New country, another language and a new currency
At this point I find I keep forgetting which language to use because sometimes it feels like it is changing daily. BTW 1€=18TL (Turkish lira at time of visit)
Turkey was never on my radar for places to visit. There’s no Eiffel Tower or Great Wall here. So what’s it got? According to the government, Turkey is 95% or more Islamic.
Kusadasi produces gold jewelry, cotton, rugs and leather goods. Labor is cheap here so the jewelry can be cheaper than in other countries. Many luxury name brands manufacturer here and like China where you have actual products being made, naturally you have knockoffs. Turkey also produces 90% off the world’s socks. Kusadasi is known as “bird island”. Migrating birds over the centuries have brought the seeds of over 8000 flowers to the city. The famed tulips that the Netherlands are known for originally came from Turkey.
June arranged shore excursions for us to do two things while here in Kusadasi-see the Home of The Virgin Mary and to visit Kusadasi’s best known historical site-Ephesius.
The House of The Virgin Mary
Located high in the hills, the supposed house of Mary has been rebuilt as it was originally found as ruins. Because of the tourist volume they don’t allow picture taking inside so this’ll have to do. Dang tourists lol.
June had Pax place a candle
We also drank from the sacred fountains that Mary may also have drank from.
And we left wishes tied onto the wish wall.
Next to the Ruins of Ephesius
The tour was a combination of ancient history and architecture as well as a bit of plant knowledge.
Ephesius excavation started on 1871 and so far an estimated 25% off the ancient city has been unearthed.
Once a large city like today’s New York or Paris, It’s been around so long that the city was eventually abandoned when the (then) port city became inland after flowing silt changed the landscape and water line making it inconvenient for water trade.
It had a stadium that seated an estimated 25,000 spectators
Streets lined with shops
And the high roller shops, demarked by an expensive mosaic tile entryway to attract customers. Most likely selling jewelry
Pax standing outside of what once was a library. Opulent! These guys must have loved reading.
This is a famous carving of a well respected category of female known as an Amazona, fierce female archers who have had their left breast removed so that it didn’t get in the way of the bowstring while shooting. Given the sanitization and medical standards of the time simply surviving the procedure was a major hurdle. The proud and well respected female warriors would go around town with their blank breast exposed to let everyone know how hardcore dedicated they were.
These are sarcophagi for the dead. First the flesh would rot away then over time all that was left would be the teeth and hair. Similar to today people wanted to be buried with their valuable belongings. Notice that every one of these sarcophagi has a chipped/damaged lid? Grave robbers.
Hud got to try Turkish coffee (blech for him) and some Turkish delight at the museum shop.
Back in town at the tail end of our tour we got stuck with the obligatory carpet “tour” back in town and after watching a silk cocoon get unwrapped and have about 50 rugs laid out on front of us we bugged out of that tourist trap asap to go check out the town in the short remaining time we had. We were all served sweet tea and a nutty bread. Interestingly, after a rug sale is made the Turkish government will pay for the shipping worldwide for the customer. Probably it’s way of promoting commercialism as well as helping out artisans.
The shops sell high quality knock offs and three owners are really pushy with getting your attention. You can kindly tell them to fuck off and they stop right away. Only thing is ten seconds later another shop owner compliments your moustache and asks where your from and tries to get you to buy something. I shouldn’t complain though, it’s a difference in culture that I didn’t really want to deal with.
I felt like we got ripped off at this place, one of those front and center seafood places where everyone is sitting outside. Maybe we did, maybe it was my interpreting the Turkish business model.
You pick your fish, giant shrimp or lobster from a chilled cooker and they make it however you want.
The fresh squid was around 10€ or 10 USD.
Our entire meal for the 6 of us, some sharing was about $85 including beer so although they kept trying to give us food the price wasn’t that bad for US standards.
Then we hele-d back to the boat for an early departure at 130 to start our voyage to…
The WOO family page 