Day 202 Sat 5 May 2007 Foca to Ayvalik , Turkey

After probably the meanest breakfast in Turkey, we drive on a very pretty coastal road round to Bergama (Pergamon). Here there are two sites to be visited: the Asclepion, a C3BC medical school where Galen taught and put into practice the methods which are the basis for modern European medicine today. (He had daughters called Panacea and Hygena so you’d be pretty safe with but would never know if it was the real thing).

The second site is the Acropolis, high above the town, which follows the usual pattern: it reached its zenith in C 2AD under the Romans, who built a magnificent temple to Athena(or Aphrodite or perhaps both), a theatre cut into the hillside, an altar to Zeus, a palace, etc. Like every other site, it was passed from early times between the various warring countries, who destroyed and rebuilt in their own style. Like many of the other ancient sites we have visited, Alexander the Great wrested it from the Persians, and after his untimely death , one of his generals ruled until he lost it to another aggressor. And so it goes on. Turkey seems to have been the stage upon which all the western world’s great history has been played: Greek, Roman, Mongol, Arabic ,Byzantine and Ottoman, to name a few. It becomes difficult to remember which was where or when. Despite the muddle, it is all fascinating.
Ayvalik, another little harbour-side town where we find the Bonjour Pension lurking in a maze of tiny cobbled back streets. In a former French consuls house with lofty ceilings and ottoman furniture, we are the only guests, which is fortunate as it has shared bathrooms, something we haven’t encountered since Tingri in Tibet. We climb up a rickety ladder to the roof to watch the sunset and drink beers before heading down to the waterfront for dinner, only this time we avoid the overpriced fish in favour of four legged food.