Today we had four hours on the little island of Patmos before heading to Kusadasi in mainland Turkey. The ship docked at Patmos at 6am and a couple of us decided to quickly visit the Grotto of the Apocalypse and St John's Monastery up in the mountains.
We decided to go without a tour guide so that we could go early and avoid the crowds, and we took a taxi up because otherwise it would have taken about an hour to walk up the winding roads. It was only 30 Euros so roughly 8 each, definitely a bargain considering the tour would have cost 55 Euros each. Luckily we ended up beating the tour crowds by about fifteen minutes at each site, which was enough for us to enjoy the sites on our own before being surrounded by people and still taking everything in.
The Grotto of the Apocalypse is apparently where St John received messages from God which he then wrote for the Book of Revelations in the Bible. It was a strange feeling being there and not being a Christian, as I could appreciate it from a historical perspective, and it definitely felt very special. But it was overwhelming being eventually surrounded by pilgrims who had physically walked up the mountain and were crying and wracked with emotion at the fact that they were visiting somewhere very significant to their religion. It was very beautiful though, and the mosaic work outside the grotto was stunning.
Next we visited St John's Monastery which was further up the mountain, strategically built above the grotto. We spent some time in the church there which seemed like it was carved out of gold, if you judged by the level of decoration of the inside. A monk came out and discussed the church in Greek, and obviously we had no idea what he was saying but we listened anyway. The artwork inside and on the outside part of the church was incredibly complex, and I think it illustrated what John said would happen during the Christian apocalypse, but I didn't ask anyone about it so it might just be my interpretation. We also spent some time exploring the monastery, with its tiny doors and staircases, randomly ending up on balconies overlooking the courtyard, and finding amazing views of the town and bay below the mountain. The monastery was really lovely and also had some beautiful mosaic work of St John and of the Byzantine emperor who helped to build it.
We ended up back at the ship at around 9:30am. We weren't going to be in Kusadasi until around 2pm, so we had lots of spare time on the ship after waking up so early. After a while I got really, really bored. I'm not sure how I passed the time but I know I didn't take a nap.
So we went straight to Kusadasi and started our tour of the ancient city of Ephesus. The site was much better preserved than that of Delos (even though Delos is still my favourite), and reminded me a lot of Pompei with the stories behind the buildings. For example, the fact that there was a hidden tunnel from the library to the brothel so that men could tell their wives they were going to the library when in fact they were headed somewhere else entirely. The sculptures are so well preserved, and the huge facade of the library is so impressive. It's so tall for so old a structure, even when you consider the fact that it has been pieced back together over the years. The design is amazing and has such detail. The giant theatre was also very impressive and it was lovely and breezy at the top, after such a hot day. Again it was a strange feeling walking through history. The archaeologists are uncovering more of Ephesus every day, so it was also exciting to walk through somewhere where we have continuing opportunities to learn something new about ancient life.
After Ephesus, we were given some free time to explore Kusadasi and of course we went for a feast dinner and then some shopping. I tried the Turkish version of a shepherd's pie for lunch (delicious) and bought lots of presents for people. And after we got back onto the ship, that was the last of my Turkish experience. I definitely want to spend more time there in the future, I can think of a million more things that I want to do.
Tomorrow we'll be on the beautiful island of Santorini!!
No comments:
Post a Comment