Ephesus – Kusadasi, Turkey – 2019 – Day 8

02/20/19

We had booked a 2-day tour of Ephesus and Pamukkale with Road Runner Travel. They picked us up at our hotel at 5AM to drop us off at the Ataturk Airport to catch our flight to Izmir. A short 45 minute flight with Turkish Airlines with a meal included!

When we arrived, we had a driver waiting for us with my name on a piece of paper. We also had a family of 3 from Argentina and a family of 3 from Philippines joins us. The driver dropped us off at the tour office and we moved to another van to take us around for the next 2 days. For the day, we also had an Indian couple who live in Washington DC and a pair from Korea.

We became good friends with the young Filipino couple and their daughter. They have lived in China for a year and moved to Istanbul 6 month’s prior. Danee is originally from Saudi Arabia (speaks Arabic, Tagalog, Turkish and English). She is currently volunteering to work with Syrian refugees – more specifically working with women coming from abusive environments. Her husband Paolo is also originally from Philippines. He is a Journalist and a director and moved from China to Turkey for his work that is written and produced in English. Their daughter Allegra is 2 years old and has her lovely stuffed Ikea dog name Zaza.

Fact – There are tons of Tangerine trees around but people don’t really eat it off the tree as they are too bitter. The use the tangerines to make it into juice and marmalade.

Our tour guide was Guray. Our first stop was House of the Virgin Mary – The House of the Virgin Mary is a Catholic and Muslim shrine located on Mt. Koressos in the vicinity of Ephesus, 7 kilometres from Selçuk in Turkey.

We continued to the Ancient Greek city of Asia Minor known as Ephesus (Efes). The city still features a 25,000 seat amphitheatre, the Celsius Library (my absolute favourite spot. You can pay an extra fee to see the Terraced Houses. You can also see one of the world’s oldest advertisments. The carving features an image of a cross, a woman, a heart, a foot, a money purse, and a library, plus a hole dug into the rock.

One interpretation of the carvings is as follows: up at the crossroads, on the left, you’ll find women whose love can be purchased. But please, only stop in if your foot is at least this big, young men, and you have enough coins to fill this hole. Otherwise, we kindly direct you to the library on the right. At least they suggested a more enriching experience for those who were too young to enter the brothel. Ephesus use to be a port town however the port has dried up and now only has a small pond.

One of our guides was asking if Amanda and I were best friends and we both looked at each other and hesitated and said acquaintances. But considering the furthest we’ve been apart is Hotspot distance for the entirety of this trip I would have to say we’re pretty good friends now. But not best friends.

We stopped for lunch at a buffet then onto a Leather goods factory. They had an elaborate setup with a fashion show. We walked through but the salesman where surrounding you anytime you touched a jacket or item and would follow you everywhere. Turkey is known for their leather goods and the products seemed nice but the minimum for a jacket at this place was $250USD.

After the leather factory, we had the option of going to a carpet factory or stop for figs and nuts – the figs and nuts were also a store where we could buy souvenirs. We took a break at St John’s church but hung out in the park with some ancient ruins that was littered with garbage in the aquaduct.

Back into the van and to a mosque we went to learn a little more about the culture.

Our final stop for the Ephesus tour was to the UNESCO site – Temple of Artemis. There is only 1 column left standing. The land is swamp land and so they laid layers of coal on the bottom as their foundation to help with the shifting and moisture. They built the roof out of wood and as a donation to the gods, the people would give olive oil which was stored in the building. One day, the temple caught on fire and it was the perfect storm.

Afterwards we drove to Kuşadası (beach town) where we would stay the night. We stayed at the Istankoy Hotel. Glorious 15°C along the coast with such a lovely view and even lovelier people. We sat on the rocks to soak in some sun when a mother and her 3 children sitting beside us offered us sunflower seeds. When we left the rocks and started walking to the fish market, we bumped into the family again. The mother asked me if I was from Kazakhstan but with a language barrier I was able to tell her I was Canadian and the rest of the conversation was just interpreted in smiles and hand signals. We walked into the Kusadasi Bazaar and that is where you will find some decent knock offs of designer goods. We ate some half bread chicken doner for dinner.  We had enough time to walk back to the pier to watch the sunset with beautiful hues in the sky along with a partial red moon that was so large. And finished the night off with some Dondurma (5TL).