It was another early night to continue to another early
morning to catch a 7:30 bus to Bodrum.
It was supposed to be the nice, non-stop bus, but the bus stopped
frequently along the way, including once when we entered the Bodrum peninsula
where we had to surrender our passports at some unexplained security
check. When we got to Bodrum, we were
immediately assaulted with British English, as my friend had warned me the area
was popular with British tourists. It
took us a bit to find a place where we were willing to fork over a bit more
than we had planned, but we found a cute place with a nice little courtyard
that would keep out much of the noise of the bustling night life and the wind,
which was even worse than it had been on the way to Samos.
With only an afternoon to explore Bodrum, we headed first to
the Tomb of Mausolus at Halicarnassus,
also known as the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, the third of the Seven Wonders of
the Ancient World I’ve seen in my life.
Unlike the Temple of Artemis, there was actually an entrance fee, but
there was far more substance to the site as well, even though Crusaders and
then the British Museum had carted most of the ancient
tomb away. There was a short video
explaining the history. Mausolus was a
Persian satrap in the 300s BC who moved his capital to Halicarnassus and began a series of building
projects. After his death (or during his
life, depending upon which site you visit), his sister/wife Artemisia
commissioned the tomb to honor his greatness.
The four best sculptures from the time period worked on the four
different sides of the tomb, which looked a lot like a temple with its columns
and statues. Even after she also died,
they continued work on the tomb, since its greatness would also be a monument
to their skill as well.
The museum also had a three page excerpt from a Crusader
explaining how the Crusaders had discovered the tomb and carted most of the
stones away to help build the castle in Bodrum.
The letter even details how they found a sarcophagus at the end of a day
of work. When they returned the next
day, the sarcophagus was empty, having been looted by pirates that night…or so
they say. The site also does its best to
explain what archeologists and historians know about how the tomb looked and
various artistic renderings. Then we got
to wander around in the ruins with more British tourists.
From there we headed to the Castle of St. Peter,
the Crusader fort that sits right on the water in Bodrum. It now holds the Museum of Underwater
Archeology…aka sweet shipwreck finds.
The site is doubly awesome for allowing you to explore a Crusader fort
and showing you shipwrecks from the 14th century BC to the 11th
century AD. Apparently Texas A&M has
an awesome underwater archeology program that was responsible for finding many
of these shipwrecks and preserving the artifacts found on them. They even built a life-size replica of a
Byzantine ship, which fills the chapel of the castle. Either because so many shipwrecks contained
hundreds of amphora, or because the locals still have a thing for them after
several thousand years, the museum has hundreds of amphorae on display,
including several from different time periods and origins arranged in a circle
as if they were taking part in a classical Greek symposium. There are also plenty of ingots, glass from
as far back as the 14th century BC (my favorite find), coins, tools
for cooking and ship repair, jewelry, and other remnants of civilizations gone
by.
Having achieved our goal of seeing the two sites in Bodrum
we were after and finding the city far too windy to allow for an enjoyable
swim, we enjoyed some more tea and set off for the ancient city gates. They have been reconstructed, with donations
from Turkcell and Erickson, which seems like a clash of total modernity and
antiquity, but it gave me a good idea of what the gates looked like. I would have stood on the edge, except the
wind was so brutal, I was afraid it might carry me over the edge.
We sat at the marina, hoping to watch the sun set over the
sea. Unfortunately, clouds marred our
view, but we figured out our tea spot was run by the Mariner’s Association and
put all funds back into the community, which we both thought was very
cool. We also found a great dessert spot
and indulged in some Turkish goodies.
Dinner was another Lonely Planet recommendation-the fish market. There are restaurants mixed in with fish
stalls, so you can pick out your fish and have a restaurant prepare it fresh
for you. Not a big lover of fish, I just
had some soup, saving room for more dessert.
We capped off the night with dessert and Misha wine in the courtyard of
our pansiyon.
Breakfast at the pansiyon was another delicious incarnation
of the Turkish breakfast and then we headed off to catch a bus to the
airport. The day before a man at the bus
station had simply told us to show up two hours before our flight at the bus
station. We were a bit dubious of these
instructions, since the airport was a fair distance away and an expensive taxi
was our only other option. Breakfast
took longer than we expected, but we still got to the bus at least half an hour
before we needed to. Thankfully, since
we were flying the budget arm of Turkish airlines, we could take this bus
(another 18 lira for the privilege) to the airport, which is still undergoing
major construction and seems to process about one flight at a time. The airport had free wi-fi, though, which was
a bonus. We had a short layover in Ankara, and even though we
were flying a budget airline, got a cheese sandwich and tea on each leg of our
journey.
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