Kusadai and Ephesus

I am mentally shifting gears from cruising to thinking about going home.  We have five more days to go and I can’t believe that it is almost over – I have spent four months on a ship, working hard, but being taken care of too.  Who is going to feed us?  I am going to sit down for a meal and I am going to have to get up and get it.  I will have to go to the grocery store.  I am going to have to wash the dishes and make the bed.  No more fresh towels twice a day.  On one hand, one can get very accustomed to this type of life; on the other, this is not reality (well maybe it is for the really rich and famous, neither of which I am).   So, it is time to enjoy what little time we have for the pampered life.

Today, I pampered myself and took the morning off as I had already been to Ephesus …

Michael on the other hand joined with Morry, Hanita, Barry and Christine on a private tour to Ephesus, and so, here is his little report. 

Well, at long last I got to Ephesus.  We had been in Kusadasi before, but I was tasked to escort an excursion elsewhere and missed the premier attraction – Ephesus.  I won’t go into much detail, as this has been reported upon previously.  Kusadasi, which means bird island, is on the Aegean region of Turkey and is known for its turquoise waters, broad sandy beaches, bright sun and marinas.

Ruins of a 14th century fortress protecting the harbor

The harbor

Ephesus was founded some 3,000 years ago at the mouth of the Cayster River, on the sea.  By the third century AD the harbor had silted up and the city went into decline.  Its ruins now lay some ten miles inland.  At its height, it was home to 200,000 people, and what a history it had.  Greek gods came in from the west.  Anthony and Cleopatra rode along the Arcadian Way.  The Virgin Mary died in a house just outside the city.  The tomb of St. John the Divine is here and St. Paul preached in the great theater, which holds 25,000 people. 

Ephesus is a site quite unlike any other.  It has been painstakingly restored to some of its original splendor.  The coliseum, where the Romans really did feed slaves to the lions, is in incredible shape and still holds almost 25,000 people.  They hold a number of events here every week.  The library, which in its day was the third largest library in the world, has been 65% restored.  Across from the library is a gigantic brothel, and believe it or not you can still see advertisements for it carved into the marble walkways approaching it. 

Archway

The "throne" room -- toilets

The library

The coliseum

The main street paved with marble

The high point of the tour for me was the “terrace houses.”  These are six homes of prosperous merchants that have been restored using mostly the original pieces. It is still by far the world’s largest jigsaw puzzle with tens of thousands of additional pieces just waiting for the archaeologists to figure out where they belong.  But what you see in these homes is amazing – the original tile floors, mosaics on the walls, the courtyards, fountains and so forth.

These people even had most of the creature comforts we take for granted today, and remember we are talking thousands of years ago.   We saw their toilets (yes, they had indoor plumbing), their hot and cold water system, their steam heating system, and so forth.  All of these treasures were displayed, in situ, under a cover built by the Austrians, and it itself was an engineering marvel.  Right next door is a hill which is believed to contain at least six more of these dwellings, but is still unexcavated.  In fact, it is estimated that there is some 200 years of work ahead for the archaeologists. 

After the excursion, we all met up with Beverly at the cruise terminal and walked over to the old city for lunch.  Barry had gotten a recommendation for an authentic Greek restaurant called Erzincan (located in the Centrum, Camikebir mah, 7 Eylul Sok #9 behind the Kaleici Mosque), and wow, it was great.  I had the donner kabob (which is really Sharma) and it was excellent.  Before I forget, earlier in the day, I bought a birthday present for Beverly – an authentic replica Channel watch with a white ceramic bezel and bracelet.  It is really quite beautiful.  I was going to give it to her at her birthday party on May 1, but I broke down and gave it to her at lunch.  See Deborah, you are not the only weak one!  After lunch we wandered a bit around the old city before returning to the ship. 

A large piece of pita bread we all shared

***

Beverly back here for my side of the story.  I took the morning to get ready for the day and be kind to my achy knees.  I got bored waiting for everyone to come back so I ventured out to what I thought was the old town.  There were the usual crooked streets, but there were some really high end shops selling carpets, leather goods, watches and lots of gold jewelry.   “Come, lady, take a look…”  I got tired of hearing that and went back to the port to wait for the gang.  Michael was unhappy that I had already “gone to town” when I said I was going to rest.  Oh well….

We all decided to go for lunch, and the restaurant was in the “real” old town.  We wove our way turning left then right then left then right again and finally found the restaurant.  We had an incredible meal, and all of us swore we would never eat again, we were so full.  After recounting the day’s adventures, I asked Michael if he was going to get a watch for me now that he is so experienced in negotiating for real authentic replicas.  There were so many watch stores here, blah blah blah.  He just looked at me, reached into his pocket and said, “Here.”  That’s it – here.  I sorta blinked and opened it up to find a watch and I was speechless.  He said, “that ought to shut you up.  Happy Birthday.  I was going to wait until your birthday party, but I couldn’t stand your whining.”  What a romantic (doing the eye roll).

The guys had enough for the day, and that left us girls to do a little shopping on the way back to the ship.

Happy shoppers