Batihan Hotel Kusadasi

... came too early - when my stomach was busy repelling anything that entered it - so I didn't get to find out if it had the heading properties promised.

Even when ill, there were still a few things we needed for sustenance reasons. Back in Greece I couldn't resist picking some olives for our own consumption. However, olives are no good off the tree and have to go through a special sequence. So far I've been carting a 1.5L bottle of olives ...

... But hey, we couldn't have done it without the taxi. Or the police, or the man from the Turkish FA, so can't complain really. (That reminds me, whilst we were traveling to the stadium via the wrong stadium, we drove past a massive graveyard which was full of relations of those that were buried there. The streets outside it were lines with flower sellers and tombstone makers/engravers, all of which was being coordinated by the army. There were people everywhere. As well as that there were ...

... from Turkish Airlines - Lisa had planned ahead and had checked in online for the Istanbul to Izmir stretch of the flight and had printed out boarding passes so we didn't have to worry in Turkey. We presumed it was because we had landed so much later then planned and they were having trouble with their transfers. We strolled through the visa queue and the passport control queue, then through the airport and finally down to the domestic flights terminal - with a ...

... is BS. We departed at 8 pm and could see the lights of Kusadasi fading in the distance as we dined with a retired couple from Montreal in the Grand Dining Room.

5. After departing Kusadasi we were at sea the next day and evening Around noon on Tuesday Nov 3, we left the Aegean Sea and were finally officially cruising in the Mediterraean awaiting arrival in Limassol, Cyprus at 8 am on Wednesday, Nov 4.

... is believed to be the largest outdoor theater in the ancient world. I enjoyed learning of the history of the ancient town and of the many different structures. I kept thinking of what the city must have been like during its prime. I can't imagine hundreds of thousands of people here (even given the large amount of ruins left to be excavated). The craftsmanship we viewed was amazing and the attention to detail, such as the sidewalk mosaics, speaks to the advanced society of the time. I ...

The next stop was Kusadasi. From here we visited Ephesus http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ephesus. Really spectecular to see this rebuild archeological city. The city was famed for the Temple of Artemis (completed around 550 BC), one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Unfortunately only one column is still standing on the place where the temple was established.

... up and there really wasnt that much to do there. The hostel I stayed in had a pretty amazing view of the port, especially at night but other than that I was glad to get out of there. One positive note was the fact I had the best Gozleme(Turkish pancake) that I have ever eaten.

... the Isreali fellow and we spent the morning wandering through, climbing on, and looking at the ruins. It's the most amazing site I've seen in any of my travels. We got lost trying to walk home and wandered back roads for quite a while until we ran into a Turkish group working in the fields. I think they were picking figs. They pointed us in the right direction and we made our way home. I'm headed back out to look at more local stuff with him, so enough of this computron machine for now.

... price for a nice bathmat that might last me "generations". He told me that he ran a fixed price carpet shop and then proceeded into a few more long winded stories about tribal art, the dangers inherent in small Turkish villages, the time it takes to weave my bathmat, etc. Next he informed me that he could earn interest on his money by putting it into a bank instead of investing it in his carpet inventory and then finally he claimed that $140 left him with only a 15% gross margin ...

Our cruise stopped off in Turkey for a day. We toured a bazar/casbah and drank some tea.
I remember on our land approach, being surprised at how deep green colour the hills were, popluated with so many trees. The city buildings were a beautiful cream white colour - sublime beauty.