Bergama (Pergamum)
The ancient town of Pergamum once was one of the richest and most powerful small kingdoms of the Middle East. I read that there was a „Library war“ between Bergama and Alexandria around 150BC. At that time, the world greatest library was in Alexandria (Egypt). So when Bergama's library started to grow, the Egyptians got afraid that famous scholars from Alexandria would be drawn to Bergama. They cut off Bergama's supply of papyrus (?) from the Nile. It is said that the scientists in Bergama then came up with pergamen, a paper-like material made from animal hides. I remember making lanterns of „Pergamentpapier“ when I was in Kindergarden. And here I was now, 25 years later in an ancient town in Turkey, finding out the origin of this paper. I liked that. : )
There were the very impressive ruins of an asclepion (an ancient medical center) from around AD 150. Patients went there to sleep and dignosis were made by dream analysis... Another very impressive site was the Acropolis, situated on a hill overlooking the town.
From Bergama we rode along the Aegean coast. There were some very pretty villages on the way..
Albert.. unable to decide what he wants.
...and then Izmir! Ohhhh, the way to Izmir was hard. This video shows only the beginning of the day!
The only time I had ridden against a wind like this before was in Iceland. We packed the tent thinking that we could at least make it to the next small town to have a tea and wait for the wind to calm down... haha.
LUCKILY we found a last-minute couch through couchsurfing, Murat invited us to his home. It seemed like an angel holding its hand out for us (hear the small bells rining in the background?). By the time we arrived in Izmir (which was around 15km from where I took this video and it had taken us several hours to get there), it had already started to rain and the wind got so strong, the people were throwing away their umbrellas. We found out that the district, where Murat lived was not just „to the right“ from where we were as I had understood in the beginning. It was „15km to the right“. Another 15km through a big city with dense traffic and a crazy wind and rain against you us -argh....
But we found out there would be a ferry to the other side of town, straight to where we needed to go! Yeah!
And then we found out the ferries were not running due to the storm. URGH.
So, we did what we had to do. Keep on going, once again. We took the road next to a very busy main one. We got stuck somewhere, when the main raod kept going but not ours. Even worse, we had gotten away from the main road and were stuck now on a flooded field of grass underneath some bridges. We pushed our bikes back toward the big road and tried to find the best place to lift our bikes over a fence. Our shoes were like small swimming pools by then..
On top of everything, the wind had blown off my brain: I knew where we were supposed to meet up with Murat, by I had forgotten to write down his phone number. And we were late.
A man was standing in the rain, checking his mobile phone. When he looked up to us, he waved and gave us a big friendly smile. Murat! We shook hands. Albert and I started to talk him at the same time: We were so sorry, the rain, the ferry, the road, we got lost, and the number, oh, the number! Have you been waiting long blablabla..
But the man was not Murat. He was a passionate cyclists and curious to know where we had come from in this rain and storm!
(When we finally found the place where we were supposed to meet with Murat, he was not there. I rode around the area to find an internet cafe to get his phone number, tried to call him from skype but it did not work. Rode around the area to find a phone.. and finally, when he picked up, he was laughing and saying that he hadn't waited for us in the rain, because he had understood that we'd give him a call once we got there! Ayayayayay......)
After this, Albert and I were sick for two days.
The ancient town of Pergamum once was one of the richest and most powerful small kingdoms of the Middle East. I read that there was a „Library war“ between Bergama and Alexandria around 150BC. At that time, the world greatest library was in Alexandria (Egypt). So when Bergama's library started to grow, the Egyptians got afraid that famous scholars from Alexandria would be drawn to Bergama. They cut off Bergama's supply of papyrus (?) from the Nile. It is said that the scientists in Bergama then came up with pergamen, a paper-like material made from animal hides. I remember making lanterns of „Pergamentpapier“ when I was in Kindergarden. And here I was now, 25 years later in an ancient town in Turkey, finding out the origin of this paper. I liked that. : )
There were the very impressive ruins of an asclepion (an ancient medical center) from around AD 150. Patients went there to sleep and dignosis were made by dream analysis... Another very impressive site was the Acropolis, situated on a hill overlooking the town.
From Bergama we rode along the Aegean coast. There were some very pretty villages on the way..
Albert.. unable to decide what he wants.
...and then Izmir! Ohhhh, the way to Izmir was hard. This video shows only the beginning of the day!
The only time I had ridden against a wind like this before was in Iceland. We packed the tent thinking that we could at least make it to the next small town to have a tea and wait for the wind to calm down... haha.
LUCKILY we found a last-minute couch through couchsurfing, Murat invited us to his home. It seemed like an angel holding its hand out for us (hear the small bells rining in the background?). By the time we arrived in Izmir (which was around 15km from where I took this video and it had taken us several hours to get there), it had already started to rain and the wind got so strong, the people were throwing away their umbrellas. We found out that the district, where Murat lived was not just „to the right“ from where we were as I had understood in the beginning. It was „15km to the right“. Another 15km through a big city with dense traffic and a crazy wind and rain against you us -argh....
But we found out there would be a ferry to the other side of town, straight to where we needed to go! Yeah!
And then we found out the ferries were not running due to the storm. URGH.
So, we did what we had to do. Keep on going, once again. We took the road next to a very busy main one. We got stuck somewhere, when the main raod kept going but not ours. Even worse, we had gotten away from the main road and were stuck now on a flooded field of grass underneath some bridges. We pushed our bikes back toward the big road and tried to find the best place to lift our bikes over a fence. Our shoes were like small swimming pools by then..
On top of everything, the wind had blown off my brain: I knew where we were supposed to meet up with Murat, by I had forgotten to write down his phone number. And we were late.
A man was standing in the rain, checking his mobile phone. When he looked up to us, he waved and gave us a big friendly smile. Murat! We shook hands. Albert and I started to talk him at the same time: We were so sorry, the rain, the ferry, the road, we got lost, and the number, oh, the number! Have you been waiting long blablabla..
But the man was not Murat. He was a passionate cyclists and curious to know where we had come from in this rain and storm!
(When we finally found the place where we were supposed to meet with Murat, he was not there. I rode around the area to find an internet cafe to get his phone number, tried to call him from skype but it did not work. Rode around the area to find a phone.. and finally, when he picked up, he was laughing and saying that he hadn't waited for us in the rain, because he had understood that we'd give him a call once we got there! Ayayayayay......)
After this, Albert and I were sick for two days.
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