Ephesus: Fourth largest Roman city

A tour to the Roman city of Ephesus on a cool Mediterranean summer evening. My group was my 7 crew, all except the captain. The first stop was the Virgin Mary's House, where she spent the last years of her life. This is only a theory, it is not confirmed that she really lived here, though two popes have confirmed that it is a religious site for Catholic pilgrims. The house stands atop a hill in a farming and retirement town in the valley adjacent to the city of Kusadasi, Turkey. I entered the house, rebuilt as a temple in the 1960's, and walked through the prayer room and the historic room. An old rosary was framed on the wall, and a portrait of Mary hung on the opposing wall. The building was small, made entirely of stone, and 3 candle burning alters were outside the exit. I lit a candle and reflected on those people whom I was close to that have passed away.
Down the short ramp were the sinks from which flowed the natural spring reported to be holy water. The cool, clean water comes from the ground under the hill. Many people were drinking from the fountains, some were filling containers to take home, and one woman was splashing the water on her baby's face. A few steps farther down the ramp was the wailing wall. Prayers are written, rolled up, and placed on this wall. Thousands and thousands of these people's wishes hung next to and atop one another. Beyond the wall was the museum shop and a cafe'. Half my group stopped at the cafe' for a Turkish coffee. This was my first Turkish coffee, and I will explain it here as it is very different from any other coffee drink that I had previously had.
The grounds are Brazilian usually, coffee beans do not grow in Turkey. The grounds are extra fine, almost to a dust consistence. The coffee dust is placed in a tiny mug, similar to an espresso cup, and boiling water is poured over it. Sugar is added depending on how it was ordered black, medium, or sweet and the cup is served. One must let the coffee sit for a minute or two to allow the grounds still in the mixture to sink to the bottom of the cup. Care is taken during the small sips of this beverage as it is still extremely hot at this stage. The drink holds a consistence of warm motor oil, and it is slightly bitter even when ordered sweet. Once nearing the bottom of the cup, which is three of four sips, the drinker leaves the last big sip that is mostly grounds. The mug is then flipped over on the saucer, and the cup is pulled off the grounds. This soggy, black mess is then read by a psychic and a fortune is read back to you. Our coffees did not come with a psychic, so my group read each others fortunes as best we could. Next was the city of Ephesus.
I have a difficult time explaining in any detail or accuracy the extent or importance of the city of Ephesus. The facts as I have been informed by my tour guide is that the city was founded in first century AD and prospered for 300 years. It had a population of 250,000, was a booming port city, and the fourth largest in the Roman empire behind Rome, Alexandria, and one other that I can't remember. We walked "5th Avenue", stopping in front of the government house, the library, the hospital, drug store, and brothel. Me writing that makes them sound common place. I am lacking the details of how each are full of columns, statues, and scenes carved in marble. The streets were paved in marble. Being a port town full of foreigners, the road signs were carved into the sidewalk as images of hands and feet and other symbols. My group stopped at the public men's room for a photo on the bench toilets. We also did some group photos in front of the largest ampitheater in Europe, holding 25,000. My crew got down on the stage, and up in the bleachers and we did a proper sound check. Four years ago the site was announced as a UNESCO site, and the rock concerts there were stopped. Classical concerts are still held in the theater. My guide proudly shared that he had seen Sting, Jethro Tull, U2, and some other popular bands that I don't remember there at the theater. He also sung us Lynrd Skynrd songs in the theater, wrongly telling me that they are the best band. I give him some credit though for liking the Allman Brothers and The Rolling Stones. "Harbor Ave" lead us from the theater down to the parking lot. I have informed that the city was built around a port, but the river Meander brought with it so much silt that the harbor filled in. This combined with what we think might have been a strong earthquake caused the inhabitants to abandon the city around 350 AD.
The last part of the tour was a visit to the Turkish Carpet Cooperative. I learned there about the preparation of silk and the manufacture of traditional rugs. The first room after the entrance is where the old looms are set up along with the boiling water pot used to pull the silk off the cocoons. The host explained the process, and the weavers demonstrated for us the knots used. The whole thing was very interesting, and it gave me great appreciation for the amount of labor that goes into making just one carpet. However I soon got the feeling that we were being primed to buy rugs, and my suspicions were correct. After almost an hour of carpet talk, I was ready for something else like dinner.
That night we ate at one of the marina restaurants. Food was very good, different courses of bread, olives, salad, calamari, shrimp, octopus and sea bass. The Turkish red wine was very good as well, smooth and no pucker or aftertaste. Dessert was incredible, and I still don't understand fully what it was. Some kind of filling that was sweetened with honey inside a rolled crispy deep fried outside and topped with powdered sugar. Turkish Delight!

Isola Ciclopi & Taormina 3

After the volcano, we drove straight to Isola Ciclopi. This little stretch of the Sicilian coast is prime for paddle boating, and kayaking and cliff jumping and all that stuff. The two towns that border each on this rocky piece of the sea front are adjacent to the city of Catania, but couldn't feel further from the industrial center. The church/castle ruins on the cliff side, the many corner cafe's offering pastries and pizzas, and the waterfront bars are what made this area a must return for us.
Parking wasn't quick and easy, but after finding a place and paying the attendant it was a short walk along the boardwalk to the place we had our sights set on. "That's a long walk, you know why that's a long walk?" says Rob as Matty and I point out our target. "...Its a long walk because I have to pee, and I need a beer." clarifies Rob. Matty and I laugh and as we sit down at a street side cafe. Once to this waterside deck bar, we get another round and check out the scenery. The deck is clearing out, at this time of night on Friday there aren't many people around; Saturday and Sunday evening are the busiest. We decide to just do it, rent a paddle boat and get out to the rocks just off the beach. I know what you may be thinking, but it looks totally normal to have as many men in one small boat as possible in Europe. We figured nobody would laugh at the three of us guys in a small red paddle boat with a water slide on it, and so off we went.
The paddle boat was at top speed, heading out to the Island of Cyclops. A short paddle brought us to a channel between two rocks where I had seen some kids jumping from the cliff. Not having surf shorts with us, we had to swim in our boxers. That didn't look out of place at all in Greece, if anybody noticed we were in underwear. We all jumped off the boat, letting it drift, and climbed up the cliff face. I showed Matty my forward backflip, and he showed interest in learning it. I told him the keys to the trick, and he landed on his face the first few times. It was a funny slap, but Matty didn't give up and landed one on his fourth try. Time on our rental was up, we returned the boat and headed off to find Harry.
Next stop was Taormina, parking was strange there and semi difficult to find. The lot was down under the tram line, and the turn was easy to miss leaving you facing a one way the wrong way. The main shopping street was packed on for the night. Together we decided it would be hilarious to all buy speedos with different flags of countries nearby. Greece, Turkey, and Italy. I was to wear Greece, blue and white cross and stripes. Lucky for us, we could not locate these "costumes" in any of the 5 stores that we checked. Besides looking for funny swimming costumes, I tried some cafe' fast food and just people watched. There were many wealthy people walking around very dressed up and spending wads of Euro. Trophy wives were leading their reluctant husbands from one shop to the next. Teens from rich families were strolling in groups, trying to be noticed. After walking to the end of the long street, we just turned around and returned to Harry.
Matty hit a parked car on the way back to the marina. Making a right turn at a corner he took the turn too tight and smashed the tail light of a car that was stopped there. The car only had children inside, the parent probable being inside the store there. Matty pulled forward to find a place to stop without clogging traffic. He left the van, Rob and I stayed with it. Matty ran back to the van and reported that the car had already taken off. We assumed that the driver did not have insurance and feared the presence of police. Matty drove towards the marina and parked the van close by the docks. A large scratch now covered the passenger side sliding door, but the van was fully covered on the rental insurance so that was not a problem.

Climbing the Volcano

Friday I climbed the highest volcano in Europe. At 10,922 feet, it covers around 460 square miles of area. The volcano is active, and atop it I breathed in my fare share of sulfur and carbon dioxide gases combined with water vapor. It is not a healthy mixture, and can be deadly in large doses or low areas.
Rob, Matty, and myself rented a van locally and made our journey through the narrow and twisty roads of Catania province. Our van was named "Harry", as denoted by the sticker on the back doors. "Harry" was a white Fiat diesel mini-van with power and air-con! A mixture of the directions drawn on our tourist map and the verbal directions from the rental car agent were sufficient to get us to the volcano. Of course we also looked up at the volcano while we were driving to verify that we were headed in the correct direction. Twenty euros worth of diesel was enough fuel for our day of running around Eastern Sicily, and a strange fact is that the van was loaned and to be returned on a quarter of a tank. Piedmonte was the first town we drove through as we made progress up the slope of Etna's flank. There we stopped at a cafe' for paninis and cigars. I tried the slot machine with some fifty cent euro pieces but came up empty. Piedmonte is a classic Sicilian mountain town, it looked like a great spot to find some authentic dinner and souvenirs. Of course, even the take out from the corner cafe' is as authentic as anything.
The road switchbacked, and an occasional Etna Nord sign posted kept us comforted that we were making forward progress. We had to pass some trucks and buses on the narrow street, which was all about opportunity amidst the hairpins and s-curves. At the same time, we were getting passed by motorcycles, and a car whose driver we figured was late to work passed us as he ran a red light. Once to the park, it was slightly confusing which turn would lead us as high as possible into the lava fields on the North side of the volcano. Taking a few wrong turns allowed us to see a lot of the park, and there were many trailheads leading off into the evergreen forested woods surrounding the volcano. Lower on the access road, we passed a tourist center which was selling trips on horses, bikes, and atvs.
Reaching the upper parking, the tourist stands and excursion booths were in our grasp. Matty, Rob and I grabbed our packs and set up to find a 4wd to get us up on the mountain. Walking would have been a more fun option from the trailheads slightly lower down on the mountain, but we didn't have the time to make it up and down that way as it was already 11:00. Within 45 minutes we had secured tickets for the next truck ride up the hill, and I had a topographic map of the park and a small bottle of Fuoco di Etna; "fire of Etna". The jeep was a large Mercedes truck, and our truck was full. The windows were large and dusty, and our spot in the back seat was far from any openings making photography difficult from the bouncing truck. The 4x4 crawled its way up the steep and winding volcanic dust track buldozed into the old lava flows. The wildflowers of the lower elevations gave way to snow fields as we climbed. The track moved past many vents, which we all struggled for a view into the earth as we peered down from the height of the truck. Within about 30 minutes, the truck came to a stop and the group unloaded for the guided walk to the top of the main caldera.
The guide overheard me referring to the trail we were on as an uphill black sand beach. He laughed and we chatted for a bit with him as we hiked. He explained that we would not see any lava, but plenty of gases and water vapor. He stopped our group near the caldera's rim to point out a vent that was belching steam. We all put our hands over the opening to feel the heated water vapor escaping the fissure. Looking down the mountain held a view of the Catania valley, and the haze below 7,000 feet made those vineyards and towns look further away than they were. 45 minutes walk from the truck had us to the caldera's edge. Our group took turns peering over the edge and down into the abyss below. The bottom could not be seen due to the amount of gas flowing up from the caldera. The wind direction was the best for our viewing, blowing the gases away from our side of the caldera and South across the opening. Those viewers who came up the South side, more popular side, were not allowed a view from the top on that day due to the dangerous conditions brought by the wind.
Volcano lookers took turns holding their breath, and squatting down beside the upward flowing steam and sulfur for a photo. If your photographer took to long to get the shot, you were forced to take a shallow breath of the stuff. It shocked your mouth, throat, and lungs; making you move away from the area with squinted eyes into an area of fresher air. Next, we moved across the ridge, and I broke out the Fuoco di Etna to toast the highest point of the mountain that we would reach. The summit was slightly East of us, but we would not be able to get there. The guide explained that there was too much danger of land slides. I opened up the booze and took a shot. It tasted like cinnamon schnapps, and I passed it on to Rob who then passed it to Matty for a ceremonial shot. After shooting the rest, we charged away from the group to the ridge, hoping for a look down into the harbor where the yacht was at anchor. We saw her far down below in the haze, and ran back to the group who where now heading down the trail. The three of us veered from the trail to glissade the small snow field. Back at the truck, I had trouble staying awake during the hot ride back down to the parking.
Leaving the park, we stopped at the tourist stop. After a drink there, we headed back down towards sea level. Driving though the conifer forest smelled great, and only heading to a camp site close by would have made the adventure complete. Instead we moved toward a destination completely different in nature. To be continued.

Crew Cruise Underway

I'm in the same place that I wrote the last blog entry from, Taormina Sicily. This is the Yacht's 3rd time stopping here. The second time stopping here without guests. Its been nearly 10 days since my last entry, so I will back track some to fill in the missing pieces.
We dropped the guests off on Sunday, 6 days ago in Catania, Sicily. The finish to the 2nd guest cruise was great. After Taormina, we took the yacht with guests to Siracusa. This ancient town has some insane architecture and the piazza is really fascinating. The guests did some tours ashore there, and the crew got to take some time ashore in two groups as well. I was in the second group, which went into the town on Sunday morning. At breakfast I had chocolate and vanilla gelato along with a strong latte. After taking some photos in the piazza, Rob and I made our way into town and found a street market. We tasted some capers and Rob bought some locally grown and pressed virgin olive oil.
Before dropping the guests at the dock in Catania for the airport shuttle, we stopped at the Isola di Ciclopi; Cyclops Island. This is Southern Sicily's weekend party on the water spot. Locals and tourists were on the water in tenders, paddle boats, kayaks, and anything else that floats. Many women were topless, some men had on swim wear that was smaller than the females'. While the yacht was anchored there, it was a constant source of attention for the many boaters. The Sicilians circled the yacht, and we waved and responded to their greetings as much as was appropriate to do with our guests present.
Guests successfully dropped, yacht once again anchored in the Naxos harbor, near Taormina. It was time to unwind, relax, and release from a long period of work. The process began with some wakeboarding. Followed by some beers and hot tubbing. Next shots of tequila, and a tender run to the beach to pick up pizzas and more beer. Pizzas eaten, World Cup won by Spain, and more hot tubbing. Next we started jumping and flipping off the top of the yacht, about 40 feet off the water. Chilling, eating, drinking and having fun on this yacht was almost like having it to use for personal fun. The next job was to get the yacht back to Palermo to drop off our rental tender and pick up the loaner tender, plus get some diesel fuel.
Not sure if I clarified that we had no towing option with the rental tender. The bow eye and cleats were too weak to be used as attachment points. We had no way to put the tender up on deck, our new davit has not yet been installed. This left the only option of one of our deck crew to drive the tender as the yacht was driven from one port to the next. Complicate this with the fact that the 18 foot tender with a 115 horsepower only had a 55 liter gas tank; which is about 14 gallons. This gave us a range of only 45 miles at 25 mph. Some of the distances between our ports were 70 and 80 miles, which meant that one or sometimes two fuel stops had to be planned for the small tender. It was really kind of fun figuring out where we could stop for fuel and how to communicate with a pump attendant who did not speak English.
Between Naxos and Palermo, we anchored in Cefalu. I was on watch that night, but I did get to leave the boat and go to shore before dinner to take a walk for an hour. I split my time between the beach, the shopping street, and the piazza. Hauled anchor, and steamed to Palermo the next morning. There we cleaned out the garage and made room for the loaner tender that would be stored inside the yacht, via a door that lifts up inside the transom. The tender was delivered, it was started, and without any hassle it fit into the stands inside the garage. With our rental returned, the yacht was relocated to a town just East of Palermo, Termini.
Alongside at a commercial dock, we were position in a cool area. The main town was a few hundred feet higher atop at hill, and it was a brutal walk up there. A one story building painted flat red housed the only summer weekend gathering spot for young and old. Only Rob and I were out, the rest of the crew being tired had chosen to stay in and sleep. The bar was featuring belly dancers this night, and the dances were spaced out with one or two pop songs playing in between so the dancers could change their costumes.
The following day, my crew member Katie departed for a visit home to Florida. The yacht left the dock early and our crew cruise started in earnest. The yacht anchored off Fillicudi, next to the blue hole. Crew grabbed kayaks, paddle boards, and snorkeling gear. Taking to the water, we explored the cave and the multiple swim through formations of the site. The water was saturated with jelly fish, about the size of soft balls and with 5 foot long tentacles. All jelly fish in the Mediterranean sting humans, so everybody was careful to steer clear of the jelly fish. Still, anybody who went into the water snorkeling got stung, myself included. The stings weren't that painful, and wore off quickly.
That evening, after drifting off town to run for provisions, we steamed to Stromboli for an evening lava show. Once to the island, the yacht motored slowly along the shore. I sat out on the bow, looking up at the pitch black mountain top for an explosion of molten lava from the caldera. I spotted the lava first, but everybody else quickly looked because I could not contain my excitement and let out a yell. The lava shot out of the caldera in a violent plume towards the sky. It is difficult to judge distance, but I could guess that the lava was shot in excess of 200 feet above the visible part of the caldera. A thick plume of smoke was barely visible in the darkness, and it was only 10 minutes to the next eruption. We watched one more after that, and after went around to the other side of the island and anchored. The next day was sunny in Stromboli, and the crew took advantage with trip into the town on the volcanic isle. The narrow streets there are lined with caper trees flowering. Hotel courtyards are shaded by overhead grape vines, plump with ripe grapes. Citrus and fig trees reach high to the sun behind stucco and volcanic pumice rock walls. The beaches are fine black sand and smooth black stones.
From Stromboli the yacht came here once again to Taormina.

Taormina, Sicilia

Mt. Edna, last major eruption in 1991, looks over the town of Tao. She is tall, usually obscured by the hazy summer air here. This evening, the caldera was only able to be viewed at this distance after sunset and during the day's last light. According to written guides, the pyroclastic activity can be seen from some distance during nights without moon. Tonight though we have no moon yet arisen, the volcano top remains darkened. The mountain is lit only at much lower elevations by the city's lights. The city South of our anchorage and adjacent to Edna's shoulder is Catania, the departure location of our guests on Sunday. Above the anchorage, this picturesque town of Taorimina sits on the hillside. Visitors arrive via bus from the port on the anchorage side, or cable car from the beach just two small coves North of here.
Today, the yacht transited the Straits of Messina the second time, this time heading South. The swordfishing boats of this area are easily identified by the long bowsprit, often the same length as the boat. Another structure rises from the deck as much as 20 meters outfitted with a chair and controls where the boat's captain pilots and looks out for swordfish. The high bridge controls and long bowsprit both enable the boats to both spot and harpoon the fish without waking them up. The swordfish transit the straits during daylight hours, which is also when they sleep, and the boats are built and operated to sneak up on these deep ocean killers and harpoon them. The Straits are a busy traffic area, full of ships heading North and South and ferries traveling East and West between Italy and Sicily. To add the confusion of swordfishing boats doing circles around schools of swordfish makes it simply hectic while supremely entertaining. A mini swordfishing boat was off our beam, essentially a panga with a 10 foot pedestal with a spotter riding on a chair at the top. We laughed as we witnessed the driver take hands off the motor to pass the spotter at the high seat a lit cigarette.
I did some tender driving around this harbor. I dropped off some crew at the beach cove to do info gathering on the cable car tickets and so on. It was a fun beach landing, fully rocky around the narrow landing and water littered with swimmers. The ride around the two points over to that small cove was fun too. The tender was jumping the wakes and rollers that were coming in. Later in the evening and closer to sunset the many small boats were fishing around these points. The tides had the water currents swirling here.
Tomorrow we will stay here in Taormina before heading further South along the Sicilian coast to the town of Syracusa. In the morning, some guests will further explore the rock top house and cove beaches, as well as the caves in the cliff sides. This spot on the Sicilian East coast is great for vacations, which is why there are so many Europeans here doing just that.

Sicily and the Eolien Islands

We cruised past an active volcano today. The shaking of the earth could be heard from the yacht. The crater was smoking a thick white smoke, and in an instant I witnessed this smoke turn dark and was accompanied by black rock hurtling towards the sky in a sharp stream. The slope of volcanic material lead down to the sea. All this volcanic material had solidified, but was still steaming away. The volcano was on the Italian island of Stromboli.
Today we started in Panarea. Another Italian island in the Eolien chain. A lunchtime cruise around the island today revealed the sharp and jagged features covered with a mix of shrubs, grass, and wildflowers. The islands in this Archipelago are mostly close together, and therefore it makes for a popular destination for yachts and other boaters. Rental boats are easy to find. Mostly available are the inflatable tenders, and one will find that a lot of Italians take there vacations in these islands. The yacht rented one of these tenders, as we are still waiting on the delivery of our new inflatable tender.
The first pair of islands that we visited are the favorite as going around by word of our crew; Alicudi and Fillicudi . Fillicudi has a blue hole perfect for boating and swimming into. These waters are full of jelly fish currently so anyone in or on the water has to used extreme caution. Our guests were kayaking, paddle boarding into the cave. I have seen a postcard of what the inside looks like, pretty incredible. Yes, I said postcard. When the guests are playing in the water, we are not welcome to join them.
Amongst these island, a certain feature makes them feel less like the Mediterranean, and more like the South Pacific or Southeast Asia. The features that I am speaking of are spires of rock that are sticking straight up out of the sea. The one off the island of Fillicudi must have a climbing route to the top. The photographer shot the subject on top of tallest spires, the the setting sun backlighting and making a a cool profile of just one man standing atop the need feature. Four of us climb on the crew and we all showed a desire to climb this one.
Before leaving for the islands during this guest trip, the yacht was moored in Palermo, Sicily. Palermo is the largest city on the island, and clearly rich in traditions and heritage. I walked around in the city both the first and second night that we were docked there before guests arrived. The first night, I had no idea where I was, but I just left the marina and started walking. I found a great and inexpensive pizzeria, and devoured a pancetta pie with a cold beer. I walked on towards a restaurant district, and after asking a host found a cab ride into the city center. I started in La Champagneria. This street had a half dozen bars occupied mostly by futbol fans watching the World Cup. I chose a drink from the Aboriginal Internet Cafe'. This bar had 6 computers inside; explains the internet cafe' advertisement. I had picked up a flyer along the way for a music festival in Venice, and I did my best to ask the bartender if that festival would come to Palermo. She spoke much more English than I had even hoped for, and gave me a local music flyer and even gave me vague directions on where certain venues were located.
I continued my walk around the city center. Finding another skinny street packed full of bars, but catering more to the younger crowd. Tables on the street were full of college age young people drinking and smoking. Most of the bars were fairly empty, and the taxi driver explained that during the summer most Sicilians and tourists are found on the beaches day and night. The beach towns were a far taxi ride from the city, so I made my way back to the marina.
The next night was Saturday night. This time all of my crew but 1 left for the city center together. Starting in the same Champagneria street, it was much more busy than the night before. Captain had cigars for us that wanted them; Cohibas from Cuba. Our group happened to stop at the same Aboriginal as I had the night before. The same bartender was there working, and I asked her about the venue holding Sicilia Jazz Festival. Our group was now off to find the Jazz Fest which was being hosted in the ruins of an ancient church. Despite the assurance that it was easy to find, and that every Sicilian knew where the location of the area that we were trying to get to, it did take some time and asking to find. Getting closer, our group got separated; it was now just myself and two others. Asking around for the place we met two Sicilian couples who not only showed us where the Jazz Fest was but hung out with us for the rest of the night. They proved extremely friendly and gracious, and at the conclusion of the night we were all friends and us visitors had gained a wealth of information about Sicily.