26 July – 3 August 2008
Saturday 26 July – Flight to Istanbul, off to Kusadasi
We flew into Istanbul, where a young man from Backpacker Travel picked us up for the hours drive to Kusadasi, where we would stay for a couple of nights. We drove through dry, countryside, with patches of irrigated green crops, and mountains on the horizon. Kusadasi is one of the largest ports on the Aegean coast, and as we were to find out, one of the prime tourist “hot spots” during the summer.
We arrived just in time to have some dinner, climb into bed, and realize that our room was right above the disco bar (with its blaring music) and on the corner of a very busy street. With no air conditioning, we had to keep the windows open, but we later decided it was like sleeping in the middle of an intersection with cars blasting music!
Sunday, 27 July – Hieropolis and Pamukkale Tours
Pamakkule is a 3-hour drive from Kusadasi, both ways, of course! Fortunately, we had a great guide and an interesting group of people, and we saw a good deal of the farming “bread basket” of western Turkey.
After our long drive and lunch, we arrived at Hierapolis, which in Hellenistic times was a thermal springs and spa. It was believed the mineral-rich waters were good for the health, but what remains today is one of the largest ancient graveyards in Turkey. There are more than 1,200 tombs from Roman, Hellenistic, and early Christian periods. Amazing to think that we were walking through the hot, dusty ruins of Hierapolis that date back thousands of years. We paused at the Arch of Domitian that opened onto the main street to Pamukkale.
Spectacular white travertine terraces were formed by hot springs leaving deposits of limestone, thus the name Pamukkale, which means “cotton castle.” The views are magnificent, especially the contrasts of the brilliant white limestone, pools of milky sky-blue water, the dry and green plains, the brown mountains in the distance. And, people everywhere! This is definitely a tourist spot – women in tank tops and women in full burkas, all wading in the pools. It was a bit surreal.
Monday, 28 July – Ephesus and Flight to Istanbul
We packed our bags and met up with our touring group. Myne was our guide for our small group of wonderful travelers: Lebanese man who was probably in his delightfully funny manic phase, serious Turkish young man who became the Lebanese artist’s side kick, the young American couple in dire need of my imodium (never travel without it), young articulate black woman engineer from DC who was working on rebuilding roads in Afghanistan and her co-worker from Bonny Lake WA (just down the road from Seattle) who both bought more stuff at every stop than we did on our entire trip, the German-Japanese couple living in Japan. By the end of the day, we were exchanging emails and waving tearful goodbyes (or maybe the tears were due to the largest credit card charge I’ve ever made EVER at the Turkmen Carpet store).
Fortunately, Ephesus was a short, 20-minute ride. It certainly was amazing to be in such an historical, significant place. Truly unforgettable. A Greek city was first built here in about 1000 BC, but the ruins that we see today are from the 4th century BC. During the Roman period, Ephesus was an important port, but the harbor silted up and the city was abandoned.
We shared Ephesus with hundreds (perhaps thousands) of people, but I’m sure that’s how it would have been at the height of its glory – streets filled with people, all talking, selling, working, hurrying from place to place. Myne walked us through one of the Roman baths, explaining how water was brought into the baths and heated. She took her water bottle and splashed away the dust from the mosaic-tiled floor to reveal the intricate tile work of a woman’s face.
Certainly one of the highlights is the Library of Celsus, which is probably the most photographed structure here. It was built in 114-117, with massive columns and statues that represent wisdom, virtue, intellect, and knowledge. Also, the large archway to the Temple of Hadrian, built in 123, with its carvings of gods and goddesses. Brilliant blue sky, white marble columns, limestone ruins, intricate carvings, streets worn down by the footsteps of millions of people, including our own. Wow.
From Ephesus, winding our way up a hill into the mountains, we arrived at The House of Mary. According to the Bible, Jesus asked St John to look after his mother, Mary. After the crucifixion, John brought Mary with him to Ephesus in AD 37, and she spent her remaining years in this simple stone house.
We took a late flight from Izmir to Attaturk Airport in Istanbul, with someone waiting with a Den & Anne Kerlee sign to take us to the Sultan’s Inn. We could get used to this airport pickup deal!
Earlier in the day, we got news that a bomb exploded in Istanbul, killing 17 people. At that point, we began to wonder if Semester at Sea would allow the MV Explorer to stop in Istanbul. When we arrived at the hotel, we texted Drew to see if he could look up on the SAS site and get us an updated schedule. Since there was little we could do, we fell into bed and tossed and turned. Sometime during the night, Drew texted us back that SAS was, indeed, diverted and heading to Egypt.
Tuesday, 29 July – Cooking with Seline
We woke up to rain, which rather fit our mood, disappointed that we’d not see our SAS friends here. We weren’t sure what we should do, but we had set up a cooking class for this morning, so we had the hotel drop us off at Seline’s apartment in the “new” part of Istanbul. It was good; we were busy chopping and dicing and chatting with Seline, a retired travel agent who holds these cooking classes in her lovely apartment. After a trip to the market where Seline showed us Turkish veggies, meat, fish, bread, and sweets, we returned to the hotel around 2:00pm.
Since we anticipated spending most of our time in Istanbul with our SAS friends, we hadn’t done much planning. So, we pulled out the travel books and spent the afternoon figuring out what we would do on our own in Istanbul. Good old Rick Steves came to the rescue, again.
After creating a rough plan for the week, we headed out to dinner to the Doy Doy restaurant, just around the corner from our hotel. We climbed four flights of stairs to get to the rooftop dining area and were just wowed by the view of the Blue Mosque — and by Rick Steves enjoying dinner!! Of course, I introduced myself and wished I had our travel book for his autograph! But, what really blew my socks off was just as we were having Turkish tea, the call to prayer boomed from the mosque (there are speakers on all those minarets) and the Blue Mosque lit up like a Christmas tree, with 3 rows of little lights running around each minaret. (Damn…we had left our cameras in the hotel, and the mosque was never lit up like that again…but, perhaps, one of those scenes best left to the memory rather than digital pixels.)
Wednesday, 30 July – Historic Walk of Sultanahmet
With the sun shining, and after a rooftop breakfast, we headed out to walk the historic area of Sultnahmet. First walking through the Hippodrome with its columns and green garden areas to the Blue Mosque. Shoulders and knees covered, with shoes in hand, we walked into the huge interior of the Blue Mosque, with its six minarets. Quiet, sun filtering through the high windows to the carpeted area reserved for prayers.
Our next stop was walking through Yereatan Saray, the Underground Cistern built in the 6th century to store water. This refreshingly cool, dark cavern covers an area of two football fields, the brick ceiling held up by hundreds of columns, two of which sit atop two stone Medusa heads recycled from earlier Roman structures.
Taking Rick Steves recommendation, we had meatballs at Sultanahmet K