L - Turkey/Crete

Saturday, 9 July 2011

Day 23 . 7th July. Ephasus, Turkiye

Another fun early start for Kadusia, Turkey. Getting off ship at 7:45 as soon as the gates open. Today our driver/guide was actually there waiting for us with a neat little sign. (unlike Mario in Sicily who ditched us) and it tuned out that our driver/guide was actually a driver and a guide. Just for the two of us. The guide stayed with us all day and was a very cool guy. The driver didn’t have much English but seemed nice enough, we only saw him when we were in the car though.

Now a few things about “Turkey” for a start it is not called Turkey. It is called Turkiye (pronounced - Turrrr-Kaye-A) Remember to roll the Rs. It pisses me off so much how English Europeans re name everything. Rome is Roma, Venice in Venizai, Naples in Napolli and it goes on and on. So I will always – now that I know this – try to remember to call it Turkiye.

Turkiye is stunning; I was totally blown away with how beautiful it is. And so clean. I was expecting it to be a bit more like India or at least like Greece or much of Italy. But it is actually really clean. And I don’t mean that I expected there to be rubbish and filth everywhere but I expected at least dust. But it isn’t like that at all. Admittedly this is something I found nearly disappointing, I love that slightly dirty feel to a place. But Turkiye is beautiful in a different sort of way.

My god it was hot. Even hotter then Athens

We went to the ancient city of Ephesus, which are the best ruins I have ever seen. Even better then Pompeii I think. It is originally a Greek settlement that was expanded by the Romans. So you get to see both ancient Greek and Roman ruins all in one. We saw houses, market places, shops, roads, plumbing, the Baths, a brothel, toilets. The toilets were so cool. They are all on one big room together and made of stone. The people would sit together and do their business while chatting and possibly making important political decisions and other discussions.  This is where the saying "cheek to cheek" is said to have originated. :P

The highlight of this massive city though is the Terrace Houses. These were discovered only relatively recently and are beautifully preserved. Over it has been built a large roof to further preserve the site because there are mosaics and wall paintings that need to be protected. There are teams of archaeologists working on it and putting together painstaking puzzles to piece marble lined rooms back together with the marble in the correct place. 

The most amazing feature of this place? In floor and in wall heating! That is right. The Ancient romans ran heated and cooled piped through there walls and floors to control the climate. A-Maze-Ing.

It was cool to hear that our guide as a kid used to pump water from a well for tourists for tips here. 

Then we went to a Turkish rug factory, this is something that in or research a lot of people had said to stear clear of. But I can’t imagine why. We got to see the silk processing methods from the silk worm cocoons and how they are boiled and spun. Then how the silk is refined. Then how the silk rugs are made. A painstaking effort. Turkish rugs are the only ones in the world that use the double knot technique. This means that there are double the threads of any other rug, Persian, Indian, Chinese etc.

I will come back to this and add some facts about the knots per square meter and the time it takes to make a rug once I have re-checked the facts.  Some I do remember off the top of my head though are that the women who make the rugs can work no more then 15 minutes at a time and no more then two hours a day. The focus required is that intense and detailed. There was one rug though that was about two meters by 3 meters that took 9 years to make. 9 years.

Interestingly, the Navajo people of Northern America are influenced culturally by the Turkish, and similar patterns can be seen in their rug designs.

A man and two assistants came and gave us (and just us, no others) an extensive tour of the place and demonstrated probably 50 rugs for us. He was really good for making it clear that we weren’t expected to purchase and that that was fine. As per Turkish tradition we were given drinks. I had a Turkish coffee and an alcohol drink Raki, it is a bit like Ouzo except so much stronger. The stuff doesn’t burn like vodka does but it does send tingles and flushes through your entire body with each sip (and I mean tiny little sip).  I drank about three centermetres of a shot glass and started to feel a bit dizzy. Strong stuff. The coffee also is strong stuff, can’t say I like it. It is so thick and strong tasting and made my teeth a disgusting colour with each sip. I think I'll stick to Italian.

We were in a big open room with bench seating around the edges and the two assistants would bring out a rug and roll it out theatrically. Then to show the shimmer quality of the silk and wool they would deftly twirl the whole thing around and the colour would completely change on the different angle. I suspect this may be where the term magic carpet may have come from. It truly was magical.

Now I did say that the man was not at all pushy that we should buy a rug, but the more we saw the more it seemed it these things are so special we needed one. So we got two. :P The second was thrown in at the last minute as a deal sweetener. Only small ones that we ill hang on the wall.

We went to a gorgeous restaurant for lunch and had some really good food, so nicely spiced. Then we went to St John’s Basilica another great ruin, which houses the tomb of John the Apostle. Also there is a tunnel, which once was a vent in the site for an oracle. So a volcanic vent or something that may have leaked noxious gas that caused one to hallucinate and go into a trance like state. Trippin’

Next we went to the Temple of Artimus. This is one of the 7 Ancient Wonders of the World. Pretty cool. A lot of people complain that there is no enough left of the Temple or Artemis, but for god’s sake it is THOUSANDS OF YEARS OLD and still there is a column standing upright. With a big ol’ stalks nest full of nearly grown chicks atop it.

I forgot to mention the cats. There are cats everywhere at the ruins. Our guide takes in bottles of water and pour some into depressions in the stones so the cats can drink it. Some saw him and recognized him and came running. But another guide brings food and they all ran right to him when they saw him, then fought each other for the food he tipped out. It was so funny, they hissed and spat and scratched. Everyone was watching too, lol.

We got back to the ship and Raina went for a nap but I decided I didn’t need one so went to the library and was typing a bit. When I fell asleep right there in the library with the lap top open, I reconsidered this ruling and dragged myself up to my room and had a proper nap.

The night’s entertainment was a variety show with circus performer from Russia who did things no human should be able to do. Like the chick did a handstand on the dudes arm which he held out at a right angle to his body. They did ribbon climbing and this amazing dance with a giant metal frame that they would twirl and it would catch the light. It was transfixing. The second half was a 7^th generation French juggler who spent half the time ragging on Yanks. He was so funny. He kept trying to find a non-American to pull up on stage, he mostly wanted to find an Italian but anything but American would do. He picked out one American teenager in the crowd and kept referring to him throughout the show. “Oh I love teenagers (heavy in the sarcasm). ENTERTAIN ME!!!” lol. He was an amazing juggler. Scary good.

I went out again, into the wee hours again. The group is growing, we gain strength. Our time will come.

Sunday, 8th July 2011

Day 24 . 8th July. Chania, Crete

We arrived int he ugly port town of Souda but went straight to Chania.

Chania (pronounced Harn - ia), a small town on Crete, was a new cruise ship destination, so not a lot was known.  We headed into town on the shuttle bus, a bargin at three Euros each.  we wondered along past a section of the original city wall and saw a Fish Spa.  "Is that where you take your Guppy for a makeover?" says Raina.AS we got closer we realised it was one of those places where the fish chew on your feet. It took us about three seconds to decide that we wanted to do this. 

It did not have a good start. They washed you down with freezing cold water to remove any oils and lotions and to check for open wounds. Then in went the feet. Hundreds of tiny fish (Thailand Catfish) snuffled around, then started munching on our feet. It tickled for a short while then turned into a gentle buzz. We sat there for twenty minutes, having our feet munched and entertaining the hordes of cruise ship passengers walking past. We even took photos of [people taking photos of us. 

After our time was up we sadly removed our feet and dried them off. They were so soft and felt devine. It really was the best foot massage EVER! Sarah lost her tan (but only up to below her knees) but our feet felt so good. WE want a fish spa in Canberra.

The harbour was sensational. It is one of the few remaining Venetian Ports as well as an ancient Greek settlement. It has been settled since Neolithic times. An unbelievably pretty "U" shaped harbour surrounded by great restaurants.  The water was the azure blue colour from the magazines. The buildings were all earthy tones of render. The su was shining and everyone was happy.  The food spruikers were hilarious, telling you that their food was better then next door, that their seats were softer, that you could just come in a sit, or even use the toilets.

We decided to go out on a snorkel boat.  It was a 90 minute trip and only cost 10 Euro each. The trip out was fun. We were given a massive lecture about what sea life we could touch and what we could not.  What life we should see and so on.  When we got to the snorkel site we were given the worst snorkel and masks you have ever seen  We did manage to get one fin each. And into the mighty Mediterranean Sea we went. 

Clear, aqua, sparkling and …… freezing.  When we recovered form the temperature shock we looked down, through the scratchy masks and saw….nothing.  Dull grey sand with nothing. A few rocks and some five cm fish but that was it. Talk about overfishing and killing the ocean. But we were now swimming in the Mediterranean. And it was highly amusing to hear everyone (including us) choking and gagging on the massive amounts of water coming in through the perished snorkels. Bad luck if you were not confident. The dive leader did manage to find a starfish and brought it up on board to show people. He passed it around for all to touch with their sun-screened hands and then put it in a bucket. It didn’t go back into the denuded ocean. The boat ride back did a tourist lap of the harbor, which was great. It was an ancient port and had been heavily bombed in WW11 so there was much to see. All in all a fun few hours.

We went to a fantastic restaurant - under big shade shelters with huge squashy chairs, awesome music and sensational food. The view of both the harbor and the people was amazing. We could have stayed there many hours just looking. It really was a magic spot. But, there was the town to be seen.

It was lucky that we did move and go for our walk around town as Chania was one of the prettiest places. It was exactly what we had imagined this part of the world to be like. We walked around little streets. Old houses surrounding small lanes. Hunks of ochre coloured render flacking off stone buildings. Wrought iron and baskets of brightly coloured flowers, cats sleeping on balconies and old people sitting around chatting. It was unbelievably amazing. Couldn’t have asked for a better day.

On the way back around the harbor we found a lady busking with a python. Sarah was so good with this giant snake and got to hold it for ages. She was good advertising.

It was then back to the ship for our daily nanna nap. After a great dinner and a Beatles show, Raina went to bed and Sarah went back out on the party circuit. She had fun at Quest, the adult’s scavenger hunt. A hilarious night with people swapping clothing, collecting bras and so on. She made it back to bed by six the next morning.