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Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 Next we drove back down to Bergama to see the Asclepieum, once the world's most renowned medical center, aptly named after the Greek god of healing. Much of the site had been partially restored, and it was quite impressive, with its own theater and temples, as well as the treatment facilities. One broken marble column had what must be one of the earliest versions of the caduceus. While at the Asclepieum, we briefly ran into the guide with the two young men from Shanghai.
We ate lunch on our way out of Bergama, then drove to Izmir. Big mistake! By sheer luck we wound up on the street we wanted leading to the waterfront, but the traffic was terrible. To make matters worse, there were no street signs. We drove along the waterfront to the Konak beach area, then back to Republican Square with its Attaturk Monument.
We tried to park, but it was hopeless. Then we tried to get to the Kadifikale (Velvet Castle), thinking it would not be hard to find since it stood on a high hill in the otherwise flat old city. We got lost in unbelievably heavy traffic and wound up in an entirely unintended part of town. After asking directions, we decided to get out of Izmir as fast as we could and head for Selcuk, our destination for the night. As we drove into Selcuk, we saw some hotels along the street and stopped to check them out. Before we could get out of the car, a man wearing a Sydney, Australia, T-shirt asked in perfect English if he could help. Gursel (a.k.a. "Mike") was a Turk who had lived in Australia for a year. He recommended the Otel Atadan we had parked in front of. He worked in the carpet store next door.
After checking into the hotel, we went out for a walk a little
after 5:00 p.m. We discovered we were right around the corner from the partially restored ruins
of the huge Basilica of St. John. It had just closed for the day, but we walked around the outside.
We would come back for a better look after our visit to Ephesus.
The hill
overlooking the church was covered by the massive 5th Century Byzantine Ayasoluk Fortress,
now largely restored. As we walked around the outside of the basilica, we met a Jewish couple from Moscow. He spoke English,
and we talked at some length. He felt that Russians were handicapped as tourists because their
language was seldom understood outside Russia, they had very little money for traveling, and
their passports were not universally accepted. He expressed both envy and
admiration for Americans.
As it was getting dark, we stopped at the carpet shop and talked to Gursel for close to an hour. He loaned us books on Efes and later had his "boy" show us to a restaurant across the street. After a very nice dinner, we walked through a couple blocks of shops and restaurants. We bought a bottle of Dickman red wine for Ore, then went back to our room and had a glass of our own from the bottle we brought from Bergama. Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 |
