03 October 2003 Friday - Pergamom/Assos/Troy - 91 Photos

Today, we got up early and drove from Kusadasi toward the city of Chanakkale.

First, we visited the ancient Roman city of Pergamom.

Up at the top of a huge hill, there was a classical Roman ruins, but it was in pretty bad shape, so I wasn't impressed. We didn't stay long. Then we went down to another area below the hill, where there was the ruined remains of an ancient mental hospital and that was cool.

Sure, it had the obligatory columns,

but it also had some unique features. They used aroma therapy and "hydro-therapy" where the disturbed people were made to walk slowly in circles around a donut-shaped room

while listening to different water sounds made by pipes in the walls.

They also had a small theater where the disturbed people could put on performances as part of their therapy. I also saw a large lizard sunning himself there.

Next, we went to the ancient city of Assos. The scenery was more beautiful than the site itself,

but maybe I'm just getting tired of Roman ruins. I got a good photo of a man talking on his cell phone.

I got another good photo of Mete standing by some columns.

During the walk up the hill, there were several people selling goods who kept calling after us in Turkish. Being on a mission, we ignored them and kept walking, but Mete said something to them. We didn't ask what. When we left the site, I saw a lady selling some fuzzy socks and lacework and decided to stop and buy my mom a pair of socks.

A little bit further down the hill, Mete got into a small argument in Turkish with the vendors. When we got back in the car, I asked him what it was all about. It turns out that on the way up the hill, Mete told the vendors, "Don't waste your time. These are tourists, not shoppers, and they're not going to buy anything." Well, then we bought something from the lady with the fuzzy socks, so everyone was mad at Mete for lying. He was defending himself to them, saying something like, "Hey, don't blame me. They told me they weren't going to buy anything! They must have changed their minds."

After that, we drove to the ancient city of Troy, as in Helen of Troy, which is also known as the Trojan war. If I got my story straight, this is the city made famous by Homer in his story, "The Iliad."

It turns out that the city was used for a very long time, spanning thousands of years, and there are at least nine layers of excavations.

Some of the layers were better preserved than others. The archaeologists had all the layers figured out.

It was very cool to stand in such a famous place, but personally, I liked Termessos better.

Today was my mom's birthday, so when we got to the hotel late at night, I tried to call her. However, no matter how I dialed the phone, it didn't work. According to the front desk, I should dial "9-001," then the area code and number, but that didn't work. I tried varying numbers of zeros, but nothing worked, so I gave up.