This is a late pass from my trip to Turkey but wanted to pen down my thoughts from my experience even though its been over a week since I left the country. The journey to get to Turkey was just quite a experience and it is something I will probably never ever do again. Well before arriving to Turkey, I flew into Norway first since the airline I taken was Norwegian and it was pretty good price for the round trip flight at the time I purchased it. But an 9 hour flight is still brutal for me since I experienced going to Philippines on a direct flight in the past that was over 10+ hours. Though arriving in Istanbul was something I never expected when trying to get on a connecting flight to another town/city but having to go through immigration for passport and visa check. I was basically was told to go to different lines for my passport to be checked on 2 occasions which possibly I was profiled for whatever reason. But I finally got through cause the current immigration officer was replaced by another one and he accidentally realized he made a mistake by passing me over after he stamped my passport. Which the first immigration officer was asking me alot of questions and basically a hard time to pass through. Hopefully this doesn't become a issue when I leave Turkey later in the week but I have a feeling something similar might happen from preventing me to leave.
So I arrived in Istanbul for an 8 hour layover which I thought would not be to bad but I was wrong, there was other people in the same situation I was in. They could not help it and fell asleep in seats everywhere in the terminal near check-in counters for domestic airlines. I was thinking about going into a lounge but I would of been paying more money than I would of gotten a good deal from so I stuck it out and stayed in the terminal and took a seat. I didn't go sleep the whole time which was just crazy for the time difference of my body trying to adapt to Turkey's central time. I was basically was listening to music the whole time, did some writing in a journal and was people watching often while chewing on gum. I just couldn't go to sleep there cause I thought anyone would of tried to take any of my belongings from my side if I dose off but nothing like that happened to others. I mean people were literally sleeping on the seats like they were in their own beds, felt like I was at a Greyhound bus station but eventually the time passed and go onto my plane to my actual first destination. Though when I arrived in my destination Selcuk, my backpack didn't make it with me for some reason till an airport employee told me to follow her to the international terminal which my backpack was still there on a specific luggage claim spot. At least this situation didn't occur like when I arrived in Naples, Italy back in Spring 2012 coming from France on a connecting flight, talk about not having your clothes for almost 2 days.
Selcuk, was a small town that didn't have to much to offer aside from the main big attraction of Ephesus which is ancient city of ruins and few other small places to visit. The metro train I took from Izmir airport was pretty easy to follow and just cost 5 TL and reminded me like the train system in Italy which I think it was more of a local one than something that will go for out of the region distances. The people were friendly, one shop owner offered me directions to my lodging. On my way to my to the place I booked for a few nights, I noticed the buildings around town appears to have similar style like in spots in Italy. The homes appeared to be like condo-like places in buildings where there are businesses on the bottom floor but having balconies in different areas of each floor. Boomerang Guesthouse was my lodging I stayed at which is owned by am Australian and there no was issues with communication. It was situated in an ideal location where the bus station was across the street with the fresh market behind it, while the Ephesus museum was literally next door and few blocks away was St. John church, Ayasuluk fortress and Isa Hey mosque.
The day I arrived in Selcuk, I was completely exhausted and wanted to take a short nap which ended up being 7 hours worth of sleep and I guess my body didn't want me to wake up till I was in better shape. So later that evening after I got up, I just wanted to go and see around town. I visited some aquaducts ruins outside of St. Johns church, took some pictures of them and out of nowhere was approached by a guy that was trying to sell me fake coins from an ancient ruins of Artemis. I gladly declined his offer but listened to his sales pitch for a good few minutes which I already knew not to purchase these fake coins from these scam artists from people's comments on forums. I actually I wanted to take a closer look at the fortress but one of the paths surrounding the structure below had a dog stationed in the area and chained. This made an uncomfortable situation since it was continously barking and following me abit which I ended up going back from where I originally started from. I walked towards the downtown center and it was somewhat lively where people were eating or drinking or shop owners trying to sucker tourists to buy any of their products. Funny how a guy called me out and asked me if I was an American and asking my ethnic background and next thing you noticed he was trying to sell me a rug from his shop. I thought it was a funny way to get people's attention inorder to make a sale since I knew he was trying to lure me in but of course just to have some fun of the situation I enticed the owner bit of being interested but rejected the rug sales and headed out to my lodging.
The next day, I headed to the fortress but noticed there was a lock on the side entrance gated door so I ended up going to a structure next door which was the Isa Bey mosque. As I got close to the front door, I wanted to go in but there was a sign indicating on certain rules before entering. Which I wouldn't be allowed in with shorts since it was mentioned not to wear those so I just left without really going around the Mosque aside from briefly looking at outside perimeter walls. I headed to St.Johns church and it was pretty good ruins site, with alot of places to go around and observe which I wish I had a book on information for specific site locations on the history. The location was a great sight to see on a hilltop overlooking residental side of Selcuk towards the direction of Ephesus city site. Also I found that the Ayasuluk fortress was part of the St.Johns church but the path was closed off from visitors from the inside After noticing on a detailed photo of the site from the sky, it showed the fortress with only the walls remaining and no structures inside the location site. At least I got a great shot of the fortress in the evening when the walls were lit with ground lights.
So I decided to go to Ephesus on foot which I didn't think taking a cab or minibus was worth the traveling distance but I was glad I hiked it up there. I wanted to see the Seven sleepers but realized the small road leading to the cave was to far from the main road where I would jeopardize my time schedule to go back on the main road leading to top of the hill entrance of Ephesus. And home of the Virgin Mary site was just to far to walk up the hill past Ephesus and the taxi price was not worth it so I skipped it with disappointment. The Ephesus site was so much to cover that me including stops to take pictures and videos lead to be at least 4 hours of my time to go around majority of the site. But the city just looked unbelievable which I should of got an audio guide to break down the history for every particular location. Instead of getting a taxi or minibus back to my lodging, I just walked it on foot and it was alittle bit shorter distance. From walking to the Ephesus site and leaving it for my lodging, would have to say I hiked probably around the range of 4 miles at least and more including go around Ephesus.
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