Let’s Talk Türkiye
Well who needs a wake up call when you have a (very loud) call to prayer booming across town at 6:05am?
Our first port of call today was Pergamum (now Bergama), one of the 7 churches mentioned in the book of Revelation in the bible. Shenon pointed it out way up on top of the hill and explained that we’d be getting a cable car to the top as long as it wasn’t too windy. Disembarking the bus and almost being bowled over by the stiff breeze, we wondered firstly, ‘Will they close the cable cars down today?’ and secondly, if they are still operating, do we really want to be swinging around up there like a dangling tea bag.
There was good news and bad news. Yes, the good news was they were open and in operation for now (the ‘for now’ sounding a bit ominous) and the bad news, we’d be swinging around up there like a dangling tea bag because it was seriously windy again. Whoever coined Chicago as the windy city obviously hadn’t ever travelled to the west coast of Türkiye.
Our gondola had 8 of us tightly packed so the weight minimised the swinging but Toby reckons his was blowing all over the place. The empty cable cars going down past us were coming perilously close to bashing into us, bouncing around on the cable.
We gathered at the top of the hill, for a rollcall (thankfully all deposited up there safely) and from 300m up, the views across the valley were spectacular. We had a vast array of ruins before us, including the steepest ancient theatre ever known, tumbling down the mountainside and giving a whole new meaning to nosebleed seats. Constructed in the 3rd century BC, its capacity was 10,000!
Shenon explained that after Alexander the Great died, his 4 major generals tussled over territory for about 10 years, putting a bit of a strain on the friendship wouldn’t you say? After a decade of trying to kill each other they sat around a table where I imagine you could’ve cut the air with a knife (or a thrusting spear) and they divided all the territory into 4. How civilised.
Pergamum became the capital of the region and one of the most stunning and culturally vibrant cities of the ancient world. Now a UNESCO World Heritage site, there are still traces of the city it once was. The tall columns of the temple can still be seen for miles around and the foundations of its once massive library are visible to this day. Apparently this comprehensive library contained 200,000 scrolls and was quiet jealousy-inducing for the rival ancient empires. Library goals. Egypt, in a bid to ensure their Alexandrian library should take out top spot, refused to supply papyrus to Pergamum, hoping to kerb their expansion. This dilemma triggered some creative thinking from the brains trust at Pergamum and from this very city came the invention of parchment, derived from animal skins. Take that Egypt.
History tells us that in 43-41BC, Egypt exacted revenge when Cleopatra requested Mark Antony burn Pergamum’s library down, stealing their tomes and shipping them back to bolster the shelves at Alexandria. The things we do for love.
While family went into explorer mode and found a whole set of tunnels to walk through, I stayed back at the temple for my own iPhone photography master class with Michelle. We were cracking each other up, taking upside down pics and almost mastering the 0.5 shots Maisy’s been coaching us in.
By the time we were ready to descend the mount, the wind had whipped up and they had closed the cable car. Poor Shenon had the unenviable task of having to order enough taxis to ferry 37 of us down the hill. Our driver thought he was in the Grand Prix and charged down the bendy road with great gusto. With no seatbelts in the back, we breathed a sigh of relief to have made it in one piece.
Just outside of Pergamum, in the gypsy area (though it’s no longer PC to call them that) were the ruins of a sizeable hospital - The Asklepion- named after Asklepius, the Greek god of medicine and dating back to the 4th century BC. A statue there, showing snakes drinking from a bowl, is where modern medicine gets its association with snakes.
One of our favourite stories involved patients doped up on opium, having to walk through an underground tunnel as they received ‘suggestion therapy’ from the doctors through holes in the roof, masquerading as Greek gods and whispering ‘You will be well. You will be well’. As we walked through the tunnel Toby tried it on us. All that was missing was the opium. This hospital only treated men, and then only those who had a good chance of survival. If anyone started looking too green around the gills they were turfed out so the hospital could keep their no mortality record intact. It would be another 709 years before early Christians would start general hospitals where women and children could also be treated.
The hospital site also had an impressive ancient theatre with a gorgeous marble-tiled stage, the tiles of which I’d happily use in my bathroom today. Dean, Molly and Sam found some little archways that led to tunnels that went the entire way around the back of the theatre- the ancient green room perhaps? They went in opposite directions and met in the middle. A little ‘perga-mud’ on their shoes was a small price to pay for their fun tunnel adventure. As we wandered the site, Jonathan spied a tortoise moseying across the grass.
We lunched in a fabulous Turkish diner with delicious pide, kebabs, yoghurt, beans and goat milk icecream. The proprietor finished our meal by breaking into a traditional Kurdish song, urging us all to clap along, before beckoning our very own Helen to join him in a little dance. She made us proud!
We’d hoped to catch up with our friends Di and Peter while we were here as they’re also in Turkiye but it turned out we would miss them by just a day. As we were heading towards Ephesus, they were leaving and we were watching closely on Find My Friends for the moment we passed on the highway. The back half of our bus was playing a giant game of spotto and we cheered when we saw their little red car zoom past!
As we made our way to the coast, at Kuşadasi, the landscape dotted all over with slender minarets, we could see the beautiful Aegean calling us in for a swim. Our rather swanky hotel has direct beach access, down to a pebbly beach tucked into a little rocky cove, with dark, craggy outcrops rising straight from the water on either side. Water temp was a bit brisk but it was so nice to float around in the sea again. The sunset was incredible too!
After a scrumptious dinner at the most comprehensive buffet any of us had ever seen in our lives, we procured the hotel TV room so we could watch the NRL Grand Final on delay. Toby and Sam worked hard to get us connected but then Handsome Jim saved the day when he somehow procured an HDMI cable. Towards the end of the game we were interrupted by a couple of Dutch football fans, insisting we get this sad excuse for a game off the tv and put on the Netherlands soccer at once! One guy was waving his hand dismissively at the rugby league, exclaiming: “that’s not sport!” Amy took one for the team, keeping him calm and in check. All went well until she told him she was Australian and he told her to ‘F’ off and go home! After Nic consoled him by revealing her Dutch heritage, he left us alone to finish watching the game in peace.
