Pergamum Ancient Bath Center and Izmir

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The ruins at Asclepion were in much better shape. We visited a wellness center that people used to go to when they were sick. In order to be admitted you had to be able to walk down the long driveway at the entrance without any help. The services they offered included psychotherapy, mud baths, massage and herbal medicine. They were big on positive psychology. Apparently the staff convinced everyone that they were going to get better and when people didn’t make it they told the rest of the patients that they had went home when in actuality they were buried on the grounds. Bones were later found underneath the buildings.



Izmir is a very large city. It’s where Homer was born and happens to be where one of Gabriel’s friend’s from home was staying with her parents on vacation. We met Pinar, her mom and her baby for lunch at the French Cultural center. There is a lot of influence of French culture in Turkey, especially in government. The center had a beautiful restaurant in the middle of their garden. I had eggplant pasta. I’ve been eggplant for almost every meal mainly because it’s delicious here but also because most restaurants are kebab places, which are great unless you’re a vegetarian. We noticed in the restaurant that the people around us were very open with Pinar’s baby. They asked to hold her then passed her around and cooed at her as if they were friends or family. We saw the same thing in the bazaar we went to after lunch. There was a little boy with the family near us in the plaza where people sit and have chai or Turkish coffee. As people walked through the center of all the tables they touched his head and grabbed his cheeks. The boy’s parents just smiled at the strangers as they did this. In the states you can smile at someone’s baby or child but you rarely see parents letting a random stranger hold their baby.



In the bazaar we checked out all the instruments that were for sale. Guitars with a round center and drums made out of metal and plastic. Some of the instruments used during the whirling dervishes performance were for sale. We bought some evil eyes to hang in our house. The evil is a blue round stone with a light blue eye in the center. The Turks hang one on their cars, business and houses to keep evil spirits away. They believe that if someone is jealous of you it can bring you bad fortune. For example, if someone brags about their car, the jealousy of others could cause the car to break down or if someone is telling you how cute your baby is, their jealousy could make your baby catch a cold. This is the way our tour guide Salih from Gate1 explained it to us.



From Izmir we drove to Antalya and stayed at the Dedemon Resort. The hotel was straight out of Argo but no one cared because the ocean view from the balcony was incredible. Antalya was our day to lounge by the water and swim in the salty Mediterranean. I got a great picture of Gabriel jumping in. He must of taken 5 or 6 of me but none of them came out. Antalya was one of my favorite places we’ve visited so far because every thing we did was with the backdrop of the ocean and the layered silhouettes of the mountains.

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Photos

Entrance to the Ancient Roman Spa
This is the driveway you had to make it across to be admitted to the wellness center