There were a few things i forgot from yesterdays blog post.
Firstly, before the nargile, during dinner, i tried raki, which is the turkish version of ouzo. It was the most disgusting thing evverrrrrr. They pour it into a glass, half full, give u ice and you add water. The alcohol turns into a milky colour. You're also supposed to have a glass of water on standby, because its so strong. I only had a sip, but mannnn was it strong!
Today's post is going to be a bit long because i couldn't decide between which pics to post. Also, i am experimenting with this formatting thing....its very limited with this app so please ignore the ugliness lol.
In the morning we had our orientation walk of thr town of selcuk, Its quite a small town and you can probably finish walking around it in half an hour. By our hotel there were doggiew and kitties nearby, thie was a curious little one...too bad my cam couldnt focus in time :(
Our first destination was a nearby mosqur called isa mosque. We didn't go inside the actual mosque but we went into thr courtyard which was gorgeous...so many ruins all around.
Our next stop was the Ephiseus musem, which stores ruin from the ancient city (which i go to in a sec). There were statues and stuff, but none really that distinctive...
Our next stop was st john's bascilica. The church obviously isnt still standing, but the ruins of the church were still gorgeous. They sky was the most perfect blue without a cloud in sight.
Took a panoramic view from the hilltop, it was absolutely gorgeous. I couldnt help but stand there and stare out, breathing in the fresh air. It was such a pleasent feeling....
The ruins themselves were very impressive with many columns still standing
...
Travelling by myself required me to learn how to use the self timer function...looking at the next couple shots, i think ive done pretty well for myself...especially the second one..needs to be accurate timing!
Have you ever seen a more perfect blue sky? Just absolutely beautiful.
In addition to using th self timer, i am lucky to have group mates who dont mind helping me take a pic :)
After the ancient basilica, we headed over to lunch. The food was yummy, but the best pic by far was the random kitty that came by beside my seat to meow and yawn...perfect moment captured...
After being super full at lunch time we head back to the hotel for some rest and relxation by the pool. In fact, i wrote the last post by the pool yeseterday :)
At five pm, we head over to the ancient city of ephiseus...to avoid the masses of tourists that come from the cruise ships during the day. Even so, there seemed to be a ton of people there, i cant really imagine what it would have been like with even more.
This next picture is my feeble attempt to take a pic using the self timer ...got
the angle just slightly off...juuuuuussst slightly lol.
According to my very knowledgeable tour guide, this city used to be home to approximately two hundred thousand people, and what we saw here today is only ten percent of the actual city.
This down here is a temple in honour of hadrian, the same guy the wall was built for....the artwork on these temples were exquisite, cant imagine how these people carved it in the stone...this one might be one of my fav pics.
Behind me here is the ancient library of Ephiseus...the sheer size of this building was daunting. There were two floors of this library, and at one point held twelve thousand rolls of parchment paper (which were the books back then)..
Just masssssive. A lot of this library front is not original though, a lot of it has been restored by the turkish ppl so that we can see it with all of its beauty.
There's a faint circle on the ground, that was a special symbol for the christiafns, which was draw all over the city of ephiseus. The dirty feet beside belong to mysfelf and the tour guide (the painted one is mine lol)
I think coming at this time of day was the perfect idea, the sun hits the trees and the stones just right. Having said that, these pictures do not do the city justice, it was much more beautiful than any camera would be able to capture.
As with all ancient cities, there was a very and theatre, or "the great ancient theatre of ephiseus"...pretty sure chalar made that up on the spot. It was nice when we got there, the sun was slowly going down and there were only a handful of people in the theatre. The acoustics were quite good...we know because a little boy decided to sing some opera on the stage while we were there lol. Like the next pic? Another self timer pic...im getting good at this lol.
As we were leaving, the sun was just setting over the hills..
I think ive seen more gorgeous sunsets in the last few days than i have in my whole life in toronto lol...
I was going for a silioette look on this one, but i guess my camera auto adjusted and took a proper one instead. Ahhh well, still good :)
Goodbye ancient city of Ephiseus...
We left the ancient city and started a thirty minute trek to dinner on a old dirt road. Dried figs is one of the key industries of selcuk. Aparnetly, if you have a pack of dried figs at home, there is a ninety percent chance that it is from turkey lol. Anywho, when we were walking on the road, we passed by many fig trees...i guess we walked by alot of farms. Chalar told is that there is a turkey saying "goz hakki" which directly translates to "eye right"...meaning if you see it, you can take one. So we took some figs. Mmmmmmm delicous! Actually, i think thats the first time ive ever eaten a fresh fig before, so that crosses off item number twenty three ...EAT A NEW FRUIT. yay.
This is the road we were walking on, lots of little rocks and random cars driving by.
So we arrive at this restaurant, which was super traditional. The place's specialty is gozleme, which is a type of turkish pizza or pancake. Ive had something similar at the asian food market before. So basically, they make a very thin layer of dough which is made of just flour and water, and put stuffing in between.
We had ones with spinach and cheese, cheese, mushroom and spinach, minced meat, honey and banana, turkish nutella...all verrrrry delicious.
Mmmm...gozlemeeeee
As always, after the massive dinner, i got supppper sleepy. And give that we were sitting at a table with our shoes off, and surrounded by big pillows, i couldnt help but fall asleep. My tourmate sarah was a sweet enough to take my camera and take a pic of me in this very vulnerable moment.
Needless to say, it was a very fun filled and tiring today...but amazingly fun. Next stop, pamukale. :)
Location:Selcuk, turkey
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