Current music:

A turkish translation of 'Beyond the Sea'... odd...

Thermessos...
Or 'Termessos' as they call it here.

Thermessos - View from the theatre


Things are all good. Now in Selcuk, near Izmir. Ephesus was awesome. Almost had a few moments where I felt like I'd been transported back 2000 years... The restoration that they've done is really excellent. Walking down the marble-paved streets, lined with 10 meter columns of marble, you could almost think you were there...

Had a great guide too. Was only 2 of us on the tour in total, which made it very personal indeed. Seemed like the guide had actually played a part in the restoration over the last 30 years, as some kind of advisor, so he knew painfully minute details. Shared the tour with a nice English guy that's now working in Switzerland, with Roche. He was the youngest looking 38 year old I've ever met. Looked late 20s at the most!

Many stories to tell, not enough time to tell them. Just hope I can remember them all when I finally get a chance to write them down.

The guy that tried -- and failed -- to sell me fake 2000 year old coins was pretty good. I kept analysing the coins and declaring them fake, at which point he would admit that they were fake and then take out another pouch of more-elaborately fake coins. This happened 4 or 5 times until he said 'Ah, you want original coins! You come see my brother!', so off I trudge... his brother obviously failed, because at first he brought out a pouch of fake coins, just like the first ones I'd been shown. His 'brother' coughed and said something unintelligible, which is when he reached for his uber, mega bag of fake coins. Sadly, being fairly intelligent and having studied chemistry, I saw right through his ruse of a 'gold coin with medusa on it', which was meant to be 2500 years old. It felt an awful lot like lead, coated in brass. Gold doesn't corrode, see, but obviously tourists expect old coins to look corroded, so it'd been artificially oxidised... it was pretty classic stuff.

The 'silver' coins with copper oxide on them were pretty good too.

Finally, he told me that I had no clue about coins, and that he was trying to sell me a coin worth 800 euros, for about 25 euros... He told me to get lost! How cool is that? The peddler becomes the victim for once... hoorah for me.

Anyway, gotta sleep. Going to get up early and see if I can do something with my day before I fly off to Kayseri, my last port of call!

-S