Day 28: Canakkale and Troy, Turkey - Living the Iliad

Obviously this is not the real thing.

So I fully admit that on the list of "things I really want to see" on this trip, some poorly preserved ruins in between Ephesus and Istanbul might seem a little odd. However, those ruins belong to the city of Troy. After having had the Iliad pounded into my head through four years of college, and Greek mythology in general pounded into my head after 16 years of western education, these bricks in the sand were near the very top of my to-see list. Any nerd worth his/her salt would feel the same way.

The Trojan ruins are about a 30 minute drive outside of the city of Canakkale. Originally discovered in the late 19th century by some German dude who loved Homer, excavations have been continuously progressing and have revealed that Troy is actually much older than just Homeric times. Carbon dating places the oldest ruins at 2300 BC, and about seven different settlements have actually been unearthed at the same site. It's rather difficult to separate myth from history, but I didn't care, and neither did the other people there, or the guy who built the fake Trojan Horse and put it right in front of the site.

The walls of Troy!!!

The houses of Troy!!!

The tiny amphitheatre of Troy!!!

OK, visually Troy has nothing on Ephesus. Romantically, however, it cannot can beat. It only took a little over an hour to visit the entire site, but it was a nice item to cross off my bucket list. My only regret was that there was no beach view/access. I really wanted to run up the beach, stomp on a cockroach, kick a rock, break a branch, or just do something violent in general. Alas, I was denied. 

The rest of the day was a nice off day. I planted myself by the waterfront and had some tea and beer, and just generally kicked it. I also discovered something called peynir halvasi. It's a soft village cheese mixed with flour, butter, and sugar, and then baked (I assume). After it's baked it's seared on both sides to make it crispy, and served like that. I could have eaten an entire bucket of that stuff. Also worth mentioning is kanafe, which I think is an Arabic dessert. It's goat cheese underneath some sort of crumbly/crispy topping (cornmeal?) and then drizzled with honey. 

Waterfront in Canakkale.

The hostel was completely empty, and I was just about ready to call it a night when a Dutch family of three checked in. The wife and daughter went to bed immediately, but the husband came back downstairs and immediately cracked open two beers at once. We started chatting and then headed out for more beers. He was a banker who quit his job due to disagreeing with the ethical standards of the organization. We talked a lot about politics and the state of modern conservatism/liberalism. Not exactly how I expected my night to end, but a good end nonetheless.