John Edward Cooper’s Notes
Tuesday 16 July 2013
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[2013:
Turkey] [Monday 15 July 2013] Hotel Palmin, Kuşadası Janet slept well last night, which was regarded as a pre-requisite to “surviving” any full-day organised outings. She got up ca.8am; I used the bathroom, as is also the custom at home, after her; and we went down for breakfast ca.9am. (Given the way that the temperature climbs, it might have been better for us to set out earlier.) We were going to seek out Jordan after breakfast, but we saw her in the lobby, and booked a trip to Izmir on Friday. After breakfast, we went back up to our room to get our stuff, before heading out to get the dolmuş. We’d told the driver we wanted the “dolmuş station”, and when we passed one we asked him about it. He asked us where we wanted to go. We told him, “Selçuk”, and he dropped us off at a bus shelter from where the Selçuk dolmuş would go. 
Tuesday 16 July 2013 — 10:39:18 In the dolmuş. The text from the Qur’an is in Arabic spelled with Turkish characters: “In the name of God, the merciful, the compassionate.” 
Tuesday 16 July 2013 — 10:42:14 On the way out of Kuşadası The fare to Selçuk was only 5₤ each. Contrary to my observation on Saturday, there were plenty of signs to “Efes (Ephesus)”, and indeed the dolmuş stopped outside the entrance to the estate. If one had a good guide-book, a visit to Ephesus, therefore, would be readily doable by dolmuş, contrary to what Jordan advised. From the dolmuş station we wandered down the street, passing cafés all patronised only by men. We turned a corner and saw one, the Hadrian, with a woman sitting at the table, so we chose that. We hadn’t realised that she was there because she was the proprietress! I noticed on the menu Efes Dark, so I tried a bottle of that: a mild flavour belying its 6.1% a.b.v. (The decimal was marked with a point. Usage in Turkey varies: sometimes a point, sometimes a comma.) Janet had a Coke Light. We were also given a glass bowl of roasted nuts. 
Tuesday 16 July 2013 — 11:24:36 In the Hadrian bar We congratulated the heavy-smoking proprietress on the perfect cleanness of her toilets, and asked where we might find “the castle”. She, with the help of her husband (so I presume), gave us directions. It wasn’t far. Before it, though, we passed a tower topped with the first of many storks that we would see. 
Tuesday 16 July 2013 — 12:05:22 Stork on the tower of the little Akıncılar (?Raiders) Mosque, Selçuk Then some ruins: remnants of arches, which I later saw were part of a Byzantine aqueduct; and several stone pillars. 
Tuesday 16 July 2013 — 12:07:46 Byzantine aqueduct, Selçuk 
Tuesday 16 July 2013 — 12:08:56 Columns below the Basilica of St. John, Selçuk 
Tuesday 16 July 2013 — 12:10:18 View back of aqueduct and columns, Selçuk 
Tuesday 16 July 2013 — 12:10:32 Storks nesting atop an electricity supply pole 
Tuesday 16 July 2013 — 12:11:18 Another view back Then we came to a square, with souvenir shops, etc., on one side and a large estate of ruins on the other, which proved to be the Basilica of St. John (to which there is a scheduled stop on our Ephesus day). Normally, we ignore or decline the advances of vendors, but the one today offered an Ephesus guide-book with acetate overlays which gave artists’ impressions of the original appearance of the ruins — and it was written in English! So I decided I wanted it. We did decline his second offer of a guide to the Seven Churches of the Book of Revelation. We paid 8₤ apiece to enter the Basilica, and wandered around. Janet was wilting in the heat, and what’s more her sandals weren’t suitable for the gravel paths, but we had a good look round. Beyond lay the castle or citadel, which had been our goal, but it was closed to visitors for restoration work. 
Tuesday 16 July 2013 — 12:17:22 Entrance to the Basilica of St. John, Selçuk 
Tuesday 16 July 2013 — 12:22:20 Looking back at the entrance to the Basilica of St. John 
Tuesday 16 July 2013 — 12:30:22 Plan of the Basilica of St. John, Selçuk 
Tuesday 16 July 2013 — 12:52:28 
Tuesday 16 July 2013 — 12:23:24 Basilica of St. John, Selçuk 
Tuesday 16 July 2013 — 12:24:54 Basilica of St. John, Selçuk 
Tuesday 16 July 2013 — 12:25:26 Basilica of St. John, Selçuk 
Tuesday 16 July 2013 — 12:25:48 Basilica of St. John, Selçuk 
Tuesday 16 July 2013 — 12:27:06 South transept of the Basilica of St. John, Selçuk, looking west 
Tuesday 16 July 2013 — 12:27:20 South transept of the Basilica of St. John, Selçuk, looking south 
Tuesday 16 July 2013 — 12:27:30 South transept of the Basilica of St. John, Selçuk, looking east 
Tuesday 16 July 2013 — 12:27:48 South transept of the Basilica of St. John, Selçuk, looking north 
Tuesday 16 July 2013 — 12:28:40 Basilica of St. John, Selçuk, looking towards the apse, with the Tomb of St. John in front of it 
Tuesday 16 July 2013 — 12:29:56 Basilica of St. John, Selçuk 
Tuesday 16 July 2013 — 12:32:26 Basilica of St. John, Selçuk 
Tuesday 16 July 2013 — 12:34:28 Basilica of St. John, Selçuk, looking east 
Tuesday 16 July 2013 — 12:35:42 Mosque of Isa Bey, seen from the Basilica of St. John, Selçuk 
Tuesday 16 July 2013 — 12:36:14 More southerly view from the same location as 12:35:42 
Tuesday 16 July 2013 — 12:37:26 The ubiquitous storks’ nest 
Tuesday 16 July 2013 — 12:41:44 Model of the Basilica of St. John: west side 
Tuesday 16 July 2013 — 12:41:54 Model of the Basilica of St. John: looking over the west side 
Tuesday 16 July 2013 — 12:42:56 Model of the Basilica of St. John: south side 
Tuesday 16 July 2013 — 12:43:08 Model of the Basilica of St. John: south side 
Tuesday 16 July 2013 — 12:43:16 Model of the Basilica of St. John: south side 
Tuesday 16 July 2013 — 12:43:22 Model of the Basilica of St. John: south side 
Tuesday 16 July 2013 — 12:44:08 Model of the Basilica of St. John: east side 
Tuesday 16 July 2013 — 12:45:36 Huge fly, at least 3cm long 
Tuesday 16 July 2013 — 12:46:36 Model of the Basilica of St. John: north side 
Tuesday 16 July 2013 — 12:46:46 Model of the Basilica of St. John: north side 
Tuesday 16 July 2013 — 12:46:56 Model of the Basilica of St. John: north side 
Tuesday 16 July 2013 — 12:47:02 Model of the Basilica of St. John: north side 
Tuesday 16 July 2013 — 12:47:44 The Castle or Citadel was closed to visitors. 
Tuesday 16 July 2013 — 12:53:18 The Basilica of St. John: south side 
Tuesday 16 July 2013 — 12:54:18 Selçuk Castle 
Tuesday 16 July 2013 — 12:56:26 Basilica and Castle As can be seen from the above photos, the site was almost unvisited, except by us. A young Indian man struck up a brief conversation, though, asking where we came from. His father was sitting waiting in the shade just inside the entrance, but on the other side of the turnstile. In need of refreshment, Janet and I went back to the Hadrian bar. I had another Efes Dark and some water; Janet as usual had Coke Light. 
Tuesday 16 July 2013 — 13:12:34 Back at the Hadrian bar, Selçuk Then we more or less retraced our steps to the dolmuş station. It wasn’t completely obvious which dolmuş to board, but the driver of the one we were to get pointed it out. So we got back to Kuşadası, and after we’d walked a short distance the mosque I’d seen the day before yesterday, beyond the gate-tower on the street from the Caravanserai, was a handy landmark to give us our bearings. We made our way down that street, crossed the road, and proceeded to the seaside bar/café that we’d been in on Sunday. I had yet another Efes Dark and later some water and Janet had Coke Light. I was hungry and ordered a salami and cheese sandwich. What excellent service! The sandwich was too hot initially to handle. They gave me a table mat, a knife and fork in a paper packet, a big bottle of “ketçap” and one of “mayonez”, and another packet containing a lemon-scented wet wipe. When Janet went to the loo, I failed to get a waiter’s attention to pay him; and when she came back, she beckoned to one, and he came running over in quite a comical manner. 
Tuesday 16 July 2013 — 14:41:00 Back in Kuşadası 
Tuesday 16 July 2013 — 14:50:00 Caravanserai, Kuşadası 
Tuesday 16 July 2013 — 14:54:40 Fishermen’s monument, Kuşadası 
Tuesday 16 July 2013 — 14:54:40 Fishermen’s monument, Kuşadası: detail 
Tuesday 16 July 2013 — 15:02:54 Back in “our” café, Kuşadası 
Tuesday 16 July 2013 — 15:03:48 Back in “our” café, Kuşadası 
Tuesday 16 July 2013 — 15:08:48 No cruise liners! 
Tuesday 16 July 2013 — 15:24:44 Late lunch We went to the “D” opposite the Caravanserai, boarded a dolmuş and asked for “Palmin hotel”. But it wasn’t long before we didn’t recognise the route we were taking. “I’m sure we didn’t go along this bit of coast on the way in.” Not long afterwards the driver signalled to another dolmuş going the other way, both stopped, and he told us with some urgency to board the other one. Then almost before we knew it, we were outside the hotel! I asked this driver whether we owed him anything, but he said not. We went back to the room, dumped our stuff, then went to the pool bar, had drinks and whiled away an hour or more. (Janet found the stools a bit hard, but we’d been issued with a card each, to exchange for a towel, so she started using both of them to get two towels to sit on.) Back in the room, I copied today’s photos from the camera (18:02–18:03) and edited 21 of them with Photoshop (18:17–19:13). I was handicapped, especially for operating the mouse, by pain when using my swollen right hand; the whole of the back of the hand had become reddened, swollen and oedematous. We went down for dinner. We donated the “Turklish” Ephesus guide-book to the little library of books by the lounge bar next to the restaurant. Can’t remember: Was the white-with-black-specks soup labelled “vegetable” this evening?… We went back to the room. Finished editing the photos, 32 of them including one cropped duplicate (20:36–22:05). Janet had gone to bed ca.9pm, on what had been my side; we swapped sides so I could set up a “sling” on a chair next to the bed, to elevate the right hand in hopes of reducing, or preventing the advance of, the oedema. After 11pm there was loud music from outside. If I’m asked to comment on the hotel I shall mention this. [We were, in fact, given a questionnaire form on the flight back, but it asked too many, too detailed questions; I got mad with it and ripped it up.] I could comment also that it’s only suitable for people who are determined to die from melanoma.… [Wednesday 17 July 2013] |
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