I have not sat down for a week now to update this blog. We've done so much this past week and a few times I did not have my book to write in or write down some thoughts. I guess blogging/writing takes practice.
We are now in Kusadasi (pronounced Kush ada sir) which is on the Aegean Sea coast of Turkey (about 1 hour below Izmir). It is a really neat seaside town and has some pretty nice views. We have been here since Tuesday, and have decided to stay here until next Thursday. We were originally going to leave Kusadasi on Monday and take a bus up towards Bursa (the former capital of the Ottoman Empire which is below Istanbul by a few hours), but we've decided to take it easy here and explore as much of the area as possible, while relaxing here at the same time. We've rented a car and have it until Monday, so we will be trying to use it as much as we can and then after Monday will take it easier for a few days before our journey home to Abu Dhabi next Friday.
Since posting last Friday, we've seen the War Memorial sites in Gallipoli which were pretty impressive. The Turks consider this Memorial site to be third importance to them after Mecca and Medina (two religious sites). Apparently the Turkish army is the third strongest in the world (I guess in terms of size). They are very patriotic and nationalistic.
We also went to the site of the ancient city of Troy last Monday. The site was amazing. Obviously it is mostly in ruins, with only partial walls standing in some areas, so a lot of imagination is required and there are some diagrams of what Troy would have looked like while it was still in its glory and standing. It is neat to envisage this was such an important place, and now it is in the middle of an insignificant farming area in Turkey.
After finishing Troy we took a 6:30 pm, bus from Cannakule to Izmir, arriving in Izmir after midnight and staying in the bus station hotel (4 star) for the night. We left first thing in the morning to catch the bus from Izmir to Kusadasi arriving at around 1 pm. Karim (the flat owner) picked us up from the bus station and brought us here to our flat where we are currently staying. It is a nice simple 1 bedroom flat with beds in the living room for the kids and pretty simple and clean. It is overlooking the Aegean Sea, with the Greek Island of Samos in the distance. I have to say I was pretty exhausted upon arriving here, it was basically 3 days on the go and we did not really settle much in Cannakule and the place we were staying was not the mst comfortable, so resting was not in my agenda the previous days. We just took it easy on Tuesday here. Munir has taught me how to play backgammon, as there is a neat reception area outside with a swimming pool and a backgammon table along with other tables and chairs. The family who manages this place has two adult daughters (19 or 20'ish in age) and they seem to have their friends over every night with people outside laughing and listening to music. So we were in the mood to stay late and just chill and play some backgammon. You often see people in the Middle East playing backgammon, where it would be in the back alleys of Abu Dhabi in the sheesha cafes, in the neighbourhoods in Jordan and Syria or here in Turkey.
On Wednesday, we decided to venture out to the ancient Biblical city of Ephesus, about 30 minute drive from here. It was very impressive, I believe it has the largest Roman amphitheatre from the ancient world. The library was also very well constructed, it looks like it has been reconstructed, with the pieces put together as to how it would have been if it was still back in those times. I kept imagining the Biblical characters (such as St. Paul) in the midst of Ephesus, trying to convince the pagan worshippers to forget their religion and follow Christianity. It would have been a hard sell because they actively worshipped Artemis (Goddess of Fertility) and held idols of Artemis around. I must note that upon arriving in Ephesus, we passeed the souvenir shops and other places before entering the ticket booth, and the souvenir shops had these funny looking fridge magnets for sale with small men with huge private parts sticking outward - I asked Munir what are those doing here? Later on, I read int he booklet that there was a brothel in the city of Ephesus and the archeologists who uncovered Ephesus had found statues like this in the brothel! Interesting huh? Ephesus was also the place where St. John brought Virgin Mary to after Jesus' death, to keep watch over her to help her.
Nearby, ontop ofa small mountain, is the plce where her house was. Apparently it had been destroyed at some point and rebuilt several centuries ago. It was discovered by a German nun, who had a dream about Virgin Mary's house being in the mountains around Ephesus, and apparently another evidence of this house's existence was the fact that in the city of Ephesus itself, there was a Basilica named after Mary, and in those days the locals would not name such a significant building/church after someone, unless they had lived there. It was neat to see the location and there are Christian altar sites set up around it, where the Popes have made mass during their visits as well as other dignitaries.
Yesterday (Thursday) we ventured down south to Bodrum Peninsula to see our friend from Abu Dhabi, Kitty, who has a holiday house there. We also wanted to see for ourselves what Bodrum is about, since we've heard a lot about it. All I can say is it is very beautiful. We went into Bodrum town itself, which is very touristy and the level of English seemed to be much higher there by the locals than in most places we have been to. It seems to cater a lot to Western tourists and property owners. We went to see the Museum of Underwater Archeology first in Bodrum which is hosted in the old fort. We text messaged Kitty once we were finished, and she lives in a place called Yalikavak which is a town near Bodrum. We had a bit of trouble locating each other, but after some time we managed to find her. It was good to see her again! She works at the college with Munir, but with the busy-ness of everyday life in Abu Dhabi it is often hard to see our friends as often as we wish. We followed Kitty in her car up to her place, actually we parked our car nearby and went with Kitty in her car, up a steep and windy road in her complex to her place at the top. She can practically see a 180 degree view of the Aegean Coast! She was so generous to us and we ended up staying until 9:30 pm at night! We had a 2 hour - plus drive home, so we were a bit nervous having left so late.
We drove back to Kusadasi and arrived just after midnight. Phew we were exhausted!
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