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Published: June 26th 2017
Total miles travelled: 1,747 nautical miles So far I have been stating the distance we have travelled since the beginning of the cruise. The distance is in nautical miles. I may have already explained this previously but for those of you who aren't aware, a nautical mile is calculated to account for the curvature of the earth. 1 nautical mile is equal to 1 minute of 1 degree of the earth's circumference. Therefore 1 degree is equal to 60 nautical miles. A nautical mile is slightly less than a linear mile at about 0.9.
Our journey on to Izmir in Turkey took us through the Greek Islands of the Aegean Sea. We sailed within 2km of Kefalonia and then an hour later, the island of Zakynthos came in to view about 3km of our starboard side. This is part of the Ion archipelago. Having weaved our way through this group of islands, we finally docked in the port of Izmir at just before 9am.
Izmir is known as the pearl of the west and is Turkey's third largest city after Istanbul and Ankara. Originally founded some 8,500 years ago and known as 'Smyrna' it was built on an
islet of 100 acres and over time has flourished into a great centre of civilisation. Today Izmir stretches for 40km along the coast and has become one of the most important ports of the region.
Today Roisin and I have decided to take an excursion to the ancient city of Ephesus. Ephesus has had a varied and colourful history of which I won't bore you with the fine details, needless to say in its hay day it was a great trading port and a good stop over from the trade ships between Asia and Europe. This is until a huge earthquake was responsible for buggering up the economy. With the earthquake, the land rose and the sea receded. Trading stopped and the civilisation move away. The economy collapsed. Ephesus is now 6 km away from the sea. It originally covered a huge area with over 200,000 inhabitants in its prime. The excavated site is only about 5% of the uncovered city with the remaining 95% still buried beneath the earth. The Turkish Government have no plans to excavate the rest of the city as they feel it is better preserved where it is.
We picked up the tour
for English speakers just outside the port gate. Our tour guide introduced herself and the driver then to everyone's amazement proceded to say the following with, apparently, great pride: ‘
Here in Turkey we have plenty of Virgin Bitches that are waiting for you to enjoy them…' With this you could hear the muttering of distain from the females in the party whilst the males akin to meer cats, mainly balding or greyish heads popped up, hanging on her every word. She continued:
‘…Yes, kilometre after kilometre of golden sand and blue clear water adorn our coast'. You could hear the sigh of relief move around the coach. I looked at a fellow passenger sitting across from me and we both mouthed in unison
, ‘Oh! Beaches!! Ephesus is just over 70km south of Izmir so in just over an hour we were pulling up in one of the designated coach bays. On alighting the coach we were met by the usual array of souvenir stalls. There were many coaches arriving at the same time so this was a good diversion in walking past the battalion of vendors without being challenged! One stall did catch my eye. It was a sign
in big bold letters stating: ‘
Genuine Fake Watches.' You have to give the owner credit for honesty. At least with advertising a true description of his wares, he can't be done under the trade descriptions act!! We were given our entrance tickets and despite the hundreds, maybe even thousands of tourists milling around, it wasn't long before we had passed through the turnstile.
The upper part of Ephesus where the tour starts was a district where the rich people lived. The ruins of the villa were much larger in this quarter. The path that leads to Hercules gate and beyond was made from marble slabs so we were warned to tread carefully. I wouldn't like to walk this route in the rain. It was treacherous enough when it was dry. The Hercules gate: So named because of the association with power. From there the road sloped down culminating in the Celsius library at the bottom of the hill. We passed the statue of the goddess Nike, the goddess of Victory and not, as I thought, the goddess of trainers/sneakers!! En route to the library we were shown the public toilets though not for a comfort break! These were
the lavatories for the long since demised citizens of Ephesus. The latrines had enough seats for 48 occupants. It was male only and no partitions. There was no room for modesty in this civilisation. Men would use this opportunity to discuss politics, current affairs. Some would even strike business deals. This is the origin of the phrase:
to do ones business. The sewer that served the toilets was at least a 6ft drop and serviced by continuous flushing water diverted from the aqueduct in to the mouth of the river. The large drop was to maximise the sanitation should all the latrines be fully occupied. With the amount of methane that would have been created, it worked a treat as long as no one lit a cigarette!!!
The Celsius Library was the third largest library of ‘
the ancients' after the Alexandra and Pergamum libraries with the capacity of 12,000 scrolls. It has 2 stories but the interior facade has 3 stories because of original architecture. Coming to the end of the tour we walked along Marble Street passing 2 headstones of heroic gladiators. They were in the shadow of the city's Grand Theatre. The theatre, as most auditoriums
from this era, whether Greek, Roman or in this case Turkish all followed the same design to maximise the acoustics. The Grand Theatre of Ephesus has seating capacity of 24,000 and towers to a height of 38meters
On our return journey to the ship we stopped off at the obligatory ‘
try n'sell', usually a carpet factory. Today we visited a leather factory which went by the name of Rossini's. After accepting a hospitality glass of apple juice, we were treated to a fashion show of leatherwear. The leather is unusually sheep's leather, for its durability and resilience whilst remaining soft and light. 2 unwilling volunteers from the audience were selected to parade the cat walk as part of the show. It was a close call as the man next to me was picked. He went willingly which meant I didn't have to!! The MC ended the show by addressing the audience and saying. ‘Our prime market is export providing for the likes of Dolce Gabana and Armani therefore if the marked up price is 1000 divide my 3. As this is Turkey we can then talk'. By this he means, ‘Yes, my friend. Even 2 thirds off the marked
price, we are still charging over the odds. If you knock another 30 of the price you will think you are getting a bargain when honest John's is selling them for half that price!!! ‘Once someone mentions 4 figures and Dolce Gabana or Armani in the same sentence, you know the prices are going to be on par with a London or Paris fashion week. He was also unclear by stating a 1000 what? Dollars, Euros, Korean Won? I was going to offer him in Turkish Lira to see what his reaction would be but Roisin dragged me away!
We made it in time for the afternoon quiz to the tune of several groans as we walked through the Savanah lounge doors. This quiz was ‘
Flags of the world'. There were only 10 questions but, not unexpectedly, we bossed it. There were only 5 teams and when we were the only team to guess the flag of England correctly, that gives you an idea of the standard of opposition!! We scored 10/10 including the flags of Bermuda (remembered from the recent Commonwealth Games) and the red circle on a green background of Bangladesh (from watching the recent cricket test
match!!) We won 2 MSC t-shirts. Great, just what I needed as the other 2 we won 3 years ago are getting a bit grubby!!
This evening was Italian night. There is at least 1 Italian night on every MSC Cruise. In the restaurant, all the napkins are Red, green or white and after the main course, the assistant waiters parade through the restaurant holding aloft the freshly baked tiramisu to the tune of ‘
Volare!' It is traditional for the guests to wave aloft their napkins in time to the music, singing along is optional!!!
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Dave
non-member comment
Loving these. I read them to the Mrs then add bits in so she won't want to go on a cruise. Are you likely to see any planes flying off to sort ISIS out or are you the other side?