2011 Med Cruise Day 8: Kusedasi and Ephesus
When we got up this morning, we still had not heard from the guy with whom we had arranged to be a part of our “group” for today’s excursion – even after several phone messages. On our way to breakfast, Andy had left a written note at the door of the room that the guy had emailed me two weeks previously - but when he went to check on the note, it was still there, untouched. This was worrisome.
At breakfast we ran through the various options. The first thing after breakfast, we went down to the main desk and asked if they could locate the guy by his name. I also gave the desk clerk the room number that I had. She confirmed that the name and the room number matched my information. She dialed the number for me, and the guy was in fact in his room, so she put me on the phone.
Turns out somewhere along the line there had been a disconnect. Not sure exactly what happened, but there had been an exchange of emails – I had sent to him the details of what to do (i.e. buy the tickets through Holland America). He replied back that he would. I replied back that I had bought our tickets. He replied that he had also bought tickets. I replied asking him to send me his room number, so I could contact him once we were on board ship. He replied with his room number, and that’s the last communication I had from him.
He said that he had never heard back from me about the details, so he went ahead and made other arrangements! I had no idea what he was talking about, since I clearly remembered all the emails back and forth and the fact that he sent me his room number. Obviously either I misunderstood all the information that he’d been sending me, or one or more emails failed to show up.
Either way, it didn’t matter - he said he hadn’t signed up for the same excursion. So now what?
We went to the meeting point for all shore excursions and explained the situation to the coordinator. We were worried that we wouldn’t be allowed to go on the excursion, since we were only a party of 2, and the instructions had made it clear we had to be at least a party of 4. Since it really wasn’t clear if the guy had in fact ever bought the tickets, we also didn’t know if he had bought then canceled. In any case, it turned out to be a non-issue: the coordinator said she had two mini-vans and neither was full, so she’d just put us with one of them.
In the end, it all worked the way we had wanted it to from the beginning - just sign up as the two of us and have Holland America lump us with some other group.
The whole concept of the mini-van worked extremely well. There were two groups of four and us in the van, as opposed to 34 people. The air conditioning worked a LOT better in the van than on the bus. It was also a lot easier to stick with and keep track of 10 people instead of 34.
On the way to Ephesus, the tour guide talked about the history of the site – how it used to be a major center of power and trade for the Roman empire 2,000 years ago. Ephesus at one point was a major port. Over the years the harbor was filled in (as in land fill) and eventually it could no longer function as a port. The port is now in Kusedasi, which is some distance away (about a 20 minute drive).
Once at Ephesus, we walked through the main street of the ancient town. There were remains of shops and temples to various Roman emperors. Even though it was early morning, the temperature skyrocketed as we continued through the ruins. We walked past a special exhibit – the excavation of terraced houses, which apparently was not scheduled for our tour. One guy in our group was very upset that it was not included, and insisted that we take the time to be allowed to go if we wanted to. The tour guide did a good job of figuring out what to do – she allocated 20 minutes for going through the exhibit for those people who wanted to go. The catch was – we had to pay for the entrance ourselves. Fortunately, we could pay by credit card, since we didn’t have any Turkish currency, and they wouldn’t take euros or dollars.
The excavation of the terraced houses was stunning – there were multi-room and multi-level homes, some with original mosaic floors and original painted stucco on the walls. The entire excavation site was covered, which meant we were out of the blazing direct sun. The site was built into the hillside, so we climbed and climbed endless flights of stairs. We walked on plexi-glass floors; you could look down and see what was beneath your feet. It was well worth the extra 7 euros ($12) per person and all the climbing.
We met up with the group at the library – a huge multi-story structure that showed that Ephesus had been a center of learning in its time. After the library we walked over to the theater, that has a seating capacity of 25,000. We were given some free time to explore; Andy went up to the top while I waited in the shade.
We met the group back at the van, and we started on our way to our next stop, a little village called Sirence (shee-REN-jeh). There are all of 500 people living in this village, but they still have a market. The town is known for making fruit wines.
While Andy went to check out the remains of a Greek Orthodox church at the top of the hill, I was able to find a couple of bargains – the prices at this market were much lower than at the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul, plus the items for sale were a lot more interesting.
When Andy came back, we wandered some more and found even more cool stuff to buy at very low prices.
We had lunch at a restaurant even further up the mountain. We could hear the Muslim call to prayer from the local mosque as we ate. Under the shade of the trees (and an umbrella that the tour guide asked the restaurant manager to put up), it was really very nice, and nobody really wanted to move. However, it was time to go back to Kusedasi.
On the way to Kusedasi, the tour guide told us that yes, we were on our way to yet one more carpet demonstration, and she asked our patience and indulgence to sit through it one last time.
So we did. And once again, we escaped without getting one!
We wandered Kusedasi’s “Grand Bazaar” for a little while, but it was very hot and we were tired, so we headed back to the ship. Which we could see from where we were standing. But we couldn’t figure out how to get there.
We started walking towards the ship, only to hit a dead end. So we would turn and go in some other direction, until we could turn again towards the ship. And hit another dead end. Turning, walking, hitting a dead end. Turning, walking, hitting a dead end – all the while, passing endless rows of shops.
Finally, we found an entrance of some kind that seemed to lead to all the cruise ships that lead to the customs building – that even more shops.
Back at the ship relatively early for a change, we had time before dinner to relax a bit.
We had dinner with two ladies from Tampa, Florida and a couple from Australia. The ladies from Florida told us harrowing stories from previous cruises, which made us wonder if we should even be sitting at the same table with them!
After dinner, we listened to the ship’s guitar guy. We’d managed not to hear him up until now, because his usual time slot conflicted with something else we usually attend.
Tomorrow is back to Greece – Santorini. This island has gotten nothing but rave reviews from everybody we know who’s ever been there, so it has to live up to very high expectations. We’ll see.
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