Blogs from Selçuk, Aegean, Turkey, Middle East - page 8

Today we made our way through the ancient city of Ephesus. Normally the expedition costs around 5 lira for the bus round trip, 10 lira entry to ephesus, 10 lira entry to the grotto of the seven sleepers, and 5 lira for water. I managed to do it for free. i rode down to the city with a group that gave free rides if you looked at their carpet store... weird i know. found a hole in the fence at ephesus and just slipped in with a crowd. The same at the grotto of the sleeping seven(its a cave where seven dudes apparently slept for 200 years awaiting the spread of christianity) Whatever. An because i didnt go through the gates i brought the water i had with me( no outside water allowed.) I know it ... read more

Which of the following would you rather be: King, Prime Minister, Prince, President, Emperor, Chief, Pharaoh, or Sultan? ‘King’ would be cool, but don’t you think a little overplayed? And too many people have the tainted and failed the crown already. ‘Primer Minister’, that just sounds toolish. Poor Monaco, ‘Prince’ is a total rip-off. ‘President’ could be fun but it seems a bit too business-like, no? ‘Chief’ reminds me of fat policemen and I think endless donuts would lead to diabetes. ‘Pharaoh’ comes in close I reckon, I quite like the idea of being buried forever with mounds of treasure, if I didn’t have stodgy air and then be robbed of it by bandits when I’m not even alive to dole out some fun punishment. ‘Emperor’... well I’m not going to lie, this one is tempting. ... read more

So I survıved the overnıght bus. It really was not too bad, no where near as bad as the overnıght traın from St. Petersburg. I was ın such a deep sleep that the attendant had to wake me up, so I arrıved ın Selcuk at 6am, half-asleep. There was an Austraılıan couple who got off wıth me, so I went wıth them to the hostel that they had booked at. The guy trıed to gıve me a sıngle bed, and I got hım down to a reasonable prıce for ıt, but there was no hot water so I packed up agaın and left. I went ın search of another hostel and got a room for a better deal, ıt ıs almost empty so I get a room to myself anyway, and ıt ıs cheaper. I had ... read more

Yesterday we arrived in Selchuk, the nearest modern town to the ancient site of Ephesus. But I'll start with yesterday morning... We went to the sites of ancient Pergamon. They were pretty cool, but very similar to all of the other ancient sites we have seen. Lots of pillars and a huge theater that held 14,000 people. We also went to the Aesclepion, which was the ancient hospital area. That was really neat. You could see all of the places where the patients would stay when they were there, the rooms were pretty well in tact, well for being 2,000 years old they were. After this, we stopped in Izmir en route to Ephesus to eat lunch. Izmir is a city of 2 millions people and it is very modern. It is largest port in Turkey ... read more

December 11 - 15, 2006 Monday After slicing inland to Pamukkale from the Mediterranean we cut back to the coast and the Bodrum Peninsula on the Aegean coast that is home to the town of Bodrum. Tourism is the local business in Bodrum, although we were told that the town retains a little more of its unique charms than other coastal cities overrun by tourism. We arrived in Bodrum after dark and navigated the narrow streets and crappy map in our guidebook to Mars Hotel which our previous innkeeper in Pamukkale had recommended. The neighborhood where Mars is situated seems to house a lot of guesthouses and is an easy amble down to the Salmakis Bay waterfront and its many attractions (bars, restaurants, bars, clubs, bars…). After getting situated we headed out to get something to ... read more