Kusadasi

Wednesday 5th December

Having been to Kusadasi twice before, I was in no hurry to get out there. I’d decided not to visit Ephesus again, much as I love it, as my priority was to visit a pharmacist. I actually made three trips out during the day, as the ship’s berth was only 5 minutes walk from the town.

The throat was not as bad this morning, but the voice was beginning to go. I was also weary, which is often my reaction to an infection.

Woody had given me directions to a pharmacist who spoke English. Unfortunately I went up the wrong street. He’d said uphill. I chose the road with a steep uphill path (puff, pant) rather than the gentle uphill one. I found it eventually, on my way down the intersecting road. I bought a box of wound pads for the blisters, so I could continue dancing, antibiotics, and cough mixture. Total? €35! I had a quick wander through the bazaar but could not see anything interesting.

My second trip out was to use the internet, again at Starbucks. However, this time I could not connect and had to go through a different free wifi system. Seeing I had to sign up for it, I used one of my game-playing aliases to be on the safe side.

At the end of the day, about 90 minutes before we were due to sail, I decided to go out again and wander the bazaar. I bought apple tea and looked in a couple of carpet places. They don’t believe me when I say I’m not buying, but if they want to show me lovely carpets, then I’m happy to look. One man told me that we are the last cruise ship of the season. They will now close up for 4 months. He would be happy to sell me carpets at a loss, as it’s money to get them through the Winter. I saw silk carpets for €450, the size to put beside a bed. I would have been prepared to start bargaining from that price if I had seen one I loved. The only one I really loved was huge and would have been more like €3,000! As I walked back to the ship, the shops were busy putting up metal shutters. I was obviously one of the last tourists of the season.

Dinner was a bit of a nightmare as I could hardly talk, and it was a real effort and painful to do so. I sat next to someone who kept asking me questions and could not hear my one-word answers and would ask me to repeat them! After dinner I tried one dance with Woody but could not follow him. I decided I was suffering from the effects of the cough mixture. He was also on cough mixture and was dizzy. Not a good combination! I went back to my room instead.

When I told Trevor about my medication, he told me to be careful of cough mixtures. They knock out the cough reflex. If you are unlucky, then all the gunk can go to your chest. He ended up in hospital with pneumonia after eliminating his coughing! I decided to only take the mixture at night.