Kusadasi Turkey 2 November
“I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel’s sake. The great affair is to move”
Today it’s Kusadasi, the Port city for Ephesus. Arrived early this morning and already there were three other ships here, Oceana, Viking and Seaborn. The weather is amazing, around 23-25 each day, no clouds and NO RAIN!!!!! Turkey is very much in need of rain as there hasn’t been any for several months. The countryside is very dry and a bit bleak to be honest. But the production of olives, pomegranates, and other fruits is still thriving. G & I went in different directions today, nice for a change and we have something to talk about at the end of the day. Having been to Ephesus before we opted for something less taxing on the feet! My tour, ‘ Turkish Towns and Villages’ left at 8 am and we drove about half an hour to Sirince, a small village high in the hills, surrounded by hills blanketed by peach orchards, vineyards and olive groves. Were welcomed at an outdoor cafe where we sampled wines!! Yes, it was before 9 am! The wines were pretty awful, blackberry, peach and strawberry. That’s where I stopped, nearly all of them tasted like cough syrup. And of course we shared the space with several wandering, homeless dogs and cats. They are all cute and well behaved but enough is enough!!! Walked through the cobblestoned streets for a bit but not much action as apparently Turkish people in the country tend to start the day quite late. From Sirince we drove to Tire in the foothills of the Aydin Mountains. Went to a very interesting museum which included a barber actually shaving a man in the old traditional way, another lady was making rope from flax, and another was weaving. There were also exhibits of old writings from the Quran and a section on Jewish history of the area.
Next we were ushered into a shop where they make garments from felt. Shepherds have full garments made with felt, with hoods to keep them dry, then there are vests and ponchos which are a little less heavy but in recent times they’re combining felt with silk to make beautiful shawls and even a dress which was entered in a competition in Italy - first prize!
By now it was lunch time and we were treated to a delicious green salad then very small, thin kebabs with tomato sauce and yoghurt on the side. Followed by panacotta and of course a Turkish beer! Or wine.
Back on the bus to Kusadasi but we weren’t finished yet! We were dropped at a carpet factory, no getting out of it, and firstly shown how the weavers operate. We were taken to a large room and offered wine, beer or tea! So we then had 30 or 40 carpets thrown, absolutely beautiful, and we all liked some more than others of course and then the guy said thanks for coming, I’ll leave you now and my colleagues will look after you. There were 14 of us, 2 singles and the rest couples, and next thing 8 guys in suits pounced on us - truly they made used car salesmen look like amateurs! All of us had seen this show before, some may have been interested even in buying a carpet, but the hard sell was something else! Far worse than in Istanbul.
It does make for a fun day in the big picture of course!
So at 6pm we had the Block Party - a tradition with Regent. The Captain, Cruise Director and several Officers make it their challenge to leave the Bridge and visit each deck corridor, speak to every person, and be back to the Bridge in 24 minutes! We all leave our rooms with a glass and waiters are there to pour a drink and offer canapés in the corridor. Lovely way to meet neighbours. Usually members of the entertainment group join in and tonight we had a lovely young man, a dancer from the Ukraine to join us. He is Zinovii Zhykaliak (sure you’ve all heard of him!!) such a delightful guy, said his family are close to the Polish border and are safe.
Dinner for us was the BBQ on deck 11. I had delicious NZ lamb chops!!
After I send G to bed I’ll go to the show. 🎼🎹