As described in our port information document, Kusadasi is a traditional Turkish Town with a vibrant marketplace and sunny warmth and hospitality. This could explain why there were four other cruise ships docked with us.

Other than it being a sea side resort town, it is also the launching point for people visiting Ephesus, the House of the Virgin Mary, the Temple of Artemis and the town of Seljuk . As we were only in port for half a day, we only had time to see Ephesus and the Temple of Artemis.

Only one column of the Temple of Artemis remains, so our stop here was quite short. After a couple of photos and politely declining to buy some postcards from the local stall holder, we headed to Ephesus.

However before we got to there, we first had to watch a pottery demonstration. While it was interesting to see the master potter making a pot, the sales pitch afterwards (although not as hard as in other places) was a little annoying. That said, the ceramic items they had on display looked very good and if you had the time/money, you could quite easily spend up big.

Ephesus was an ancient Greek city, then a Roman provincial capital. By the 2^nd century, the population had grown to over 300,000 inhabitants. Even though it is now several kilometres inland, in its heyday, it was a significant sea port and was responsible for opening multiple trade opportunities with the Middle East. Archaeologists are still unearthing parts of the city, with only a small portion of what was there visible.

Within the site there are a couple key structures – the Odeum, the Celsus Library, the Temple of Hadrian, the Fountain of Trajan, the Great Theatre and the Terrace Houses.

The Terrace Houses are unique as in the overall scheme of things, they were only unearthed quite recently . Due to the number of frescos and mosaics, as well as the quality of them, there is a fair bit of restoration work being done. To maintain the ruins and to assist with the restoration work, a permanent roof has been erected over the site. Some of the more intact mosaics included one of a lion, one of Poseidon and some nice patterned ones.

The Temple of Hadrian and the Library were in good condition. As they were two of the draw cards, there were of course lots of people hovering around. While we weren't able to get up close, you could see how intricate the carvings in the stones were.

Slightly further down the hill that Ephesus sits on is the Great Theatre. It is huge, has seating for 25,000 and was also the site where St. Paul preached to the Ephesians. As with most open air theatres, the acoustics were very good, so much so most of the people visiting the area were clearly able to hear a mother and her children having what they thought was a private conversation – nothing exciting, just that the kid was bored .

One thing that is being noticed at the more popular sites (like Ephesus) is that like the Acropolis, the marble that lines the streets of the site have been polished to a mirror like finish. So once again we needed to be careful to watch our footing.

Having been cultured, there was one last stop before we were back at the port – a leather and fur coat fashion show. It was a little weird. We stopped at a shop and were taken inside where there was a proper catwalk and fashion lighting. A lovely group of young and pretty men and women then proceeded to show us various leather jackets, so of which were convertible. They also modelled some of the chinchilla fur jackets the shop stocks. Once the show was over, the hard sell started.

Unlike other places, these guys were a little too aggressive in their sales technique. Mum made the mistake of hovering for more than three seconds in front of a jacket and the sales man decided that she wanted to try it on and was not taking 'no, I have a jacket’ as an answer . Mum got annoyed and the guy got no sale. The guy seemed a little annoyed that he hadn’t convinced her to buy something after all that effort.

The other sales guy had even less luck from me – I have a perfectly fine leather jacket back home and have no need or want for another one, especially one that was going for over $300 and little on the ugly side. Then they wanted to show me the fur coats, thinking this would win me over – this wasn’t going to happen, rabbits and chinchillas need their fur and I don’t.

We got back to the port and had a quick look at the Bazaar. As it had been a long day, I was in no mood to deal with pesky men deciding that I needed to buy something. Also for some reason, they always suggest I buy a watch. I can only assume that the one that is sitting on wrist is invisible – yes I bought it at Kmart and it cost $7 but I wasn’t going to bring my nice Citizen one so that it can get scratched!

Everyone was on board only 15 minutes behind schedule (it was a long pier and there was a duty free shop in the way) and then we began our sail towards Istanbul.

Fun fact:
The national drink is Raki, which is similar to Greek Ouzo. It is made from grapes and aniseed.