Ken's Letter to the Ephesians (Not)

This entry includes some miscellaneous stuff about our trip to Turkey.  I (Ken) am entering it long after the fact; because I just couldn't get to it while we were actually traveling.

The day after our wonderful dinner and overnight with Georgia in Izmir, Georgia helped us rent a car and we  headed for Selcuk.  First, we had to get gas; in Turkey cars come with tank empty, another clever way to extract $ from folks.  Given we speak and read no Turkish, and many Turks do not speak English, it was interesting to simultaneously find a gas station and keep track of where the tollway was that we needed to get on.

 

We knew the road had tolls that could ONLY be paid w automated system, not cash.  But the company assured us that car had a detection/payment system built in, and Georgia verified this.  We thought that that was all we needed to know until we got the 'entry' lanes and we saw at least two different types of lanes, both of which seemed to involve radar.  We were on what was the equivalent of a the entrance ramp of a freeway,  so we couldn't  just pull over and ask.  So, we chose one and went through.  At Selcuk we exited through the same lane type, and all hell broke loose--flashing yellow lights, whooping siren.  But it only lasted a few seconds and stopped.  Nobody appeared, and we decided that we were going to do our very best to...let the rental car company deal with it. :-)   
10 km before Selcuk, we stopped at fruit stand which was connected to a working fruit farm.  We bought pomegranate juice drinks for about $1.50.  Then talked with the owner, who showed us his trees and his dad's bees.  Then he showed us the  pomegranate press that he says his dad had made from auto parts.  By pumping a handle, it generates air pressure to do the pressing.  A thing of beauty.  

 

After a half hour of show-and-tell, he sold us about 12 oz of pomegranate juice for 5TL ($2.75), several TL cheaper than he quoted us earlier.  I guess he liked us.

At Ephesus, we enjoyed seeing the different ways that the masons added the "innies" and "outies" on the stone pieces--i.e. cavities or protrusions for alignment, securing against sliding, etc.  Often there was just one, but sometimes two or three, once a whole array.

Ephesus was pretty impressive.  Not in the way some of the big temples or public buildings, although there was some of that too, but in the extent of the town and how much of it is still standing or reconstructed.

 

Next day we wandered Selcuk, including the Basilica of St. John, built at the behest of Emperor Justinian over what was reputed to be the grave of St. John, which is still prominent there.  While in the area, we also saw some information that the Virgin Mary spent the last years of her life in the Ephesus-Selcuk area.

In fact, there is a house there which is supposedly her house, but we didn't see it--we had just walked too much the only day we had an opportunity.  I think it was pretty much a walk-by, "I was there" sort of place.

 

That night we turned the car in at our hotel in Kusadasi for our last night in Turkey, per our arrangement with the rental company, who will pick it up there.  We were happy that we did not get a knock on the door from them in the middle of the night, saying "you owe us for doing the tolls wrong!" :-) 

Next morning, we took the ferry back to Samos (back on Greek soil).  They seem to charge what the market can bear.  It was 40 Euros (~$53), which seemed steep for a 1.5 hour ferry ride.  Probably because it's the only ferry between Kusadasi and Samos.  

 

On Samos we were mostly lazy for three days.  We had a lovely hotel room at the Avlakia Hotel (middle of north shore), though we had to express some disappointment at the small size of the room they originally had for us before they said we could stay in this much larger room that was acually let out to a French woman on a yearly basis (but she was not there at the time--hurray).  On the shingle beach was a lovely shade tree.  We are not normally beach bunnies, but we enjoyed just hanging out on beach chairs under the tree, reading, and going for a short swim late afternoons.  We also visited the archaeological museum in Pythagorion (yes, the town is named after Pythagoras), and stopped into a music store, where I got to play a bit of Greek music with the owner's son.  We also drove into the hills to one of the mountain villages (pretty touristy), and our last night there we had a wonderful evening dinner at the house of Irene Banias, a friend of our friend Tatiana.  Irene's house is just a few meters from the sea near the northwest point of the island, so we got to watch the sun go down over the Mediterranean while having a lovely Greek meal.

 

Next day, we flew back to Athens, so we could do laundry, Kathleen could do a workshop, and we could get ready for our next adventures--Crete and Rhodos.

Heraklion, Crete (out of date order, sorry)

Today we leave for Rhodes.  This morning we went to the Archeological Museum and the new Sculpture Museum.  These were knock-outs, not least because yesterday and the day before we visited Knossos and Phaestos, from which many of the museum objects originally came.

This is temporary posting that I will update as I have time.  I wanted to get these pictures and minimal commentary down while I can still remember what we found so astonishing.

The top photo is of the entire "dolphin fresco" found in the "Queen's Quarters" in the Knossos Palace.  If you look closely, you will see the variations in color that I have enlarged in the next two photos.  The smooth areas are "reproductions" (painted in later on in order to "complete" the piece); the darker areas with lots of whitish cracks running through them are actual pieces of the fresco found during the archeological excavation.  Many of these pieces may have been found still adhered to the wall in their correct relation to one another, but others were no doubt found in several pieces dispersed over a wider area.  They had to be painstakingly reconstructed into the composite seen in the first photo.  It was easier to see when looking at this in the museum that only about 10 percent of the original still exists.  In other words, to "reconstruct" this is not just a matter of putting a puzzle together.  It's more like putting a puzzle together when you have only 50 pieces of a 500 piece puzzle!!!

[How difficult and uncertain that can be was demonstrated by another fresco that I didn't photograph.  The museum showed two versions--the original assumed that the body of the "saffron gatherer" was that of a young boy.  A later find on a similar subject revealed a monkey's face, rather than a boy's.  What had been identified as a vine in the first version turned out to be the tail of a different monkey in the second--and it was also place in a slightly different position.  So it isn't enough to be an archeologist, one must also solve mysteries and have a great aesthetic sense!] 

These are evidence of the superb skills of Minoan artists who worked in gold. Ken read somewhere that modern artists have been unable to match this ancient level of craftsmanship.  The gold beads in the top photo are no more than 1/2 inch long.  The one on the left is either a frog or a lion (we can't remember which); the right is simply called a "cylinder."

The bottom figure is no more than 1 1/2 inches wide--in other words, less than 1/4 the size you see pictured here.  It is called the "Gold Bee Pendant."  The museum description says:  "Two bees are placing a drop of honey in a honeycomb they hold between their legs; on their heads is a wire cage with a gold globule inside."  The figure contains three different kinds of gold-work: filigree, repousse, and granulated decoration.  I have no idea what all that means, but imagine doing that incredibly fine work on such a tiny space!  As you can see, on the left-most dropped circle, a couple of the gold balls around the perimeter are missing.  Each of those balls is about the size of a pencil point!!  Similarly with the "honeycomb" in the middle. 

I was bowled over by the decorations on these pieces, made about 1600 B.C.    The vase on the right of the upper photo is called the "Lily Vase"--as you can see, flowers are attached at the sides and near the bottom.  The vase is about 18" high.  Both vases in that photo have a a lot of red in the glaze.  The three vases in the lower photo have incredibly delicate designs that somehow also seem very modern.  The central vase or beaker is about 14" high and the others are about 9" high.

The gold oval on the right no more than 3/4" wide.  The larger oval in the same photo is a sketch of the  picture engraved on the oval.  It appears to be a cross-section of part of the Knossos Palace (the three level building).  The woman sketched on the right (not in the same scale as the building) is a fertility/nature goddess, usually pictured with a snake wound around her or--in this case--in her hands.  She is standing on what appears to be a ramp between a series of steps and the building. This was probably used as a seal and pressed into clay of official "documents."

Another seal, this time carved into a precious stone (the sketch of the engraving is below it). A woman (probably a similar goddess to the one above) is between two winged gryphons.  This is no more than 1 1/2" wide.

This last seal is also about 1/2" wide.  The incredibly detailed scene depicts people, animals, fruits, trees, etc.

Family time

The high spot of our trip to Istanbul was visiting Erkut's family (he's married to Alex).  They welcomed us as though we were family, too.  Erkut did a fabulous job of translation, since we had no Turkish and only his Mom had a little English.  Alex is learning, though.  As always, the food was wonderful.  We ate out in the garden, under a tree.  There was a mid-afternoon "snack" when we arrived--the most gorgeous boreg made by hand (below), and a lovely almond cake.

Then we got down to serious eating....barbequed chicken, fish, and lamb.  The fish are small but, oh so tasty.  After a long, leisurely dinner, friends and family dropped over, several of whom spoke English, so there was lots of conversation.  We were still going strong at 10:30, which is about when Ken and I tend to fall face-first into our food, because we can no long stay awake.

The next morning was a fantastic brunch that included home-made preserves.

After which we waddled to the car and said goodbye (burp!).L-->R, Ken, me, Erkut, Alex, "Mom" and "Dad"--we'll have to ask, as we've forgotten.  I can see why Alex said meeting his parents was the clincher for her.  :):)

Miscellaneous Goreme sighting

I guess it had to happen.  Where more appropriate than the home of the often very phallic "fairy chimneys"?  (You'll see what I mean in a subsequent post that has more pictures.

Here's a tree covered with the blue-and-white "eye" disks made of glass that we think are good luck symbols.  We saw several of these but we didn't know if they were just a marketing ploy or had some other significance. (Ken forgot to learn Turkish and, unlike the Greeks, most do not know English except for the most rudimentary commercial phrases.)

 

The view from our roof-garden  at breakfast time and then later in the day.

 

The balloon industry is also wildly popular here.  The locals told us they cost 140 Euros per person and the baskets hold 25 people.  Based on the number of balloons we saw in the morning sky (that's when the winds are quietest), this is an incredibly lucrative industry--which attracts lots of people who probably shouldn't be running a high-risk venture. 

Goreme: home of the "fairy chimneys"

This is in Kappadociea, Turkey.  These amazing structures (some several hundred feet tall) result from  weathering of a particular geological formation.  The town of Goreme (which is in the middle of nowhere) has become a major tour bus stop, as a result.  Local people actually do live in some of the natural caves formed (or cut into) these structures.  More recently, several hotels have co-opted nature, as well.  

In order to upload videos, they have to be shorter than one minute.  The three that follow are a sequence.

The video below was taken inside an ancient (11th century?) church built into one of the "cave" formations.   Here is a picture of the outside (which has been rebuilt in modern times.  The inside is about the size of a very large living room with high ceilings.

 The religious iconography was plastered over when the Ottoman empire took charge and Christianity was no longer the state religion.  This fortunately preserved many of the early frescos, though clearly there was also some damage.

Below that is another panoramic video of the formations that may give a better sense of the scale.

And here are several photos of the formations.  Some are obviously huge (you can compare to the size of people (very small--you'll have to look for them), and cars in some of the pictures.

 There are people in this photo in the middle of the left edge--one of them has on red pants.

You can size this one by the horse in the lower right hand side of the photo, in front of the tree

Is this really "camelot"?

Or is it just a lot of camel? I'll let the videos speak for themselves.

Street scenes

Istanbul is a very old city--many streets were just fine for pre-auto transportation...but those same streets are now filled with cars.  Istanbulites have developed their own special ways of dealing with the problem. In this series of videos, you will see what happens when two cars that cannot pass one another meet.  Spoiler alert--it involves several people backing up, driving over stairs, backing into side streets, performing Y-turns, and somehow working it all out.  

About 5 cars were involved in this action.  Three had to back most of the way up a steep hill.  In the second video, one of them backed into into a side street and waited until there was room for him to continue down the hill.  But (3d video) he didn't have enough room and ended up with his wheels over the pedestrian walkway--in this instance, stairs.  As you will see, through this complicated maneuver, no one seems to get their knickers in a knot.