisfied with the hotel and the sea.