Hello,
We enjoyed the rest of our time in Bergama and our visit to the Acropolis was good, there is a cable car to the top and the weather was a bit grey and overcast -excellent for sightseeing.I knew this was the last of our trips to ancient Roman ruins as our next culture will be Ottoman in Istanbul!! The Temple of Athena was based on the Acropolis. Bergama was also the place where parchment was developed which resulted in the concept of books rather than rolled papyrus.
After our trek in the morning we spent the early evening at the Hammam, this was my first visit ever and I wasn't sure what to expect. Usually when you hear the word baths you imagine something to soak in? For those of you who have been you will know this is not the case, you just sit in either the cold or the hot room on marble slabs and pour dishfulls of water over yourself. There are separate baths for men and women and I imagined a place of quiet and solitude NOT! There was a family group with children , shouting and screaming and four girls in their early twenties celebrating the engagement of one of them, as they danced and sang together.
When my turn came I was staggered at how much dead skin was rubbed off by that sandpaper mitt but felt wonderful and clean afterwards.We opted to try the hammam in Bergama as at the beach there were new purpose built places aimed at tourists and Istanbul will be busy. In sleepy little Bergama it was just the locals in a building from 1550!!
Next day we set off for Ayvalik for a couple of days beside the sea, no ruins , no history just the Aegean sea. The bus took us to an out of town bus station and then a dolmus into town. For once on this trip we hadn't booked accommodation in advance, we are out of season!! I left Chris in a coffee shop and went in search of a place. The prices varied from 130TL to 60 TL (3.5 =£1) and so did the quality. In the end I opted for the Kaptan Hotel for 90TL where we have the end room with 4 floor to ceiling to floor old windows and a door out to our balcony with a view to die for. Breakfast is excellent and we have been very pleased with our little side trip.
This part of Turkey is quite close to Greek islands so we had the crazy idea of a day trip to Lesbos, 90 minutes away by ferry. We didn't really have any plans for when we got there so we ended up hiring a 150cc motorbike and spent a few hours tootling along the coast eventually finding a restaurant for lunch. It was a little hamlet on a bend on a road with a view of the sea. Lunch was aubergine and tomato and courgettes stuffed with rice and mint (the latter was fabulous) then I had small fish and Chris had pork ( thank heavens for the Christians!!). Both of the main courses came with one lettuce leaf and then we had very sticky , very rich and very yummy Greek baklava and coffee and in honour of being in Greece I had an ouzo. The bill was 47 euros which is a staggering 135 lira, nearly half our daily budget!! The setting was lovely but it was not good value and its 10 years since my last visit to Greece and at these prices (3euro for an espresso) it won't be on my list soon!! We got back to Turkey pretty shatterred after our international jetsetting!!
Yesterday we opted for a quiet day so took the little shared taxi across to Cunda island, it is linked by road to Ayvalik. Fairly nice harbour front, but we didn't stay long, we had a tea and watched the coastguard boat with illegal immigrants on board. Then we got the ferry back which was a lovely half hour trip across the bay. Chris is not feeling too good having developed a bit of man trouble which has him walking like John Wayne!! We had a nice meal last night right on the waters edge and then sat on the balcony enjoying the view.
Today we are off on the bus to Cannakale, then across on the ferry to Eceabat to hopefully
visit Gallipoli , if Chris is better. If not we will head straight up to Istanbul tomorrow morning , to hopefully the highlight of the trip.........
Till next time
Norma xx
We enjoyed the rest of our time in Bergama and our visit to the Acropolis was good, there is a cable car to the top and the weather was a bit grey and overcast -excellent for sightseeing.I knew this was the last of our trips to ancient Roman ruins as our next culture will be Ottoman in Istanbul!! The Temple of Athena was based on the Acropolis. Bergama was also the place where parchment was developed which resulted in the concept of books rather than rolled papyrus.
After our trek in the morning we spent the early evening at the Hammam, this was my first visit ever and I wasn't sure what to expect. Usually when you hear the word baths you imagine something to soak in? For those of you who have been you will know this is not the case, you just sit in either the cold or the hot room on marble slabs and pour dishfulls of water over yourself. There are separate baths for men and women and I imagined a place of quiet and solitude NOT! There was a family group with children , shouting and screaming and four girls in their early twenties celebrating the engagement of one of them, as they danced and sang together.
When my turn came I was staggered at how much dead skin was rubbed off by that sandpaper mitt but felt wonderful and clean afterwards.We opted to try the hammam in Bergama as at the beach there were new purpose built places aimed at tourists and Istanbul will be busy. In sleepy little Bergama it was just the locals in a building from 1550!!
Next day we set off for Ayvalik for a couple of days beside the sea, no ruins , no history just the Aegean sea. The bus took us to an out of town bus station and then a dolmus into town. For once on this trip we hadn't booked accommodation in advance, we are out of season!! I left Chris in a coffee shop and went in search of a place. The prices varied from 130TL to 60 TL (3.5 =£1) and so did the quality. In the end I opted for the Kaptan Hotel for 90TL where we have the end room with 4 floor to ceiling to floor old windows and a door out to our balcony with a view to die for. Breakfast is excellent and we have been very pleased with our little side trip.
This part of Turkey is quite close to Greek islands so we had the crazy idea of a day trip to Lesbos, 90 minutes away by ferry. We didn't really have any plans for when we got there so we ended up hiring a 150cc motorbike and spent a few hours tootling along the coast eventually finding a restaurant for lunch. It was a little hamlet on a bend on a road with a view of the sea. Lunch was aubergine and tomato and courgettes stuffed with rice and mint (the latter was fabulous) then I had small fish and Chris had pork ( thank heavens for the Christians!!). Both of the main courses came with one lettuce leaf and then we had very sticky , very rich and very yummy Greek baklava and coffee and in honour of being in Greece I had an ouzo. The bill was 47 euros which is a staggering 135 lira, nearly half our daily budget!! The setting was lovely but it was not good value and its 10 years since my last visit to Greece and at these prices (3euro for an espresso) it won't be on my list soon!! We got back to Turkey pretty shatterred after our international jetsetting!!
Yesterday we opted for a quiet day so took the little shared taxi across to Cunda island, it is linked by road to Ayvalik. Fairly nice harbour front, but we didn't stay long, we had a tea and watched the coastguard boat with illegal immigrants on board. Then we got the ferry back which was a lovely half hour trip across the bay. Chris is not feeling too good having developed a bit of man trouble which has him walking like John Wayne!! We had a nice meal last night right on the waters edge and then sat on the balcony enjoying the view.
Today we are off on the bus to Cannakale, then across on the ferry to Eceabat to hopefully
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| The walkway from the sleeping rooms to treatment rooms in one of the earliest examples of a psychiatric hospital |
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| Acropolis-Bergama |
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| Aegean at night |
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| Lunchtime on our day trip to Greece |
Till next time
Norma xx
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