Kuçadasi, and what does he do?

Kuçadasi & Ephesus, Turkey

Cruising is not exactly deep cultural immersion – it’s more like ticking off a bucket list with quick snapshots. So, our exotic stop was in the Turkish coastal resort town of Kuçadasi, a common port of call because of its proximity to Ephesus, one of the world’s best-preserved ancient cities. It felt like almost like being back in America with English signage and English speakers around the port, bargaining with you on the price of cab rides to get to the ruins. As always, we were determined to take the road less traveled, so we walked for an hour looking for transportation for the more authentic experience. After an hour of obstinate searching, we ended up in a $15 taxi ride to the Greek ruins almost a half hour away.

The city of Ephesus is amazingly preserved with the foundation of the entire city still relatively intact. We saw old roads, homes, temples, public centers, an amphitheater and even the communal bathroom from a few thousand years ago. One of the biggest attractions in the ancient city is an advertisement for a brothel etched into the ancient sidewalk. The waters have receded quite a bit, and the now hill-top town used to be a port city. Along the side of the road that led into the town from the water is an etching of a left footprint and a seductive shape of a lady with a headdress on— indicating to visiting sailors that there is a brothel on the left side of the road ahead.

Our Paparazzo looking back fondly at us

When you arrive at the ruins, you start at the top of the city, and shuffle your way down amongst the crowds of tour groups down the main road, taking in information on multi-lingual plaques along the way. A foreign tour group was passing by, and we asked a friendly looking guy if he could help take our picture. He was very excited to help. After our picture was taken he eagerly handed his friend his own camera, and jumped in to pose where we were standing. We moved quickly to get out of his shot, but he pulled us back in by his side so we could take a photo together. Then after we got a photo with the 3 of us, he shooed David away so he could take a picture with just him and his new friend Robin. As we all moved as a mob down this big road, our new friend had a wide grin as he watched us take photos of the ruins. Our new friend felt a bit like a stalker as he watched us for the next hour we were at the site.

After our afternoon was totally ruined (insert pun groan here), we took the long walk down to the road circling the mountain to catch the alternative transportation we’d try to find that morning. We’d read that there were dolmuş, large vans that operate as busses in Turkey, but earlier we couldn’t find one heading to the ruins from the port. Going back proved to be much easier. We were instructed to walk to the end of the road, and then cross the busy highway to wait at the side of the road where the dolmuş would stop. An elderly man with a walky talky saw us standing, looking lost and directed us to a cement platform on the edge of the small freeway.  While we waited, we were highly productive – we picked our own tuft of cotton from a bush at the edge of the highway, and spent the next 10 minutes separating out the seeds. (We plan to sell the world’s smallest sock when we return home).   Soon enough, we were packed into a minivan ambling back to center of Kuçadasi for a bit of wandering before hopping back on board the ship.

The vendors in the area our dolmuş stopped were a lot less tourist oriented than those by the port, and so a lot cheaper.  We picked up some handmade leather bracelets, Turkish Delight, and a handpainted bowl before heading back to the port. At the port, we decided we wanted to grab one more matching bowl (every store was selling them) but in the distance of our walk, the price had doubled.  Having only one makes it more special, right?