News from the Interzone: Ephesus, Late Summer 2001

(this text is incomplete) well it seems that I left off my ramblings a nearly a year ago (May 2001) with Dave and I heading out into the Greek islands. The events of the summer and then the immense events of the globe overtook my writing and so I find myself looking back at the immensity of an entire year of meandering, explorations, learning, fine cuisine, life and love.

hmm... where to begin? I suppose where I left off is as good a place as any, though it seems so immensely remote now...

well after a day in Ephesus, laughing at the tourists and marveling at the archeological works of the Austrian team, who it would seem are as much to blame for the popularity of the site as the ancients themselves, we spent a night (thankfully only a night; what a hole!) in Kusadasi. There was one amusing occurrence there however; there was an American guy at our pensiyon who lived in Tirana, Albania. In the course of conversation it turned out he was from Detroit and had a background in television production, as did Dave. So it turned out that what he was a producer of was Jerry Springer. And in fact he even took credit for the original notion of going tabloid and making it the crass product the world knows it as- indeed originally it had been quite a serious talk show... well in any case now he does missionary work in the Balkans, paying for his sins as it were. He filled me in on many details about modern Albanian history about which I had known next to nothing. It truly sounds like an incredibly bleak place. In any case we set out the following morning on the ferry for Samos, where we arrived soon thereafter and spent a few relaxing hours in the harbor before embarking on a ferry for Mykonos.

We arrived in Mykonos in the evening and soon found a hotel in the center of town at the MattoGianni hotel. Shortly thereafter we headed out on the town and enjoyed a few drinks as the wind blew in over the Aegean- excellent. Over the next five days or so we spent quality days on the island, going to a couple of beaches, eating in the harbor, spending time with friends. Dave spent a lot of the time working on his novel, while I was engaged in reading Plato's Republic. Altogether very pleasant. We went and spent two good days out on Delos, magnificent home of Apollo and Artemis, of which I have written extensively elsewhere.

As Dave was to meet his girlfriend in Santorini we headed south and disembarked on the volcanic isle in the southen Aegean. It is a truly spectacular view from the Caldera of Fera town- a sight only to be rivalled by the future sight of the entire town tumbling down the precipice in a massive earthquake. It is surely bound to happen eventually and is likely to be devastating. I was keen for the beach and so I left Dave at a nice hotel in Fera town and headed myself down to Perissa beach where I had spent two weeks back in 1996. Perissa is far more developed than I had left it 6 years before but still has a lot of charm. It has a gravelly black sand beach, not terribly aesthetic on the feet but nice enough to look at and with a good atmosphere. But what makes the place is the nightlife; lots of fun- only a few nightclubs really but lots of nice people, good music and some decent food. I still had a few friends from six years before and at least three of us had independently decided to return at the same time in the same year, six years later, always a fun thing. I would have more to say about Santorini and Perissa but there are some weird vibes out there and despite all the good times and the many friends I made there, I also had some significant problems with a couple of locals which required my departure; my personal modus operandi dictates that I listen closely when Hermes sends me a message.

I left Santorini, really with reluctance and a bit of sadness, stopping for a single day on my way back to Mykonos where I spent another week, reading, dancing, drinking and soaking up the sun before heading back to Turkey via Samos. I blew through Samos and Kushadasi with all rapidity and took a quick bus down along the coast to Bodrum, where I stayed in the harbor beneath the masts of the yachts and the parapets of the Castle of the knights of St John. Some friends there who run a dive school were having a good time after one classes' graduation, and I played DJ for one night. A couple of days later I flew back to Istanbul.

I was glad to be back and indeed early summer, before it's too hot, is a gorgeous time to be there. I spent time with my friends and engaged myself in some serious language studies immersing myself in a text of Turkish readings along a graduated path of difficulties and re-embarked on my vocabulary acquisition adventures. I had decided some months earlier that I was frustrated learning vocabulary piecemeal and so I determined to memorize the small Langescheidt Turkish-English dictionary by the medium of flash cards. Since then I have learned about 1500 words, attacking the words mostly on a letter by letter basis. I am left with the largest dictionary entries, most prominently the 'M's and the 'I's- i intend to familiarize myself with those over the summer. Friends of ours own a nightclub in Taksim, historic Pera, near the old foreign quarter, and we spent many evenings there dancing and singing along with the live music there.

Also in this time in mid-June 2001, I had the immense good fortune and happiness of being immersed in a passionate romance with a beautiful and brilliant young lady whom I had met in the previous summer. Moreover this relationship soon superceded all other activities and indeed remains my predominant fixation and blessing in life. Her name is Seha Karadeniz and she is a simultaneous translator; I really can't say enough nice things about her and if I started now I should never stop writing; suffice to say that I love her a lot and she has brought great joy and happiness into my life.

Seha and Toby mugging for the camera!

But city life can get to you in the summer in the city- hot child in the city, running wild and looking pretty; so Tefvik and I headed down to the northern Aegean coast for a bit to blow off aome steam. We chose one of my favorite places in Turkey, the old Greek hillside town of Assos, just across from the isle of Lesbos. It was once the home of the philosopher Aristotle, and although it has not played a prominent role in history, it is perhaps for that very reason that the ancient demeanour of the place has maintained its historical aspect. The ruins of the old town tumble down the side of the mountain down towards the sea. Every level of occupation from the founding of the city down to the present is represented but the government has wisely, even surprisingly protected the area from development. The modern town has an ordinance that you cant build out of brick or concrete and so the old stone of the ancient buildings fuses into the homes of the farmers and others who live in the town. The town is still a good representative in many ways of old Anatolian peasant life while being only a days drive from Istanbul and Izmir, remarkable really. The scenery is magnificent with the Aegean coast stretching out to the east and west and Mytiline looming just across. Down below is the harbor town, slightly more developed and touristy but still pleasant enough and with a few good restaurants and places to swim. There is no beach to speak of in the town really which has probably helped to protect the place from development as well.

At the top of the hill on the acropolis of the old city surrounded as it is by walls, originally Hellenistic, but rebuilt over and over by Romans, Byzantines, Ottomans and whoever else happened to be in control over the ages, there are the remains of a fine classical temple to Athena. The temple dates to 530 b.c.e. The temple is Doric with Ionic features- the peristasis had 13 temples on the sides and 6 on the ends. The reliefs from the temple are now in museums in Paris, Boston and Istanbul. The temple is 238 meters up. Along the terraces of the southern slopes of the acropolis are a Roman agora, a gymnasium and a theatre, as well as the remains of a northern and southern stoa along the ends of the agora. There is also a prostyle temple near the agora, later converted into a church which has not been identified. There is also a bouleuerion and a bema near the end of the agora.

Assos""*********************

My visa needed to be renewed so in July, 2001, I took ten days and went to Holland for a brief sojourn there. I have written extensively about the Netherlands in previous episodes so I will spare the details of this journey for now. I returned to Istanbul and soon thereafter headed south as two friends were about to get married. So I flew down to Dalaman on the Turquoise coast and took a night bus to the same hotel where Dave and I had stayed near Oludeniz, the Manzara hotel. It is indeed a very nice place, with gorgeous gardens and a spectacular view of the coast and the valley below. All the region around there is beautiful and filled with the stunning ruins of the ancient Lycian civilization along with the cultural remains of all the great historical rulers of Anatolia. My friends arrived soon thereafter with their families and we went on a few good day trips, seeing amazing sites such as Xanthos, the Saklikent Gorge, and Patara. Additionally the beach by this time was in full swing and despite the over-development of the area and the beach, and the hordes of frightening English package tourists, we had a fine time there.

Kash August 2001 Kash has a nice harbor area to recommend it and is pretty laidback in comparison to other seaside towns such as Bodrum or Fethiye, but there is an active nightlife and indeed Kash is also the home to what seems to be the best reggae bar in Turkey, albeit with no rastas.

See if I am online!