“From the port of Kusadasi on Turkey's Anatolian Coast, one travels into the past. Nearby stand the ruins of ancient Ephesus, a major site of archeological excavation. The city was once a Roman provincial capital and trading center. Ephesus is also home to several of Christendom's holiest sites. St. Paul preached at the Great Theater and the ruins of Ephesus' Basilica cover the tomb of Christ's most beloved disciple, St. John the Apostle.”
“In Kusadasi, whitewashed stone houses rise in tiers behind the market district. The palm-lined esplanade is the center of town life, with thousands of merchants offering wares to rival the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul.” – travel brochure
We berthed at Kusadasi just before 0700 24th June but had to be back on board by 1230 to sail at 1300. Not a lot of time to travel to the major archeological and historical sites for which Kusadasi is famous for. Later in the day after sailing I spoke to a couple of people who did a tour, they said it was very good but terribly rushed and they really needed to have had a lot more time.
As it turned out when we arrived back on the ship at Athens Nancy went down with a fever and wasn’t any better today when we arrived at Kusadasi. She didn’t get out of bed all day. After looking after Nancy I went ashore to have a look at the bazaars these are situated about a 300 metres walk from the ship so really handy. Streets and streets of merchants selling everything imaginable but not junk. Coffee houses, restaurants, clothing, hats, leather-ware, hand woven rugs, jewelry, beautiful ceramics and much more including ‘genuine fake copy watches,’ that means it is made in China but has Swiss workings!!
The place was clean, tidy and civilized the Turks were friendly, spoke good English and looked and dressed like anyone else. Yes they try and get you into their shops but they don’t harass you in an unpleasant way, you do have to barter and if you go about it the right way you can save yourself plenty. I’m not good at bartering so I got my friends wife to do it she was brilliant.
A nice bonus while enjoying a traditional Turkish coffee I finally found a good wifi reception where 2000 other passengers weren’t trying to use it. I managed to get a good text from Lisa and then managed to talk to her on my free phone app ‘LINE’. It was really good to hear her voice and hear everything was going well at home.
Underway again at 1300 we steamed up the Aegean Sea past numerous islands and should berth at Istanbul at 1000 25th back on board 1900. Tomorrow we are booked on a tour so hopefully Nancy will be up to it by then.
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