I have been winning all day.
It started this morning when I thought I had to catch a dolmus to the otogar then bus to Izmir. The guy at the guesthouse took me to the balcony and pointed to a car and said "dolmus station just there, they will take you to Izmir"' Even the dolmus has a trolley dolly and this time was a young boy and not nearly as yukky as fat ******* yesterday. I ran into a kiwi couple I met yesterday and they are heading the same way as me but on a different bus. At Izmir I changed bus to go to Selcuk (sell chook) and the kiwis were on the same dolmus.
At Selcuk I couldn't find the place I wanted to stay so I booked into my second best, Vardar Pension. It is OK but I am moving tomorrow to something better. I dumped my bag and got a dolmus to Kusadisa. Kusadisa is the 4th biggest cruise port in the mediteranian and I was looking for a ferry to Cyprus. I thought this is the place to find what I am looking for. Kusadisa is full of resorts and the cruise ships all call in here for day trips to Effesses. They have the biggest water park in Europe here. The place is full of package Italians, poms and bogan French. I found an agent to deal with and he kinda fobbed me off at first. He said I couldn't get to Cyprus by boat. When I told him I could from Bodrum or Mersin or I could fly from Istanbul he realized I was serious. We had a good chat and looked at some options and I have booked a flight from Istanbul to Tel Aviv on 13th may, so I have to be back in Istanbul by then. That has made me kinda sort the rest of me trip so I think I an going to Pamukkale, Goreme, Ankara, Safranbolu then Istanbul. But we will come to them when I get there.
This arvo I looked around town here and went to St Johns Basilica. The same St John that is in the bible. Apparently he used to sit on the hill and pray and write letters and stuff so they built a church there for him. When it was built it was the biggest religious structure in the world. Now there is a mosque up there so I don't quite understand?
Quick lesson on religion. Muslims believe in life after death, just like Christians. They also believe in the virgin Mary birth of Jesus. They also believe in Adam, Noah, Abraham and Moses in the biblical sense. They also believe in the 5 pillars of Islam, profession of faith, daily prayers, alms giving, the fasting of Ramadan and pilgrimage to Mecca.
So back to St johns Basilica, there is a mosque there but a few places here have changed from church to mosque so make of it what u will.
Tonight I was having a quite beer down town and the kiwis showed up so they sat down for a while then another aussie couple showed up, who knew the kiwis so we ended up having a bit of a party.
I am moving tomorrow to the Paris Hotel and going to Ephesus. Will post some amazing pics tomorrow.