Well, our hopes for Ephesus and minimal tourist encouters were dashed! Even on a Monday morning there were bus loads of people walking almost shoulder to shoulder amoung the ruins. As beautiful as Ephesus was, it was still hard not to compare it to the silent and untouched Teremessos, or the ever astounding Petra. We were told that once you had seen Petra you would compare all other ruins to the great city. Well, in Turkey once we had seen Teremessos we couldn't help but compare it to the smaller and somewhat less magical Ephesus.

Selcuk at night, view from the Homerus pension with the great owner Dervish! The standing column in the foreground is the last columnt from the Temple of Artemis. It is one of the 7 wonders of the ancient world.

We had left our friends Kyra and Erfan in Fethiye so Kyra could spend some time with another friend who was visiting. Shawn and I set out on our own in our little car heading north up the coast to the town of Selcuk. We ended up finding a great little hotel with a beautiful pool (and the BBC). The next morning we had pre-arranged to meet up with our friends at the Homerus pension. We had decided it would be a good idea to try and find the Homerus pension in the day light, so the evening we arrived we went on a walk of the old city. The pension was easy to find and as we walked up the owner from the roof top invited us up for a glass of wine. His name was Dervish and I think he just really liked people and talking to people. Even though we weren't staying at his hostel he gave us free wine and discussed the city of Selcuk with us. From the rooftop you could see all the way past Ephesus (which was hidden by a hill) and to the sea. It was a great evening. Wine, sunset, and a great little restaurant with fantastic chicken (and even kittens to play with) capped off our evening. The next morning we walked back to Dervish's pension to meet up with our friends. It turns out they had stayed somewhere else, but again Dervish's hospitable nature took over and we were brought fresh coffee while we sat waiting for our friends. Eventually we were able to find them and we all trecked back across town, loaded up the car and left for Ephesus.
Entry fees to Ephesus were $15.00, and they didn't accept student cards (not many places in Turkey do). We were also told that we should definately not walk up from the bottom of the site as it would take 3 hours. We still decided not to take the shuttle to the top, and not to ride carriages to the top either. Ephesus itself is beautiful. They claim it is the best ruined Roman city, and the best place for really getting a feeling for what it would have been like to live during Roman times. Again, I would have to say that whoever wrote that had not been to Teremessos, but Ephesus was still a lovely set of ruins.
Only problem is that there were way too many people. The ruins also did not take 3 hours as warned, and actually seemed rather small.
Bottom line, definately go to Ephesus, but don't get scared away from the hike involved to get to Teremessos and make sure to include the latter on your itinerary.
From Ephesus we left and drove up to Izmir. Shawn and I had decided that we would push on further then Izmir, and Erfan and Kyra were going to head to the Greek Islands for a couple of days. So with Cannukale in mind as the farthest destination we might go to (only 350km) we left our friends and headed off.
Not before we were accused by the gas station of giving them a fake 20$ bill. Somewhat fishy if you ask me. We handed the guy the bills, all of which came from the bank machine in Fethiye. We then headed to the far side of the parking lot to drop of Kyra and Erfan. While we were sitting in our car the gas station attendant and the manager came over with our supposed bills and were saying that we gave them fake money. In the end we had to change our "fake"bill for another real 20 Lira note. I think the gas station has a great scam going on, they replace one of your real 20 liras with a fake 20 lira and then make you give them another 20. The note wasn't even the same size as the real bill. Hard to believe that the bank machine would spit out fake money. Oh well, it is only 20$. But if you are ever at the gas station directly across from the bus station just outside of Izmir...beware!
Ok, so off we went heading north up the highway. I had read in our little "Eye Spy Turkey" that the small village of Behramkale was a must see. It was considered by the Romans to be the most beautiful village in Asia Minor, and was perched atop a hill overlooking the sea. We made it there eventually, hungry and tired after nearly 5 hours of driving not even 300 km. The village was really "perched" atop a mountain, and all the homes were extremely old and made of dark stone. With the lighting at sunset it was stunning, but it was somewhat surreal as well. In some ways I kind of felt like we had stepped into the twilight zone. There was hardly anyone outside, dusts clouds were swirling, and there seemed to be no other tourists around. Eventually we found a hotel. The rooms seemed pretty nice and we were the only tourists in the hotel. The owner said $15 lira. When we heard the price we were psyched. We repeated it to him several times, Shawn even held up 1 and 5 fingers to confirm that he wasn't saying 50 lira. We got our bags, left them in the room and went downstairs. As we were leaving I thought we should just confirm that it was only 15 lira. When we wrote the number down the man said "no, no" and wrote down the number 50. We hummed and hawed about staying, but the man wasn't willing to budge on his price. Shawn was tired and willing to pay the $50, but something just didn't seem right about the whole situation. The more I thought about it, the more I got a little creeped out over the town, the hotel and the whole feeling. It was a strange feeling of doom and despair and I just couldn't stay there. Shawn, being the great guy that he is, agreed that if I wasn't comfortable we would leave and find a different hotel. As nightfall descended the whole valley became a little creepy. I was extremely relieved as we drove away. So we left the valley, found a little truck stop that fried up some full fat hamburger for us and then left again, now in the dark to try and find a hotel. We drove through numerous little towns, all a little dumpy, and none of them had a hotel. Poor Shawn was getting awfully tired, and I was feeling quite guilty that I had made him leave the last hotel. After an hour we were nearly in Cannakule and we decided to look for a place to stay in Truva, or "Troy". Before we drove down into the heritage park, we decided we should check with a gas station to see if there were even any hotels in Troy (none were mentioned in our guide book). We pulled into the station, and the attendant confirmed that there were "Pensions in Truva". Right as we re-started the car, another little car pulled up, exchanged 2 words with the attendant and then rolled down their window to talk to us. "Are you looking for a hotel in Troy?" we confirmed that we were "well, I own one of 2 hotels and I was just leaving. Follow me if you like. The other hotel is also closed for the night." It felt as though destiny had intervened and provided us with a hotel for the night. So we followed this guy down the hill into Troy, and his wife raced around to make up the bedroom for us. The hotel was "sparse", containing only a bed, wall lights and a bathroom. But it was clean and a welcome relief to driving futher in an aimless fashion.
The next morning we woke up, had the traditional Turkish breakfast of bread, cheese, tomatoe, egg and cucumber and headed into Troy. Another 10$ each got us into the sight. Even though we had heard that Troy was not anything too special, it did have some of the best tourist boards and explanations for the ruins I had seen. In fact, the sign postings were much better the Ephesus. Troy itself seems to revolve around the large wooden horse that was made by and artist in the 70's. It wasn't anything too special, it didn't have that magical feeling that some of the other places had, but we figured there was no way we could drive up to the doorstep of the sight and then not visit.
From Truva we headed up to Cannukale, over on the ferry to Gallipoli and into Istanbul.
I have to commend Shawn for his fantastic driving on this entire trip. As we drove into Istanbul, (he listened to my superb navigation) we had no problems finding our place in the Sultanhamet centre. We even had the same parking space as before.
Our final day in Istanbul was spent shopping the Grande Bazaar and trying to get the last minute souvenirs for family and friends that we hadn't found along the way.
I think a big part of why we enjoyed Istanbul so much was our location. We stayed in a great little hotel called the Med Cezir. It is a fairly new hotel and it is nestled right in between the Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque. We were able to hear some of the best call to prayer in the world dueling 4 times a day. I think I preferred the call to prayer from the Hagia Sophia. The man doing it had the most amazing barotone voice. The call the prayer is one thing we will miss for sure!
Istanbul came to a close, and our adventure finished in what felt like record time. We boarded our plane for a 24 hour epic journey home (with layovers) and left the Middle East.
I think that of all the places I have visited, the Middle East was all about the people. Africa was about the landscape, the animals and of course the people we met. But with the Middle East it was different. Although Africa may have been the birthplace of mankind, as one of our friends put it, the Middle East is the birthplace of civilisation. The people in the Middle East were amazingly hospitable and willing to share their history and their beliefs with us (total strangers from Canada). I think I have more special memories from my encouters with locals then I do from any other trip. I guess this is a testimate to the spirit of the place, especially when faced with such harsh critism from other countries.
All in all, a wonderful trip, and one that I would highly encourage other to take!

Hilarious toilet sign at the entrance to Efes...and no, the toilet was not anything special!

Efes amplitheatre

Efes

The sleepy little town that caused me a great deal of anxiety (looks so innocent in pictures)

Still functioning Ottoman bridge

The great Trojan Horse

Fields of sunflowers