Kusadasi, Turkey

Our next stop was Kusadasi. It is a popular tourist destination mostly because it is the closest city to Ephesus, which was an ancient trade center. There are lots of fascinating ruins to see there including the Temple of Artemis, which is one of the Seven wonders of the ancient world, and the Shrine of the Virgin Mary. They say she spent her last years living here. Ephesus was not our goal however. We just wanted to spend a lazy afternoon on the beach and go to a Turkish bath.

We chose Pigeon Island to do just that. It is a small island connected to the mainland by a long isthmus. The setting was beautiful. We swam in the crystal clear water and relaxed on the pier watching the yachts sail by. The main attraction on the island is Pirate Castle, which was used to protect the land from pirates in the Ottoman Era.

After checking out the castle, we decided to go find a Turkish bath. We wandered around the shopping district for a little while until we found the right one, stopping for some mint tea, and a little conversation with the locals on the way. We noticed a lot of the alleyways have small glass "evil eye" beads inlaid in them. The beads are very popular in Turkey and Greece, and are used to ward off the bad luck or injury believed to be caused by others envy.





But the best part of this day was by far the Turkish bath. I had heard a lot of horror stories about them, but our experience was quite the opposite. After undressing (I wore bikini bottoms), we were led to a huge, steamy sauna room, elaborately decorated with mosaic tiles. The ceiling was dome shaped, with small windows to let in rays of sunlight. In the center of the room was a huge, waist high granite slab, and the sides of the room were lined with dozens of beautiful fountains pouring out warm water. The air in the room smelled so good to me, like wet clay and exotic oils. We laid on the slab as two men poured warm water over us, scrubbed our bodies with hot, sudsy towels and proceeded to give us the best massages we ever had. It was truly heavenly, and one of the best experiences I had in Europe. I would definitely go back and do it again.