It didn’t
seem long after we finished fiddling with the “professionally” installed TV
units on our seat that suddenly the hostess-boy came to kick us off the bus and
onto the side of the road. The bus
apparently doesn’t even bother to take the 200m detour to the actual bus depot
in Bergama, but rather it just dumps you on the road and you hike over to it
yourself. After being spotted by a taxi
tout who spouted some rubbish about the depot being closed. Ignoring him, we crossed the busy highway to
find the depot open as we knew it would be and waited for the free shuttle bus with
a French tourist Mathieu (who conveniently also spoke Turkish as he’s studying
Political Science in Istanbul). He was
useful guy to have around, especially as the very same persistent taxi driver
followed us and started insisting that the free bus to town had finished for
the day and that we must take his taxi, whilst on the other hand he told the
locals in Turkish to wait for the free bus.
Mathieu understood every word and translated it to us in French. After some banter with the not overly
intelligent taxi driver outside the ‘closed’ bus depot, we soon boarded the
shuttle bus that ‘wasn’t coming’ and the taxi driver gave a sheepish grin and
walked off.
We easily
found Göbi Pension, where we
wanted to stay and Sarah took over the negotiation for the room after Dave
turned a little grumpy at the old owner who initially asked a crazy high price…
but with her smooth talk and some suave talk in Turkish from our new French
friend, all was smoothed over! We decided
not to brave the cold and just eat in the restaurant next door, mainly as we
wanted to try the local speciality, Küfere, for
dessert – the best way to describe is like Wheaties drowned in warm thick
honey, covered in crushed pistachios and stuffed with a soft, white cheese
inside – delicious!
The Red Basilica |
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Pergama Ruins |
Pergamon
was amazing and again almost empty so we had fun exploring all the old ruins
with one of the largest amphitheatres we’ve ever seen carved into the side of
the hill, along with fascinating examples of how the Romains built large
archways and covered them in earth, in order to ‘reclaim’ part of the hill due
to the steep slopes they were working with.
It’s remarkable what the archaeologists have managed to re-piece
together, it’s essentially like working on a massive 3D jigsaw puzzle since massive
earthquakes destroyed the majority of the buildings. We met our French friend Mathieu again at the
top and talked philosophy for a good half hour with him until Sarah couldn’t
stand the cold anymore and we had to move on just to get the blood circulating
again.
Amphitheatre at Pergamum |
It was
definitely worth walking back down the hill and not taking the cable car as the
entire side of the mountain is littered with ruins – and not just small things.
There were massive arenas, houses, mosaics and graves that have been uncovered
and again there’s still more work being done. It was really one of the more fascinating
Roman sites we’d ever seen.
After
navigating down through the ancient city, we reached the bottom fence and
actually had no idea where the gate was to get out and we dreaded the thought
that the only exit was back at the top.
Not to worry though, someone else must’ve been similarly stuck at the
bottom fence line and they also must’ve had a pair of wire clippers in their
back pocket as a human sized hole had been neatly cut out of the fence, so we
ducked through the fence to be met by a bewildered looking cow, a grandmother
and her grand-daughter who pointed us in the general direction to town.
Asklepion temple tunnel |
We
continued on our tour and walked to the site of Asklepion which is just out of
town. These ruins surprised us as we
hadn’t expected them to be much, but in fact they were well preserved with many
complex underground tunnels that ran under entire courtyards, an amphitheatre
for ‘therapy’ and a temple. We learnt
that the Asklepion is where the sick came to be healed and drink of the
restorative waters and the temple is where people slept for a dose of ‘dream therapy’
(however pregnant women and the dying were not admitted! They were a little too
risky for their great percentage healing reputation…).
We ran
into Mathieu again just as the rain set in so we hurried back to town keen to
find a hot salep to warm up with. Turns
out it was tough to find as it must be a northern Turkey drink, but eventually
we found a café serving it as well as some amazing local desserts that we
shared together before heading back to our hostel to dry and thaw out and pack
for our bus the next morning.
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