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concepts in Turkey
The smaller ampitheater at Ephesus I finally got a chance to dump all my pictures, so I've put some old ones up as well as a few here.
Travel update: I got my ticket purchased to Zagreb so I'll be in Stuttgart at 6am on May 15, watch the Champions League final on TV there, then fly to Zagreb in the morning of the 16th arriving at 11am.
What have I been doing here?
The day after landing in Celçuk I was on the way to Ephesus (Efus), the major tourist attraction nearby. After a delightful breakfast of feta, tomato, cucumber, hard-boiled egg and olives (a Turkish standard, I gather), the hostel offered free rides to the town but you were left on your own on the way back. I met up with Matt and Meghan, a couple who I met at the Marmaris hostel and we explored the ruins together with the busloads of tourists, each bus representing a different country, but for the first time Japan was represented, and represented in classic fashion with constant photography.
The town itself was very cool especially being my first ruins to take in on Turkish soil, a stark contrast from the bar-lined boardwalk
bibliotek
The library at Ephesus of Marmaris. We got the student discount on the headset after ducking and dodging the tarts selling us shitty maps in German and fake "old" coins (which are supposedly made to look older by having a cow digest it whole and poop it out). It was quite informative but perhaps too informative. My favorite quote: "As you can see by the size of the ramp into the temple, one can clearly see that carts in the 3rd century were 110 cm in width." Of-fuckin-course, duh! But ya, it was fun inventing our own commentary as well while learning some of the real details. There were remains of various temples, fountains, public baths, public toilets (a personal fave), the library (honestly the best part) as well as the ampitheater.
When we left Ephesus, we opted to walk and tried to find the Temple of the Seven Tombs on the way back into town. We found them but we also stumbled upon a cool shaded area where for the first time I experienced a proper Turkish meal setting where you must take off your shoes, walk on the famous carpets, and sit Indian style on some awesome pillows. Surrounding us were
street to the library
Our Japanese friends enjoy Ephesus with us virtually no tourists but instead the familiar site of Turkish men in suits playing backgammon (also it seems that Turkish farmers where suits. It reminds me of the comedy Stella slightly as they aren't as slap-happy but rather quite calm and steady). The food was awesome and so was the walk back where we stumbled upon the Temple of Artemis, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. On top of the lone remaining pole was a stork's next as evidentally Selchuk (it's pernounced that way, I just don't have the keyboard set to Turkish now to put the special letter) is famous for its storks. Mmmmm.
It was another night of hanging around the hostel and planning my next trip but not before getting "roped in" to sharing a few beers with this lovely Canadian couple Firoz and Margaret from Calgary. Also hanging out were several local Turks, so it was quite the cultural exchange and overall really awesome interacting. Cezmi was present, a retired police officer, as well was Ahmet, the man who drove us to Ephesus. Later some others joined us but after the pistacios I bought were out, they made their way to bed
while I caught the end of the Chelsea match.
Today I bused to Pammukkale and I'm staying there tonight. It's known for its ruins (of course the carts are 110 cm!) but more for its white calcium ridged pools on one side of the mountain. You can wade in the pools, in fact you must in order to get by as it is required to take your shoes off, and for German tourists, required that you strip down to your bikini and get a glamore shot or two or ten. The higher on the mountain the warmer the water, mostly because you pee at the top but also because it's naturally heated at the top through some (other) phenomenom.
I've abandoned my plans to go immediately south to Fethiye. Yes, there are some lovely beaches but so are there elsewhere so the thought was to focus on things unique to Turkey. I'll be at the Lake Egirdir tommorrow and (maybe Konya and) definitely Goreme after that. I'm even thinking of pushing further east to the less Western part of the country. I am not going to do Istanbul this time around (sorry Gali!) but I'll circle back to
Antalya and then do the coastal thing, definitely aiming for Olympos before I leave. All this is quite rough though!
Again, thanks for your comments and emails and feel free to drop me a line to keep me updated!
brad
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anonymous
non-member comment
I am so goıng to deck you
wow matt and meghan are really hot