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Published: April 26th 2009
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Ancient Perganum
A fasinating stop at the ancient hillside site of Perganum A very solid nights sleep had us feeling ready for the bus ride down the Aegean coast to Kusadasi.
Some of our fellow travellers had found enough in reserve to play some two up last night but many of them slept on the bus as travelled south today to catch up on lost sleep.
Our stay at the Grand Milano Hotel in this very quiet town was a good one and the breakfast a tasty Turkish one which set us up for the day.
We wandered down to the beach before it was time to join the bus and set off.Clearly the summer season was still a way off and the hotel we stayed in would have been empty but for the two Fez buses which bought in the 60 odd guests for the night.
The highway south was interesting with towns coming in fairly quick succession although many of them looked like the last one.
The land in between was quite well cultivated with many olive tree orchards.It was noticeable that were there were any animals such as sheep or goats grazing there was always a shepherd sitting under some shade tending the flock.
The first stop for the day
was the ancient site of Pergamon,a hillside city built around 300BC,above the town of Bergama.Here we had a guide supplied who was very imformative of the history of the city and who had occupied it over the years.He said that Aleander the Great had lived here for a short time and had a great amount of gold which has never been found.He challenged us to come back tonight to help him dig for it !!
Just being on a site so old takes some getting used to as one tries to picture what it would have looked like in a fully constructed way.
The amphitheatre was amazing as it spilled down a steep hillside.It could seat 14000 people.Only about half has been fully excavated so far but you could tell where the rest was still covered up.
Close to the site were ruins of an aquaduct the Romans had built.Apparently this did not require excavation and has stood all those years exposed to the weather.
We headed away from the site to a short stop at the local carpetmakers association shop and display.We were wary about these sort of stops that bus trips tend to make but we must say that there was no pressure to buy and the man who showed us around was very interesting and informative about the wool and silk carpets being woven.Gretchen tried her hand at weaving a couple of knots in a carpet being made by two young girls.This particular carpet would take 10 months to complete.And Gretchen thought her last job had become repetative and boring.How the girls could work for about 6 hours a day and go back to the same carpet for the next 10 months was quite incredible.
We had apple tea and the local drink called raki(a wine that mixed with water and ice turns cloudy and tastes a bit like ouzo) all while we watced carpets being laid out before us.Only one person in the group brought a carpet and as I mentioned before there was no hard sell.
Then it was lunch and a time to stoll through Bergama to stretch the legs.
After lunch another look at local craft,this time an onyx factory where they made pieces and also turquoise jewellery.Again no hard sell.
Then it was onwards to Kusadasi arriving here around 6pm.We headed down to the wharf to make our booking for tomorrow to Samos in the Greek Islands.From here for the 10 or 12 days we are at the mercy of when and where the many ferries that ply the islands go and then arrange accommodation when we arrive at an island.It will be an interesting challenge but we think we are up for it.
Dinner was at a quiet restaurant down on the waterfront with TYL3.50 beers each 500mls(great value) and some very delicious kebabs and meat balls with a huge salad that somehow we were able to finish off.No room for the desert tonight.
So tomorrow another country !!
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Erin
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So glad to hear you have made it thru Turkey without succumbing to the dreaded tummy bug that got me!! :-) Looking forward to hearing all about Greece!