Ephesus (almost like the ancient world only with more tour groups)
So, apologies for the lateness on this one, but its my second try… the computer deleted my first entry! Here goes…
On Sunday Kate and I woke up early to head out to the ruins of Ephesus. Ephesus was buılt by the Ephesians (!) shortly after the tıme of Christ. I believe. Although I am writing this without notes, so who knows.
Since we hadnt done much walking yet we decided to hike the three kilometers out to the site instead of taking a taxi. Of course, this meant that we got there later than we had originally planned. In fact, we were lucky enough to be right behind all the tour buses and their diesal fumes! Such clever timing. It turned out okay, though, because most of the tour groups were starting at the upper entrance while we chose the lower. We were basically the only people we saw for the first few buildings, including the 25,000 seat Grand Theater. Apparently they have “controversial” concerts here in the summertime, but sadly we missed them. And I would like to note that I fully support using the theater for what it was originally built for, regardless of the controversy.
After seeing the theater from a distance we walked down towards some bathhouses/gymnasiums.
We then made our way up into the theater where we started to run into tour groups on their way down. Interestingly, there were no English speaking groups we could temporarily attach ourselves too. Instead, we were forced to resort to mocking the safari-vest wearing Germans and umbrella-carrying (and mask-wearing!!) Asian tour groups. Understandable because it was a beautiful day out.
We decided to crack open our lunch for the first time inside of the Great Theater (which is nice because apparently having someone sing is bad but eating is 100% fine.) First, though, we took note of the dapper Turk warning us against falling:
Then we took some more pictures (note the tour groups!)
Then we opened the bags we had brought… and immediately had to start fighting off a cat that heard the rustlings from miles away. I attempted to give him some cheese to get a good picture, but it only resulted in my getting scratched. Good to see I am making up for any scratches I am missing out on from my own cats. It was then that we realized we had forgotten knives for the cheese, bread, and tomatos. Cheese and bread is very rippable… but tomatos? I ended up eating mine like an apple and was laughed at by Turkish tourists. Grrr.
We then spent some time wandering the rest of the ruins, including the reconstructed Library. (I think it might have a real name, but, no notes. If you are curious you can Yahoo it…)
The ruins were pretty cool because you could basically just run around on them, jump on them, climb around… kind of like a priceless playground. Except you had to watch out for the tour groups. Eventually we decided to find a cat-free zone and finish off lunch, which was nice. Especially because the Turks laughing at my tomato eating were gone, and everyone walking by was clearly hungry, thirsty, and jealous. With no place to buy food. I felt very superior. Also, it is possible that we saved an 80+ year old German womans life with our water. (She looked quite desperate.)
After spending a few more hours there, we started the long walk back and decided to check out the tomb of the Seven Sleepers (sort of a Christian Rip van Winkle story.)
This was a Lycian tomb structure where the story goes, 7 persecuted Christians went to sleep and were woken by an earthquake 200 years later and found out the town had converted to Christianity. What a happy ending. I think people must leave paper tied to the door for them? But I am not really sure as it wasnt in the Lonely Planet…
This picture is for you Tim! Sheep!
On the walk back, we found a couple of rocks to climb and take a picture of Selçuk from.
Also, we had the most amazing turkish Delight EVER. It was awesome. I cannot stress enough how delicious it was. And to think I used to mock Edmund for going over to the Winter Witch for Turkish Delight… Then it was of to Fethiye! (Via a not-quite overnight bus.)
Tags: 01 - Turkey
