Our days have been super hectic and the internet connection has been getting less and less powerful, leading to me not bothing with updating my blog. With only 5 days left of the trip, its weird to think that instead of updating it I could just tell you myself in about a week. But for those of you I wont see right away, here is a sum up of the rest of my time in Turkey...
The day after Troy we went to the Acropolis at Bergama, a famous mountain slope that held the second largest library of Alexander's time, second only to the one in Alexandria. More interesting that the sites was the view of the nearby turkish country side, which was green, mountainous, and really beautiful. That day we also went to the Aslkepion temple, an ancient hospital with underground tunnels that were pretty cool to walk around in. Then we stopped at a parchment shop, famous for Bergama paper, incredibly stretched lamb skin tanned and used for paintings and such. After we ate lunch at a Turkish buffet. Turkish food was maybe my favorite thing about Turkey, lots of veal and beans and veggies but also these cornbread like pastries soaked in honey and rolled in sugar. Those were by far my favorite and my goal when I get home is to learn how to make them for myself. After lunch, we went to an onyx factory, where they receive unworked onyx and carve and polish and then sell it. Seeing the onyx like that was really beautiful, but way to expensive to buy anything. Many people did buy some gifts there though. My professor Stavros got is wife a gold necklace with an onyx stone set in the middle. Stav is so cute.
After the onyx place we drove a little over 2 hours to Kusadasi (Kushadasee), the town where we spent the rest of our time in Turkey. After we received a suite, we found out that our air conditioner, 3 lights, and door didnt work. We also only had one tiny service window. The heat got so bad that by our 2 night we had to be moved to a room with at least a window to get some breeze. Other than that, the food was pretty good, and it over looked the harbor and all the good shopping and bar streets so it was a pretty good place to be.
The next day, we went to Ephesos, maybe the most famous of the ancient Greecian cities in modern day Turkey. There is the most well preserved city of the Alexandrian age all the way to the Roman empire. There our tour guide Asil went way overboard, and we stood there in the 103 degree heat for 2 hours talking and walking through the site with about 1000 other tourists. We were only about 3/4 of the way through the site though, not even to the huge theatre or the most famous library and tomb, the symbols of the city. So our group leader Jess, who isnt very nice or subtle to us or anybody else, thankfully stepped in and made him just talk about Alexander and the things that pretained to our class. That shortened the lecture quite a bit and we got back on the bus about 2 1/2 hours after arriving there, hot and dehydrated.
After cooling down we quickly visited the museum of Ephesos, which our professor didnt even want to go to but our tour guide insisted on (it had nothing to do with anything we were talking about), we went to a rug weaving place for lunch. Apparently in their free time from weaving, girls there cook traditional Turkish meals. The food was unbelievable, but the place looked straight out of a James Bond movie, and could have been the Turkish mob. After lunch the "coordinator" showed us around the place, showing us how silk is harvested from the worms and how they dye it. After talking to us about the Turkish economy and how tourism effects it, he showed us some beautiful rugs, one of which he let us walk on barefooted. After walking on it he told us the rug was worth 19,000 dollars! Crazy. Anyway after saying thank you and telling us to "look around and we know your students so let us answer your questions" salesmen flew out of the woodwork and like pounced on us, trying to sell us small rugs or pillowcases.
After that place we figured it out, Asil was taking us to places that he got extra commision for taking us, trying to get us to spend money. Parchment shop, bookstore, onyx factory, rug place, and then the next day tried to get us to go to a leather factory because "leather is important part of the culture". So after figuring out his little game, we vitoed his leather factory idea and just opted to go back and do some shopping.
The next day was a free day and we went to a local beach and did some exploring. The shop keepers are obnoxious though, yelled really gross things to passing women who dont come into their shops. So after puting up with that for long enough, we just hung out by the pool and got some Burger King, my first fast food on the trip. Amazing. Even better than the Burgerking ni the states by far. I have been craving anything spicy forever so that helped a little in my "food homesickness" as everyone here is calling it. I just want a taco like you wouldnt believe. haha
The next day on our way to Priene, I got sick on the bus and stayed and slept on the bus while the class visited 2 sites. 8 college advisors from schools in the states met us and traveled with us, to see how an arcadia summer program worked. I talked with them a little at lunch because I was feeling better (I had a piece of bread) and I was really glad they were there, because that meant Asil had a time limit and couldnt spend the lecture describing everything rock by rock. The last site was the Apollian Temple from Alexanders time, and I really didnt want to miss it so I got off the bus. Im sooo happy that I did. With column bases as large as 6 meters in diameter, this temple was my favorite place we have visited so far. Fairly well preserved, It had most of the walls and every column was about half as tall as the original, with 2 columns left at original height ( I would say like 6 or 7 stories tall, at least). Then we went back to Kusadasi but I was sick again so I spent the rest of the night in bed.
This morning we left Kusadasi and took a ferry 1 1/2 hrs to Samos, a Greek island right off the coast of Turkey. We had free time all day today, so we sat by the beach, had some lunch (I was feeling much better) and took naps. Tomorrow we have our last full class day, and then the next day free day and a review on the island. Then we have a 10 hr ferry ride to Athens on Tuesday, so we are taking our final exam on that during that time. Then Wednesday is free day to pack and do whatever else in Athens that we havent done yet, and say good bye to the city which I've spent my entire summer in. Then Thursday, after 20 hrs of traveling I will be home at last.
This may or may not be my last blog post, but maybe one more after our review on Monday. Ive had such a great time here, but Im ready to come home and get back into the loop and see everyone. BTW I really hope there is mexican waiting for me when I get back. haha See ya soon!!
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