November 15 - Bodrum, Turkey

Before I write about today I have to tell about last night. After dinner at a table hosted by the head of security I went first to the show (a pretty good singer) and then to the Club in the hope of finding some dancers. Hooray!  The music was great and there was a contingent of Belgians drinking gallons of champagne with lots of ladies who liked to dance while the men with them sat and drank.  We had a great time and stayed ‘til the place closed down. We also had a beautiful sunset so I’m posting a picture because I’m a sucker for sunsets.

It’s a gorgeous day in Bodrum. This place was originally settled by Greeks, and its name was originally Halicarnassus.  Later it came to be under the rule of the Persians when they began their conquest of most of Asia Minor and then much of Greece following the battle at Thermopylae until they were finally stopped at the battle of Salamis. (There’s a wonderful novel called Gates of Fire about that period which I read a while back.)  Back to the subject at hand.  One of the Persians who ruled this part of the empire was a man named Mausolus.  When he died in 353 BC, Artemisia, who was his wife and also his sister (interesting relationships these folks had) commissioned a monument and tomb to be built for him.  It became known as the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.  And that’s the origin of our word mausoleum.  When I was here last year I visited the ruins of the edifice.  There is a scale model of the structure which was pretty impressive.  I’m always amazed what these ancient people could build given they didn’t have any modern instruments.

This is what the Mausoleum looked like. I think it's incredible they could build such structures so long ago.

Since I’d been here before I decided to just do some wandering on my own. Seabourn provided a shuttle to the city center.  It’s clear that this place is mainly a holiday resort. You can see the vacation villas and apartments climbing up the hillside around the harbor.  We were dropped off next to a marina with some very impressive boats, both sail and power.  I think a lot of them could be chartered but since I can’t read Turkish I’m not sure.  That reminds me of an interesting thing I’ve noticed.  Despite the places we’ve been the last few days being big tourist destinations, there’s very little signage in anything but Turkish. In many places that are tourist spots they’ll often have signs with two languages, but not here.  

In the castle overlooking the harbor is a museum of  underwater archaeological artifacts which I was thinking I might visit.  The tourist office person at the shuttle stop told me there are lots of old stone steps with no handrails in the museum, so I gave up on that idea.  I walked along the marina and took some photos and then walked through the little open air bazaar.  This bazaar had lots of jewelry, perfume and leather shops and if you removed the Turkish flags and the occasional glimpse of a minaret you could have been in St. Thomas or Gibraltar or any number of tourist spots.  I wandered for a while and then headed back to the shuttle stop. 

The castle at the center of town as seen from my veranda

A street in the bazaar

For any catlovers here's a bazaar cat. There are always lots of them wandering around and they all look quite healthy.

Another view in the bazaar with a minaret towering over. If you look up high you can see two speakers from which they broadcast the call to prayers.

The marina with boats as far as the eye could see in the distance

Back on the ship I went up to the Patio Grill by the pool to have a salad and sat at a table with two ladies from the US who are half Italian and half German, like me, and then a German couple joined us. They were from Mainz which is very close to where I was born. We had a nice conversation about traveling. The German man had spent 6 weeks going to a training course for his company in Waynesboro, VA.  The five of us found we had lots of common things to talk about.  I’m back from trivia now and I won’t even discuss our performance; it was that bad.  The answer to yesterday’s question was Poland. Its currency is the zloty.

It's very late (1:45 AM) and I just got back to my cabin but I wanted to get this blog post up.  After dinner there was a dance party around the pool and when that was over I went down to the club. A group of people invited me to sit with them and we talked until long after the band stopped.  They are Californians of Indian (as in South Asia) descent and we had a great time talking about all sorts of things.  A couple of them are physicians and there was at least one who's an accountant and they were as nice as they could be.  They asked me to join them after I had gotten up to dance to a song I really liked because the ladies in their group said they wouldn't have the courage to do that by themselves.  I told them it doesn't take courage; it just takes deciding that  in all likelihood you'll never see most of the other people again so if you enjoy it, do it.  A couple of them got up with me later and danced too and we had a ball. I should feel bad about being up so late, but we turn the clock back an hour tonight so I can catch another hour of sleep. And that was my long but very enjoyable day doing not much of anything except meeting lots of new people. Tomorrow, or rather today, we're at a tiny island with not much to see or do so I'll have a day of rest.  Ciao for now.