Honestly, Turkey was never on my list of places to see – but when the opportunity arises, what are you going to do, stay on the boat?
We went on a private half day tour with Hello Ephesus on a tour of Ephesus and Artemis Temple. Hello Ephesus had come highly recommended from Cruise Critic. The tour was really nice and we had a good time. Unfortunately the people on Cruise Critic and Hello Ephesus left out details of the additional stops we would be making, which made for an interesting ending.
Ephesus, although in Turkey, was an ancient Greek city. In the 1st Century BC it was the second largest city behind Rome. Rome survived, Ephesus did not. Ephesus is now an entire city of ruins. What Ephesus does have over Rome is that you can climb all over these ruins, which is pretty cool to walk roads over 2000 years old.
When I say a private tour, I mean very private! It was just Kenny and I, the tour guide and the driver. We felt like superstars or at least I did. The tour guide met us at the Kusadasi Port and then it was about a 25 minute drive to Ephesus. On the way she told us about Turkey – the geography, the people, religion and so on. It was very interesting, especially since I knew nothing about Turkey.
Once we arrived in Ephesus it was very nice to have someone purchase our tickets for entry to the ruins and to give us tidbits along the way. And now I will share a few with you.
This is where officials would give speeches.
The other perk of the tour guide was having someone someone, who wouldn’t run off with your camera, to take pictures of Kenny and I.
The neat thing about Ephesus is that despite not making it to the 21st century Ephesus did make it through a few classic periods. Some of the columns are Doric, others are Ionic and then others are Corinthian. Have you seen a sky so blue?
Pipes
The first game of backgammon or at least one of the first.
This was the symbol for the hospital. It looks a lot like the present day caduceus.
The Greek goddess Nike. All the people taking photos reminded me of the Mona Lisa.
This was the main road through Ephesus. At the top of this road (basically where I am standing) there were two pillars very close together. These two pillars were what prevented carts or animals from coming on to the road, only people. The road was lined with busts of important and prominent people. At the bottom of the road you can see the Library of Celsus. (Look at all the tourists!)
The original marble flooring – AMAZING!!!!. On the right you can see holes in the marble to provide some traction on the slick marble. These people were smart!
This was originally a fountain.
And these holes at the bottom had plugs in them. When someone important was passing through they would release the plugs and pour wine into the water - hence “red carpet”.
These “holes” were the shops. And these were the nice ones, like modern day Chanel or Gucci.
Temple of Hadria. I am amazed by the construction of this arch. It looks like one of the blocks is going to slip out any second.
Kenny and I using the restroom facilities. 
Very wealthy people would send their slaves over to warm up the seats for them.
Library of Celsus. And no, despite his hand on my stomach in every picture, I am not pregnant. And no I will not be making an announcement in 3 months.
I love this picture!
And this one!
This is from the inside of the Library. I believe she said the library held 2,000 scrolls and was the third largest library of its time.
Behind us the colosseum/theatre.
On the way out of Ephesus you walked through a shopping area. Man after man came up to us trying to sell us a book about Ephesus or Turkish Dates. You could even have your picture taken with a camel. They were relentless!
The Temple of Artemis. Or what’s left of it. We had to drive from Ephesus to the Temple and to be frank, it was not worth it. Before the trip I was trying to decide between the Temple of Artemis or Virgin Mary Church and I followed people’s advice. It was a waste of time in my book.
The Temple of Artemis.
OK, so there are no pictures for this part of the trip, but this part of the trip provides the best stories. After The Temple of Artemis the tour guide asked us what time we had to return to the boat, which made me suspicious. And then she said that she was going to take us by a leather factory and a carpet factory to show us Turkish industries. (These are the additional stops I did not know about) I could see where this was going and I could also see the look Kenny was giving me even though I was trying to avoid his line of sight. He eventually mouthed, “did you know about this?” To which I mouthed, “no”. I did a mental rundown of who knew where we were and what tour we had gone on and what paperwork we had left in our stateroom that would lead someone to us in the event we didn’t make it back.
The first stop was the leather factory. I felt a little more comforted when I saw a bus, then I realized it was leaving and I felt like I was going to throw up. They directed Kenny and I into this huge room with a runway and all these chairs for a “private fashion show”. You know the last episode of Project Runway when they are at New York Fashion Week? Imagine that setup but half the seats and only two people watching. So then the rave music starts and guys and girls started coming down the runway with leather jackets with numbers on them. So I thought ok, it will end soon. Then one of the male models comes out and grabs my hand (I should mention I had a “snot rag” in my hand because I had a sinus infection) and takes me into the back. I’m thinking, if these people don’t kill me, Kenny is going to. They put a leather jacket on me and Mr. Male Model and I walk down the runway and he spins me and then I have to do it by myself. Normally I would enjoy being the center of attention, I would have worked the runway! At this moment I’m trying to figure out how much money I can spend on a leather jacket to get us out of this situation without Kenny killing me in the end.
So the fashion show was over and we head into the showroom. This is when the guy says “no pressure” and he honestly meant it. We later discovered that this and the carpet place were recommended by the cruise ship. Kenny of course found a jacket he liked, it was $2,000. That’s when I thought I was going to kill Kenny. Luckily another bus full of succors showed up and Kenny and I left and we felt relieved.
Oh wait, we still had to go to the carpet factory. We were a little calmer now after making it out of the leather factory. And to be honest we had talked about buying a rug.
The carpet factory turned out to be really cool. We saw the silk worms in a big barrell of water. We watched how they used a tiny broom to get the silk off and then how it was spun and dyed. We were able to watch some of the women at work making rugs. In Turkey 3000 women make the rugs, it is purely a woman’s profession. It is unbelievable how they can determine the design from a little cheat sheet. (I wish I had taken a picture)
Kenny and I were then taken inside and shown the award winning pieces. And then the sale began and it was one of the coolest things I have ever seen. We were in this huge room sitting on benches covered in rugs and these guys would come in and throw various sized and kinds of rugs at us. The owner would explain this is silk on silk, this is silk on cotton and so on. They carpets would be rolled up and they would just throw them at you and the rug would perfectly land at your feet.
The first one I saw that I liked I asked for the price and I believe he said $8,000. So then I asked about another smaller, non-silk one and I believe he said $400. I knew this was more than Kenny wanted to pay and I won’t bore you with the details but we got him down to a price that was manageable to us.
Once we said “we’ll take it” I’ve never seen people move so fast. One guy wrapped it up and put it in a carry on bag. A lady came out of no where to run the credit card. Another lady came out to provide us with the documentation. And the owner was giving us little evil eye pins. It was crazy!!!!
So what do you think? We chose this one because the colors are natural, no dyes. The different designs have different meanings that are symbolic to the Turkish culture. It’s a great souvenir that we will have for forever!
And then it was back to the port because Kenny was not going to open his wallet again. When we arrived back we noticed that another Royal Carribean ship had joined us at the dock.
(Sorry for the delay, these take a while to type and upload.)
