Selçuk, Türkiye

We had a relaxing breakfast this morning, the first time in a week that we weren’t on a schedule.

I asked if I could get a pot of tea, and they gave me the Turkish-style teapot. It’s two teapots stacked, the bottom one is boiling water, and the top one very strongly brewed tea. When Turkish tea is served, you pour from both teapots, about a 50-50 mix, depending on how strong you want your tea.

After breakfast, we went out to explore Selçuk. It’s a compact walkable town, with the highlights within a 10-minute radius of the hotel.

First up was the Basilica of Saint John and Ayasuluk Citadel, a combined archaeological site and ticket. Entrance is through the giant 6th century Gate of Persecution, sounding like something out of Princess Bride. They’re actually named after a relief on the door that was thought to be about the persecution of early Christians, but are really from Greek mythology. The gate was under restoration, although the entrance was still usable.

It turns out there’s way more history in Selçuk than just Ephesus. The ‘Saint John’ was John the Apostle, and it’s said that he is buried here. The basilica is now partially restored ruins, but at the time (500 AD) was one of the largest and holiest basilicas in the world.

We continued on to the Ayasuluk Citadel. It’s been restored, and is quite photogenic.

On the grounds was a scale model of the area around Selçuk. In 500 AD, Ephesus Ancient City, the Basilica of St John, and the Temple of Artemis (one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World), all existed within a half hour walk! The citadel is up high on a hill, but it’s not possible to see Ephesus from the citadel grounds because another hill blocks the view.

Next we checked out the Ephesus Museum. It’s worth a visit. We were glad we had paid for the extra ticket to enter the Terraces at Ephesus yesterday, as it gave more context to some of the artefacts in the museum. The last couple rooms are the best, with large marble statues of gods and the ruling class.

We had lunch at a restaurant near our hotel. We had pre-ordered dinner at our hotel tonight, so didn’t want anything big for lunch. We split a small pizza and salad.

Next we walked over to the Temple of Artemis. Only one column remains; the rest was used as material to construct other buildings in the area, back in the ancient day. We have a great view of the Temple of Artemis from our room, which is pretty cool. It’s the 2nd Wonder of the Ancient World we’ve seen on this trip, we earlier saw the Great Pyramid of Giza. Anyways, it’s not much to look at today, just a pillar with a stork’s nest on top, but the history is cool.

We had a coffee on the way back to the hotel.

We relaxed back at the hotel, while waiting for the iPhone repair folks to text us. At 3pm I sent them a reminder, and they replied saying my phone would be ready within an hour.

We drove back to Kuşadasi and parked at the same Otopark. My phone wasn’t ready yet, so they offered us a coffee while we waited. We sat out on the sidewalk at a small table and sipped our coffee, feeling like locals. About ten minutes later, my phone was ready, good as new! (I don’t think they started working on it until we got there, but whatever).

Heather had the idea to check out the Mavi store to see if they had my jeans. It’s hard to find my favourite style & size in Canada, and the jeans are manufactured here in Türkiye. There was a Mavi store about a ten minute walk along the waterfront, so we headed over.

Kuşadasi has a beautiful boardwalk along the beach. There were no cruise ships in port, so it was just locals out enjoying the beautiful weather.

We found the Mavi store. I was like a kid in a candy store, just like when we found the Onitsuka Tiger store in Taipei. I bought a couple pairs of jeans, Heather got a couple items too. How we’ll actually get this all home is a problem for another day.

We walked back to the Otopark and drove back to our hotel. We rushed to shower and be ready for our dinner at 7:30pm.

Our hotel does dinner on request. It’s the same chef that makes breakfast, we were looking forward to it. We started with some mezes: artichokes, stuffed tomatoes, and a couple tzatzikis, with freshly-made pitas. The main was a spiced beef dish. It was all excellent. For dessert, the chef had made baklava. Mmm good. After we relaxed on our balcony, it was a beautiful evening. It was the weekend and there was live music from a neighbouring restaurant. They were playing traditional Turkish music, which was cool to hear.