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Kusadasi, Turkey
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Our first hour in Kusadasi was completely frightening
to me but it did make up for it in the end. We met another couple
online at cruisecritic.com and decided to book a private tour with them
instead of doing the whole Princess thing. We met up with our
couple and headed to the dock to meet our guide. After about 30
minutes of confusion and chaos we located our guide that turns out is
handicap (which is fine except we know we are visiting ancient ruins all
day and we are all a little curious how this is going to go down).
So after meeting our guide, Nejat, he takes us over to the curb and
tells us that he won't be doing the tour. Instead, his friend,
John, will be taking us. So I start internally freaking out...OMG..we
are so being sold to the Russian Mob, omg, they are going to drive us
off the cliff, omg..etc etc etc. So John pulls up and Vinny and I
both notice Nejat give John some cash and basically pawn us off on John
whose face showed surprise. Next thing you know, we hop in John's
van (which was top of the line I will add) and off we go.
Our first stop was the Temple of Artemis, the largest
building of the ancient world and one of the Seven Wonders of the World,
of which scarcely a trace remains. It is pictured in the first two
pictures below. Nothing much to see but how often can you say that
you saw one of the Seven Wonders of the World?
We then took the van to the ancient city of Ephesus,
passing on our way the last house that the Virgin Mary lived in.
Ephesus bore the title of "the first and
greatest metropolis of Asia". The population of Ephesus has been
estimated to be in the range of 400,000 to 500,000 inhabitants in
the year 100 AD, making it the largest city in Roman Asia and one of
the largest cities of the day. Ephesus also had several major bath
complexes, built at various points while the city was under Roman
rule. The city had one of the most advanced aqueduct systems in the
ancient world, superior to any modern system in the region today. It
was amazing to see how the community worked from the remaining
ruins. We were able to see how they laid underground pipes for
water, games people played (one resembling Backgammon!), the
theaters where political and entertainment festivities were held.
Needless to say we didn't get sold to the mob, nor did we end up
chopped up in the ocean. The tour was wonderful, John was very
educated and we had a very enjoyable day in Ephesus. The day
ended with a very small amount of time to shop in the area near our
ship. Vinny knew going into Turkey that he wanted a leather
coat and we jumped on the opportunity. He wheeled and dealed
and ended up with a BEAUTIFUL brown leather jacket at about 70% off
the ticket price.
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