Tuesday, January 28, 2014

Special Edition, I’m Back from the Dead

This post is dedicated to our good friend, Jack Penders, who Hotmail apparently ignores at random.  This one’s for you Jack.

It’s been five days since I said to Sandy, “I think I have a cold coming on”.  Every day we did the tourist stuff non-stop, but the story of my illness first.  Day 1, scratchy throat, Day 2 stuffy nose and can’t breathe at night (lying on my belly all night for 12 hours helps), Day 3 stuffed and coughing (8 PM to 8 AM on belly in bed), Day 4 recovering (another 12 hours “asleep” at night), Day 5 almost as good as new, however good that is.  This is why my posts have not been up to par and as frequent as you might (or might not) like, and I’ll use that excuse as long as possible.

We’ve been touring, touring, touring.  As they say in the islands off Galway, Ireland, “have you ever seen so many stones (here fallen columns) in your whole life?”  We last left you at the exit to Ephesus (circle # 2) near Selcuk, just at on the archaeological map I sent on 1/23 (attached to the email again today for Jack).  Since then we’ve been to the circles labeled Didyma (including Miletos and Priene) on Sunday, Hieropolis (Pamulkale) on Monday, and Aphrodisias today, Tuesday.  That’s a total of 5 of 10 circles with only three nights to go!

Since my memory is short and impaired by the lack of sleep, I’ll give only a few highlights of each, in chronological order, sort of.

But first, three things you need to know if you want to see camel wrestling in Anatolia.  One: it begins on the third Sunday in January in Selcuk.  Two: it goes to different towns on succeeding Sunday’s through March.  Three: it’s cancelled if it’s raining.  (Four: it was pouring rain in Sunday in Ortaklar, that day’s scheduled venue).  Better luck to us next time.

Instead of wrestling camels on Sunday, we dodged the rain by jumping to Didyma, to Miletos (oops raining), to Priene, and back to Miletos (no rain).

Didyma is known for the Temple of Apollo (the twin brother of Artemis, as you recall).  This small site has a huge temple dedicated to Apollo.  The columns standing are some 60 to 70 feet high as we estimate from those that have fallen.  Notably, to enter the temple, one had to pass by Medusa, Apollo’s protector at his feet.

Priene, a Hellenistic site still mostly buried in the hillside had a great theater with stage, entrances, and seating still much intact.

Meletos lies between Didyma and Priene, about a half-hour from either by car.  It’s spread out over a wide area and not particularly interesting.  The best view is that of the theater when the sun shines on it in the afternoon – we got that just before the clouds took over, but only with the audio guide kiosk in the way.

Monday was spent on the road and then at the geological wonder of Pamulkale, what looks like a calcium carbonate “ski slope” formed by hot springs up in the hills. It has a Roman ruin on the top that we did not visit.

We also found a nice small hotel, The Melrose House Hotel in town.

Aphrodite consumed our Tuesday.  An unexpectedly long trip to Aphrodisias was rewarded by a fantastic Roman ruin site dating back to about 200 B.C.  One spectacular thing after another was culminated by an on-site museum housing hundreds of roman statues, all unearthed since 1900 and many since 1990.  Likenesses of the gods were often vandalized here by Christian zealots starting in around 400 A.D., but many remain including some of Aphrodite, for whom the ancient city was named.  It was abandoned in 1200 A.D.  This was a truly remarkable and enjoyable find for us.

And this is the home made hand pressed olive oil we bought in a small shop in Karakasu today.