Kusadasi, Turkey

April 18, 2025

After a relaxing  day at sea, we had a chance to recover from our exciting day in Egypt. This morning we arrived in a new country, Kusadasi , Turkey. Kusadasi is a beach resort and a major cruise port. The population is approximately 140,000 people. The shores are lined with sandy beaches and numerous hotels and nice restaurants and not to forget carpet stores. The Turkish salesmen are very skilled in selling you a carpet. No we didn’t buy one. The sea water was still a little cool for a dip(20 C) The good news, no jelly fish or sharks to worry about. Kusadasi is also the jump of point to visit the ancient city of Emphasis.

For today we have a trip to the ancient city of Ephasis. It is about a half hour drive along a scenic coastal highway overlooking the Aegean Sea. In the old days Ephasis had a large harbour and had a direct access route to the Sea. Over time the Harbour silted in, to the point that at this time it is 8 km from the shoreline. After arriving at the site, we were given our entree pass into the archaeologic site. We followed our guide into the site, who happened to be very knowledgeable about this area. The site is basically an 2500 to 3000 year old townsite , which at one time was home to 500,000 inhabitants. Through time and having endured multiple regime changes and losing the access to the Meditaranian sea, made the people relocate elsewhere. The rebuilding of 2500 seat theatre is nearing completion now, and is scheduled to be opened in July this year. After wandering through this  enormous site with partly finished buildings, we ended up at the site called the terrace houses. This site is covered by a roof structure while the rebuilding is going on to protect the workers from the elements. Eventually we ended up at the area where our bus was parked. The bus took us back to Kusadasi, and dropped us off at a Carpet shop. Here we were shown how the silk carpets are made by hand. After the show was over , the high pitched sales guys came out from all directions to persuade us to take home one of the carpets for lots of $$$. Slowly we were able to find our way back to the exit . Meanwhile it was well past lunch time. We found ourselves a nice Turkish eatery right on the water, where we had ourselves a nice meal. After our late lunch, Carol and a friend went to the Turkish Bazaar Market and I found my way back to the ship.

Cheers

Cor and Carol