Tuesday, June 29, 2010

A Turkish massage, "Turkish Nights," and a walk through Ephesus


Bonjour mes amis,

Sorry to be so delayed in blogging. For our last two days in Turkey, we didn't have any wireless service.

The last of our two days in Bodrum (in all, we were in Turkey four days), Yvette talked me into getting a Turkish massage, which ended up being a 90 minute combination bath/massage. First-time experience for me.

We did the bath part together, each with our respective masseuse. Clad in swimming trunks, they begin by soaking your body with bowls full of warm water, all very soothing. Next, they have you lie on your back atop a seven by six-foot, flat, marble pedastal about two-and-a-half feet off the floor. They then cover your body with gobs of soap foam and begin washing and rubbing every part of your body. Then, you lie on your face (I could have used a cushion or folded towel to rest my face on) and they repeat the same routine. Some twenty minutes later, you feel both cleaner than clean and very relaxed.

A short time later, it was off to a massage room where, atop a massage table, I received a soothing and relaxing massage. My masseuse (strong hands and he seemed to really know his trade) used some Turkish oil which he rubbed into every part of my anatomy. About a half hour later, when he walked out of the massage room leaving me wonderfully relaxed, with oil all over my body, I assumed he was coming back and that there would be some process for rinsing the oil off my body. He never returned. I.e., that was the end of the massage.

Over-all, it was a positive experience. For a day or so, my body and skin felt renewed and refreshed. Check out Yvette's blog for her three-hour experience of Turkish massage.


That same day, we were soon off in a rental car (which we rented for the last two days) to Kusadasi, Turkey, about a hundred miles north along Turkey's western coast.

Our hotel, it turned out, was the delightful, harbor-front Caravansoleil, built into a former castle-like edifice. The rooms were on the second floor, about twenty-five feet above the quaint, attractive courtyard area below. From your room, you walked out onto a twelve-foot wide veranda that circled the hotel (again, looking down onto the courtyard). Very romantic setting.

That night we signed up for a Turkish Nights evening, right there in the courtyard, attended by around 400 people.

The evening included a buffet-style meal, unlimited wine, and an excellent two-and-a-half hour show featuring a superb violinist, all sorts of belly-dancers and Turkish dances, and capped off with two outstanding vocalists who did renditions of popular songs in at least four different languages--all to the delight of the very international gathering.

Yvette and I enjoyed a wonderful, a romantic evening we will long remember.


The next day (Saturday, June 26th), after a super breakfast in the scenic courtyard at the hotel, we were off for the 12 mile trip to the ruins of Ephesus, the renowned ancient city where the Apostle Paul had spent some three years and where he had also been imprisoned on more than one occasion.

The ruins at Ephesus are, indeed, amazing--amazing in that so much has survived into our modern world. Stretched out some two miles or so, easily, you can catch a sense of what it must have been like for the people of Ephesus some two thousand years ago (Ephesus had a population of 200,000 at one point).

A long stretch of the marble-stoned road ways still exists. We saw two theatres, one--The Great Theatre--with a capacity of 24,000 thousand. There were the remains of bath areas, toilettes, and fountains (the fountain of Trajan, for example). There was the Celsus library and literally hundreds of monuments to all kinds of emperors, consuls and gods and godesses.

Walking through such historic ruins grips the mind and spirit with wonder: what must it have been like? What was it like for the common person, for women and children? Clearly, living testaments to the legacies of the powerful dominated the cities' architecture. For the world traveler and the curious, it's a must see.

The next day--late morning--we headed off for Izmir (over two million inhabitants) for our flight back to France.

A bientot for now ...

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