Samos Sun Pithagórion

After a beautiful, restful evening, we were up early to eat out on deck and watch our entrance into the port of Izmir, Turkey. Izmir is the third largest port in Turkey and has four million people. The port seems huge, once again all sorts of sea vessels, and cargo ships. The weather was a cool 53f but clear and no wind. At 0800 we boarded our tour buses. We were required to pick up tourist passes for the port and return them when we came back to the port. (Turkish ...

... roads and cruised along the coastal highway, elevated two hundred feet above the rocky Aegean shore. After a while of cruising on the postcard picture highway the city came into view. It was more expansive that I
imagined and was curious how navigating city traffic would turn out in the scooter. Descending into the urban jungle I found my way through the streetlights, pedestrian traffic and taxis. I zipped past the large, docked ...

H's Notes
We woke to find ourselves mooring in Kusadasi. Our tour to Ephesus had been planned for the afternoon so we took ourselves off for a walk along the seafront and out to Pigeon Island which gives Kusadasi its name.
The tour to Ephesus was quite stunning and the ruins were far more extensive than we had ever envisioned. According to our guide Ihsan who was born in Greece but who has lived in this area for over 30 years, only a quarter of the Ephesus complex has been ...

... to Ephisus and took them from the ruins. Still, what has been rebuilt is incredible. I think it would have been very interesting to live in that town during its day.
After the carpet demonstration, where we learned that it takes 2 girls 2 years to make an 8x10 carpet, we headed back to the ship for some lunch and a rest. Then we left the ship again and headed to a nearby beach where we rented some beach chairs and hung out for a few hours.

IRAIO –FISHING VILLAGE

We are here at Iraio the 4th day of our trip, coming for the first time.

I don't regret it because both the hotel Angeliki where we booked is nice,

but also this beautiful fishing village.

We have ...

... thousands of slaves, how these structures and roads were built wıth the tools and technology of the day. The library and theater are the two most overwhelming structures. The theater sat 30,000 people. The lıbrary housed the largest collection of scrolls of the day. İnto thıs city of commerce and intellect had come Paul to present his case of a new way to perceive reality. His claıms were listened to by ...

... money dries up and the perfectly usable, marina is apparently abandoned. Local fishing boats put in moorings for themselves, old rusting ferries are tied up and their owners disappear, some local yachties might put in their own moorings and a few spaces are left for visiting yachts. Slowly the marina takes on the appearance of a nautical scrapyard and becomes a free mooring for whoever takes a fancy to it. Then, sometimes after many years, for no apparent reason ...

... I'm not really buying hard into this story, but so goes the myth: Some woman in Germany (some nun) apparently had a vision of where Mary went after Christ. She dreamed of a small house, and described in detail the house. Apparently some priest heard of her dream and knew of the exact location she was talking about, and so they set on a pilgrimage to this place (Ephesus area) and found the house. Since then, it has been dubbed the house of the Virgin Mary. Now, there ...

... city was established as a port on the mouth of the river Cayster and was one of the foremost cities of the world for its being on a strategic trade route in Anatolia. The city itself and the ruins are all on the sides of a fertile valley. The extensive ruins including the theatre, library or gymnasium create the special atmosphere of Ephesus, and appeal to every visitors. This was probably one of the most amazing sites i have ever seen ...

The magnificant Roman city of Ephesus, the city of biblical fame, was the destination of today's tour. It was the chief city of the Roman province of Asia. The public toilet had marble seats and musicians playing, there was ...