Luke and I are staying in the seaside city of Kusadasi on the Agean Coast at the moment and enjoying a few days of relaxation and wandering around through this bustling little place that is a cross between the French Riviera and Surfers Paradise. We’ve hit the jackpot with accomodation and managed to find a great little place that had a studio apartment, pool and breakfast included for about $20 a night which is great. Of course the standards of cleanliness are lacking somewhat but you can’t have everything I guess.
We took a day trip out to Ephesus this morning and I have to say I was pretty disappointed. After the gorgeous ancient cities that I passed through in Jordan and Syria I think I have been thoroughly spoilt and my expectations are just too high. It was lovely but not with quite the same WOW factor as Petra, Jerash and Palmyra. The English speaking guide (who didn’t) was so difficult to understand that Luke and I eventually just wandered off and did our own exploring of the site starting with the Marble Sacred Street connecting the Great Theatre with the Library of Celcus. On the right of the Library is the Commercial Agora, connected to the Library Square by the Gate of Augustus. From the Library heading East is the Curetes Street paved entirely with marble.
Along the Curetes Street allegedly it had beautiful side walks for pedestrians paved with mosaics but there is little to indicate that now. On the right hand side there are narrow little streets heading to private hill houses, now excavated and partially restored. On the left side of the Street there were official monuments like the Temple of Hadrian, fountains and some other interesting places like the baths, the brothel and the public toilets.
From Ephesus we headed out to the Temple of Artemis which we had been assured was an amazing palce and a must see on any Turkey trip. When we got there Luke and I nearly fell over each other laughing; instead of the grand old temple we were expecting there was a board displaying a floor plan of what the Temple once was and all that was left was one lone column that had been pieced together with various bits of rubble lying around. Not exactly what we had in mind!
We’ve got another day here and for a bit of light relief are heading out to a Turkish Water Park tomorrow before making our way to Bulgaria via Istanbul on Sunday.
