I just got back to Istanbul this morning after a restless night spent on the bus from Selcuk. When it comes down to it, Turkish long distance busses are fairly posh. They have reclinable seats, a host who serves tea and snacks, air conditioning.... Actually, they remind me of being on an airplane. So what was I doing outside of my beloved Istanbul? Well, I was on the heavenly Greek Isle of Samos, sunbathing on a clothing optional beach and swimming in the clear, blue ocean. Not too shabby, eh? After this experiment in vacationing the way most people like too, I headed back to Turkey with my travelling companion, Jeri, an outgoing, vivacious, half Philipino, half German girl from Denver. We raced out of Kusadasi as quick as possible since the half day we'd spent waiting for our ferry there had convinced us that there was nothing but hotels and some very crowded beaches in the town. We decided to stay in Selçuk, a small town whos claim to fame is its proximity to the ruins of Ephesus.

We checked into The Australian New Zealand pension. This pension is run by a Turkish family who spent 15 years in Australia. Due to its name and reputation, there are tons of Aussies and Kiwis there. I ended up spending a lot of time on their roof top terrace (shaded by carpets and woven mats). It has a great view of the remains of the Temple of Artemis, one of the Seven Wonders of the World. I guess it used to be a lot more impressive than it is now. Still, I spent a little while sitting on a big block of marble under a shady tree, contemplating the majestic column rising from the swampy pond, listening to the sounds of birds, cicadas and feeling content about life.

Ephesus
The best time to visit Ephesus is the early morning.We got there around noon and it was VERY HOT and lots of tour groups were wandering around the place. We were dropped off at the top of the city (it is built on a hill side) so at least our walk was down hill. One of the first things that struck me was how there was so much yet none of it was behind barriers or had signs saying "don't climb". It was a piece of ancient history that you were allowed to touch. I ran my hands along the cold marble columns and traced the engraved writing with my fingers. Stone is a wonderful construction material. Just by entering a small stone passageway, you can escape into a cool shady shelter from the heat. The first place we found such a shelter was the Odeon Theatre. Jeri warned me about "column obsession": a photographic mania that over takes those who are visiting ancient Greek/Roman ruins for the first time. She had dealt with a bout of it when she was visiting some other ruins and ended up with tons of photos of columns that weren't nearly as interesting as they were in real life. She said she ended up throwing many of them away. Keeping this in mind, I tried not to take too many pictures of just columns(by the theatre). This is the road that lead to the harbor (about 8 km).... more columns.

There were a lot of really beautiful sculptures and reliefs of figures ranging from Hercules to Amazons to Medussa. Legend has it that the city was originally built by Amazons. The cool thing about this area is that it has a long history of worshiping women godesses. Some of the earliest mother goddess figurines were found in Turkey. The ancient Ephesus was first devoted to the goddess Cybelle (a fertility goddess) and then it switched allegience to Artemis. This Artemis is a different incarnation than the virgin huntress I know and love (who changed a guy who saw her bathing into a deer so he was torn apart by his own hunting dogs.) She is a mother goddess too, and is shown in sculptures as covered with little animals, and having either many breasts or lots of eggs around the upper part of her body. Later, St. John brought Mary, Jesus' mother to live in Ephesus. I over heard one man explaining that it Mary thought since Artemis was a virgin mother, she too would be accepted in Ephesus and be worshiped as an incarnation of Artemis. I can't say whether that was Mary's intention or not... but it does make me wonder about why St. John brought her to Ephesus of all places. It seems that the folks of Ephesus also appreciated the women among them who weren't virgins. The brothel was right across from the library. A little ways down the street was one of the earliest known advertisements. It was for the oldest profession, of course.

Here are some more columns. These are part of the Trajan fountain.

Selcuk itself is a nice town to spend a few days in. Yes, there are loads of carpet dealers who all want to talk to you, but the town itself has a very relaxed feeling. Jeri and I started playing a game with everyone who talked to us. It is called "guess our ethnicity". What usually happened was a carpet dealer (or souvenir salesman) would call out to us and say something like, "Where are you from?" or "Are you Turkish?" We would answer, "Guess." We would sometimes throw out phrases in foreign languages to confuse them. People insisted that Jeri was Turkish even when she denied it. Others said she must be Hispanic. I generally was told that I was either Turkish or Japanese. One carpet salesman said I looked Kazak (or Uzbek I forgot). The best was the guy who guessed Jeri was South African!!!! When we broke down and told them we were American they would generally tell us we were not. Then we would tell them to describe what an American looks like. Great fun, really!

While wandering one evening, we found a fountain that was surrounded by cafes. It was a street away from the main tourist stretch but it looked like mostly locals (Turkish men) were hanging out drinking coffee or raki and talking. We sat by the fountains and had some coffee. Jeri read my coffee grounds and said that I was on a journey through life, carrying two heavy bags. One was good fortune and the other was something else that was good. Basically she said I was well equipped for the journey. There was something from my past that stuck to my foot and weighed me down. I was going up a mountain slope and things were positive. She had me stick my finger in the muddy grounds at the bottom of the cup and said marriage was not in my future, since a ring didn't appear. Well, thats a relief! Across from the fountain was the ruins of an aquaduct. Storks had built their nests on the top and some people had built their wooden houses between the ruins of two arches.

On our last day in Selcuk , we took a quick look at the grave of St John in the ruins of St John's Basilica. There were lots of columns there so I only took one picture using my other camera. I did, however, take a picture of the castle on the hill which is not open although it should be made into a museum or something because it looks cool. We walked down the hill and visited the Isa Bey mosque. Part of it is still used but the rest is a bit like ruins. There was a man singing the Koran in the shade of a tree. There were old Otoman grave stones leaning against the wall. We didn't stay long because we seemed to be interupting the serenity of the moment.

Later, we took a dolmus up a mountainous road to Sirince, an formerly Greek village up in the hills. It is a stone Mediteranean hill town, with winding roads and shaded cafes that sell cheap gozleme. We were invited by a woman to see her "antique" house. It turned out that she wanted to sell us doillies, she made. She served us apple tea, in the manner of the carpet dealer and then Jeri started looking at her wares. I was not interested in the least by doillies. I know a thrift shop in Seattle where you can get them for a buck. Jeri began bargaining but the woman wouldn't go below 2 million lira. I felt that the situation was getting uncomfortable and the woman wasn't being nice at all so I wanted to leave. Jeri bought the doily for about 1,950,000 but then Al, (an Israeli guy we met at the hostel) didn't realize she had bought the doily and paid 100 for the tea. I guess it is tourist initiation. I was just saying that I felt bad for ignoring all the touts just because the guidebooks (and everyone else) say that is the best thing to do. Now I can ignore them because I HAVE EXPERIENCED how annoying they can become. We walked to the market area and I was attracted to this little shop where a man was making leather faces. I've only ever seen this done in Turkey. He said he gets the leather wet and then shapes it with his fingers. The ones I like the best are Anatolian women with veils covering the lower halves of their faces. We watched him work and Al bought a couple faces. I am glad that I was with people who bought things.... I guess I am more interested in the process than in actually possessing the product. We had a quick gozleme at a cafe before heading back into town. Our meal was interupted by the braying of this unhappy donkey who was not thrilled about the amount he had to carry on such a hot day.