Pergamum

View of the ampitheatre

A little while back, Dean and I were in Berlin at the Pergamum museum. There we saw one of the most impressive structures of our trip - The Altar of Zeus. Earlier in the 1900s the Germans went to the old city of Pergamum and uncovered the altar and then took it back to Berlin. After seeing the altar, Dean and i knew we would have to visit Pergamum whilst in Turkey.

What's left of Zeus' Temple! not much...
"Ok guys, I like this one, take it back to Germany for me please"

Few tourists stay in Bergama because, well, there is not much there to hang around for. But because we wanted plenty of time to see Pergamum we stayed. Arriving at our pension "Athena Pension", a place that by their own admission "is not the best, but we're trying", we were met by an old turkish woman who showed us our room. We then wondered around town checking ut a nice old red sand-stone church on the way and a small, but impressive museum.

Arriving back at our pension, we met Aydin - the owner of the pension that was super friendly and had just had his appendix out that morning. He insisted on staying up and chatting with us though and just had to hold his freshly stitched belly when he started to laugh - this happened a lot. 'Breakfast not included' usually means just that, but not with Aydin. We joined huim and his mother for a lovely breakfast of bread with fresh honey and homemade cheeses, yumyum.

Aydin had told us that to get to the ruins we would just have to take a right and walk through the hole in the fence.... after turning right we were met with a maze of small turkish houses, so we just kept taking turns and heading up the hill. Locals helped and pointed us in the right direction. After pointing us in the right way, one little girl decided Dean could be useful and carry the gas bottle she was struggling with up the hill, good on her:)

What's left of the Acropolis

Ruins of the gymnasium (school)

After finding the hole in the fence, Dean and i spent hours looking around my favourite ruins in Turkey. Where the altar once was is now a few stones and a tree, but the acropolis and theatre were really cool, and there was lots of the old city left including baths, gymnasiums (schools) and even an indoor running track, plus some cool mosaics. We even bumped into a tortoise climbing around the ruins!

What the hell he was doing up there I have no idea...

We also checked out Asclepion whilst we were in town. This place was responsible for big steps in early medecine and is one of the largest hospitals in history. They even had dream analysis rooms and a theatre for laughter - becasue it is good for you:) All this from early A.D.

Returning from all this ruin-exploring and hiking up big hill in 35 degree heat, i was struggling to find an easy lunch before our next bus trip. Luckily for us, when we arrived back at the "Pension to collect our luggage, Aydin presented us with stuffed peppers for lunch - freshly made by his mum (the night before i had told him that this was my favourite turkish dish). Now that is hospitality!