On Tuesday we woke up bright and early to catch a ferry to a bus to a plane to a train. Yes, we conquered all major forms of transportation. We arrived in our destination, Selçuk, in the late afternoon and began the search for the hotel we had booked. Many of you know that I plan things very precisely. As such, I had directions in my notebook, along with maps, addresses, and phone numbers for everywhere we would stay. However, I wrote my directions with respect to the bus station rather than the train station, which was actually about 2 blocks away. So when we started walking in the direction of the hotel, we didn't see any of the streets and landmarks that I had written down. As a result, we kept walking (with our luggage, in the rain) for a mile or two, much to the amusement of the locals. We ended up in a very rural area, and decided it was time to ask for help. We made our way to a gas station and explained the situation as best as we could, given that they didn't speak English and I barely know Turkish. They seemed pretty amused by our plight and called the hotel for us to tell them to pick us up. While we waited, we joked about how funny it would be if the hotel guy came by to pick us up on a scooter or tractor. The reality was even better- an older gentlemen peddled up to us on a bicycle. When he saw our bags, he looked a little disappointed and said he'd bike back to town to get a car. The absurdity of the situation made me laugh so hard I actually cried. I think it's one of those "you had to be there" moments, but it was definitely one of the most memorable stories of our vacation.
The hotel was wonderful! Probably my favorite of the four we stayed in. Our room had a view of a Byzantine castle:
We spent the evening exploring the small town, which was a very pleasant place. It was a bit touristy due to the proximity to Ephesus, but still had a nice small-town feel to it that I loved. For dinner, I tried liver for the first time and it was delicious:
The next day we went to the ancient city of Ephesus, which was the point of our whole expedition to this part of Turkey. It was as awesome as I had hoped.
Most of the ruins are completely open to visitors- you can walk/sit/jump on them as much as you want. It was paradise for me. I have more pictures of this place than I could ever post (about 100), but here are some good ones:
Nike, the goddess of victory:
Giant theater:
On the walk back to town, we stopped by the ruined Temple of Artemis. It used to be one of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world, but now it's mostly some rubble and a column:
In the evening we hopped on a bus to the nearby Kuşadası for the next leg of our trip, which I'll talk about next time. For more pictures of the journey, you can view the Facebook album here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2062768&id=1135710488&l=70b29227be
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