Quite a long slog getting here but I've
made it in one piece and have seen some things on the way. I got the 11am ferry
over to Canakkale and was met by the TJs driver. We picked up a group from the
same tacky shop near Troy and set off for Selcuk. Hours of driving with one
main interlude - a tour of Pergamum, which was excellent. So with Ephesus
tomorrow and Patmos in a couple of days, this is fast becoming a Revelation Ch
1 tour. The minibus group were a mix of Aussies and NZers. One man revealed a
rather bad habit of sounding forth ignorantly when the call to prayer started
in Bergama whilst we were atop Pergamum. Like Big Brother he said. He
questioned our well-informed and thoroughly secular guide on the way down and
just didn't get that the alcohol ban last night was due to the referendum
having taken place, not any religious reason. I eventually spelled it out
for him and he still didn't get it: but who enforces it, the police or
the mullah? Turkey is such a clearly, strongly secular country and no mullah or
imam or any other religious leader tells anyone, anywhere what to do or not to
do. His wife asked earlier if women had the vote in Turkey. Oh my God,
I hope these people listen and learn whilst here. They were very obviously
from NSW. Our guide had obviously voted no in the referendum and clearly
thought it a question of Islamicisation. I asked him about the change to
allow courts to try army personnel but he didn't give me a straight answer. I
wonder what the truth is. The NSW proto-bigot lapped up the anti-Islamic
sentiment jokingly expressed by our guide: when you come back in one year I'll
be wearing a kaftan and have a long beard, all the women will be in burqas
wearing their Armani sunglasses.
Pergamum was terrific - what a site. Atop
the highest hill in the area, nearer the gods. The theatre was particularly
striking on the steep slope to the west of the main settlement. Afterwards we
returned to where our driver was waiting and were shown around a weaving
cooperative, which has government support. 1500 women receive employment from
this and produce the most amazing carpets, all well out of my price range. One
silk one was priced at around 12000 Euros. Saw the silk chrysalids (can't think
of correct word) and how they pull the silk threads from them - 1000 to 1500m
for each little one. They gave us each a glass of local wine to try - quite new
and fresh in a Beaujolais-style. Last 2 hours drive mainly around Izmir, a
massive city, at high speed.
Last night I watched some news in
Turkish and it seemed to consist entirely of frighteningly graphic reports of
traffic accidents. One with bodies and body parts strewn everywhere,
more-or-less fuzzied out. A distraught man trying to take away the covered body
of his beloved, who just moments before had been full of life. Another wasn't
fuzzied out at all - a car full of adults being lifted out of a river, into
which their car had crashed. It must have rolled first because the roof was
squashed in. The dead occupants were clearly visible, still sitting upright
like nothing had happened, including one passenger with his arm hanging
lifeless out the window. It was utterly disturbing and shocking - so much more
so than any TAC ad campaign. I really don't want to see anything like
that ever again.
