| The Caucasus - My Journal |
Money Eating Cows
Selcuk, 30th July
Today was a good mix of relaxation and culture. After a hearty breakfast, I headed over to the nearby ruins of Ephesus with the Ozzies. A local carpet shop had made a special arrangement with Atilla's to provide free transport to the ancient city, and in return the passengers needed to pay a quick visit to the carpet shop, where the methods of production would be explained, over some Turkish tea of course, followed by the most gentle of hard sells.
 You may think I'm a little weary of ruins so far, but they've all been so different, I've not had my "ruin burnout" just yet. And Ephesus, an ancient city and the most popular tourist destination in Turkey outside of Istanbul, is so spectacular, it's impossible not to be impressed. Ephesus, dating back to 1000 BC but with substantial changes having been made over the following centuries, is the largest and best-preserved ancient city around the Mediterranean (with the exception of Pompeii).
Even though tourists attack the site daily en-masse, it was still a amazing place, with the marbled streets and ancient buildings so well intact, it only takes limited imagination to replace the tourists with ancient revellers and to complete the buildings in order to see the city as it once was. The Library and Theatre are particularly impressive and there are so many buildings to explore that the area easily fills a morning.
While waiting for our bus back from the site, I was amused to learn a bit about the "ancient coins" that many locals try to flog to tourists. Of course, they're not really ancient, but they look authentic, old and dirty, so how do they do it? They feed the coins to cows and sheep! Once the coins have passed through their digestive systems, they appearance gains 2000 years, it's quite amazing! I wonder what else you could do that with...would a pot or a statue fit through the digestive tract of a cow?
As per the deal, we returned to the hostel via a local carpet shop where a friendly lady explained the technicalities of carpet nomenclature and productions. The large group of backpackers just nodded a feigned interest while enjoying the free tea. Then, as smoothly as Del Boy, she'd slid from the explanations to "how many would you like to buy?"
Quite amusingly, without exception, all of the girls present began looking for souvenirs/gifts/decorations, while all of the guys sat around, drinking the tea, and chatting about unrelated topics, such as football and where the nearest kebab shop was.
After the girls had made their purchases and the guys had found the kebab shop, we returned to Atilla's Getaway. The rest of the day was spent making the most of the sun, the pool and the cheap bar. In fact, the afternoon quickly turned into the evening, and we continued to do the same thing!
Apart from Gaby and G getting very drunk, Gaby accidentally convincing everyone that it was her birthday, a crazy American guy stalking a newly arrived girl and a temporary blackout, the night went quietly and became a blur before ending...
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