Ephesus and Ancient Houses

September 2014

At 8am, we pulled into the port at Kusadasi. Strangely, but happily, we were the only cruise ship in port. We were told that usually there are at least a couple of the larger ships there, so we were really fortunate to be able to tour Ephesus virtually by ourselves. Tour buses met us at the dock to take us to Ephesus. The sails weren't up, but we were able to get a really pretty picture of the boat as we left:

Windstar had 4 different tours we could choose and we never had more than 12 people in our tour groups, so we could always hear the guide and ask any questions we wanted to ask. We chose "Ephesus and Ancient Houses," a tour of the Ephesus ruins, with a special trip to the houses of the wealthy merchants that are still being excavated. In its heyday, Ephesus was a port city, but now sits miles from the water because of the silting of a river into the harbor.

The city was built in the 10th century BC by Ionian Greek colonists and later flourished under the Roman Empire. It was once home to the Temple of Artemis, one of the 7 Wonders of the Ancient World, but that was destroyed during a raid by the Goths in 268 AD.  At its largest, the city had a population of between 35,000 and 55,000. This was one of the main streets in the business area of the city, which was lined on either side with stores:

Our guide pointed out this sculpture of the Ancient Greek Goddess Nike, He even pointed out a "swoosh" in her robes as the inspiration for the eponymous shoes company - not sure I believe him, but it was a fun little tidbit of information:

Ruins of the Temple of Hadrian:

We turned off of the main streets to one of the most interesting parts of the tour, the ancient houses. These houses were owned by the wealthy and influential merchants and leaders of the city and must have been magnificent in their day. The oldest of the houses dates from the 1st century BC and the newest from the 7th century AD. They were really advanced for their time, having heating systems of clay pipes and hot and cold water. The excavation of these houses began in the 1960s and continues today. They have still uncovered only a fraction of the ancient city and homes. These poor men spend their days with pieces of mosaic, trying to put them together like giant puzzles:

Here are a few of my favorite photos of the ancient houses:

It is crazy to look out over those hills and imagine what lays beneath, just waiting to be uncovered one day!

At the end of the main street, we arrived at the Celsus Library, completed in 135 AD to honor a Roman senator and hold the remains of Celsus, a Roman consul and wealthy, popular citizen of Ephesus

From there, we wandered out of this gate and in to a large open marketplace:

They also had an amazing theater. I learned something interesting here - I would have called this an amphitheater, but "amphi" apparently means both, so amphitheaters are round (ie. they have both halves of the circle) - if it is only a semi-circle, it is a theater. Who knew?

I stood down on the floor of the theater and yelled up at Tommy - it really is amazing how much the sound carries. See the man on his way down? He  was part of our tour, had the most amazing voice and sang several songs for the whole theater to hear!

This was the road leading from the docks to the city - as you can see, it is now totally landlocked!

Here we are standing on that road with the theater behind us:

Of course, someone is always trying to sell you something. Tommy and I had to laugh at this store as we exited the ruins.

After touring the ruins, we sat through a carpet-making demonstration at one of the local stores. The goal of the demonstration was undoubtedly to get us to buy a carpet. We didn't do that, but we did get a nice glass of wine (for me) and a glass of raki, a strong, anise-flavored Turkish liquor (for Tommy) and get to watch a very cool demonstration.  After seeing the demonstration, I can totally see why the rugs cost a fortune! Here, they are demonstrating how they remove the silk from the silkworm cocoons:

There are thousands of knots per square inch in a quality silk rug. The weavers can only weave for a few hours a day because the work is so hard on their eyes:

Here comes the sales pitch - the bring out many different styles of rugs, twirl them around in front of you, and display them on the floor.

After resisting the carpet-making demonstration, we wandered around town a little.  Kusadasi isn't a very interesting town - a lot of restaurants and souvenir shops catering to the cruise ship crowd.

We sat down at a restaurant that advertised free wi-fi and actually got to FaceTime with Mom, Dad and the kids for a little while - I was missing them!  The food wasn't bad, either, we had traditional Turkish beef and chicken shish:

We wandered around a little more after that. I had been dying to try the freshly squeezed pomegranate juice that they were advertising everywhere. Sadly, it was super-bitter and I could only drink a few sips :(. We went back to the boat, relaxed for a few hours and ate dinner.  At 10pm, we departed Kusadasi and headed for Rhodes!

A Day At Sea

August 2014

Even though this was our one day at sea and we had no schedule, we elected to get up and be on the deck at 8am as we passed through the Dardanelles. These straits connect the Sea of Marmara and the Aegean Sea and form a link in the waterway between the Mediterranean and the Black Sea. They were named for Dardanus, son of the Greek god Zeus and the nymph Electra and ancestor to the Trojans. The Dardanelles, also known as Hellespont in ancient times, were prominent in Greek legend.

While we were out on the deck, our captain told is the history of the Dardanelles, focusing on World War I. The Ottoman Empire entered World War I in 1914 fighting on the side of the Axis Powers. Colonel Mustafa Kemel Attaturk was in charge of the forces in the Battle of Gallipoli. The campaign was one of the greatest Ottoman victories during the war and a major allied defeat. In Turkey, it is regarded as a defining moment in the nation's history - a final surge in the defense of the crumbling Ottoman Empire. Tens of thousands of Ottoman lives were lost, as were many Australians and New Zealanders fighting for the Allied forces at what would later become known as Anzac Cove. The Allies did not take the Dardanelles and Mustafa Kemel Attaturk would become a national hero and eventually the first leader of the Republic of Turkey.

Sorry for the history lesson, but I thought it was really interesting - as I said earlier, there was a lot about World War I that I never knew. This monument was constructed by Turkey to honor those who fought in the Battle of Gallipoli:

After breakfast, we headed to the Galley Tour. Chef Budhi showed us all around the kitchen and talked about what it is like to prepare meals for the ship:

 

This was the view from the little window in our room. On this, our first day at sea, we definitely felt the waves a little more. As the trip progressed, I guess we got our "sea legs" because we hardly felt the waves at all. Strangely, we found ourselves feeling like we were out on the waves when we would get to land. A funny sensation.

For most of the day, we really did basically nothing. It was great. My phone didn't get service, so I couldn't check work e-mail or the internet. It was still a little windy and chilly in the morning, so we stayed under the covered area of the deck:

In the afternoon, the sun came out and I migrated out to a deck chair with my book and a mojito. It was wonderful!

We were introduced to Captain Piotr Dudziak at the Captain's champagne welcome reception, had a lovely dinner and retired to our cabin.

From this day of calm, the tour really picked up speed. Tomorrow, we awake in the port city of Kusadasi and visit the ancient ruins of Ephesus!