Istanbul – Selcuk (Ephesus)

We took an early morning flight from Istanbul to Izmir. Once at the Izmir airport we caught the TCDD train to Selcuk.

We were immediately greeted by a friendly man once we disembarked from the train station. We asked him where the Nazar Hotel was and he explained – but then he was kind enough to actually walk us along the streets to the hotel! I can’t say it enough: the Turkish people are very kind and friendly!

The Nazar Hotel was fantastic, I highly recommend it. See my Tripadvisor review here:

http://www.tripadvisor.co.za/ShowUserReviews-g293976-d614612-r232070961-Hotel_Nazar-Selcuk_Izmir_Province_Turkish_Aegean_Coast.html#REVIEWS

The hotel recommended we go to Mehmet and Ali Baba Kebab House. It was okay, not bad– we appreciated the complimentary apple tea. It filled us up to take on the tour of the ancient city of Ephesus. We shared a cab to get there with a couple we met in the hotel lobby. We got a cab to the one end and then caught a dolmus (public bus) back to the hotel.

Ephesus was definitely one of the highlights of the trip! The Celsus Library is A-M-A-Z-I-N-G. Also, no trip here is complete without spending the extra money to enter the Terrace Houses.

 

Celsus Library
Celsus Library

The magnificence that is the Celsus library:

PANO_20140907_162737 (2)

See my Tripadvisor review here:

http://www.tripadvisor.co.za/ShowUserReviews-g293976-d294530-r232072733-Celsus_Library-Selcuk_Izmir_Province_Turkish_Aegean_Coast.html#REVIEWS

 

http://www.tripadvisor.co.za/ShowUserReviews-g293976-d294528-r232073276-The_Terrace_Houses-Selcuk_Izmir_Province_Turkish_Aegean_Coast.html#REVIEWS

 

Terrace houses
Terrace houses

IMG_5523 (2)

It was a scorcher of a day so we returned back to the hotel to take a dip in the refreshingly cool pool at the hotel. It was such great fun splashing about until the sun went down and it was time to get ready for supper.

That night we went to a lovely restaurant called Agora where we had a great meal accompanied by a bottle of good wine. I also tasted an interesting dessert made with tahini syrup (tahini is made with sesame seeds).

 

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