The tour group was scheduled to spend the day on the Med, hanging around on a boat and swimming. Since the air temps were in the mid to high 70s, we figured the water would be pretty cold! Also, we had enough lazy days so we decided to embark on our own adventure to Bergama.
Notable structures to see at the Ruins in Bergama are: The Hellenistic Theater with a seating capacity of 10,000. This had the steepest seating of any known theater in the ancient world! The Sanctuary of Trajan (also known as the Trajaneum). The Sanctuary of Athena. The Library, second largest greek library at the time. The Royal palaces. The Heroön – a shrine where the kings of Pergamon, particularly, Attalus I and Eumenes II, were worshipped. The Temple of Dionysus. The Upper Agora (marketplace). And, The Roman baths complex.
Dennis & I had a bit of a problem catching a bus ride out of town. We never quite figured out what we were doing wrong. The busses would just pass by us, and the ones that stopped were of no help. Finally, we walked back to the autogar and a fellow arranged for us to get on the 11am bus to Bergama. The kind bus driver drove us all the way into town (much to the consternation of some folks on the bus). Then he told us we needed to be back at the Autogar (6 miles on the edge of Bergama) by 4:30pm. We had about 3.5 hours to check out the ruins!
We walked from the center of town to the edge of town, heading in the direction of the ruins. They are very large, and sit on top of a hill-so it’s pretty obvious where to go. When we got to the base of the hill, however, the main road split and suddenly we were in alleyways. We had the good fortune to walk by a carpet shop where a nice man pointed us the best way to the ruins.
As we walked along the narrow passageways, we would sometimes bump into a local (who undoubtedly knew where we were headed!). We passed a school just as it was letting out and a couple 7 year old boys walked with us the rest of the way to the main road. Once on the main road, it was probably another 7 km. It was a beautiful day (a little warmer than Ayvalik), probably around 82 dF. We walked for about half an hour, until I was bored of walking. We looked down the windy mountain road, and a VW Passat came along. A nice young couple gave us a ride the rest of the way to the top.
Hitch hiking was fantastic. They wouldn’t accept any money from us, as they had assumed we had “money problems”. They actually said this to us when we got in, and we nodded in agreement. We didn’t necessarily have said problems, but we were unwilling to pay the cabbie the 15 lira he wanted to take us up the hill…the cabbies in these smaller cities are even more extortionistic than in Istanbul sometimes!
The fee to see the ruins was 10 lira a piece, such a great deal! The view of Bergama from the top was amazing, to boot! We had a fantastic time walking alone among the ruins. There were signs every now and then, so we could figure out what we were looking at.
When we got to the theater, I did a wild thing and ran up the steep and uneven steps! Dennis recorded it, and the other group of tourists (from San Diego!) started chanting the Rocky theme song. One of them had worked at China Lake back in the 1970s- Strange thing to run into folks in the middle of Turkey, who know where we live! Their tour guide was nice enough to give Dennis & I a ride back to town in their Dolmus. Right on!
Once back in town, we walked a long the main street until we found the taxi & dolmus center. We flagged a dolmus down (it was a guy who was taking schoolkids home). He wasn’t excited about giving us a ride to the Autogar-but the kids in the back seat told us he would take us.
Another thing to note…when in Turkey, the kids speak fantastic English since they are learning it in school. They are excited to chit chat, and they can often be of more help than the adults (who are a little shy about trying their luck with English). If the kids don’t know the answer, then they normally ask an adult in Turkish, and then get back to you with the answer. We ended up giving the Dolmus driver a lira a piece to take us to the Autogar-what a deal!
We got back to Ayvalik just as the tour was getting back. They had a fantastic day lounging in the boat. Carl and a few others were brave enough to enter the frigid waters-so there was some chuckling about the boat trip. They were keen to hear about our trip. Dennis showed them the video from running the stairs, and we swapped cameras to look at their pics.
We ended up going to dinner with Heather, Jo, and Louise. Dennis was lucky to be out with such marvelous gals. We had a lovely dinner down by the water, and saw the sun go down. What a fantastic day!