Bergama

Bergama has the ancient ruins of Pergamon which has two main sections.  The acropolis which is the old city on top of the hill and the asceplion which is the old healing temple, basically one of the oldest hospitals in the world.  First the acropolis:

It's kind of cool but also a bit eerie when you have the ruins completely to yourself because it's the offseason.

Pergamon has one of the steepest theaters in the world because they built it on top of the hill and had room to go up but not really to spread out.  It could still hold 10,000 people though and had a removable stage so one of the temples wouldn't be blocked when there wasn't an event.  Since it is so high up it has an awesome view (like a lot of Pergamon).  The theaters continue to be a highlight of the ruins we've seen and this one is especially great.

Again it's easy to try silly things when you are the only people around.

Notice Jim is the only theater patron, he's  that  tiny black dot near the top left. 

More theater shots (can you tell we like the theaters yet)?  Notice the city down below in the background.

A model of the Altar of Zeus or the Pergamon Altar that used to stand at this site.  The whole thing is currently in a museum in Berlin because Germans helped excavate it and made a deal to bring it to Berlin.  We didn't see it on our trip in Berlin unfortunately, because the museum closed the section with the altar for renovations for the next 5 years or so about a week before we got there.

Archway selfie!

Now the Asceplion:

Hospital is maybe a bit of a misnomer for the asceplion.  While it's true that it is a place people went to convalesce it was also the 2nd century so healing methods were a bit different.  It was basically a really fancy spa for the time.  There were lots of baths, the occasional bloodletting, and they would often diagnose by interpreting dreams.

They had a sacred fountain, too.

Here is the rare double theater shot.  From the steps of the theater at the asceplion (not 100% sure why they had one but it seems like every Roman ruin needs a theater even if it's a hospital) you can see the theater on the acropolis in the background.

We set up the camera to take this shot of us right after a large tour group of older people showed up.  We were impressed at the amount of people taking on the ruins with canes which is no easy task.  We had the place to ourself up to this point and we were just about to leave so it was cool.  Jim did make a joke about all the old people at the hospital though.

Our trip to Bergama is also an excellent opportunity to offer up some quick highlights of traveling around Turkey. The gist is that in Turkey, you are basically guarenteed to be able to get where you need to go and not have to spend a lot of money to do it. That's the upside. The downside is that you might not have any clue how it's going to work in advance, and good luck finding a schedule. Just flag down a bus, wave your arms, holler the name of your destination and go. 

Case in point. To get to Bergama, we tried to use the elite bus services, but their representative wouldn't sell us a ticket. She said we could buy one at the central bus station though, and no, we couldn't  take her shuttle there because we did not have tickets from her company, Metro. So out to the street to flag down a city bus, the 302 to the Otogar ( central bus station). But because this is a city bus, and not a dolmus, you can't  flag it anywhere, you have to find a stop.  Which took some careful observation, but we managed to catch the bus. But we needed a tap card to pay the fare, oops. No worries though, the bus driver negotiated for us with a local who we paid, and she tapped her card for us. Get to the Otogar which is bigger than some of the airports we've traveled through and walk up to the first ticket desk we find. Bergama? I ask. Upstairs. Up a shady stairwell, to the 2nd floor of the Otogar, and we can tell we're  on the minibus level. But they're  labeled and we walk up to the one labeled Bergama ( run by the Metro bus company btw), Bergama? I ask again. Yes, hop in we're leaving  in 10 mins, and we're off. During the 2 hour journey, our mini bus host ( that's  right, in this country  buses come with drivers and hosts that provide coffee and treats), as is typical in Turkey, hops out along the highway yelling our destination , and people get on and off at these undesignated locations of their choosing. We arrived successfully  in Bergama and we're told if we wanted a ride back, to come back to the small bus station and use  Metro again. So we had our delightful day, as you can see, and as the sun went down, we headed back to the bus station, and asked, Bergama? Yup, leaving in 2 mins, get on. Back in Izmir, we renavigated  the massive Otogar and wiggled our way onto that free Metro shuttle we should have been able to use in the morning. 

 So you see, we got where we needed to go, and spent less than $20 to do it, but we had no time table, no perception of how it would work, and it took a city bus, 2 minibusses and a shuttle bus to do it.