We had an early morning today. I was up at 6:15, took a shower, and got ready. Shannon was up in time to prepare for our expedition as well, although her watch told her she had signs of illness. We think it might just relate to the increased level of activity from so much walking. We got breakfast at the galley, which was quite busy this morning. I got smoked salmon and a plain bagel with butter, then later picked up a sausage roll and a bacon egg and cheese croissant at the bread counter. Shannon got French toast, and then we shared some scrambled eggs and bacon. We didn’t have time for a coffee because we had to report to the 7th floor map charting station to prepare for our excursion.
Today’s adventure was to tour the castle in Bodrum. We took a short bus ride over to the castle and the tour began. As it turns out, the castle here is named St. Peter’s and was built by the Knights Hospitallers. At some point the Muslims under Suleiman ran them out of there to Rhodes, and later from Rhodes to Malta. I listened to a fascinating audiobook on the siege of Malta a while back, fascinating history.
Inside the castle, just as everywhere else we’ve been in Greece so far, there were cats. Here a brief aside on the general environment. It’s warm and dry here. Greece reminded me of Southern California. Here in Bodrum it seemed more like Western Colorado, the downward slope of the Rockies after you pass the center heading West. In Bodrum there have been pine trees, poplars, and in Turkey and Greece, flowers everywhere. We saw many olive trees today, and also grapes growing over a roof lattice. There was also some kind of berry tree, the fruit looked like blackberries, but I’m not aware of blackberries growing on a tree.
Olives everywhere makes sense from a cultural standpoint. Apparently the wood also gets used, in Greece we saw many shops selling olive wood goods.
While in the castle, at some point someone asked our guide Mert about religion in the area. He said Bodrum was very liberal, and he himself was listed as a believer in Islam on some identification card, but he just considered himself a theist and did not practice Islam.
When we were finished with the castle, we walked back to the square where we had been dropped off. There was a large banner about Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the father of the nation post-Ottoman Empire. Maybe it is some significant anniversary for Turkey.
The bus then drove us 40 minutes out in to the countryside up and then down a mountain. There were many little mosques here and there, similar to how Europe has many little churches everywhere in the historically Christian countries. We also saw many cisterns, although apparently they are no longer used.
We arrived at the village of Etrim, where traditional Turkish rugs are still made to this day, following hundreds of years of tradition. The guide at this place told us that the people were mostly relatives of each other, have been making rugs for centuries, and until somewhat recently were nomadic people. A 3×5 rug takes about 2 months to make, and the Turkish rugs are all made with double knots, and get stronger when put under stress. They last 100 years or more. A rug like that will be something like $1500-2000. Some of the rugs we saw were $5-6000.
When the rug knowledge transfer concluded, they took us into a room with a bunch of low stools with rugs over them, sat everyone down, and offered us beverages. There was supposed to be an apple tea, but it never was brought out. I had a regular tea, and Shannon ended up with a rose wine, although she wanted the apple tea. They also gave us a “Turkish pancake” which was a thin crepe like material, but it looked like naan, and had cheese and parsley with it. It tasted good.
The food and drink was a prelude to the hard sales pitch selling rugs. They came at everyone hot and heavy, although they also said no one was obligated to buy. They also made a big show of being willing to “talk the boss man down” on the price. We managed to avoid purchasing a rug, but apparently many other people did.
The weaver women work 4-5 hours a day making the rugs. They had a large supply of rugs already there and made, and these things were selling for thousands of dollars. If they’re all related, one wonders how many loads of tourists have to roll through in a given week to make the math work. These folks may be very successful! There were two busloads of tourists from our cruise line there with us, and if maybe 20% buy rugs, that’s tens of thousands of dollars of revenue just from this Virgin Voyages cruise, and there are many other cruise lines passing through here regularly.
When we got back to the boat, we had some lunch at the galley. I got a couple beef gyro tacos essentially, they came with corn ships and a Greek version of pico de gallo that was tomatoes, onion, and cucumber. Basically all the food here is “light bites.” That wasn’t enough, so I also got the burger of the day, which was a burger with smoked mozzarella, arugula, some red sauce, and pesto. It was amazing. The smoked mozzarella really set it off.
After lunch, we got our swim wear on and went to the pool. We got a couple frozen pina coladas, and climbed into the smaller pool, which we ultimately decided was a little cold, but comfortable. After a while, we got into the hot tub, which was really pleasant. I had thought it was going to be too much since it was hot and sunny out.
Finally, it was time for dinner. We were back at The Wake, the steakhouse. Tonight I got the lamb, with mint jelly, fries, and mushrooms. I also thoroughly enjoyed the bread and herb butter again. Shannon got the seared salmon with golden and red beets. For dessert Shannon got the baked alaska, and I got the apple tartin or something, which was basically a bunch of cooked apples on top of a little pancake. They also delivered a separate extra baked alaska, so I tried that too, and it was quite good. Probably the best dessert so far.
Later on tonight, we’re going to take in a comedy show. Tomorrow is Santorini.