Priene, Miletus and Didyma!!

Monday, April 30, 2012

Hello! (At some point I am going to learn how to say it in Turkish…however, until then…)

First, down the hill from us are the remains of a Roman aquaduct -- quite fun!

Need to round out last night’s dinner before starting on the day. Returned to Hotel Bella, which has really good food, for another of their set-dinners. Lentil soup again, but this time we had roasted peppers and eggplant stuffed with meat (yes, again!) as well as a green bean salad with tomato, which was wonderful, and a “gypsy” salad (as opposed to Greek, which they also had). The gypsy salad was basically chopped tomatoes, feta, parsley and hot green peppers – R loved it, I ate around the peppers! Then R had lamb kebab while I had the spicy meatball kebab…dessert was a wonderful baklava – all washed down with a very good dry white wine. We got back to the room about 9, and I’m not sure which one of us fell asleep first – but I got something like 10 hours sleep last night! YEA!! (Sleep bank should be just about caught up on its overdrawal!)

Woke about 7 and down to breakfast at 8 a.m. Same breakfast as yesterday, and every bit as good. (Hoping to remember to take a picture of it tomorrow, as it is very attractive!) What we have found is that if we have a large breakfast around 8, we’re not at all hungry for lunch, so we again skipped it – although I did find an opportunity to sneak in a Magnum Classic – always room for that! Also, on the way out, we inquired if there was a laundry in town. Instead, they gave us a zippered laundry bag and said they would do it for us! I’m just hoping it won’t cost a small fortune, but I guess we’ll see tomorrow! Everything back and nice and clean! ALWAYS good to have clean clothes!!

So…out and about in the car about 9 a.m. Our goal today, three different sites: Priene, Miletus and Didyma.

Priene was about 50 km from Selcuk, and the first we came to. It is thought to be the original settlement in the Meander River valley (and guess where the word “meander” comes from?!) sometime around the 4th century BC. It passed through Roman and Byzantine hands and is considered the best- preserved Hellenistic (Greek) city in Ionia. It was built using a mountain as a back defense fortification, but was eventually leveled by earthquakes over time. It was a really hard and long slog UP hill to get to the site, which we were obviously sharing with several tour buses, but we were able to find some quiet places for ourselves, and enjoyed the huge pile of rubble that is now all that is left of Priene.

From there, we headed to Miletus, to see their terrific amphitheatre. It even has an 8th century fort built on top of it! Here at least there was a shop with cold water and Coke, which we enjoyed very much before climbing up to the theatre. Even though we saw tour buses, we didn’t see any groups, and virtually had the theatre to ourselves, which was great. From there we walked down the hill and toward the ruins of the town itself. We wanted to walk out to the Ionic stoa, which was still standing – problem was, this area is in a silted in coastal plain, very close to the sea, and there were great patches of swamp to get around…which we tried…We made it to the stoa, and it was beautiful, and we had it all to ourselves, but when we tried to do the circle route, we got almost all the way until we were again stopped by more swampy water!! UGH! Had to backtrack through open and plowed fields, over ancient stones with lots of thistles about … finally made it back, and decided to celebrate with a Magnum Classic…always a good thing!

Once we had recovered from Miletus, we headed straight to Didyma. Again, while there were tour buses around, when we entered, very few folks anywhere! Didyma is famous for its oracular temple, just like Delphi. There was a well where the priestess would go to get prophecies for people asking questions. (I know at Delphi it is reasoned that the noxious gases emitting from the well would cause anyone’s head to spin – thus answers to questions; and from what this particular smelt like, I would say the same would be easy here!)

At this point, we were beginning to get “ruin” fever, so headed back to Selcuk, a lovely drive on incredibly superb roads and very little traffic. Wonder if all of Turkey will have these great roads with no crowds! Back to the hotel, where we recouped a bit, and then off again on foot into town. We wanted to see the remains of the Basilica of St. John, the Evangelist. Lovely walk, again through pieces, as the basilica was destroyed in 1402 by the Mongols.

On our way back to the hotel, we ran into Nazmi and asked where we might find a cell-phone charger store, as the one we brought for my phone from Tucson wasn’t working. We had asked for directions, but instead they sent one of their guys to actually get it for us – talk about feeling guilty! He did manage to find one, but it did take a while…now we should be all up to date electronically!

Off now to dress for dinner! More later!

Okay! Quick dinner update: Great tomato soup, appetizers: artichokes, roasted peppers, eggplant mousaka and stuffed mushrooms! I had chicken again, and this time R had the spicy meatball kebab!

m
xxx

A Visit to Ephesus and a Wonder of the Ancient World!

Sunday, April 29, 2012

Hello!

Oh, boy, these old legs are certainly getting in to shape quickly!! Ouch!
Woke up about 7 a.m. after a great night’s sleep. I am hopeful that our “sleep bank” is getting recharged! Showered and down to breakfast in the garden courtyard by 8 a.m. Just yummy! First they bring baskets of very good French-type bread, along with a spread of olives, jams and honey. Then you get a plate of fresh fruits and vegetables as well as some amazing feta cheese. (I have been told that as I like the cheese so much, I just need to ask for more tomorrow…which I plan on doing!) There were tomatoes that tasted like tomatoes should taste, as well as strawberries that are red all the way through (unlike they are in Tucson, where they are white…). Then you are asked how you would like your eggs: scrambled, omelet, or fried. (One lady tried very hard to explain an egg white-only omelet, and was completely unsuccessful!) I had the eggs scrambled, and they came out in a lovely little dish, beautifully prepared with cheese – they were GREAT! R had coffee and I had cold milk.

Nazmi, our friend from yesterday, showed up just as we were finishing, and in just a few minutes we were being chauffeured to the top gate at Ephesus to be dropped off! We opted for the audioguides, and to be honest, the ear pieces were TERRIBLE. They had little ear pieces on each one that are supposed to slide over your ear…impossible to deal with; finally we both just took them off! (If we do this again, I am going to have my ipod earphones with me.) Even though we got there by 8:30 a.m. (opening time is 8:00 but we really wanted breakfast!) there were many, many people already inside. (Brucato rule: BE THERE WHEN IT OPENS!)

Nazmi had given us a really good hint – go to the terrace houses, because no tour groups ever go there – and it was wonderful! The Austrians had (and I think continue to) excavated a certain section of Ephesus, and have provided a wonderful covered area to preserve the frescos and mosaics found within the houses; amazing! We climbed up to the top of the excavation and had the place literally to itself! Yipee!

Did the complete walk-through of the site – even managing to avoid other tourists in some other places – and finally exited a little before noon. The bookshop at the exit called Nazmi for us, and in literally five minutes, he was back to pick us up. He did mention lunch, but we were both very hot and sweaty (wearing jeans is NOT a good idea when the temperature is going up into the 80’s!) and asked to be returned to the Hotel Nilya.

Poppies are even redder than the Flanders poppies, if that is possible, and have a larger black center; very beautiful!

We both hit the bed about the same time, and there wasn’t another word for about two hours – we were both unconscious! Ah, jet-lag! I finally rousted R out of bed about 2 so that we could walk down the hill to the Ephesus Museum. It’s literally five minutes from the hotel. Nice walk, and a really lovely small museum! We are noticing that signage and explanations are usually in three languages: Turkish, German and English, which makes it nice for being able to know what we’re looking at! Wandered through the museum – it has a large open courtyard area that is divided into display area as well as information on earlier times – a blacksmith, a barber, as well as a rose water shop. Apparently rose water is very popular in Turkey, and this place explained how it was made in the days before mass production; very interesting! We sat for a bit in the nice little café at the museum, me with my Magnum Classic (Bob & Kate: Did you know Magnum is now making a Magnum with pistachio?) and R with water; we seem to have missed lunch, but as neither of us are hungry…must be that good breakfast!

Interesting signs we have passed...

From the museum we headed down the block to what remains of the Temple of Artemis, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. In a word, unfortunately, not much … whoops, sorry, that’s two! Apparently once the temple was damaged by earthquake in the distant past, people started using the stone for building other things. There is only one re-assembled column left, and part of another. But the standing column has – guess what? – a stork nest built on top of it! There were also storks flying over the large field; so beautiful to watch, and unlike the Sandhill cranes (whoops – call to prayer coming…would love to record it for you!) who fly in HUGE flocks and are incredibly noisy, these are single flyers and I haven’t heard them making any noise at all!

From the Artemis Temple we walked back to the hotel and had cups of tea (R regular, apple tea for me) in the courtyard. R now soundly sleeping, me blogging as I don’t want to mess up sleep tonight!

I did want to share a couple of observations about our trip so far. First, the people here are really warm and friendly. The smaller school kids we pass always say “Hello” – we don’t know if this is the only word they know in English, but we try to respond in kind. Many of the ladies are wearing headscarves, but many of the others are not, so hard to determine the religious feel of the neighborhood. The calls to prayer are fairly frequent – I think 5 times per day … and as we got into bed last night, I remember saying: “I hope the first call isn’t too early!” -- and it was, about 5:15 a.m. but we both just listened for a moment and fell back to sleep. Additionally, there are charms to ward off the “evil eye” everywhere, sometimes even imbedded in the cement in front of shops, and we have seen several older gentlemen with their worry beads working away. There are some fairly persistent “hawkers” at the entrances to sites and museums, but they are always polite, even when told NO. (Although we ran into one who said, after our refusal: You’re breaking my heart! I replied that I was sure he would recover!)
We still have more to see here in Selcuk tonight, and tomorrow we are getting in the car and heading out to explore the ruins of Priene, Didyma and Milos. So…more later, I’m sure, when we get back from dinner! Oh! Not sure if I mentioned it, but we were able to get wine (or anything else, I’m sure, from the collection of bottles!) last night for dinner; a very good dry white!

Lots of love!

m
xxx

All the Way to Izmir!

Wednesday/Thursday/Friday, April 25, 26, 27

Hello, All!

Have finally reached a place where I can get something written – although the local mosques are having one of their prayer calls (one of five per day, I believe) – and the sound of calling is echoing between mosques and the hills and creating a cacophonous noise!!

So…On Wednesday morning, we picked up our rental car in Tucson and went back to the house to load up everything and get on the road to my sister Kitty’s. We were out about 8 a.m. for a very nice drive across the desert to Orange County; arrived about 4:30 p.m. SO great to see Kitty, who gave us a wonderful dinner of pulled pork with roasted potatoes and cold slaw and an apple salad – excellent! (Note: Kitty – please email me the pork recipe!) To bed around 10 for a 4:30 a.m. wake up call…we do tend to open, airports, don’t we? I hadn’t been through John Wayne Orange County airport in more than 30 years, and wow, have things changed! They have a lovely new terminal, but United Airlines had just moved the day before, so a bit confusing. At any rate, checked in and through security in an average amount of time, and to the gate to await boarding.

The 3½ hour flight to Chicago O’Hare was uneventful (Yeah!), and it helped that we had bulkhead seats, so no one in our laps. We had deliberately scheduled a 4-hour layover in Chicago because the later O.C. flight was cutting it a bit close, and we’d rather have more time than miss a connection. Plane in Chicago boarded on time, and surprisingly, there were even empty seats available! We were able to spread out so that both of us had two seats to ourselves; very nice, even though I still couldn’t sleep. The movie situation was very bizarre – none of the movies announced on the schedule appeared – so I still haven’t gotten to watch “Iron Lady.” Instead we got some truly awful movies – one where Mark Wahlberg’s wife gets bundled into a big duffel bag and then has cement poured on her … thank heavens for cell phones, as that darn cement just kept on ringing! The other was a movie with Katherine Heigl (sp?) playing a new bounty hunter in New Jersey with a HORRIBLE NJ accent! …okay, actually, but I have no idea what the name of it was!

Flight was very uneventful, and only about 7½ hours long. We arrived at Heathrow right on schedule! The last couple of years, arriving in Heathrow has involved incredibly slow-moving lines to get through immigration – but not this time! Whew, we just zipped through customs and had our bags – almost the first off the plane – in literally minutes! (That is, minutes after we’d walked the long 3½ miles or so to get off the plane and to baggage…!) From there outside and to Europcar to pick up our car. Unlike Hertz last year, when they took forever, these folks were friendly AND efficient and we were out of the airport and heading to Gatwick by 10 a.m. off an 8:30 a.m. arrival! Great! Kind of a coolish and wettish day in Engand (and we had absolutely NO idea how to turn off the back windshield wiper!!!) and we had no problems skirting around town on the M25 to Gatwick.

We were staying at a new place (for us) and our GPS Emmy routed us through the town of Reigate, which looked wonderful (and we had to go through several times, as we missed a turning…) Got to our hotel (Menzies Chequers Hotel) by 10:35 a.m. and thankfully, they had a room available for us right then! Moved in – comfortable place, absolutely no complaints – and decided to take a short nap right then and there…Unfortunately 1½ hours was NOT nearly long enough, and when we went out for food, I had to admit to a bit of crankiness…wound around and around and finally stopped for some sandwiches then back to the hotel for yet another (an LONGER!) nap! This time, we were up about 6:30 p.m.

It was about this point where Robert discovered that something had happened to the computer; OMG! All of a sudden it couldn’t connect to internet. He thought at first that the hotel’s internet connection had been disrupted, but that didn’t prove to be the case, as I was able to get to the web on Maggie, my iPad. So…consternation all around; lots of hand wringing and what do we do now’s….Decided to eat first and deal with computer later. Found a very nice pub, The Beehive, in the area. R had cod and chips with truly awful “mushy” peas [Note from RJB – They just looked awful. They tasted just fine]; all great! While waiting for food, I suggested that we may want to get our smallest computer, Gulliver (a net book, and named that because he “travels”…) shipped to us in Turkey somehow…so called Hilary. Managed to interrupt her on a conference call, but she was there and very willing to help; if Thatcher could get the computer out of the house, she would find a way to get it to us!! So…we had a plan…

Back to the hotel after filling the car up with gas (not knowing if anything would be open in the EARLY a.m. hours!). As for the computer: R did some checking and found that he must have unknowingly switched it to airplane mode, so the wireless WiFi was turned off. Switched it back on and all was well again. Phew! And to bed around 9:30 p.m. … with the clock set for 3:00 a.m. At some point, I asked myself, why even bother to go to bed! – and found in the morning, that there were a great many people in the terminal, really sprawled out on seats and sleeping away, who must have had the same idea!

Up at 2:45 a.m. (you do understand, I hope that when you are totally and completely jet-lagged, that it doesn’t matter if it’s the middle of the night – you really don’t pay too much attention!) and out the door to get to the a/p by 3:30 a.m. Dropped the car at the North Terminal, and headed to check-in…where there was (believe it or not!) already a line! As we had paid a bit extra for “speedy boarding” we started our own line, and were through with boarding passes in just a couple of minutes. Nobody at all in immigration and security, so sped through that as well! Breakfasted on muffins and fresh orange juice in the departure lounge.
Flight called on time, and we were #’s 3 and 4 getting on the plane! Oh, how I love speeding boarding! We got first row by the door, window and aisle for the 4 hour flight to Izmir, Turkey. I don’t remember reading anything, and the time passed fairly quickly, so can only assume that I actually was able to get a little sleep on an airplane! Will wonders ever cease?! When we went to Istanbul a year or so ago, processing people through customs and immigration (because you have to buy a visa for Turkey) was a ZOO – one that I NEVER hope to repeat! So we were absolutely thrilled that not only were we the first people off the plane, but had a clear shot at visa processing and then immigration as well! We were done in literally minutes!! From there to baggage, and everything arrived in a timely manner! YEA!! Out to car rental, and we were helped by truly some of the nicest Budget rental car agents on the planet! We have a nice-sized Hyundai (I think!) diesel which drives very nicely. (Although not quite as nicely as the Vauxhall we got at Heathrow yesterday, which I wouldn’t mind shipping home if I could figure out how to drive from the right-hand side in the U.S.!) R had carefully input all of our Turkey hotels on Emmy (our GPS) so we had a direct shot from the Izmir airport to Selcuk, a town of about 28,000 people, and Hotel Nilya where we will be for the next three nights. We drove through lovely rolling hills and plains green with trees and vegetation. And, while we did drive on the motorway, there was very little traffic, and it was an extremely pleasant drive!

Hotel Nilya is an absolutely beautiful place! Small – I think 12 rooms? – built surrounding a stunning courtyard where breakfast is served. We’ve got their “suite” which has a nice ante-room, as well as a beautiful balcony overlooking the courtyard, and there are stunning ceramics and carved wood everywhere.

Nazim, one of the owners, treated us to tea (apple for me) in the courtyard, and went over some of the things to do in the area. He also talked about their shop, which, from the few minutes we walked through it, could end up being VERY expensive – incredible ceramics…wonder, do they ship?! He suggested that we walk into the center part of town from the hotel, and go to the market.

Lovely walk, and the market is HUGE! Honestly, it went on for blocks and blocks in several directions, and we never did make it to the ends of it! Beautiful veggies and fruit – some of which we have no idea what they are! – as well as clothing, brooms, flowers, etc.

We finally sat down for a Magnum Classic (me only) and H2O. R suggested returning to the hotel by an alternate route, and we found a lovely shaded café and had glasses of freshly squeezed orange juice – SO much better than Coke! Finally back to the hotel for a sit-down. R napping now, but I’m hoping to get through the afternoon so that I can hopefully sleep tonight!

We’re booked for dinner at the sister-hotel, Hotel Bella, with a view across the street to a huge nest of nesting storks! Apparently eggs not hatched yet, but are due within the next couple of days. Hope they make an appearance before we leave this lovely spot! More later!

Much love,
m
xxx

Okay, back from dinner and will catch up to be able to start a totally new day tomorrow! We had booked a table at the Hotel Bella, and arrived a bit after 7 p.m. It was amazing watching the storks flying in to their nests – they are so incredibly beautiful! Up to the top floor of the hotel, where their restaurant is located. Lovely view, well captured by R!

We decided on their fixed menu – for 25 TLR (Turkish Lira) we had lentil soup, followed by our choice of two messas each (small appetizer plates, served either cold or hot). In this case, I had the meat stuffed aubergine (eggplant) along with eggplant salad (there is definitely a theme here…I LOVE eggplant!) R had a plate of roasted peppers; not bell peppers exactly, but close – just incredibly tasting! And the zucchini salad. Everything was wonderful, each better than the one before! For mains, I had a chicken kebab with bulgar and onion with sumac salad; R had the sea bass. Finally, dessert was something looked liked rice pudding that was fried with a coating and had a honey sauce – YUM! Needless to say, off to a good start with the food!

Back home; almost 9, and I’m falling asleep at the switch!

m
xxx