This is the second part of my day in Türkiye. The first Türkiye blog post is here. By this point, we have explored the ruins of Ephesus, but we still have another whole half of a day to spend in this country. There will be more exploring of ruins and religious sites, but there was a surprise waiting for us after we finished eating lunch.
We made a quick stop at the remains of the Temple of Artemis, which was another one of the seven wonders of the ancient world (at this point, I have already visited the reported site of the Colossus of Rhodes). From seeing recreated pictures, the Temple of Artemis used to be a grand Greek temple, but now, not much of anything remains. There is a nice view of what looks like a castle or a fort in the distance.
We stopped for lunch with a disappointing offering of vegetables and meat on a stick. I forgot to take pictures of the food. As we were walking back to our bus, an eager gentleman lured us into his rug shop to take a tour of his facility. This was when the day got weird.
The gentleman led us through a hallway adorned with pictures, carpets, and rugs that were exquisite and looked like they were of high quality.
The gentleman showed us a work station where a lady was diligently working on hand-crafting a rug. She would add each thread by hand to create a rug pattern. The gentleman told us that to hand-craft a rug could take as long as a year to create. There were machines where the woman can spin strands of silk from balls of thread soaking in the water.
A room where a group of people showed us a collection of their rugs for purchase was waiting for us. There were small carpets and big rugs with different patterns and made with different materials that give you a different feeling when you walk on them. Many of these rugs were in the thousands of dollars and no one was interested in buying anything that expensive. It was obvious that the gentleman saw this big group of tourists and was desperate to try to sell their product. I felt like I was watching a timeshare presentation. In some ways, this felt like the quintessential Turkish experience.
After what seemed like an eternity (which was about 45 mins in reality) and a delicious glass of Turkish apple juice later, the Turkish rug prison released us and we could finally board our bus. There were also vendors selling jewelry at this facility but I just wanted out of there.
The next stop was a Turkish supermarket, which sold all kinds of general goods. There was a table that had samples of local Turkish goods, including dried fruits, coffee, tea, spices, and more. We were able to buy goods at a discount at this store. The most memorable this at this supermarket was when the lady working at the store was demonstrating how to use menthol crystals to clear sinuses. She put some crystals in a cup and filled it with hot water. The reaction created a smell that was much more potent than Vicks Vaporub. It did the job of clearing sinuses, but that smell was horrible!
We bought and tried some of the local Turkish beer. The beer was okay. I liked the normal lager beer, but the malt and light beers were not anything special.
The next stop was the House of the Virgin Mary. Some practitioners of the Roman Catholic faith believe that Mary, mother of Jesus, lived the remainder of her life on Earth at this house. You walk through a path with an old baptismal pool and a statue of Mary. You then come to the house itself, which is a chapel. The caretakers of the property did not allow me to take pictures or videos inside the chapel. When you walk into the chapel, you see a single large room with an altar and a statue of Mary, among other religious ornaments.
Outside the chapel, there were places where you could light a candle and say a prayer for yourself (and/or for others). There was also a wishing wall where you can write a message on some paper and tie it to the wall. Finally, there was a water fountain, where some pilgrims say has miraculous healing powers.
After the House of the Virgin Mary, the bus took us back to the cruise ship, which marks the end of my day in Türkiye. It was certainly an interesting trip, but I had the funny feeling that this will not be the only visit to Türkiye I will make. I will certainly try to come back to visit this country again, as Türkiye has some beautiful cities and places worth exploring.
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