Last port of call: Turkey!

Our last stop on the cruise was to Kusadasi, Turkey. We had a warm welcome as we pulled into the dock around 7am. There were natives at the port dressed up and banging on drums to entertain everyone who was standing around and watching at the port. Of course this happened to be directly below our windows! Anyway, we had a late start. We went for breakfast and met our tour guide at 9:30am on the pier. Turkey was the only port of call that didn’t require the passengers on the ship to go though any sort of immigration procedure- so it was easy to get off board. (as you can probably imagine, Israel had the most extensive procedures.) We followed our guide to the bus and our first stop was to visit the house of the Virgin Mary. This is where she spent the last few years of her life after she fled from Jerusalem. On our way there, the tour guide explained to us where we were in Turkey in relation to the rest of the country. I.e. where the capital is, were Istanbul is, etc. Also, we could visually see the Greek Islands from the port; he mentioned that it was only a half mile swim to the nearest one. Easy! Anyway, the house of the Virgin Mary was in a beautiful, peaceful area and was a nice, big house for that time. It was located right next to a well on top of a mountain. The site has been confirmed by the Catholic Church so even though I’m not religious in any way, it was still cool to see another piece of history. After that site, we drove around and stopped for pictures on the mountain. The views we’re incredible of the city and port below us. Many years ago (ancient times), the port was farther inland, but now there is land where the water was and new cities have been built. From there we drove to Ephesus. This ancient city has the second best preserved Roman ruins behind Pompeii. Honestly, it felt like I was back home! We took a tour through the ruins, most of which was still being excavated, but it was really interesting to make comparisons with the Roman ruins here that I walk by every day. Just goes to show how big the empire really was- if they had conquered land all the way in Turkey. The library was the most magnificent building (go figure)- it was huge and very well preserved. Close by was the theatre, which held 25 thousand people. I climbed the steps and enjoyed the view from higher up. All in all, it was a nice walk through the ancient city. After about 2 hours walking through Ephesus, we made one last stop at the Temple of Artemis- which was more like going to see two pillars that once belonged to the Temple of Artemis because there was hardly anything left standing. After hearing the history of the once great temple, we were bombarded with local salesmen and even children trying to sell cheap souvenirs to make a quick buck. It was to the point where they were actually almost climbing back into our tour van, a very uncomfortable situation. (But how do you say no to a 4 year old girl trying to sell you bracelets that you don’t need?) After we finally drove away, we headed back to the port. It was only a half day tour, but well worth the quick stop to see the main sights. Our tour guide took us to a traditional carpet factory to see how their famous carpets are handmade, but we didn’t but anything. We left our tour guide there and after some shopping in the markets, we headed back to the ship. Our last port of call was a quick one, but worth the long boat ride. We had another two days at sea before returning to Venice, which meant another two days of trying to keep myself entertained and not go crazy sharing a cabin with my parents! I did spend a lot of quality time with my book though, and even went home with $75 winnings from playing in the casino! (although that’s only about 55 Euros) We arrived back in Venice on Thursday; I went right to class despite that I missed basically the entire week. I have a lot of catching up to do, but playing hooky was well worth it!