The Great European Adventure, Day 10: Kusadasi, Ephesus and Sirincefeatured

I’ll be honest – I had no real desire to visit Kusadasi. Istanbul, absolutely (which was part of the allure of the Norwegian Spirit cruise we’d been contemplating). But if you’d asked me to give you a list of the 100 places I had to visit before I die, you wouldn’t find Kusadasi on that list. It’s not because I’d heard bad things about Kusadasi. I just…never heard anything good, either. And I didn’t know much about it, which, in conjunction with the former, never leads to anything good.

But this day was a new day in a new place and a clean slate to start a day in a new country with is almost never a bad thing. When we woke up, we were docked in Kusadasi and the sun was streaming into our room. And, our excursion left a little later, so we had time to have a leisurely breakfast (al fresco, of course. At this point, we’d given up on finding tables inside on port days, but it’d been so nice out that we were beginning to prefer dining outside, anyways). This day was off to a good start.

After breakfast, we strolled up to deck 10 to check out the area. Kusadasi was more Cannes than Florence/Rome/Athens – heavily populated and plenty to see and do immediately outside of the dock. Mid-rise buildings clustered closely as far as the eye could see, with bold colors peeking out from the white facades.

Our meeting place for our tour for the day was the Masquerade Theatre, so we headed downstairs to divide and conquer – Mom got our stickers, Stephanie went to buy bottles of water and I…made sure I had enough space on my memory card for a day’s worth of pictures.

Since we’d waited until we were onboard and well into our voyage to book our tour for Kusadasi, most of the tours I’d wanted to go on were sold out. At the end of the day, the only real priority we had was to visit the ruins at Ephesus, so we chose a tour that allowed us a tour that combined a visit at Ephesus with some time in a nearby village: Ephesus and Sirince.

Spend the day witnessing historical monuments at the Ancient City of Ephesus and explore the authentic Greek village of Sirince. Your guided walking tour of Ephesus includes the Odeon, Fountain of Trajan, steam baths of Scholastika, Temple of Hadrian, Library of Celsius and the Grand. You’ll arrive at the Aegean village of Sirince, famous for wonderful vineyards, rich wine and the one-of-a-kind Orthodox Church of Sirince. Enjoy a traditional lunch at Ephesus Park. Conclude with carpet-weaving villages and shopping.

Exploring Ephesus

When our tour number (36) was called, we were escorted out to meet our bus and our guide for the day, Fatih. When we boarded the bus, along with the traditional receiver and ear piece we had on our seats on just about every tour (and, sidebar, let me say how much I hatedddddd those ear pieces. Never comfortable. Never loud enough. Never with a long enough cord. No me gusta), there was also a cold bottle of water on our seats and a welcome package, with an evil eye pin (to ward away evil spirits), a survey, a wet nap and a pencil.

As we pulled away from the port and started our drive towards Ephesus, Fatih began telling us the history of Turkey, frequently pointing to places on a map hanging at the front of the bus. Much of his lecture was actually interesting, but at some points, it felt like an attempt to convince a group of people that weren’t asking (or accusing) that Turkey wasn’t a part of the Middle East and wasn’t a Muslim nation. And maybe this is an issue – maybe people go onto these tours with these ideas in their heads and Fatih has to work through them. But it gave the tour a really…odd…vibe at times, so I stuck to looking out the window and taking pictures.

One helpful thing of note that we learned was that Turkey is not a part of the European Union, so while they’ll accept Euros (and dollars) at many places, the official currency of Turkey is the Lira. We didn’t bring any Lira with us, but we didn’t have any problems shopping with Euros.

The drive to Ephesus couldn’t have taken more than a half an hour and while Fatih went to get our entrance tickets, we looked around to see some interesting shops and stalls. Genuine Fake Watches, anyone?

Fatih led us into the site and began our guided tour. Ephesus was an ancient Greek city built in 10th century BC, one of the 12 cities of the Ionian League. At one point, it had a population of over 50,000. Over time, parts of the city were destroyed by invading groups. Much of the remains of the city were destroyed in an earthquake in 614 AD. The most well known structure in Ephesus was the Temple of Artemis, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. We didn’t get to see it since it’s not located within the larger Ephesus site we were exploring, but we did get to explore many of the other structures, like the Temple of Hadrian (built in 128 AD for Emperor Hadrian, who came to visit from Athens) and the Odeon (a grand outdoor amphitheater).

The paths through Ephesus are a couple of miles long, but it’s downhill, so not entirely strenuous. The larger issue was that Ephesus is a large, open space and the sun beats down pretty heavily in Turkey. Many people walked around with parasols. We just constantly reapplied sunscreen. It was hot. And Fatih, God bless him, insisted on keeping this a guided tour and talking us through every monument we saw. And he was incredibly long-winded. He didn’t seem to notice that people were constantly wandering off to either take pictures (since we weren’t really given any free time) or to seek shade. As interesting as the history lesson was, my finger was constantly itchy to press the shutter button and go explore the places my lens was finding.

We continued our walk through the site, passing by the carving of the Goddess Nike and some of the smaller structures and…walking through Ephesus was really like taking a walk back in time. Thousands of years ago, this was a bustling city and now, all that’s left is stones. It’s fascinating.

Our walk backwards in time continued and suddenly, right after we dodged the persistent photographer who was trying to get people to pose for pictures he’d later on hock on our tour bus as we were about to leave, we found ourselves in front of the most magnificent structure on the site: the Library of Celsus.

Built in 117 AD, the Library of Celsus was once the third largest library in ancient times, storing more than 12,000 scrolls. The tomb of Tiberius Julius Celsus Polemaeanus (a Roman senator and Governor of Asia) lays beneath the ground floor, the library a mausoleum built in his honor by his son. The interior of the library was destroyed in an earthquake, and the façade destroyed in another earthquake. It wasn’t until the 20th century when the exterior was reconstructed. Fatih told us of the illusion trick the ancient architects used – shorter columns on the side than in the center – to make the structure appear larger than it was.

The only free time Fatih allowed us in Ephesus was 15 minutes to walk around the library. I traced a path through the inside of the ruins, absolutely captivated by the beauty in front of me. The heat of being in the direct sunlight…the long-winded tourguide who wasn’t giving us much freedom to explore…all worth it for the 15 minutes standing inside what was left of the library.

At the risk of upping the level of schmaltz in this review and making my sister facepalm while reading this later (she hates the shmaltz — sorry, Stephie), there’s a special kind of feeling when you stand in front of something so magnificent, with such a rich history behind it. In one trip, I’d already experienced the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, Il Duomo and the Ponte Vecchio in Florence, the Trevi Fountain, Colosseum and Sistine Chapel in Rome, the Acropolis in Athens and now, the Library of Celsus in Ephesus. In ten days, I walked through so much of the ancient world. And we still had another week left in our trip and so many places left to explore. I didn’t know how it could get any better. I still don’t know how it can get any better than this.

Anyways, back to Ephesus. We spotted the menorah on the steps of the Library of Celsus, a symbol of some Jewish presence in this ancient city. A significant one, too – they have it marked and it draws quite the crowd around it.

We ducked out into whatever shadowed area we could find while we waited for the rest of our group to congregate. It wasn’t that hot in Turkey – upper 80s, maybe – but Ephesus is a completely open space with no shade (unless you’re hiding in the shadow of the ruins that hadn’t been completely blocked off). There’s a reason why every tour guide walks around with a parasol. Pro tip: don’t forget your sunscreen.

After we left the library, there was only one structure left to visit: the Odeon, that grand amphitheater with a capacity of 1500 that not only served as a stage for the arts, but also as a forum for political discussion and town halls. We only walked past the Odeon, Fatih insisting we not stop to take pictures because he’d take us to a better vantage point. I wish we’d had the chance to get up close and walk around. I could only imagine how vast the space feels from inside.

As we made our way to the end of the grounds, Fatih finally gave us some free time – to go through the market that was set up ahead of the parking lot (a theme we’ll revisit later on). He warned us that we shouldn’t buy souvenirs here because the prices wouldn’t be as good and that the Turkish Delight could be fake so we should buy it elsewhere. I don’t get how Turkish Delight can be fake (…it’s candy), but we didn’t plan on doing much shopping here anyways. The market was crowded. The vendors were aggressive. We pretty much beelined straight for the bus.

We thought the bus would be our safe space from the persistent vendors who were shouting at patrons who passed by their shops, but vendors would literally step onto the bus. “Turkish Delight! Two for ten dollars! Turkish Delight! Three for ten dollars. Very good price! Come on. Turkish Delight! Five for ten dollars!” And once the Turkish Delight fairy gave up and got off the bus, the paparazzo who stalked our group and Fatih insisted we stop for pictures for hopped on to hock the pictures he’d taken on his old school point and shoot. I wasn’t impressed.

Splendid Sirince

Our next stop after Ephesus was up to the small town of Sirince. Like Montserrat to Barcelona, Sirince is a small town up in the hills of Turkey. The drive up was steep and scenic, but I was distracted by the fact that everyone driving up into Sirince seemed to roll in a Beemer.

Our bus stopped at the Artemis Restaurant, where we got off to do a wine tasting. Fatih level-set the experience before we left the bus: these were not professional wine makers, but rather farmers who make wine from the fruit they harvest as a family business. We tried three different wines: pomegranate, peach and mulberry. They were too sweet for my tastes (like sipping on cough syrup, in all honesty), but they were selling bottles for €8 and many people picked a bottle or two up.

After our tasting, we had a half hour of free time to walk around Sirince. There were a few small shops and stalls near the restaurant where we had our tasting, so we stuck to there and did most of our souvenir shopping. The prices here were more than decent — €1 for a magnet, 3/€10 ceramic bowls, €10 Pashmina’s and €15 silk scarves – so we picked up the bulk of our souvenirs, mostly ceramic goods and scarves.

I wish we had more time to explore Sirince. We didn’t feel we had enough time to stroll further out that barely up the street, but it’s a charming village and there are many local artisans displaying their pieces, providing for some more authentic shopping. And it was one of the more beautiful places we found in Turkey, too. Free time was a valued rarity on this tour.

We promptly left after a half hour, lunch next on our itinerary.

Back to…”Ephesus”

It would have made sense to have lunch at the restaurant where we did our wine tasting. The food looked great. It had plenty of space. The patrons seemed to be enjoying themselves. But that wasn’t in the cards. Every tour that included lunch was held at Ephesus Park, a venue that was constructed literally just for tourists.

Ephesus Park consists of a dining hall, a very large shopping area and a pavilion for dramatic reenactments of ancient times. It reminded me of a really odd wedding hall because it felt so bizarrely sterile despite the decorations, probably because it’s a space that exists just for tours to take cruise ship visitors for a meal instead of taking them to an actual restaurant so they can funnel them into an overpriced souvenir shop.

A dramatic reenactment was beginning as we arrived, so Fatih made us sit through it before leading us to the dining hall. It was hot and everyone was tired and hungry, so I don’t think many of our group were excited. One of the actors got injured in a fake fight scene so the performance was cut short.

Lunch was served buffet style in a large hall. The lines were out of control, but the offerings were expansive in variety and delicious. And great tourmates made for great tablemates, so we had a great time.

After lunch, we walked around a bit, ultimately ending up in the shops.

The main shop was large and broken up into many areas (including it’s very own shop for Turkish Delight). The prices weren’t nearly as good as they were in Sirince (or even at the market in Ephesus), and I wondered if Fatih’s warnings to not do our shopping at the other spaces was so we’d be encouraged to spend more money here. Shopping here was like shopping at a souvenir department store. It was clean (bordering on sterile) and there was a ton of variety, but no personality or artisanship.

But, if you plan on participating in the weirdest souvenir competition back onboard, may I suggest some phallic shaped soap? Scrub a dub dub.

House of Mirrors

After lunch, our last stop was at a local carpet weaving school, so we could “learn and observe the art,” as Fatih explained it. These schools are board certified in Turkey, he said. A true artisan’s craft here.

So we entered the school and got a lesson in carpet weaving from the owner, pointing out the women perched on their cushions on the floor, fingers nimbly moving colored silk threads across their looms.

We learned how silk thread is harvested, shown how it takes months (and sometimes years) for these women to finish a single carpet. It truly is an art.

Unfortunately, this was all a case of smoke and mirrors (thankfully one we were prepared to deal with long before we stepped foot on Turkish soil). Once the owner walked us through the studio and we observed the work it takes to make a rug, we were led into the basement, through a long hallway that led into a room where we were advised not to take pictures.

Beautiful women came in carrying trays of beverages – Turkish tea, wine, coffee and the local specialty, an anise flavored liquor drink they call Lion’s Milk. And once everyone had a drink, two men started bringing in the carpets, flinging them left, right, all over the floor. Step on them, they’d say. Feel them under your feet. Touch them. Visualize them in your home. Dozens on top of dozens of rugs. They’d avoid questions on how much the rugs cost so they could tell you more about the artisanship, remind you of the women upstairs (on a Saturday afternoon) weaving away on a single piece for months and years at a time, press you to feel the quality. A small piece that’s only really big enough to hang as art? $500. Most of the rugs large enough to cover any kind of area in your home? Easily $8,000-$10,000.

Lets be real: if you can drop $10K on a rug, you probably aren’t visiting Turkey via mainline cruise ship and you probably aren’t buying your rug from the basement of Turkish rug weaving school.

Once the “presentation” was over and we were allowed to explore (or, as we were interested in doing, leaving to find the bus), for the life of us, we couldn’t figure out how to get out of the basement. They don’t let you leave the way you came in. This was literally some version of a Turkish house of mirrors. But we figured out how to get out: a special path out of the basement that somehow led from the carpet den into a fine jewelry store, which led into a gold store, to a fashion jewelry store, a high end souvenir store, a low end souvenir store, and finally, a snack hut out by the bus depot. I kid you not – I don’t even know how they had room for all of those stores and rooms. It was unbelievable.

My patience had worn thin at this point – the carpet presentation was supposed to be optional and we were not only given no option but to attend, but we were also forced through a maze to find our way out, our stop was prolonged by people not being able to figure out how to get out or trying to barter a multi-thousand dollar rug down to a couple hundred bucks and Fatih spent most of the ride back pontificating about religion and politics (and heavily alluding to tipping, making him the first guide in five ports to bring it up).

The end result was that our tour ran an hour and a half late, and the free time we were counting on to explore the markets near the ship was gone. We arrived back at the ship with a half hour until back aboard time. We stopped into some of the shops at the pier and found the souvenirs to be far below the prices we were promised by our tour guide to be the “best prices.” We felt nickeled, dimed and misled through nearly our entire visit, like our entire excursion was just one big sell for the company.

We had to go through security twice in Kusadasi: once at the pier and once entering the ship. Our passports had been collected at embarkation in Barcelona and were returned at the pier before we reembarked, which created some chaos as people tried to navigate the lines for passport collection and the lines for security. We made our way onto the ship just before all aboard and headed to the room to drop off our purchases and freshen up – we didn’t have much time before dinner.

I want to note, though, despite the heavy criticism that might drip from this post, I didn’t hate Turkey. Much to the contrary, in fact – I wish I had more time to explore (and I’m grateful to have a second chance to do so this May). But this was a perfect example of how the tour you take can color your experience in a new place. We’ll be more careful and mindful of that on our next visit.

‘Til Next Time, Turkey

We didn’t have a lot of time to sit on the promenade deck before our dinner reservation, but we had just enough to watch the ship pull away from Kusadasi.

We headed to the dining room to meet up with the crew who were becoming like our second family. They had their own nicknames for us, too – sometimes we were Charlie’s Angels. Other times, we were the Spice Girls. We lamented to Marc about our disappointment over the lack of free time and talked to Lloyd about his visit to the Virgin Mary House on his day off while we enjoyed the Italian-inspired fare served for dinner.

Antipasti

Arancini

Caprese Salad

Chilled Strawberry Bisque

Royal Shrimp Cocktail

Lasagna al Forno

Eggplant Parmigiana

Garlic Tiger Shrimp

Chicken Marsala

Tiramisu

Sticky Bread and Butter Pudding

Dessert Sampler

After dinner, we (predictably) headed out to the promenade to get some fresh air and watch the land fade off into the distance.

The sky was heavy with clouds, so once the sun disappeared into them, we headed inside to check out the souvenirs at the shops. Not only did we find most of the souvenirs we found at our stops, but they were better priced AND for an hour, they were an additional 20% off. I picked up some more ceramics and a box of apple tea, and to commemorate the hilarious disaster that was our time at the carpet weaving school, I picked up a woven silk bookmark (for a dollar, but I’m sure they would have hocked it for a hundred at that school).

So not all is lost if you find yourself on a tour that goes long with a long-winded tour guide who will pontificate on sensitive topics but will not give you enough free time to shop: the souvenirs on the shop are sometimes identical to the ones you find on land. I was impressed with Royal Caribbean’s strategy of bringing in new inventory daily. It’s an engaging way to keep people coming back to the shops. We stopped in on every port night just to see what new stuff they put out.

We headed back to the room and I took a nap while Mom started prepping for Santorini and Stephanie showered. By any other measure, falling asleep after dinner should just count as bed time, but vacation or not, I can’t make myself go to bed before 11:00.

The Theory of Everything was playing up on the poolside big screen, so that’s where we ended our night: watching a movie under the stars, sipping on fruit punch and eagerly anticipating our day in Santorini.