I took a guided tour of ruins at Priene, Miletus, and Didyma. Priene had a hilltop location that used to be on the sea (like most of the sites). The river deposited silt where it emptied into the sea, moving the coast closer to Greece at about nine feet per year. Because of this, Priene lost its importance when it could no longer function as a port. The Greek theatre had enough seats for all 6,500 residents and I could see the ruins of the houses, unlike at Ephesus. I sat in the same chair as Alexander the Great when he passed through the town on his conquest!

Miletus had a huge well-preserved Roman amphitheatre with 30,000 seats where they had gladiator fights, plays and debates. The Romans built enough seats for 1/10 of the population. the Byzantines built a fort at the top of the amphitheatre, which looked a little strange. The rest of the city was in a swamp. There were a few columns and a large Roman bath that people were required to use after they came in from the sea to try to keep the city clean.

Didyma had a huge Temple of Apollo that was never completed, but all of the columns were 75 feet tall, three of them were reconstructed. To build them, they placed a chunk of column about three feet tall on the base, then put enough dirt around it to place the next segment on top and so on until it was 75 feet tall, then move on to the next column. It was a temple where oracles predicted the future. The guide had great information and loved history. He was upset that the local people took stones from the ancient sites to use to build new homes, but there wasn't enough education about it in Turkey. His father lived 29 miles from Ephesus and had never visited the site because he said "They are just stones, there are stones everywhere!"

I went to a sandy beach in Pamucak with refreshingly cool water and a school of small fish near the shore. I had some more good mezes/appetizers for dinner, and a Canadian roommate got stuck on a Greek Island for the weekend with 15 Euros in cash because an ATM ate his card.

I went to Aydin Saturday morning to visit my friend Evren who I lived and worked with in New Zealand and have seen a couple of times since then. She manages a winery which has just bottled its first batch of wine. She was working until 10:30pm to finish bottling Friday night. We went to Dilek National Park for a beautiful beach, views of the Greek Island of Samos, and a walk through the pine forest.

We visited an olive oil history museum that was started by a collector of artifacts going back over 2,000 years. I don't envy the people who crush and pressed olives by human power back then. At least they used donkeys for some of the work. I had pide (Turkish pizza) for dinner and tried Efes Dark beer and ouzo. Both were good. We walked around the new open-air shopping mall for a while which was nice because I could see Turkish people going about their lives instead of trying to sell me things. It was great to catch up with Evren. Her former boss Alain, who offered me a job in Hungary, visited her the previous weekend and it sounded like it would be pretty easy to obtain a work permit for me.

On Sunday we went to a shady park at the top of a hill and I did more people watching. I enjoyed being away from the touristy sites for a couple of days to observe that people act similarly to how they would in Santa Rosa, except for the call to prayer. The park in Aydin reminded me of a day at Howarth park with picnics, BBQs, and loud children running around. Evren made a delicious dinner, served a dark, full-bodied, spicy red Turkish wine. I have no idea what varietal...something Turkish. The baklava for dessert was excellent and I watched a strange movie called "Strings" which used puppets but still managed to be a good film.

I caught a bus to Bodrum which was a pretty ride, but the town was disappointing. I had read and heard that it was full of pre-package holiday seekers and it was worse than I had imagined. The beach was rocky so it was covered with reclining chairs and umbrellas so I couldn't even tell that it was a beach. It was lined with overpriced restaurants with too much English food on the menus. Not only that, the castle/underwater archaeology museum which was the only thing I wanted to see here, was closed on Mondays. So now I have to visit it after diving tomorrow. I passed by the Mausoleum of Halicarnas (also closed) and there was not much left other than a few large stones on the ground. But at least I can cross of another ancient wonder of the world. That makes two in the past week. The hotel was full, so they upgraded my room to a two-bed ensuite but it is next to the pool so I can hear the crappy music and loud people nearby. I'm glad I only booked two nights here.