Rambling among the ruins

 Saturday 14 September

Having been lulled into a false sense of security by the published itinerary of leisurely 9.30am starts, again we find ourselves on a coach at 8am and heading for the ancient city of Troy of wooden horse and latterly Punchdrunk Burnt City fame. 

Not that far from the slightly shite beach hotel, we're the first visitors of the day and although our guide had warned us not to have high expectations of the state of preservation and renovation, I was still suitably impressed by this ancient site which has been built on top of itself nine, yes nine times. So you follow a boardwalk around and see admittedly quite crumbly outlines of its former glories and are aware of which layer you're looking at.

 

Excavated by a German engineer in the late 19th century from about 1871, allegedly Priam's treasure was buried there and that was the real motivation. However, the treasure dug up on the site now marked by a solitary fig tree is apparently not the real McCoy and the real stuff remains undiscovered. And of course it wouldn't be Troy without a wooden horse - sadly at the time we went we couldn't go up into the body of this replica so I had to make do with a fridge magnet instead. So why was Agamemnon so keen to sack Troy (it took 10 years by the way)? Turns out getting back Helen of thousand ships fame was a bit of a ruse as the Dardanelles plain is very desirable windy territory. Wind brings ships, bring trade, bring wealth etc - though ultimately Troy is now quite some distance from the sea as successive harbours were silted up by the river 

We head off along the Aegean coast - Lesbos and other Greek islands are so very close - though much of the journey is along heavily industrialised/retail strips. We have a pit stop at a souvenir shop where the coach gets a bonus wash but which charges us to use the loos and tries to sell us Troy horse models and rose oil. And anti-ageing donkey milk serum. Who knew?

We continue eastwards and the next pitstop is for lunch at an all you can eat roadside buffet. Along the way I notice that Massey Ferguson farm machinery is sold everywhere, that lots of old (not classic, but rustbuckets) cars (Oto) are for sale. The whole area is windy, hence the volume of wind turbines. We also see lots of pine trees (I now understand that pine nuts are so expensive because of the painstaking way in which they're harvested), olive, cotton and tobacco plantations. Turkey's the world's 6th biggest producer of cotton and grows enough tobacco to manufacture its own fags, which are still very very cheap. And sweetcorn is everywhere, as are the little carts broiling and barbecuing corn on the cob for a cheap snack - that's an ugh from me.

Eventually we arrive at the ancient city of Pergamon, where parchment comes from, and go up in a cable car to see more impressive ruins and an amazing view (but sadly only squat toilets which are best used when wearing a frock.)

Back on the coach to the Bahani Resort Hotel near Kusadasi. It's enormous, and packed with Romanians, Bulgarians, a wedding, swimming pools and more food than I have ever seen available with the flash of a wristband. The choice at buffet dinner and breakfast next morning is overwhelming and we even get slightly ropey wine included (by this time I've become a bit desperate). I retire early to my huge rooms with 3 surplus beds to write the last instalment of the blog and then get FOMO when I miss a text from Dee saying she's found some African cabaret entertainment and free cocktails, but by this time I'm already in PJs as yes, tomorrow is yet another early start. Had no idea the distances we were covering were so huge. At least I have pretty scenery to look at and podcasts to listen to (our coach has wifi, a huge bonus!)