Day 6 - Izmir - Ephesus Turkey
Our next stop was Turkey. Visiting Turkey was the main reason I agreed to go on this trip. I had a vision of Turkey being very much like Iran but I was wrong. Izmir looks a lot like Charlotte, NC. While most people are Muslim almost everyone was dressed in western garb and most young people speak English. No one really visits Izmir though, it is just the gateway to the ancient cities of Pergamum and Ephesus (as in the book of the Bible Ephesians).
We hired a private guide through Nur and Ekol travel so the 4 of us had a mini-bus and a knowledgeable guide, Yelda all to ourselves. It is a one hour drive from the city to Ephesus where Yelda gave us the historical background of the area and Turkey in general. The area was very green and lush and has a booming agricultural industry. Although Izmir is in Asia on the drive out we saw all of the usual stores that you see in Europe, Ikea and Zara.
The city of Ephesus was huge with 250,000 inhabitants at the peak of the Roman/Greek era. Like Herculaneum there was running water, sewers and public latrines and baths. Also the city had many multi-storied buildings. The most famous is probably the 3 story library of Celsus shown above. This library was so magnificent that the Egyptians stopped sending them papyrus. They did not want this library to rival the one in Alexandria. This lead the Ephesians to develop the precursor to the modern book. They figured out how to cure animal skins then write on then bound them together versus the parchment scrolls that had been used. This site was also very moving because you can walk in the foot steps of the Paul and you can see many of the symbols of the early Christians carved into the marble. I would love to come back to see more of this area. It was very hot and crowded the day we were there.
After Ephesus we visited a state sponsored carpet making school. Of course the intent of this stop was to sell us carpet (which they did) but it was also very interesting to see the woman spin the silk into yarn and to make the carpets. They have the showmanship down of displaying the carpets, flipping, turning and explaining the differences. We were glad to do our carpet shopping here because we heard that in Istanbul there are so many stores the choices are almost to many.
We went to a restaurant but did not enjoy the food. Since it was Ramadan we could not use our usual barometer of following the locals. Both days we were in Turkey we never say a local eating.
Day 7 – Istanbul
Istanbul is so interesting. It sits on two continents and is a mix of all of the major world cultures. While you hear the call to prayer crossing a street at the intersection you can see women crossing the street wearing all styles of dress, from full burka to a hijab (head scarf) to designer jeans. Making a 360 turn you see every kind of architecture – Ottoman onion domes, Christian Byzantine style domes, Muslim styles and if you look closely influences from eastern Asia including India.
We started the day with a cruise down the Bosporus river. There are bridges that look just like the Golden Gate that connect the European side of the city to the Asian side. It was a really beautiful journey. You can see buildings from the 500 AD through modern times as you move up through this Golden Horn area. You can also see the Aye Sofia and the Blue Mosque in the distance. I’m glad we started the trip in this tranquil setting.
Once we left the harbor area the city was as bustling as in the world I’ve been to including Hong Kong. The trains were packed and people were every where. The boat ride on the Bosporus was our only ship sponsored shore excursion. We ditched the group on the plaza between the Aye Sofia and the Blue Mosque.
Our first stop was to tour the Aye Sofia once a Byzantine church, turned into a mosque when the Ottomans defeated Constantinople, and now a museum. Aye Sofia translates to "divine wisdom" and was built during the height of the Christian era of the Roman Empire. Begun in 532 it was completed in an amazing five years, and was the world's largest cathedral in until Constantinople was defeated in 1453. That was the year it was turned into a mosque, and it remained so until 1934, when the young Turkish republic restored its Christian attributes, and, with a mix of Islamic and Christian characteristics, reopened it as a museum. It was amazing to see the blend of Christianity and Muslim religion all in one spot. Tracy and Chameko were also introduced to the stand up toilet at this spot. There were only three ladies toilets and this place averages several million visitors a year.
On the other side of the plaza across from the Aye Sofia is the Blue Mosque whose actual name is the Mosque of Ahmet, after the sultan who built it. It was erected between 1609 and 1616, and is one of the largest ever built. It is constructed around four main domes, each of which is subdivided into three semi-domes, and all covered with the distinctive blue tiles that give the mosque its unofficial name. Since we were there in the afternoon during Ramadan people were coming in to say prayer. I’ve never been to a mosque before and seeing the ritual and reverence of it al was interesting and also seeing the women worship behind a screen, out of site from the men was different.
We then walked past the harem house of Suleiman the Magnificent, conquerer of Rhodes then over to see the eqyptian Hippodrome and a 200 year old gazebo that was a gift from Austria. Once again the mix of cultures in an eight square block area was amazing. I wanted to visit the underground cistern but Chameko had a weird dream the night before about getting stuck in a small wet underground area so since that pretty much describes the cistern we skipped it.
We then walked about about a mile to the most visited site in the city the Grand Bazaar. This place was stall after stall of jewelry stores, tourist junk, rug merchants and “genuine fake” watches, purses, sunglasses and the like. We bought Sophia a Persian costume and returned to the ship. Overall we were not impressed with the bazaar.
Day 8 – Yet another boring day at sea
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