Turkey Continued...

Onward to Izmir, Turkey’s third largest city, and formally known as Smyrna. It is said that Old Smyrna is the birth place of Homer (author of The Iliad and The Odyssey) and playground of Alexander the Great. We rented a car at the airport in Izmir and drove on to Sirince — a charming village known for its fruit-flavored wine.

Sirince was settled by Greek immigrants who built white houses with red tile roofs which reminded them of home. In 1923 there was a compulsory population exchange between Greece and Turkey — ethnic Greek Christians had to return to Greece and ethnic Muslim Turks had to return to Turkey.  Attaturk, father of Turkish democracy (1923) is revered for “westernizing” Turkey, bringing it into modernity and making it the successful country it is today. The population exchange however, is generally regarded as a mistake. This picture is the little main street that we drove down to get to our hotel –can you even imagine how narrow the side streets were?!?

We stayed at Terrace Houses in the Fig House, a rustically charming and eclectically decorated cottage that was a nice break from hotel living. We had an incredible home cooked meal served up with a stunning view. Too bad this picture doesn’t have sound effects — we sipped our wine and ate our dinner to a duet of a donkey braying and the Muslim call to prayer. The next morning we were awakened by the call to prayer and a rooster crowing. Aysel, the cook, made us a delicious breakfast, cementing my opinion that this was the best food in all of Turkey — the cheese came from a cow down the road and the vegetables from the back yard. Fortified with a good night’s sleep and a very strong Turkish coffee (Aysel took me into her kitchen and showed me how to make it), we ventured on to Ephesus.

Ephesians is the tenth book of the New Testament and its formal name is “The Epistle of Paul to the Ephesians.” If you are wondering who the Ephesians were and where they lived, wonder no more. Ephesus, a Greek city until it was taken over by the Romans, was once one of the largest cities in the world. Positioned on several important trade routes and with a harbor (at the time) Ephesus, at its height in the 1st  and 2nd centuries AD, is thought to have had a population of almost 500,000.

Paul was eventually driven out of Ephesus by the silversmiths of the city. His pronouncements that worshiping idols, it seems, was bad for business.

John is also believed to have come to Ephesus with The Virgin Mary. John had promised Jesus that he would look after his mother and they are both thought to have died and been buried nearby.

Ephesus had it all: baths, temples, a large and important library, a brothel, theaters, and shops with goods from near and far. I, however, found the public latrine one of the most interesting buildings. It seems that the latrines, and not just the bath houses, were very social places. In this picture you can see that people were not shy. The waste dropped down a considerable ways into the sewage system of the city, and in front of the “toilets” you can see a trough on the floor right in front of where feet would be if one were sitting on one’s “throne”.  This trough had a continuous flow of fresh water for “cleaning up” after taking care of business — a sort of toilet paper of the day. The Romans were truly incredible!

There are great ruins in Rome, and Pomeii is very interesting, but for me, Ephesus was by far the best “view” of life in an ancient time.

Bodrum is a port city that is best know for its resorts, nightlife, and as being the point of embarkation for boat trips around the Aegean Sea. My seventeen year-old daughter, who was traveling with a friend’s family before she met us in Istanbul, delighted in the later two. She assures me that the clubs are fabulous, the shopping superb, and cruising the Aegean magical. I simply relaxed, took in the views and enjoyed a great dinner on the beach.

Tomorrow: back to Istanbul for a tour into its Ottoman past.