After our first night on the ship we woke up in Turkey! We had booked an excursion to Ephesus which started early in the morning, so we had to meet the group at about 7am. And we had to be ready and have eaten by this point. Not an easy task, let me tell you.
We disembarked in the port of Kusadasi (pronounced Kush-a-dah-suh) where we met our guide, this cute little Turkish woman, probably not more than 30 years old. She told us about the town and the Turks in general as we drove about 20 min to the ancient city of Ephesus.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ephesus (if you're at all interested. Wiki can probably explain better than I can!)
The ancient city was amazing. Way back in the first century (I think) it was buried by an earthquake. Then, sometime since 1900 people realized that Kusadasi was the location of the ancient city and started excavating. Both Dave and I were amazed at how advanced the Romans were, with their aquaducts and sewer systems. The streets are made of marble and everything is amazingly well preserved, considering it has spent a couple thousand years under the ground!
After the tour of Ephesus, which I could probably go on about for a lot longer, we went back to Kusadasi and saw a demonstration of how the turks make carpets. Our guide told us about how this is a dying art, and how it's often virgin girls who make these carpets as their dowry for when they get married. It's incredible how they make the carpets, with the intricate designs and colours. Some can take months to finish.
When the demo was over, Dave and I roamed about the town walking through the bazaar to find some things to take home to people. Everywhere you looked there were Evil Eyes (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evil_eye#Protective_talismans_and_cures) for sale. I bought a few, "bartering" to get a better price. Everything fashion that you saw was probably counterfeit. They were selling LaCoste t-shirts for 3euros. Yeah. Not real. Designer bags, watches and sunglasses were also everywhere.
Because it was on our list of things to do in Turkey, we went for turkish coffee. Basically, it is super concentrated coffee with sludge in the bottom. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkish_coffee) We found a little cafe that had baklava (mmmmmm) as well as turkish coffee so we sat down. The server asked if we wanted it sweet or extra sweet, so being people who only put milk in our coffee normally we opted for "sweet". The coffee arrived in tiny little cups with a bit of froth on top. I took a sip... it kind of had a sandy texture. Weird. Very weird. But not bad. The baklava was awesome (as it always is) and with the exception of the arrogant American family sitting at the table behind us the whole experience was a treat. I definitely want to return to Turkey at some point. The country intrigues me.
Back on boat by 11, we ate some lunch and then grabbed our books and read on deck until our stop at Patmos. The sun was climbing higher in the sky and with it went the temperature. It was supposed to reach about 40 before the day was over.
In Patmos is St. John's Grotto and Monestary. Our Contiki guides had advised us against taking the tour organized by the ship and instead offered to take us up to the Grotto. We started the walk, which quickly became a hike up a 45 or 50 degree angle of smooth rocks with no shade. Not realizing the extent of this "walk" I had only worn flip flops. My feet were killing me. It took about 20 min to walk up to the top, where we waited in line to see the Grotto.
Story goes that St. John was exiled here from Ephesus and made to stay in a cave. He was old and blind and he smacked his head a few times on the roof. While unconcious he had visions, and in the visions God told him to write the book of Revelations. So, he told his scribe who was with him all the things he had seen.
The Grotto (cave) has been converted into a holy place and people are expected to wear skirts/long pants as well as have their shoulders covered. No pictures were allowed to be taken.
After the Grotto the group was continuing up the long hot trail to the monestary, but Dave and I were roasting and instead opted to go to the beach that was in town. We walked back down the hill, found a place to lay on the beach and ventured into the water. It was cold. And salty. I'm always forgetful of how gross salt water is. Blech.
Eventually we had to go back to the boat, and once on board had time for a nap before our dinner with Contiki in the restaurant. It was blue and white night, so we all got ready and went to the restaurant for dinner. We were seated with 6 Australians, interestingly enough who were all currently living in London. After dinner we went up to the pool bar and sat around with other members of our group until about 1am...
Rhodes in the morning... and morning comes quickly.
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