This morning, as we began our tour of the akropolis of Pergamon, we ran into some surprising wildlife. Prof. Rutter and Abby had jumped down from an ancient wall and started walking across a grassy area, when two medium sized snakes slithered out of their path! These were the largest snakes most of us had ever seen in the wild. Hüsnü told us they weren’t poisonous, but we all kept our eyes open for the rest of the day…..and we saw many more snakes, including one that decided to hang out by the rock we were walking past, instead of fleeing like the others. Our trip to the gymnasium was also filled with new animal sightings. We found a baby cow, mooing off by himself, and a whole (tiny) herd of other cows in the bathing complex. Later, we saw tons of turtles in the river by the Red Hall, and frogs in the scummy water in the ancient mud baths at the Asclepeium. So today was a like a combination tour of antiquities/trip to the zoo.
Today the girls continued their argument with Benjamin Silverman about the social acceptability of female nudity. Sorry to disappoint the entire straight male population, but girls do not commonly undress in front of each other. We’re happy to be settled in Kusadasi for three nights. Here’s to not having to pack up in the morning!