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Published: September 26th 2011
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Welcome to Turkey
The home of 'Genuine Fakes" Great stuff, at least you know TURKEY - EPHESUS
Overnight the ship sailed from Mykonos to the Turkish port of Kusadasi. It was quite exciting for us stopping in Turkey, another very different country. We took the optional excursion to the ancient ruins of Ephesus – we walked down a street that was almost 3000 years old! Streets that were walked by John the Baptist, Marc Antony and Cleopatra, it was all a bit surreal.
Again we had the services of a very knowledgeable local guide who gave us an excellent description as were walked from the top of the site to the bottom. Near the end we walked into the amphitheatre which was just amazing. A number of pop stars including Elton John had played there – those concerts must have been an incredible experience for anyone who attended.
THE most incredible thing of all was just how advanced the Roman society was at that time in history, as we walked down through the village our guide gave us a real sense of this. Just one example was that they had hospitals, performed operations etc. They had relatively advanced water and sewage systems and in general the structure of their society was very advanced.
Ephesus
Incredible, walking on streets people were walking on 3000 years ago Because we left so early (7am) we avoided the worst of the crowds and the heat of the day.
TURKISH RUGS
After Ephesus, which is about a 20 minute bus ride from Kusadasi, we returned to town to see a Turkish rug making demonstration, the skills of the woman making the rug were amazing. Of course in true Turkish style after the demonstration came the hard sell. To be fair given the time taken to produce the rugs – anything from 6 months to 2 years – it’s not difficult to see why the genuine articles are price the way they are. An average sizes rug was around 1200 Euros. Not in our budget at this stage but one day!
We also had a bit of a walk around the Bazaar, and while the merchants were much more in your face than they would be at home, in general they weren’t over the top. We didn’t want to miss the boat and get stuck in Turkey so we were a bit pressed for time but the short period we had in the Bazaar was good fun.
PATMOS ISLAND
All of the above was completed before 11am. From
there we had some free time to relax on the boat before our next stop at Patmos Island. We decided not to do the excursions for here but to just go into town and have a look around. Before we left for Patmos we got a call from Terence to say that the Warriors had beaten the Storm and were in the NRL Grand final, the Junior Warriors also won through to the final and the All Blacks comfortably beat France – good stuff around.
Patmos was Ok, it was very small so didn’t take too long to get around, we stayed for a couple of hours, had a look at the beach and shops before heading back to the ship to get ready for dinner and the theme Blue and White night.
BLUE AND WHITE NIGHT
The Blue and White theme night was a chance for everyone to dress up in Blue and white and celebrate being back in Greek waters after our brief visit to Turkey. It was an evening of Greek music and dance that was preceded by a Mr Hercules completion – the strangest one you have ever seen. To be fair to all
Carpet Making Demonstration
The skills and patience are incredible. involved it was one of the funniest nights that we have ever been involved with.
When volunteers for Mr Hercules were call Pete White from our tour –70 plus years of age as wide as he is high was out of the blocks and into it. There were about 15 contestants which was narrowed down to 4 after some preliminary competitions – Pete made the grade! As part of the final each contestant had to perform a sexy dance with only a chair and scarf as props. The other contestants were all full of energy running all over stage, dancing around/with the chair etc.
Pete was last, the guy before him, an American had given a high energy (if more than slightly obnoxious – in the way only Americans seem to be able to do – without even trying) performance. The Yank was strutting around feeling pretty cocky!
Then up stepped Pete, the music started and he was ‘away’ - It took him 3 goes to get his foot on the chair so he could remove his sock! The crowd went wild! Inspired grooved about a bit then removed his shirt – after some difficulty, the scarf around his waist stopped him from getting his shirt up and over his head, but after a bit of a battle he succeeded! By this time the crowd was beside themselves with laughter, then he removed his belt and his wife groaned ‘Oh No’. Fortunately for everyone the music stopped with Pete holding a cowboy hat front and centre but with his trousers on!!
There could only ever be one winner! Our parallel bus (another Insight bus doing the same tour) picked up second so it was an Insight quinella – to be fair Pete was first by the length of the home straight but good to pick up the one-two.
A great end to our second night at sea.
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