Selçuk, Türkiye

We were up early for breakfast, in order to get to Ephesus Ancient City when the gates opened at 8:30am.

It sounded like it was raining as we woke up, and we debated waiting until tomorrow to see the ruins (we’re here in Selçuk for four nights). The forecast said the rain was done for the day (actually, our phones said it wasn’t even raining now), so we decided to continue with the plan to see Ephesus today.

Our hotel kindly arranged for an early breakfast for us. It was a large Turkish breakfast that we rushed through. It was great, and they also had excellent coffee and tea.

We got ourselves together for the ruins. Just as we were leaving, I dropped my iPhone and it fell down the middle of the stairwell, and landed four stories below on the marble floor :( The screen was between cracked and shattered, but still usable. We carried on to Ephesus, and I figured I’d sort out the screen issue after.

Last night I had read up a bit on how to visit Ephesus. The ruins are neatly spread along Curetes Way, a long marble street, which runs north-south. There’s a parking lot on either end. There’s a lot of opinions on the web as to which parking lot is better. We decided on the north one; but after visiting, I really don’t think it makes a difference. The Library of Celsus, the iconic ruin of Ephesus, is about midway between the two parking lots. Some websites suggest it’s better to park at the south / upper lot, cause then it’s a downhill walk, but the change in elevation is only 10m. One advantage of the south / upper lot is that you can see the Library of Celsus in the distance as you walk down Curetes Way. From the north / lower lot you turn around a corner and it’s right there. The Lonely Planet suggests getting a taxi to drive you from one gate back to the other to pick up your car, rather than walk the 1.3km. I honestly don’t know why you would do that, as it would probably take longer than walking, and it’s cool to see it in both directions.

It was just a seven minute drive from our hotel to the north / lower parking lot. There was plenty of parking at 8:40am. We bought our 40 EUR tickets. We rushed to get our pics of the Celsus Library, the iconic monument of Ephesus, before more tourists showed up. There was just an influencer couple, going through multiple takes of their content. It was overcast, which provided nice diffused lighting for our pics.

That completed, we continued down Curetes Way. There were some tour groups starting to trickle in, not a constant flow, so it was easy to see stuff in between groups. Curetes Way is only a couple chariots wide, so when a group goes through they clog up the entire width.

Next we called into the Terrace Houses of Ephesus. It’s a separate ticket, 15 EUR, and well worth it. It’s the former homes of the Ephesus elite, and it’s cool to see the restored frescoes and marble-lined walls and floor mosaics. We spent about 30 minutes going through the houses.

Back on Curetes Way, other highlights we saw included the Temple of Hadrian, Hercules Gates and the 1,400 seat Odeon. The other main attraction at Ephesus, the 25,000 seat Great Theatre, was under renovations and not accessible.

We also went to see the Ephesus Experience Museum, a 20-minute audiovisual show. It’s worth skipping if you’re short of time.

Overall we liked Ephesus, we both really liked the Celsus Library and the Terraced Houses. I liked Ephesus equally to Sagalassos Ancient City.

There was an iPhone repair shop in the port town of Kuşadasi, about a 25 minute drive. It was in the heart of the busy centre, with no parking available. Heather spotted a sign for an Otopark (car park), and we squeezed into an underground parking spot for 200 TRY (about 7 CAD).

We walked back to the iPhone repair shop. The tech person looked like a stereotypical techie. If I saw him and had to guess his occupation, I would guess computer repairs. He gave my phone a quick look, asked if we wanted Apple parts, gave us a quote and said we could get it back tomorrow. Yay! We were in town for two more days so this worked out fine.

We turned off airplane mode on Heather’s phone and exchanged WhatsApp details with the store. We then looked around for lunch. Stumbled across the Thursday market, with produce from surrounding villages. Had a gözleme and ayran at a local restaurant. We had a half day with our parking, so weren’t in a rush.

We extracted our car from the tight parking lot and drove back to our hotel in Selçuk. We cleaned up, dropped off some laundry with the hotel, and headed out for dinner. We chose a place based on Google Maps, it was a bit of dud. Even their chai at the end of the meal was served lukewarm, not even hot enough to dissolve my sugar cube :(