Saturday, February 5, 2011

The Ephesians


With this being my first set of major traveling, I had figured it would be wise to do the majority of it through a travel agent. For the most part things worked out great, but even the pros seem to get some things messed up. We landed in Izmir, expecting to have a hostel to flop down in after our flight, only to find that the agent had booked us a hotel in a city six hours away from where we were.


So we jumped in a taxi and gave him the address for a tourist help spot that I knew about, so that we could search for some super cheap beds somewhere, only to be driven everywhere that we did NOT want to go. No matter how many times we told him the address, no matter how many other taxis he asked, he couldn't get it right. So, we finally jumped out in anger, and I grabbed the bags out of the trunk while my friend refused to pay for his futile 'efforts'. Finally, after much brainstorming, we caught a bus to the tiny Turkish town of Selcuk - right next to the ruins of Ephesus.


Upon our arrival, we realized that the hotels were desperate for customers as it was still the low season, so we were able to get some rooms for dirt cheap.


The grand theatre, library, and extensive ruins of Ephesus - which is within walking distance of the town - were definitely a high-lite of Turkey. Also, Selcuk ended up being one of the friendliest towns, with enough fresh baklava to satisfy the most gluttonous of North Americans.

5 comments:

  1. Selcuk was great! I stayed at a four star hotel on beach about 10 minutes away. =) It was lots of fun...

    Great to see your pics man!

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  2. Love the pictures Kyle. It sounds like the 4 of you learned a lot while you were traveling.

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  3. Wow! You have had quite the adventures! The pictures are amazing and your stories wonderful. So glad you are sharing your journey with us. Blessings to you!

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  4. Good call on not paying the taxi. I've had to refuse to pay too, if they refuse to listen to you, pretending to not understand English... which is possible but it's hard to believe they misunderstand pointing... so it makes me think its a way to add a bit more money to the meter. Anyways, its good not to encourage it.
    Love you cuz.
    Proud of youxxxxxxxx


    Love,
    ~ KristinSavageTravels.blogspot.com ~

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  5. Good thing you were able to find a cheap hotel in the end!

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