Friday, 15 November
At sea in the Aegean — en route to Bodrum, Turkey
One down; six more to go … in the meantime, Celebrity Constellation is underway again, cruising further south in the Aegean Sea. It’s warmer now … which means that I can sit on the veranda to write this post.
Güvercİn Ada [Pigeon Island] — the namesake of Kuşadasi —
is now connected to the mainland by a causeway.
A popular holiday destination, I remember traveling to Kuşadası a lot with my family. It was a much smaller resort town then — sleepy by today’s standards. In the years since, the town has grown in leaps and bounds. Though I’ve visited nearby Ephesus and Şirince numerous times on my annual trips to Turkey over the past 25 years or so, this was my first time to Kuşadası since 1990. I still don’t know what I think of the town as we spent very little time here today.
At 8:00a, this normally busy city is still asleep …
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… but with the ship cleared, the port is ready to receive us.
We were up at 6:30a, just as the ship’s hawsers were being fixed to the bollards on the pier. We had a busy day ahead of us, so we quickly got ready, had a quick breakfast at the Oceanview Café, and were off the ship by 8:30a. Our plan was to hop on a dolmuş [shared taxi/jitney], a popular form of public transportation in Turkey, and head to the nearby town of Selçuk. We had a vague idea of where to find the dolmuş durağı [durak = stop], so we made our way out of the port facilities, surprising every tour hawker and cab driver who offered us a ride by turning them down with our Turkish reply of “Sağolasın, bugün lazım değil.” Essentially, no thanks, don’t need it today — it’s a handy phrase to know ;-)
Well, that’s exactly what we did this morning. Asking for directions at every turn, we found our way through the downtown area where most of the stores were still shuttered, and arrived at the jitney stop just as a van was getting ready to leave. (Using the dolmuş system is an easy way for DIY’ers to get around — click the picture for the website; it’s in Turkish, but I think you can figure out the timetable, which is the page I linked to … just bear in mind that the vans don’t leave from the departure point until they are full.)
We could have waited for the direct jitney, but decided that the more circuitous route would give us a chance to see how the area had changed in the past 25 years. Besides we had plenty of time before … well that’s the surprise I mentioned in the previous post, so be patient for another paragraph or so. Anyway, the ride took us about 30 minutes and cost us 5TL (~$2.50) each … one way.
From Kuşadası, bottom left, we took a jitney ride to explore sights (red stars)
in and around Selçuk. The yellow diamonds are other sites of interest —
such as Ephesus and the Temple of Artemis — which we did not visit this time.
Once at our destination, first on our agenda was to find a cell phone vendor and add minutes to the phones we use in Turkey/Europe — check. Then we found a jewelry shop to get one of my pearl studs repaired — check … with the bonus that the jeweler did the job gratis. By 10:00a, we were at the tea house where we had arranged to meet up with — SURPRISE … mom, and Aylin and Murat!
With İzmİr only 50 miles (80 km) from Selçuk, arranging to
meet up with the family one last time was a no-brainer.
After having a glass of tea and a mid-morning snack at the tea house, we headed off to explore some of the nearby sites of interest. I had hoped to visit the Museum of Ephesus, where some of the artifacts excavated from the world-famous ruins are on display. However, we had already confirmed that the museum was closed for restoration, so we moved on to other places instead.
İsa Bey Camii is a mosque that was built in 1375 when Selçuk — then Ayasuluk — was the capital of the Aydınoğulları, an Anatolian beylik that held this part of the country between 1306-1426. Named for İsa Bey, the patron who ordered its construction, the mosque was used as a caravanserai during the 19th century. Renovated in 1975, it is now open to the public, though it is still missing the two minarets that were originally part of the mosque. There was no decent angle from which to photograph the mosque, which is surrounded by tall walls, but I found an image of its miniature on a sign at our next stop that does the trick.
Miniature of İsa Bey Camİİ — from signage at the Basilica of Saint John.
The design was inspired by the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus,
and the harran and Dİyarbakir mosques in Eastern Turkey.
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Exterior entrance to the courtyard (left) and the façade of the main entrance to the mosque.
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Left: The mİhrap is the niche in the wall that indicates the Qibla, the direction
of the Kaaba in Mecca … and the direction that Muslims face when praying.
Right: The Mİmber is the pulpit from which the İmam delivers sermons.
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Scenes from around the courtyard.
Earthquakes that occurred in 1653 and 1668 led to the collapse of one minaret,
and damaged the other one (column in the background of the center photo).
The colonnade in the courtyard also collapsed during these earthquakes.
From the mosque, we drove to the ruins of St Jean Kilisesi [Basilica of Saint John], which stands on Ayasuluk Hill. Saint John, as Christians well know, was the youngest of the 12 apostles of Jesus. When the followers of Christ were subjected to persecution following the death of Jesus, John left Jerusalem and came to Turkey — then Asia Minor — where he lived out most of the rest of his life in and around Ephesus.
Artist’s rendering of a model of the Basilica of Saint John, built by Emperor Justinian.
Aerial view of the ruins of the Basilica of St John (6th Century AD).
According to written records, the six-domed church — at one time known as the Justinian Basilica — was built in the 6th century AD to replace the 4th century wooden chapel that was initially constructed over the burial site of St John. Archaeologists have determined that fully restored, the structure would be the seventh largest of its kind in the world.
Ruins of the basilica, and the tomb of St John (four columns on the right),
set against the backdrop of the Selçuk Citadel.
Since we had not yet renewed our Müzekart, and they weren’t selling the cards at this site, we paid the 6TL (~$3/person) admission and started wandering around the ruins. Our timing was just right as we were ahead of an influx of tour groups that followed on our heels — from Celebrity Constellation, and the Rotterdam, the Holland America ship sharing the port with us.
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Left: the Tomb of Saint John stood under the basilica’s main dome.
Right: Score! I wanted to duplicate a similar photo I took in 1990 …
didn’t think I’d be able to find the same place; the same angle … but I did.
From a description of the Basilica … written by Procopius (c. 500-565 AD):
”There chanced to be a certain place before the city of Ephesus, lying
on a steep slope hilly and bare of soil and incapable of producing crops,
even should one attempt to cultivate them, but altogether hard and rough. …
… On that site the natives had set up a church in early times to the Apostle John;
this Apostle has been named “the Theologian,” because the nature of God was
described by him in a manner beyond the unaided power of man. …
… This church, which was small and in a ruined condition because of its great age,
the Emperor Justinian tore down to the ground and replaced by a church so large
and beautiful that, to speak briefly, it resembles very closely in all respects, and
is a rival to, the shrine which is dedicated to all the Apostles in the imperial city …“
On the way out, I convince the rest of my party to stop for a photo op …
… and also manage to find a vantage point to photograph the İsa Bey Mosque.
One of the things we had talked about doing today was a hike up to Selçuk Kalesi [kale = fortress/citadel], also known as Ayasuluk Fortress for the hill it crowns. It’s included in the admission to the basilica, and accessed via a path at the far end of the ruins. As luck would have it, however, the citadel was closed for restoration work.
Artist’s rendering of the fortress and surrounding area.
Turns out that one of the guards at the basilica ruins, attracted to our party when he heard us speaking Turkish, was willing to sneak us up there. Unfortunately, the steady stream of visitors to the ruins near the access gate never stopped. Unwilling to get the guy in trouble, we thanked him, gave him a small tip anyway, and continued on our way.
The partially restored fortress walls seen today date back to the Byzantine and Ottoman times.
By this time, it was well past the noon hour and we were all anxious to get some food. Don’t ask me why we didn’t go to one of the local restaurants to get some of that çöp şiş I mentioned earlier. We must have all had a senior moment ;-) Instead, we drove up to Şirince for lunch. What a difference we found today when compared to our visit just three weeks before [post here].
Taskebabı, cheese stuffed green peppers, and stuffed zucchini blossoms.
We ended up going to a new-to-all-of-us restaurant for our meal — Ocakbaşı [literally, fireside]. The setting overlooking the landscape of the village and the surrounding area was lovely — even though the light by now was really bad for photography. The food was good, too — in addition to what I put in the collage above, we also had stuffed grape leaves, and gözleme filled with spinach and cheese. But the late-in-the-season ambiance left a lot to be desired. Would we give it another chance; probably.
With time on our hands, we headed to Meryemana [House of the Virgin Mary], about 4 miles (7 km) outside Selçuk. According to Christian beliefs, when the Apostle John came to Asia Minor — now Turkey — he brought the Virgin Mary with him. She is said to have spent her last days in a house on Bülbüldağı [Mount Nightingale — aka Mount Koressos], working alongside John to spread Christianity.
Meryem, as the Virgin Mary is known in the Koran, is said to have lived out
her life in this small house, which has been converted into a chapel.
Due to lack of scientifically acceptable evidence, the authenticity of the house where the Virgin is said to have lived out the rest of her years has not been established. Even though the Roman Catholic Church has not formally recognized the house as such, the structure has been blessed by many Papal pilgrimages, the first of which was by Pope Leo XIII in 1896.
What used to be the prayer room now contains an altar to the Virgin.
[photography not allowed; image of the altar from nearby signage]
Wandering around the grounds, we came across …
… a small area where believers can light prayer candles; …
… a spring from which one can fill a bottle with holy water; and …
… a Wall of Wishes where Christians and Muslims alike can leave pledges.
I should point out that there is an admission fee for visiting the Meryemana shrine, which is overseen by a private organization. For Turks, the price is 3.50TL (~$1.75/person); for foreigners it is 12.50TL (~$6.25/person). I don’t condone the practice of charging different rates based on nationality, but this is not something unique to Turkey. I’ve experienced it in other countries as well. Not wishing to start a debate on the right or wrong of this practice; just informing future visitors so that there are no unpleasant surprises.
It was now time for Mui and me to return to Kuşadası to re-embark the Constellation. The family wouldn’t hear of us hopping on a jitney, so we all piled into the car for the return trip. Since the drive wasn’t nearly as long as it would have been with public transportation, we had time to spare to have one last cup of tea together before they dropped us off at the entrance to the port for a 5:00p boarding. We missed the Turkish folklore group that performed poolside on the ship, but it was worth it to spend more time with the family.
Celebrity Constellation in Kuşadası.
Knowing that I’d be seeing them again today, saying goodbye to mom, Aylin, and Murat at the airport in İzmir had been easy. It was more difficult to say farewell at the cruise ship passenger terminal … made slightly easier only by reminding myself that we’ll be returning to Turkey next June. It also helped that we weren’t leaving the country yet — two more ports of call before that happens.
By the time the ship sailed at 6:00p, Holland America’s Rotterdam — the only other ship in port with us — was long gone. Night had fallen to veil all but the twinkling lights of Kuşadası. Güvercin Ada, with its spot-lit fortress walls shining gold, made for a scenic departure. Captain Tasos played along with the two tug boats that were trying to outdo each other, taking turns to sound their horns in farewell.
Güvercİn Ada
We debated going to the Oceanview Café for dinner, but decided to return to the San Marco Restaurant where Alston and Ramburn took good care of us again. I love the soups served aboard the Celebrity ships, so I started out with an Asian consommé. I also ordered the always-available Caesar salad, and chose roasted trout as my main course. Mui’s dinner consisted of sesame crusted tuna carpaccio, Waldorf salad, and Mediterranean seafood orzo. For dessert, I couldn’t resist the chocolate lava cake, whereas Mui fell victim to Alston’s recommendation and ordered the cherries jubilee.
Almost a full moon!
After dinner, we started to head back to our cabin, but found ourselves detouring to the Celebrity Theater when the music of Nicola Loud reached our ears. Of course, it was the end of her show that we caught. We so enjoyed the performance that we killed an hour walking around the ship in order to catch the first part of her second show at 9:00p.
Tomorrow we’re in another Turkish port … one that neither of us has visited in a long while. Looking forward to exploring it … in the meantime, I need to get my beauty rest.
