Assos, Turkey

We spent our first five nights in Assos, Turkey at the Kervansaray Assos hotel. This was a wonderful location on the Aegean, and the hotel is a converted fortress. The view from our room was beautiful, with water and distant mountains in every direction. Louisa and I were on the second floor, and since a first floor addition was built to the back of the hotel, our window opened onto the roof of this addition. We loved spending time on the roof and reading or just taking in the scenery. Just as this roof allowed for such enjoyment, it also caused a tremendous fright during our second to last night in Assos. There was torrential rain and terrible thunderstorms this night, and I woke from my sleep to the loudest and most bizarre wailing I had ever heard. I at first thought it was part of my dream, but it became so real that I woke up to see a screeching cat in our room. I freaked out, yelled at Louisa, and jumped towards the cat so that it wouldn’t jump from the window ledge onto my bed, as it looked like it was about to do. I must have made a point because the cat quickly leapt out of the room, but it frightened us so that I still shudder when I think about its wailing. Louisa’s reaction was priceless. She groggily uttered, “well, that’s creepy.” :)

While in Assos, we spent almost the entire time reading the Iliad. We even read parts of it aloud as it is meant to be read. On our last day in Assos we saw the ancient temple and theatre there. This was beautiful and, like most classical temples, in an inspiring location on top of a hill overlooking water and mountains. Along the road that we took from the hotel to these sites (which was an incredibly long and steep climb that I, wrongly, thought I could run up!), we passed many loose sheep and cows. We also spent time relaxing in the theater, and some students put on little performances. Wheat rapped to “Ice Ice Baby,” and Mary and Louisa sang the lollipop guild song from The Wizard of Oz.