Today our ship is at the port of Cesme (pronounced Chesme ), Turkiye.

The following information is from our guide that we had on the bus all day as we travelled to Ephesus and back to the ship. If you sound out “Do-night-in” that is Turkish for good morning. The currency of Turkey is the Lira but will accept Euro.

Our outline for the day: Ephesus, Turkish delight, and magic carpets.

Guide name: Smiley

Capital: was Istanbul. Now Ankara. Turkey is 95 % in Asia and 5% in Europe In Asia Minor from biblical times

Olive oil. Oldest tree in world. $4000 per bottle. Second largest producer of pistachio. Apricots and figs and pomegranates. Rose oil will fix any pain. Traditionally, Turks were nomads.

Carpet weavers are a dying art.

Turkey has 35% agricultural land. Sweetest tomato in the world. Apricots, peaches, pomegranate. Oh so good.

Turkish leather is the softest. All jackets are reversible.

Once we entered Ephesus:

Barbarian. Someone who doesn’t speak your language. Marble keeps heat the longest of all materials. Fish symbolize Jesus Christ.

We also learned that women who were virgins were untouchable in Ephesus. People couldn’t even touch their arms. If a man checked a virgins tonsils and they were swollen, the girl would be killed. It meant the girl had gone out and was now sick. 🤪

Homes. Only poor people ate in restaurants as they only had one room and no equipment. Wealthy people are at home because of those reasons.

Slippery walkways in Ephesus due to marble.

They collected urine to make material white as the ammonia was used.

Heart shape explanation. Men would take a drug similar to Viagra. It would make one’s heart beat faster which would make one have more children. 🙄 read between the lines.

The trip of crappy headphones. The “whispers” either hang off our ear, don’t work or just fall out. The crowds are so big in some places that we need them though.

Magic carpet demonstration. Will ship to Canada. We had a carpet manufacturing demonstration of beautiful handmade rugs of diverse colors. They fed us lunch of either meat or cheese/mushroom. As we ate, many many men threw many many rugs of various sizes. Interesting demo but strange sales pitch to a student group. I don’t know of many students who would spend hundreds of dollars at the drop of a hat. They also had a jewelley store where some of the kids tried on some beautiful pieces. Layne tried on a $150 chain and said “he felt so pimpin”. He made a lot of people laugh pretty hard.

Arranged marriages are a thing in Turkey. The parents would make the initial contact between the parents. Then the two proses marriage candidate would have a coffee date. If the girl likes the boy, she puts sugar/honey in coffee. If she doesn’t, she puts salt

We stopped at another store where we tried Turkish delight in various flavours, but pomegranate was the most popular one and the one that would be in a Big Turk. Pistachio, lemon, orange, and lime were some other flavours. They also had various oils which were supposed to solve all ailments. St John’s Wort oil is supposed to solve all skin ailment, rose oil and olive oil can be mixed to solve all else 🤪. That’s all according to them. You could also buy tea, saffron, and some pottery there. They really encourage tourists to buy, buy, buy.

We returned to the ship for our last night at sea. We had been told we would have a blue and white night. Nobody else seems to have got that message. 🙄. It didn’t matter. The YG and Eston crew rocked it big time! Made for some great pictures! After supper, we went to the “dance show” in the lounge. Our one friend from Eston went and got a sheet and decided he would have a toga night. It was a hit!! Our boys had their pics taken with the show dancers and then the karaoke started! Our tour director, Laertis, brought the house down! He ended with taking all of our travellers up on stage with him. It was so much fun!!! Pics will posted when we are back on land!