Day 132: Monday 28 July – Ptt and Priene, by Ken

It was still hot when we got back from our exploration of Kusadasi last night. Jane decided she would sleep outdoors, I thought I would be OK in Mabel’s bed. That was a mistake, it was much too hot and I spent most of the night sleeping fitfully on the sofa with Mabel’s door open. Thanks to the call to worship from a mosque nearby I was awake well before dawn.

First task of the day was to understand the process for collecting tolls on Turkish motorways and to find a Ptt in Kusadasi to get the smart card we needed to use the roads. I found from a good website in English the tolling system is now fully automated to avoid delays at toll stations and toll booths are unmanned and barrier-less. To use a toll road a Hizli Geçiş Sistemi (HGS) Etíketí prepaid smart card is required. These are attached to the windscreen and toll charges are automatically deducted as vehicles pass through toll stations at normal driving speeds. The website confirmed HGS cards can be obtained from Ptt (post offices) and we needed to produce a passport and vehicle registration document. I collected the necessary paperwork, photographed Mabel and Smarty on my iPhone in the hope that would ease the process and Googled the location of the nearest Ptt.

A map on the Ptt website showed an office on the waterfront by the harbour but the address was a location in the depth of the town. We drove the length of the waterfront without finding any sign of a Ptt. Next we took the route provided by satnav towards the address on the web site. As we turned off the sea front the streets were congested. There were a few parks nearby but it looked like there could be a problem finding somewhere to park if we continued by car. We parked wondering whether we had to pay,. That was soon resolved, a man wrote the time on a ticket, tucked it under a wiper blade and said he charged by the hour and to pay when we returned. It felt like a scam, but Turkish cars parked there had similar tickets. The man told us the Ptt was 300 metres along the street.

Cruise Ship Kusadasi

In less than 300 metres we came to a five armed roundabout. It wasn’t obvious which leg to take. We picked one and walked for a while, but it didn’t feel like Ptt country. We returned to the roundabout and asked two taxi drivers for directions. They pointed down another road and said something like third on the right and then left. There didn’t seem to be a third on the right but a woman standing outside a hairdressers pointed to a road opposite and directed us along there. That led us to a busy road lined with restaurants, but still there was no sign of a Ptt. One of the staff in a restaurant advertising ‘Full English and Irish Breakfasts’ asked if he could help us when he saw us looking at a map in our guide book. It was easy, a left and a left would get us there and he finished with “But it’s closed until Thursday for the holiday”. It would have been helpful if some of the other well-intentioned people that helped to get us there could have mentioned that. But at least we now knew it was in a quiet side street with room to park. We made a note of the coordinates and retraced our steps to Smarty.

It was time to visit our first Greek ruins in Turkey, Jane set a course in satnav for the ancient Greek city of Priene reputed to be one of the best preserved Hellenic cities without the usual Roman or Byzantine additions. A little more than 30km later we were in the town of Güllūbahçe. 

Typical Roundabout On A Dual Carriageway
(Very Dangerous As Traffic In Fast Lane Has To Slow Right Down To Use Roundabout)

Passenger Riding Side Saddle

We decided we needed lunch before tackling the ruins and found a small restaurant on the edge of the town. The owner showed us his offerings in a refrigerated cabinet. We chose a salad of leaves with tomato, onion and radish with mains of a mix of lamb and chicken kebabs served with rice, stuffed peppers, roast potatoes and a tzatziki like salad that contained mint as opposed to cucumber. As we ate a Labrador looking very much like Wilson turned up and looked pleadingly at us, just like Wilson used to. Unlike Wilson though he didn’t try and grab bread from the table when we weren’t looking.

Lunchtime Restaurant

Wilson Lookalike

We finished our meal with a glass of Turkish tea each. Tea, not coffee, is the national drink and drunk black. Our immediate reaction was it was OK, but nothing special. As we were finishing our tea two English women with  a teenage boy and girl took a table after being flagged down by the owner as they drove slowly past.

First Taste of Turkish Tea

We drove up to Priene, parked and climbed the steep path to the ruins. It was hard going in the early afternoon heat. We started at the theatre that was more impressive than that at Delphi, but without Delphi’s view. It could seat 5,000, the whole population of Priene. In front of the first tier of seats were five large marble thrones spaced around the perimeter of the stage. These were for the municipal dignitaries – a sort of early Gold Lounge really.

Priene Theatre

Gold Lounge Seat

Theatre Viewed From Stage Showing Gold Lounge Seats

The Temple of Athena Polias was quite spectacular. Raised above the level of the rest of the town five massive tapering fluted columns gave a feel for what the temple would have been like. The remains of all the other columns were strewn around like giant cogs. According to our guide book in its time the temple was considered to be the epitome of Ionic perfection. A manual written by Pytheos, its designer, was still considered standard reading in Roman times (Temples 101?)

Jane in Temple of Athena Polias

Temple of Athena Polias

Temple Of Athena Polias Column Segments - Like Giant Cogs

The Bouleuterion (council chamber) is said to be the most intact of such buildings in Turkey.

Bouleuterion

We walked along the city’s central street and took a seat in the shade by the west gate looking up at the massive masonry wall on which Athena Polias’ temple stood. We wondered who had sat there in the 4^th century BC and what they talked about – was it the weather, the price of food in the shops nearby, or what? And just how did Greece develop such a civilized society in such marked contrast to northern Europe?

Seat At West Gate

We walked to the edge of the city and looked down on the site of the stadium. It was much too hot to walk down there. The Meander plain beyond was sea when Priene was built, but now the coastline was only just visible in the far distance.

The ruins really were spectacular and, amazingly, there was hardly anyone there. We saw no more than a dozen people all the time we were there.

As we got back to Smarty the two English women and the two teenagers were getting into a car parked nearby. They had spotted Smarty had British plates and were wondering how she had got there. “We checked her in with our bags” was my initial explanation followed by the real one.

We stopped at another Kipa supermarket on the way home making a wide detour around the baklava.

Back in Kusadasi we weren’t feeling hungry. We sat outside and watched the comings and goings. It seemed the camping ground was a very sociable place. Tonight our neighbours opposite were eating with a family a few caravans up.