Ephesus

Something I don't remember

Bus to Ephesus

We went to Ephesus. We woke up early and went on a dolmus to town.  A dolmus is a little bus.  The word dolmus means squeezed.  And sometimes we get squeezed when the driver lets too many people get on.  Then we waited on a bus. When we got on the bus we went to a Turkish delight shop and we ate halva.  The chocolate halva was the best. 

Glad Tutu brought the umbrella.  It was hot.

Then we went to ancient city Ephesus.  Ephesus is really big but the guide said it was only 13% uncovered so far.  Most of the town is still under ground. Ephesus one of the best preserved ruins.  It was hot walking in Ephesus.

Restrooms.  Water was in trench
by his foot to wash bottoms.

We saw ancient restrooms called latrines.  The restrooms were only for Roman men.  The men all went in there together.  Gross!  


In the cold the slaves had to sit on the marble seats and warm the seats for their masters.  There was water flowing in a little trench in front of the seats.  The men or their slaves would wet sponges in that water and then clean themselves after using the restroom.  Sometimes the slaves would clean their masters bottoms and sometimes the rich Roman man would do it himself.  But the slave always had to clean the sponge afterward.  YUCK!  The slaves and women could not use the latrines.  They had to use the fields.  I'm glad we don't have those rules today.

Hercules Gate.  It was in middle of the main road.  The columns made the
road get narrow so wagons could not go down this road.  It was for
walking people.

Library of Celsus

We saw the Library of Celsus, which means Library of Caesar.  It was the first and largest library in the world.  It was a huge building.  There were only 2 libraries in the ancient world.  This one and one in Alexandria Egypt.  Tutu said there also was one in China but the guide did not talk about that one.








Ephesus also was the first place in the world to start a bank.  The guide called it the Bank of Asia.  He said Ephesus was the financial capital of the world.  Kind of like New York City today.  Rome was the government capital but Ephesus was the money capital.

Ephesus had largest theater in ancient world

Down the road from the library was the largest theater in the ancient world.  The sound worked really good.  Another man in our tour group stood on the stage area and said "Friends, Romans, Countrymen.  Lend me your ears."  Zachary sat in seats in the middle about halfway as high as they would let you go, and he said he could hear the man good.  The guide said that the theater was even larger.  They know there are 2 more levels of seating that have not been dug up yet and put back in place.




The first advertisements in the world were in Ephesus.  The first advertisement was for brothels, which is disgusting.  Tutu told me what a brothel was.  The guide didn't tell us.  Stones were put in the street near the harbor.  They put the woman's name and a drawing of her on the stone.  They also put a heart that was broken and a circle that looked like money coins.  And a big footprint.  They had different shape footprints for different women.  If a sailor had a broken heart and some money, he could find a stone of a women he liked and follow the footprints to that woman's house or brothel and have her company to ease his broken heart.  Papa said that later they invented addresses and phone numbers.  I made a drawing of how the guide said these advertisements looked.

                                                                                                                                                                                        Tutu and I saw the House of the Virgin Mary, also called Mother Goddess Mary's House.  Virgin Mary came to Ephesus with St. John after Jesus was crucified.  She lived there for the rest of her life.  The red bricks and stones were the original house.  The regular stones were added to rebuild it.  I wrote a prayer note and sprinkled it with holy water and put it on the stone wall with the other notes left by other people.  Her house was a small chapel with no bed or table.  I don't see how she could have lived there with no bed and no table.  We washed our hands in holy water.  There were policemen with big guns.  The guide said the policemen were there to keep away crazy terrorists with silly religious ideas.  We did not have a camera to take pictures because Papa kept it.  Papa and Zach went to the Ephesus Museum while we went to Virgin Mary's house.  Here is a link to a page that shows what the house looks like and tells some things about it.
House of the Virgin Mary

Delightful Turkey Summer

I  just arrived in Turkey 2 weeks ago, it feels 1 hour ago!  I forgot to tell you guys that its great that you can read my blog. 


First when we got off the boat in Fethiye we went on a walk . On our walk we went on the road to a Turkish ice cream wagon. Turkish ice cream is not fast melting ice cream.  Click on this link to see a Turkish ice cream man:  
An example of what Turkish ice cream man does

Lounging on mizzen deck

How to relax when the sun is too hot

Then we went to the harbor master and Papa had our names added to the crew list,and on our way back we saw a giant turtle (we also saw his dog friend, too.)  

Dinghy driving lesson.  I did not hit our boat.

When  we left  Fethiye  we went  to Tomb Bay. We swam and kayaked and we also went hiking.   Papa taught me how to drive the dinghy.

One of the white goats

After Tomb Bay we went to Kucuk Kuyruk  (This means Rear End.  The bay is shaped like someone's rear end.  That is funny.)  There were lots of goats on the mountains at Kucuk Kuyruk.  I wanted to go pet them but Tutu said no.


We kayaked a lot at Kucuk Kuyruk.

The water was really pretty at Kucuk Kuyuk.

Then we  went to a market anchorage.  It made the boat roll so much I thought I would fall out of my bed.  When we tried to leave the wind was too strong. So we sailed for fun for a few hours and Papa ran the watermaker.  Then we went back and stayed there for two more days.  (Note from grandmother:  a 'market anchorage' is what she calls any anchorage that has a small grocery store.  Most anchorages we have visited have been uninhabited.)

Loggerhead turtle eating crabs at Caunos

 In the market anchorage we also took a tour boat that took us to a river that led up to a huge ancient city (Caunos).  We walked around some and saw an old Roman theater.  It was not the kind that had gladiators.  

Roman theater at Caunos

Castle way up there on top

Tutu dropped her handkerchief and had to go back to the theater to find it while Papa showed us the Roman baths and explained how it used to be.  There was a castle way up on top of a hill but we did not have time to walk up there.

A picture off the internet of the tombs that
were too far away for us to see very good

We were supposed to see some rock tombs but those were too far away up the river to see much.  The tour guide wanted more money to take us there but Tutu said no because she did not want to spend any more money on this tour and we also wanted to hurry and get back to the boat to leave.  There were huge loggerhead turtles in the marsh entrance that ate crabs.  None of us knew that turtles like to eat crabs.  

Pigging out picking crabs

Papa bought some cooked crabs and we later ate these on the boat.  I love steamed blue crabs!  These were boiled instead of steamed but they were still pretty good.


When we left again we changed plans ,and went to Mamaris and docked in the marina right in town.  We walked through the old bazaar and went to Papa's favorite place for lunch and ate chicken doner kebabs made by the Samarai Kebab Man.  That man is funny.  He has a really long knife that he uses to cut the chicken off the round thing.  Doner kebabs are chicken and lettuce and tomatoes wrapped in a big tortilla.  Tastes pretty good.  I like these better than the gyros we ate last summer in Greece.


We were squished in the 1st marina we went to,so we moved to Yat Marin. We are now so far away from the pool ,which is the main reason we came.       


That's all we've done lately so keep following and enjoy.

Cooling off in pool at Yat Marin

  

Naxos -- the Mexican food place!

We went to Finikis after Delos. My parents and I went to town to explore.   We bought something for my baby brother and the shop owner gave me a gift.  They do that here.  He said it was for me to remember the island of Syros.  He gave me a tiny boat.  

Old Venetian Museum window

Then next we went to Naxos.  I wanted to go horseback riding but the minimum ride was for 3 hours and my mom said that was too long.  Zachary and I wanted to go to the  Aqua Fun place but we never had time.


We went to Picasso's to eat Mexican food and I had nachos.  They were scrumdididlyumptios!  After dinner they gave us tiny margarita-like things.  Mine was like a strawberry slushie.  It was delicious!  Then we walked around Naxos for awhile.  We stopped in a vegetable store and Tutu bought some tiny things that she thought looked like greenish figs.  But when we got back to the boat and she cut one open, it turned out to be tiny pears.  They tasted horrible!  We threw them away.

Temple of Apollo in Naxos

There was another Temple of Apollo on Naxos.  There was not much left of it.

S/V BeBe on end of dock in Naxos

We stayed in Naxos several days.  One day we walked up through the old Naxos Town all the way up the hill to see the Old Venetian Museum.  We looked out some windows and could see our boat at the dock below.

Delos

Lions on Delos

We took a ferry from Mykonos to the ancient sacred island of Delos.  We saw a lot of wells. Apollo and his sister Artemis were born there. We also saw the 4 lions that guarded Delos.  Mom read in the guide that there used to be 19 lions guarding Delos, but there were only 4 there now.   One of the lions was made to look ugly.  It had an ugly head.  Some pirates had attacked and destroyed the original head and they made a replacement head that was ugly.  They sent the ugly head lion to guard a church in Venice.

Temple of Apollo on Delos

My dad and my cousin hiked all the way to the top of the mountain.  

Tumbled outdoor theater seats

We saw a large outdoor theater with stone steps and seats all up the hillside.  My dad said that was the original Nintendo.  


We saw the mansion of the Trident.  There were mosaic tiles on the floors and the walls. 






 

Mykonos & my baby brother is here!

Drunk ice cream

After Kythnos we returned to the dock at Finikas for a couple of days.   We went back to the hot dog place to eat.  The owner was drunk.  But he was able to cook hot dogs and french fries.  He put tiny tridents on the french fries to use like forks.  Then we went somewhere else and bought ice creams.

Then we went to Mykonos.  My Mom and Dad and baby brother Damien were coming to Mykonos on a ferry.  The wind was blowing really hard when we backed up to the dock in Mykonos and blew our boat against the dock.  It made a tiny scratch.  Papa was angry about that because it was the first scratch ever on the boat.


The next day we walked to the other side of the harbor and waited for the ferry to arrive.  Damien was asleep in his seat that rolls.  It was very hot.  


The next day some of us took the bus into Mykonos town.  We saw Mr. Pelican.  He was posing.  He was a posing pelican   He was kind of pink.










We also walked up to some old windmills on a hill.  It looked down on an area they called Little Venice by the water.  We walked around and found a place to eat pork gyros and ice cream.  I had chocolate fully loaded with chocolate chips.
Nearby was a jewelry shop that was having a Crisis Prices sale because the Greek government is broke.  Mom bought me a turquoise bracelet with a freshwater pearl and a good luck eye to ward off the evil.  It also has a blue stone and a silver flower.  I like it.


While we were in Mykonos Town we found a restaurant that made fresh pasta.  Mom said we would go eat there the next day after we returned from seeing the island of Delos.  This restaurant had all colors and shapes of pasta on display tables outside.

Pretty colored pasta in all shapes and sizes

Next day we went back to town.  Mr.Pelican was still there.  I think he is tame. We got on a ferry that went to Delos.

Busting bronco riding

It is fun if Papa doesn't go too fast!!!

We stayed at Finikas on the island of Syros for 9 days.  We liked staying here.  We turned on the air-conditioning at night so the bugs wouldn't bite me and Tutu.  We could watch movies a lot because we had electricity.  One night we went to a restaurant for ice cream deserts.  It was very good.  One day we went for a walk and found a store selling a riding float thing to pull behind a dinghy.  Papa bought it for us.

Motoring the last bit

Finally the wind wasn't too bad so we left.  We sailed really fast back to Kythnos island.  Sailing fast is a little scary, but I liked it.  

Riding Rider

Getting on Rider

We went back to the bay and beach that we liked so much before.  Papa took us to the beach to play after the sun wasn't so hot.  Then before dinner Papa took us riding on the new float thing.  We named it Rider.

Pulling me slowly

The next day we played on the beach again.  Tutu said it was too crowded to ride on Rider again.  It was Saturday and a lot of boats came down from Athens and lots of people were swimming.  Tutu said we had been in the sun enough, so we stayed inside the boat  in the afternoon and played dominoes.   Then we watched more Horatio Hornblower and more M.A.S.H. 


I saw some people putting up a tent on the beach.  I wanted to camp out.  So Tutu let me sleep in the cockpit by myself.  At the crack of dawn I woke up and I was thinking of going downstairs and playing on my DS, but everyone else was still asleep so I just went back to sleep.

Pulling me a little faster

Then we cleaned the boat because we are Swabs.  We are not Midshipmen yet.  Papa said he will give us a test later and if we pass the test then we will get a Midshipman certificate.  Next summer we can take a test to be Lieutenants -- if we pass the Midshipman test this summer.


After we cleaned the boat we played on Rider.  Then we went to the beach.  Since I had not eaten breakfast, I ate breakfast on the beach.  I ate a banana.  Then I dug a hole and buried the peeling so I would not litter the beach.  They don't have trash cans here.  I bet a goat will find the hole and dig up the banana peel and eat it.  There are lots of huge goats here on the mountains on both sides of the beach.


A boat broke its rope tied to the rocks this afternoon.   A lot of the boats tie ropes from the back of their boats to the rocks on shore.  Tutu and Papa don't like to do this.  They like to stay out in the middle of the water.  The people were not on this boat.  It floated away on its anchor chain and it scraped the other motor boat next to it.  I would be mad if a boat scraped my boat like that.  They should not leave their boat with no one on it to take care of it.