Karen Maloney's Dispatch: Turkey, Florence & Rome

Dear Everyone, we spent the Sunday in Ephesus, where we were given a most comprehensive private tour of the archaeological site of the old cities. We saw amazing things, all works being done by Austrians as the Turkish government doesn’t have the money to fund these excavations. We were blown away by the history, the beautiful buildings created by the Romans & the sophistication of life so many centuries ago. The library facade is something to behold, but the most interesting part was the public toilets where everyone sat side by side in a row – something that wouldn’t catch on these days I am sure.

Then our guide, Dennis, who spoke good American, took us for a walk through a picturesque village & we enjoyed lunch in a local restaurant, where the food was fresh & plentiful – mushroom & cheese pizza; Turkish salad; tomato & chilli dip; eggplant & potato & onion side dish; dolmades; olives and two kinds of freshly baked bread! Dennis took the leftovers with him for tomorrow’s breakfast. As we were walking after lunch, three men on horseback suddenly appeared and galloped up the cobbled paths scattering visitors in their wake. We saw a strange fruit like elderly wrinkled grapefruit, which turned out to be bergamot. Then on to the museum where we saw some of the valuable statuary, sarcophagi & trinkets that have been recovered from the dig.

On our way back to our hotel we stopped at a carpet place that is subsidised by the government as it teaches young women the ancient art of Turkish carpet making. We were very keen to see how silk is obtained from silkworms and were courteously instructed in all the arts. Our guide was disappointed we weren’t in the market for a carpet, but he remained polite and wasn’t at all pushy.

We somehow fitted in dinner at our hotel that night, with a carafe of execrable red – most of the wine we have enjoyed here has been full-bodied Shiraz styled red, but we pulled the wrong rein with the carafe. The meals are all buffet-style and there are some gems amongst it all – the hotel caters for all sorts of European tastes as well as traditional Turkish food.

We loved the look & feel of Hotel Charisma, but it was a litany of errors from the start – we couldn’t remember our room number, mainly because 1/ we could only see the no of the room next door in the gloom as our bellboy opened the door & 2/ although we were in Room 1409, you pushed 4 on the lift to get to it! When we couldn’t get wifi, Wes rang reception & they sent up a technician who installed a modem & hand-connected our two mobiles before disappearing out of our lives. There was no door to the bathroom, the air-conditioning stopped every time you opened the balcony door & appeared to reset itself, which meant Wes spent the night in a windcheater to keep warm, our laundry wasn’t collected until the laundry had closed (I gave the wrong room number) and our room wasn’t cleaned as someone turned the sign on the door around. Our phones stopped connecting to wifi after the first night & the laptop worked, albeit slowly & wouldn’t allow me into my Blog nor show the complete board so I could continue a game of Scrabble with Carol Bruce. While I was checking out someone rushed into the room to check if we had emptied the mini-bar, but didn’t rescue the modem which would have been worth swiping!

On Monday, we were collected in our Presidential Lincoln (black & shiny) and driven to Bodrum, which is a very pretty seaside town. Our hotel is on the marina and just across the road Wes can feast his eyes on some of the most beautiful wooden boats you could wish to see – they are unique to Bodrum, but sadly as it is out of season, no-one was taking visitors out on trips. We walked and walked & eventually enjoyed a late lunch by the waterside, then home to rest as Tuesday is a big day of sight-seeing. We have sliding doors in our hotel room which have already come off their tracks, but our hotel is very attractive and we look out on the pool, which is deserted.