Izmir? Why'd You Go To Izmir?

(No pics b/c I’m tired again and my computer isn’t loading the pics)

Wednesday evening I arrived in Izmir, Turkey (map: http://www.pas.rochester.edu/~yildirim/turkey_general.htm) after a flight through Istanbul.  No luggage was lost (knock on wood).

I got in a cab and headed to my hotel in Konak.  Oh, wait, you may be wondering why I’m here.  My parents lived here for about a year so I decided to see where they lived!

I got in late so I just had dinner at the hotel and then went for a walk along the harbor.  I got to bed at a reasonable time and kind of got some sleep (my body has been conditioned to sleep in transit and then stay awake all night… bad).

I woke up this morning and had a delicious breakfast at the hotel and then let the adventure to the ancient site of Ephesus begin… oh, and what an adventure it was:

The hotel told me I could take the metro to the bus station and catch a bus.  I checked out the metro map and got into the station… only to find there are ZERO subway maps down there.  I then took it a few stops and got off to ask directions.  I was then directed by a security guy (oh, did I mention that they have wands to pat everyone down before you get on the train?) and he speaks no English and sends me to the buses below.  I go to the ticket window and show the man where I want to go; he points me to a local bus so I get on.  I’m on the bus for a while and am looking for a bus terminal, don’t see one.  Then we hit what looks like an industrial center and there are only men going to work in factories on the bus.  I ask a man if I’m going to the right place and I’ve clearly gone past it.  Then… all 20 men on the bus discuss how to get me to where I need to go (all in Turkish because not a one of them knows English).  They all get me out at the next stop and some of them hail a bus and make it stop in the middle of the road to let me on.  They also tell the driver where I need to go so he made sure I got off at the bus station.

Then I had to locate a dolmus (small mini bus) to take me to the town of Selcuk.  Navigated that with success and hopped on the dolmus.  I would have loved to watch the scenery go by on the hour-long drive, but once again, conditioned to sleep in transit.  I awoke at Selcuk, checked out the Ephesus Museum and then hopped aboard another dolmus to Ephesus (5km away).  The museum was so so.  Not labeled well at all.

The site was amazing (but still not as great as Delphi…) !!  I had done some research on the site in order to give myself some background knowledge so that was pretty helpful.  The site ( http://www.ephesus.us/ephesus/ephesus.htm ) was mainly excavated by the Austrians and they were out doing some digging today. The site was pretty huge so I was there for about 3 ½ hours.  A large chunk of what you can see at the main site is Roman, but they have found evidence dating back to the Bronze Age.  I took a walk down the Arcadiance, which originally went from the theater directly to the sea (the harbor has since filled in as a result of silt deposits).  Now, I walked all around the site, following the path and ended up on the side closest to what would have been a harbor.  There we ZERO signs, ropes or guards telling me I couldn’t walk on it.  It was weird that no one else was on it, but oh well.  After a little over a quarter of a mile I see the rope, and a sign… oops… they should have had one at the other end!

On the way home I once again slept and then when I arrived at the bus station I took a cab to my hotel.  Time for bed.