After a sobering few days at the Gallipoli Penisular it was time for some education lessons from some very tough teachers. It felt like we were back in 3rd grade on a school excursion being dragged around while our teachers bored us with facts that we were never going to remember. First stop was the ancient ruins of Troy, and the compulsary climb up the artificial Trojan Horse. As you probably know by now heights arent really my thing although the Bartlett's seemed to enjoy it well enough. Note for the tourists out there who embark on the 'adventure' into the horse's belly... please dont keep entering something that only has a finite amount of space, you will not fit! Then it was off to explore the site, the ruins were quite overgrown somewhat dissapointing but once you got down into the walls it was hard not to be amazed!
Troy was mainly composed of walls, some grass, an entrance way and stunning views down to the marsh area that was essentially the downfall of the city. Who would have thought that mosquitos could cause such a problem! We saw the layers of the city spanning years and years and years as well as the destruction of explorers searching for treasure (my history teacher would have had a fit!). By this time I was definately feeling as though a pop quiz was awaiting us as we returned to the bus. Quick souvenir stop and we were back on the road cruising along to Pergamon and the Asklepion ruins.
We arrived at the base of the Pergamon site, staring high up to the Acropolis and looking down to the Gypsy houses positioned atop of ancient ruins that will probably forever remain unearthed. We met our next teacher at the entrance to the old hospital (apparently the 3rd ever one in the entire world) but somehow we were all much more enthralled by the heavy presence of military in a rather not well hidden secret tank base backing up on to the site. If you looked hard enough you could just make out the silent figures and their automatic weapons, best we not get too close then! We were ushered around past the horse holding pens, the sign that implied if you were dying that you cant come in (ironic considering it was a hospital), past the rooms that once held pharmacies and all kinds of wacky treatments as well as many symbols depicting a snake drinking milk.
The road ended at an ampitheatre and library, something to do with making patients feel better. And then apparently we were not paying attention to our teacher as he asked Mr Little Bartlett "am I boring you?", the answer to which was "sorry what?" Yep typical banter most often seen in classrooms! Almost wanted to beg him at that stage to let us do our own thing but he just kept going on and on. As we were leaving I came to the conclusion that this wasn't infact a hospital to treat people with injuries but could rather be the worlds first mental assylum. I come to this conclusion because of the following facts I learn't along the way:
1: You technically weren't allowed in if you were sick or dying;
2: There were entertainment areas (to get the patients minds off other things);
3: There was a walkway with holes in the roof so that people could whisper plesant things down as if the Gods were speaking;
4: There was a round building in which patients were made to run around until so exhausted they fell asleep - early form of Valium; and
5: There were spa baths everywhere.
Actually in that case it could have been the worlds first day spa and relaxation retreat, I guess we will never know. Although our teacher was adament that the evidence he had accumulated was rock solid, and that we werent paying attention as good students should. We settled down for the night in Izmir, celebrated a long day with our tour guide TJ, amazing chicken and meze platter, I guess I could get used to the Turkish fare, although we were all well and truely sick of hard boiled eggs by this stage!
L&R
