day 93 – kusadasi, turkey

turkish coffee and rugs

morning came early today, but we were both excited to go on our tours!  the scenery here on the agean sea is beautiful though both our tours were slated to do attractions in the nearby site of the ancient city of ephesus.  there is a mixture of greek and roman and christian history here; in other words, another epic stop…

for instance, the first stop on my tour was the house where mary, the mother of jesus, was taken to live by the apostle, john, after jesus was crucified.  it was declared a pilgrimage site back in the 70’s.  she lived atop a high mountain away from the largest part of the population; this isolation was actually for her safety as many christians were still being persecuted. 

virgin mary's house

front of mary's house... i like the divine sunbeam

peach trees and countryside - this looks like a painting

after mary’s house, we drove to the site of many ephesian ruins which were quite remarkable (the day, by the way, was basically perfect – sunny, about 64, slight breezes, nice air quality - not too humid, not too dry).  the level of civilization they enjoyed, plumbing, heating, multiple family dwellings, theaters, it was pretty incredible.  one amusing fact, the library had a tunnel underground to the brothel (“i’ve got some serious studying to do, dear!”  hee hee!).  i wandered down the old harbor road (the harbor used to be here before earthquakes and nature moved the waterfront towards kusadasi), where mark anthony and cleopatra walked on their honeymoon… overlooking this road, high atop another hill, is where another apostle, paul, was imprisoned for about 3 years for preaching the gospel in one of the theaters we visited… 

library at ephesus

old harbor road where mark anthony and cleopatra walked... prison where st.paul did time is on top of mountain

we drove past one lone column, all that is left of one of the 7 wonders of the ancient world, the temple of diana, or artemis… i am required to wear my staff name tag when escorting a tour, and what a great thing, since my name is diane, all day long everyone here kept greeting me (“hello, diana!” “welcome home, diana!”  “oh, diana!”)… shopkeepers, security guards, even a cop… the nice thing about it, besides being amusing, was that i am one of the only ones the shopkeepers weren’t pitching the hard sell to because they were talking about the significance of my name, and they are all diana nuts here… and if they saw the word ‘pianist’ underneath, then they wanted to talk about music… so even though i don’t have to wear it tomorrow, i am going to anyway!  too funny… we drove to the basilica of st. john, and saw his tomb, the baptismal area, and the ruins of the church there.  we then went to the archaeological museum to see many statues and artifacts that were from these sites preserved in the museum for protection… while there, i got a beautiful turkish cookbook in the gift shop… i will be having some dinner parties celebrating these travels and sharing some of the tastes and spices of these places… i got some of the traditional apple tea to drink while waiting for everyone to meet up, and it was wonderful.

only column remaining from diana's temple

exterior of st. john's basilica 

front gate of st. john's basilica

the goddess, diana

apple tea, a popular daily beverage here

after the museum, we went to lunch at a fabulous 5 star hotel, the korumar, on the coast… there was an amazing cultural show with turkish music and dancers whirling and doing the most seemingly impossible knee twirling across the floor, and bouncing off the ground like rubber; the costumes were so ornate, and the guys all handsome, and the girls all beautiful, and then the food came… beautiful mezze plate with regional tastes and then meat shish kebab and roast vegetables, with fresh fruit and rice pudding for dessert… the soft drinks and tea and juice was bottomless, and we were on a terrace at shaded tables overlooking the agean sea… the only thing that kept this from being the perfect time was bob not being there…

hotel korumar where i had lunch

cultural show

and what entry would be complete without the foodie porn...

yum!

mmm!

oooh!

after lunch, we went to a turkish rug demonstration, where they showed us from the silkworm cocoons how the threads are extracted, spun, multiplied and woven into one-of-a-kind, luxurious, gorgeous and ungodly expensive rugs… they also do cottons and wools, but the demo was showing us how they make the silks… fascinating!  the weavers and the merchants families have worked together for generations… in a huge showroom that was immaculate, we all sat around the perimeter as they rolled out rug after rug, each design more beautiful than the last… while we watched they served us our choice of strong and sweet turkish coffee (that’s what i had), turkish black tea or apple tea… this was where the tour left off and we were steps away from going back to the ship or continuing to enjoy shopping downtowm.  i had to go back to get ready for work since it was about 4:30 and i wanted to catch bob also… he had a shorter verion of a few sites i did, mary’s house, museum, diana’s temple and rugs, but no lunch…

cocoons being lifted by threads from the very hot water

tomorrow our plan is to go get coffee in the morning, return for mandatory liferaft drill at 10:30, and go back out.  our casino manager, stojan, a nice guy from bulgaria who knows this area well, (for an early birthday gift from me to bob) is taking him to a turkish barber for an otherworldly pampering shave and haircut experience, with shave and a haircut, massage, scented water and oils… stojan said he would feel like a newborn baby when he was done!  the whole ritual takes about an hour, and i hope he will really enjoy it!  we wanted to maybe go out for a drink tonite after the gig, but we were both pretty beat! 

my theme tonight was “waldorf salad (or, turkey meets the big apple),” which was basically, songs of new york performed in turkey.  i only did one turkey song, and that was to replace johnny cash’s “folsom prison blues” with “turkish prison blues”… hee hee… i actually had way more folks than i thought i would tonight, and i wanted to yell at them, “what are you people DOING here?!?”  there is an amazing and safe waterfront experience with amazing food and drinks and shopping, and they all come back here… i suppose i should take it as a compliment… i was reeling with the sights and sounds and tastes of the day, and so were many others, and then there is that small faction of folks who are simply not impressed by anything… you ask them how their day was, and they shrug their shoulders and make a noise like “meh…”  you just want to shake people like that… i wonder what world they are walking around in.  i am glad and grateful i still have the capacity for wonder, amazement, awe and happiness… i don’t ever want to lose it, or i would miss so much that life is serving up at me continually right now… more from turkey tomorrow!  xoxo, me