Underwater Museum

We arrived in Bodrum tired and hungry.  It wasn’t a terrible sail, but enough that we only managed to consume an orange the entire day and were ready for some real food.  Fodor’s and the Pilot book recommended a place called Sunger’s Pizza which had brick oven pizzas.  The waiter thought we were crazy when I ordered a medium cheese and Dad ordered a large mixed, but we didn’t care and managed to consume almost all of it. 

The crown jewel of Bodrum is St. Peter’s Castle which also houses the Underwater Archeology Museum.  We took 182 photos at the museum and I’ve tried to whittle it down to 20 of the greatest.

This is a view of the castle from the marina we were staying at.  The place was very nice, but also very full of charter boats and gullets (seen leaving the marina) getting ready to take the summer tourists out on joy rides.  Every marina has a coast guard stand and those power boats greet you as you enter. 

This wooden representation of the castle is inside.  The Castle of St. Peter was built by the Knights of St. John in 1402 when they seized Bodrum.  There was a mausoleum, which was considered one of the seven wonders of the ancient world and the original mausoleum that coined the term, but the knights went ahead and dismantled that and used the stones to build the castle.   

When the Turks took over again, they converted the chapel located in the middle of the castle into a mosque.  This is a pattern we see throughout Turkey.  Nothing that is built is safe from the next guy or religion that comes around, everything is fair game.

You can never have too many anchors.  Anyone that has sailed with my Dad has heard him say that.  He has 5 aboard the Pipedream and always marvels at bigger anchors. 

There was an entire wall of these amphoras.  They were used as containers and would transfer wine, olive oil, milk, grains, nuts, pretty much anything from city to city throughout the Mediterranean.  When the shipwrecks were discovered the clay pots survived the salt water and barnacles that destroyed the wooden ships that housed them.

At the entrance of the Underwater Archeology Museum there was a sign that read, “Out museum is not under the water but most of the artifacts came from under the sea”.  I loved that.

Much like the zoo, there were birds walking around the castle; everything from roosters and pigeons or peacocks.  This guy was walking around and a combination of things made him open his feathers for us.  Dad made an obnoxious noise and a pigeon was walking by.  I’m not sure who the peacock was trying to attract, the pigeon or Dad, but I was glad to see the full feathered bird up close.

Dad was wondering how they stacked the amphora in the ships and sure enough we went into a room that had this wooden ship bow built and on the other side it showed how they were stacked like seen in the other photos but had straw packed between to keep them from moving too much.  The crew would apparently get wine straight from the amphora they were transferring.

The illusive fish of the Castle of St. Peter. 

This is one view of Bodrum from the top of the castle.  It is located on a peninsula and this is one side, while the marina and more of the city is on the other side.

There were 5 turrets of the castle named after the homelands of the knights, England, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain.  This was inside the English turret which had the most extensive decorations.

In Spain’s snake turret there was an entire section dedicated to the phallus cult.  A whole collection of art or everyday tools dedicated to the phallic symbol.  What really caught us off guard was when a school group came in and 8 year olds were climbing all over these statues and taking lots of photos with them completely unaware.  I would love to be one of the parents who looks at field trip photos and sees something like this.

These theater masks were recovered in the Agean Sea at some point.  We keep seeing them at the Roman ruins and this castle is too young to be influenced by those guys.

Another theater mask located outside of a separate museum room that costs an extra 5TL to see.  We passed on going inside, but enjoyed the artifacts located outside of the museum.

After seeing the sun dial in Knidos, I have a feeling I’ll see them everywhere.  Can anyone tell what time it is there?  I cannot.

This plaque touched a personal note.  When one goes into the bathroom here it’s always a surprise if there will be a western toilet, like the one pictured on the left, or a Turkish toilet like the one pictured on the right.  These are instructions on how to use the Turkish toilet explaining “The squatting position, as with Turkish style toilets, has been found to put the least strain on the bowls and surrounding muscles”.  I don’t know if that’s true or not, but I do know that it isn’t nearly as comfortable or sanitary.

This is what I’ve been faced with in a few bathrooms.  It’s the same shape, but instead of marble it’s a porcelain or plastic toilet area and it’s “flushable”.  There is always a water spicket and a pitcher or bucket next to the toilet and when water is poured down a small door opens and the contents go down.  The plaque to the right mentions that many Turkish people are favoring western toilets because of the sanitary benefits.

When the Turks took control of the castle they put in a Turkish bath and that’s where I saw the information on the toilet.  This is Dad showing how things are done in a traditional Turkish bath.

I liked the sign that translates to, “Hygiene is a result of religious belief”.  Prophet Mohammet said this and he clearly wasn’t familiar with using a Turkish toilet.

The museum was great and Dad and I had a lot of fun getting to see everything.  On our way back to the boat we saw Bruce from Perservere checking in at the front office of the marina and made arrangements to do dinner.  We invited Pat and Bruce over for a wine tasting, we got the 6.50TL and the 12.50TL at the local grocery store, and then we all went out to dinner together.  This is where we officially were going separate ways and it was great to have the chance to have one more nice dinner together and hang out.  We went to a place across from the marina called Argentina which served steaks.  Lots of big delicious steaks cooked over a big grill.  They bring the raw meat out on a slab and you can choose which cut of meat you would like and then it comes out cooked on a wooden plank.  I really enjoyed Bodrum.

The marina was more expensive than we had planned, but was nice.  The gym and sauna cost extra, the pool was empty, and the showers were on a water control system where the water would only run for about 20 seconds before turning off and needing another press of the button.  There were a ton of charter boats all in blue or white which is the popular boat color.  Our boat stood out, but we liked it.  We thought it looked beautiful, especially in this light.