On our way out of Bergama, we stopped at the Aesclepion of Pergamon, which had been a major center of healing in the ancient world from early Greek through Roman times. The foundations of the healing baths are still impressive, and the original healing spring still trickles down the ancient stairway. It's hard to believe they needed such an ampitheatre; did potential clients come for lectures by world-famous doctors?
Kuşadasi is a charming, vibrant seaside town with a large pedestrian old city at its heart. Here we met in person Ingrid at Anker Travel, our friendly travel agent who helped us arrange all our travels along the coast of Asia Minor in both Turkey and Greece. As we had requested, she booked us into a hotel in the old city, the Villa Konak. It is in the oldest, narrowest, steepest part of the old city on a street in places only inches wider than the car, and yet the hotel is lush with jasmine-scented gardens.
Our outgoing and accommodating proprietor insists that his guests join him for tea every day, and we get all kinds of tips and share stories with our fellow travelers.
Kuşadasi has a vibrant and lovely waterfront--block after block of it.Two cruise ships were in the day we arrived. There is a large market area (for those of you who remember "Adventure", it's full of twisty little passages, all different) geared mostly to tourists. Invitations to view rugs, pottery, jewelry, clothing, postcards, and souvenirs (no obligation to buy; please, just come in) are beginning to wear thin.
Though we enjoyed Kuşadasi greatly, we have no pictures!
From my journal of April 23rd:
We just got back from dinner at what has become "our" restaurant on the waterfront, Kazim Usta (since 1950). This is to say, we ate there last night and it was really good, so we ate there again tonight. Here's what we had: salad and fish.
The fish experience works like this: At the front of the restaurant is a counter with fresh, whole fish inside. These include Mediterranean sea bass (last night), sea bream (tonight), red snapper, red mullet, and whatever else they got this morning at the fish market down the street, where they are selling what they caught last night. You pick your fish. Not just the *type* of fish, but the very one. They charge by the kilo, so for the two of us, we look for a fish of about 600gm. The attendant proudly shows us the gills, so we can see how very fresh it is (Whole Foods, eat your heart out!). Then they grill it for you, bring it to your table, fillet it under your watchful eyes, and serve it with dilled potato, arugula, a bowl of very green olive oil, and fresh lemon.
The Kazim Usta seasonal salad comprises romaine and other greens, arugula, dill, mint, red onion (which is sweet, not sharp), cucumber, tomato (raw but peeled, and it tastes like tomato should taste), a bit of red cabbage, beets, and carrots, with a very light olive-oil-and-vinegar dressing (and lemon on the side).
We also get the obligatory bottled water and fresh white bread (the bread is wonderfully fresh but blandly disappointing; however, it serves well to soak up all the extra salad dressing). The entire meal, including tablecloth service and tip is just under $40 for the two of us.
While on the subject of food, I should mention that almost every Turkish restaurant (excluding "fast food" types) serves "mezes", which are cold and hot appetizers, mostly vegetarian, and costing from 3-6YTL (oh, $2.50-$5) each. Three of them make a meal. Or two and a salad. One type is a kind of savory, rich yogurt with garlic and (er, well, dill or cucumber or mint or spinach or other green). There are also various mashed and seasoned things: eggplant, chickpeas, fava beans, ... Oh, one we like a lot looks a bit like asparagus would look if it were really small and skinny. It's seasoned with lemon and garlic and olive oil, and we've been told that it's seaweed. There are many others, but you get the idea. Between the fish and truly garden-fresh salads and the mezes, we are in lacto-ovo-pisco-vegetarian heaven here.
I like trying to learn the language while traveling in a foreign country. But Turkish proves difficult for me. There are no linguistic clues, no way to relate most of the words to anything I already know. But in Kuşadasi I master "kirmizi sek şarap" -- dry red wine. And life is good.
We sleep well at the quiet and comfortable Villa Karnak and awake to another ruinous day, this one largely of the early Christian era--Ephesus.
Follow this link for a description and pictures of Ephesus.Near Ephesus, Selçuk is home to a fine museum of artifacts from the site. We also visited the remains of a Byzantine church (the view from which gives some idea of the surrounding countryside), and an historic mosque.
...and now on with the trip! What a ruinous vacation so far!
Click here to see an interactive map of our trip
Follow this link to start again at Istanbul
Return to Troy and Bergama
Onward to Bodrum