The Turkish Tourism Big Guns - Ephesus and Pamukkale

Sure, a lot could be said about these two massive Turkey highlights that we went to, but honestly google could tell you more than we could, so we will just mostly share our pics and our personal experiences. 

This photo has to be one of my favourites because it highlights a very big part of travelling – taking someone else’s photo. Mostly Simon gets asked because I’m too busy off somewhere taking photos. Whilst snapping some mountain shots I turn around to this scene. I loved it, it was gorgeous, she couldn’t speak hardly a word of English, but what she had she used. Telling Simon “thankyou, you handsome”, she then looks at me and says “handsome, handsome” while pointing to Simon, naturally I nodded my head and smiled in agreement!

Ephesus

Ephesus, if you don’t know much about it, have a quick google. Basically it is some of the best preserved Roman ruins around, with one of the most iconic ruined buildings you will see in our lifetime. 

You can’t stay in Ephesus itself so we stayed a 5 min taxi ride out at Selcuk. We along with buses and buses of tourists arrive at Ephesus bright and early. The sun is pelting down on what are possibly the best Roman ruins we have seen (and we have seen a lot). This place is unbelievably impressive, we go it alone with no human guide, just us and our Lonely Planet Turkey guide. For us this was great, and sometimes we enjoy just doing it ourselves more than the herds of people being pushed through, with no time to explore or deviate. You see incredible things everywhere, things that show just how wealthy this city was, it is beyond our imagination.

The parliament of the time

Just because they could line the main street with this

The original Nike

Ephesus is like a beacon for stray cats, they are everywhere, and they climb up on the ruins as if they were Hadrian himself. 

The highlight is undoubtedly the Library of Celcus, but let us tell you we were there not even in high season and people were fighting over the good photo spots, it was total chaos. The detail was all on the outside, the inside is very small, and ordinary.

 

These statues line the front of the Library

The view from below

There was a fight to take this photo, tourists can get so nasty

We exit to the typical genuine fake watch stores and buy what tasted like a fake cornetto, before catching the local mini bus for 50cents back into town. 

The final stop, the ampitheatre, incredible

We hear fabulous things about the family run Turkish restaurant Ejder, in Selcuk, well past lunch time we head there famished. The menu looks divine and we can’t choose so he brings us the best of what he has, telling us that his mum still makes it daily and her stuffed peppers are the best. The starter meze plate was unbelievable and we really feel like we were tasting Turkey, he wasn’t lying about the stuffed peppers either. The lamb and chicken shish kebaps arrive and they are massive, perfectly spiced and juicy. This tiny restaurant has had visits from the Clintons and many other famous visitors including Steve Irwin, yet it is humble and affordable. 

The meze plate!

Surprise, surprise transport is some issue again, so we take a train instead of a bus, its hugely crowded which again is unsurprising. This is our life, we are OK with it as we scrunch ourselves up on the train corridor floor. 

Ephesus can be done in 2 hours, really you probably want to spend 4 there to completely see it all and enjoy yourself wandering. 

Pamukkale

Pamukkale (cotton castle) is a world highlight for its strange calcium carbonate travetines, and after seeing pics we really had to go. This time of year it is not quite the same as the pictures, as not all the travertines were filled with the thermal waters, but it was still beautiful. Pamukkale the town is just a normal very small town that basically survives off tourism. We stay in a cute family run BnB, and the 8 year old takes a liking to us, and gives us a hiding at Jenga and Backgammon on the 2 nights we are there. All this travelling has left us out of practice on our gaming skills.

The town itself away from the cotton castle, is the kind of place where you see a man hearding sheep through the streets

You have 3 choices of entry to the cotton castle (its called this because from the bottom of the hill it looks like a giant white/cotton castle), one of these includes walking up the travertines, but we opt to takes this route down the hill. Pamukkale has its own very good Roman ruins, and we spent the first few hours exploring these. Especially beautiful is where some tombs were built right on top of the travertines on a ledge overlooking the mountains. 

This place really is in the middle of nowhere

The ampitheatre

Tomb in a travertine, on a cliff

First glimpse of the travertines

Its great weather so we take a swim in the antique pool, a pool filled with clear thermal water and roman ruins. You swim amongst the ruins as you are treated in the ailment curing waters. This pool whilst a special and unique experience is unbelievably expensive. 

We exit the cotton castle via the cascading travertines, slipping and ouching along the way. Our complaining is put back into perspective when we see a blind man with a cane tackling the decent. As the sun was setting it was like a mass migration down these pools, in some of the photos you can see the long lines of the herds of people in their packs. Along the way you can dip your feet into the running thermal waters that is being pumped down, I couldn’t help but take a shot of one of the tourist groups lined up enjoying their free foot spa. This water at around 38 degrees feels sublime on aching feet that are getting extremely exfoliated by the second. Shoes are forbidden down these pools.

The migration down the pools begin

The empty travertines

Pamukkale was magical. Whilst we may not have seen it in the same way as the pictures from google show, it wasn’t too hard to imagine with smaller pockets being full of water. This truly is a sight to behold and like nothing we have ever seen before. Yes our feet were sore, and yes we were pretty confident we were going to end up on our bum, it was all worth it for just a glimpse of the cotton castle.

The surface of a grater, this is what a lot of water over a lot of time looks like

Simon and Amy xoxo