It's All Fun and Games Until Someone Needs An Eyepatch - A Dec TR Complete 8/31

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

I asked the guide to take us into the Terraced Houses. He informed us there is a separate admission charged for these and I told him I was aware and we were all set for that as our museum pass covered it. Another bonus of the museum pass!

The terraced houses are homes of wealthy citizens that have now been covered and protected and some restoration work has been and is still being conducted.

Here you can see some of the marble and tile laid out waiting to be restored.





Our guide pointed out this graffiti of a gladiator or soldier etched into the walls of one of the houses. He stated this was most likely done by one of the children that lived in the home.



i just loved the mosaics and wall paintings that decorated the homes.













Here you can see they are hard at work restoring the mosaic floor. Our guide knew some of these people and they stopped him to show us they had just found a mark in a wall where a signet ring had left an impression.





Our guide had me sit on the floor near one of the railings and tilt to the side to see these glass mosaics. He told me to zoom in with camera to see the detail. He said it is one of the earliest examples of glass mosaic.



View looking down towards the agora from the exit of the terrace houses



It was now time to see the gem of Ephesus, the Library of Celsus! What a beautiful building!

I was very lucky as I was able to get a bunch of photos with nobody in them! This is usually very hard to do and I had the low tourist crowd to thank for that.



















I couldn't get enough of this place! So beautiful! While I felt so badly about the low tourist levels and the impact that is having on the country I couldn't help but be thankful that it was allowing me to enjoy places like this without the hassle of hordes of people all around.

Continued in next post...

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

A shot of Dad and Alek with nobody else around, a rare capture!







Our guide pointed out this foot and heart carved into the marble sidewalk. He advised us that this was an advertisement for the brothel which was located just down the street. On our own we probably would have walked right past this!



Next up was the theatre which is still used for concerts to this day! Our guide rattled off a list of well-known bands that he had seen perform there such as Elton John, Sting, etc.



Street leading from the theatre towards the harbour



Our tour was over at this point and we walked out towards the lower gate with some final views of the theatre.





Our guide called the hotel owner to let him know that we were done so that he could come pick us up. This free shuttle is something that the hotel owner does for all his guests whether they book a tour/guide or not.

We were so glad that we had Mehmet as our guide, he was excellent! At one point I overheard some young American tourists comment that they should have booked a better guide after listening in. They were with a big group tour...

There were a bunch of stalls/shops at the exit to the site. This sign amused us



Apparently McDonald's is the sponsor of the House of the Virgin Mary



Also catching a ride back to the hotel were two young Asian girls who were friendly and we chatted with them a bit. We had a funny run in with them later on...

Back at the hotel we freshened up and did some laundry in the bathroom sink (Dad had brought along dry laundry detergent for just this purpose) and then made our way to the nearby Ephesus Museum to see the Artemis cult statue from the Temple of Artemis.





Some of the other artefacts...







After we were done at the museum we decided to stroll around the town of Selcuk. It was small and charming. We spent a good bit of time in a jewelry shop as Maria had asked Dad to look for some Lapus Lazuli jewelry. The owner was very helpful and allowed us to take pictures of some of the items to send to her to see what she wanted. She ended up not wanting any of them... The owner of the store also was heavily pushing jewelry with "zultanite" stones. These were pretty neat as the stone changed colour based on the light source. I almost bought a ring but I was skeptical as to the authenticity of the stone as he was really pushing the sell. Maybe it was legit and he was just pushing them because they were the pricer items in the store or maybe it was a scam. At the end of the day I decided to save myself a couple hundred dollars and pass on the ring.













In our wandering we found a sweet shop and bought some baklava, it was dirt cheap and so delicious! We vowed to return the next day. This reminds me of a story I forgot to tell you all about our arrival night at our hotel in Selcuk. On our arrival night we had dinner on the terrace of the hotel and Dad asked the server if they had baklava. He said no but that he would get us some. He then called his son over who looked about 8 and sent him down the street to buy us some!! We thought that this was hilarious but also excellent service!

Back to "present" day. We found a restaurant on a side street that had cheap prices and excellent reviews on trip advisor. We loved the husband and wife team that ran this place. They were hilarious! We ordered our meal in Turkish and he repeated it back to us in English. His wife then poked fun of him for doing so. Banter like that continued throughout the meal. They even gave us free dessert and tea!

View of the fortress from outside our hotel



After our early dinner we relaxed in our room and showed Dad some funny Game of Thrones videos (Jon Snow Comes to Dinner and Coldplay doing Game of Thrones the Musical). We were laughing hysterically. If you are a GOT fan and haven't seen these videos they are a must watch and can be easily found on youtube!

 

[disneyAndi14]

I have been following along and just wanted to let you know how much I have been enjoying your reports. I love your informative review of your travels in Turkey. You should be a travel writer, you describe everything so well and you are very knowledgeable about the history! I visited Turkey in 2007 and it is allowing me to remember some of the sites we visited as well. We were mainly in Istanbul and we also toured Ephesus. Tourism was booming when we were there, very busy! Glad your trip was enjoyable. I also love Disney so enjoying your Disney trip as well. Your brothers are such jokesters, must keep you laughing on your trips for sure!

 

[Escape2Disney]

Hi!

I spent the last couple of days reading your report when I had a few moments. We're heading to WDW for the first time this December. Thank you for all of the details! It really helped with my planning!

 

[DonnaBeeGood]

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[luv2tvl]

Loving both of your reports!

I had to laugh out loud as I took the same picture of the "genuine fake watches" sign outside Ephesus.

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

You should be a travel writer, you describe everything so well and you are very knowledgeable about the history!

I would love to do something like that. I am always jealous of those who get to travel for a living.

I visited Turkey in 2007 and it is allowing me to remember some of the sites we visited as well. We were mainly in Istanbul and we also toured Ephesus. Tourism was booming when we were there, very busy!

Happy to see another reader who has been to Turkey! I loved the country and hope to visit again someday. Depending on how long this turmoil continues over there it may be a very different country when and if I return.

Your brothers are such jokesters, must keep you laughing on your trips for sure!

Oh yes, it is always fun times when hanging out with my brothers.

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

Hi!

I spent the last couple of days reading your report when I had a few moments. We're heading to WDW for the first time this December. Thank you for all of the details! It really helped with my planning!

Glad that my report has been helpful! Disney in December is lovely!

Makes me sad that the Ephesus excursion was cancelled for my daughter's high school trip

That is too bad! Where else did she go on her high school trip?

At the same time, she would not have appreciated any of it - such a teenager!!

You never know! I went to Italy with four other girls from my high school the summer I turned 16 and one of my favourite moments was getting to see Oedipus Rex performed in the ancient Greek theatre in Taormina. It was wonderful knowing I was watching this ancient play which was probably performed in that same theatre thousands of years ago.

Edited to add - poor Turkey! They are really going through the ringer; I hope for the sake of all the Turkish people that peace can be accomplished eventually.

I know, i can't believe all the difficulties that country is suffering. I feel so badly for people like Ece who we met that just want to live a good life and are suffering because of all this turmoil.

Loving both of your reports!

I had to laugh out loud as I took the same picture of the "genuine fake watches" sign outside Ephesus.

Hard to resist!

 

[DonnaBeeGood]

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[Lifelong_Dreamer]

Well Lessa, it gives me hope that perhaps one day she will learn to appreciate things more. It seems to me that her high school trip which was Rome, Sorrento, Capri, Athens, and a short Mediterranean cruise to Santorini, Mykonos, and Rhodes was treated as "fluff" - the girls seemed to be most interested in shopping and finding french fries. It's not from lack of trying on the teacher's part or the parents - she and I toured Italy the year before to try to prepare her for some culture, to no avail! Imagine a poor little whining girl being "forced" to go to the Uffizi Gallery, when all she wanted to do was to go shopping at H & M, which we have in Canada already. My older daughter was raised by the same parents though and does appreciate museums and art to a bigger degree. I can't blame the Kardashian's entirely, some people just enjoy different things. She also doesn't read books often, whereas the rest of the family love reading. Sigh, I tried...

That sounds like an amazing trip!!!

I can't help but laugh at the image of you dragging her to the Uffizi!

You are right, everybody is different! I know people who will never vacation anywhere other than an all-inclusive beach resort in the Caribbean. Seems a shame to me when there is so much else the world has to offer but whatever makes you happy! That being said, I wouldn't mind a trip to a Caribbean beach resort either, just not all the time!

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

Sorry for the long gap between updates. I've been busy with work and then just got back from visiting family in Ohio. I'm going to try and wrap this TR up in the next week or so there should be lots of updates coming your way soon!

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

Turkey - April 22

Another morning in Selcuk and another day of touring ahead of us. Per my Dad's request I gave him a day off from driving and we were booked to go on an organized tour. I usually prefer to go the do-it-yourself route and in this case I was correct...

After enjoying breakfast we browsed around the tile shop attached to our hotel while we waited for our tour guide to arrive. We spotted a few things that we might want to buy before checking out in two days time.

When our tour guide arrived he led us out to a small bus that had 4 other people on it. We made a brief stop at another hotel in town for two more guests and then we were off!

The tour I booked was going to take us to three different ancient sites: the towns of Priene and Miletus and the ancient temple of Apollo at Didyma. This was to be our last day of touring around ancient Greek and Roman ruins.

As we drove down the highway to our first stop we saw the Turkish police pulling over all the busses on the road and ours was pulled over as well. Our guide asked if we all had our passports.... Dad looked at me and said he left his passport in the hotel room. What a rookie mistake!!! I was feeling nervous now, what were they going to do with Dad since he didn't have his passport??? I had visions of having to call the Canadian embassy and get help and then having to call back to Canada and tell my Mom and my dad's wife Maria that Dad had been thrown into prison!!! The exact thing she feared would happen.

Well, the tour guide told the police that all but one had their passports and they waved us on. I suspect they must have been looking for illegal refugees??? Not sure but I was so relieved that Dad got away with no trouble. I gave him heck for the rest of trip making sure that he had his passport on him.

Before continuing on I will give you a description of our group: our family, a nice and friendly older Irish couple, a weird German couple and then two guys who I have no idea where they were from as they never talked to any of us!

When we arrived at Priene we were the only people there. To get to the ruins you have to climb up a somewhat steep hill on an ancient path/staircase.



Germans and the two mystery guys booked it up the hill leaving us all behind. Alek, Dad and I stayed with the guide to hear what he had to say and the Irish couple lagged behind. At the top the guide gave us an overview of how we would explore the ruins and how much free time we would have. The Germans and the mystery men took off after that and did not stay with the guide???? Why book a guided tour if you are not going to actually listen to the guide?

Our guide led us to the small theatre first and showed us a water clock that they used to time speeches.







Next we went to the ruins of a church where we saw a site worker corralling an enormous snake!!!!! Unlike the one from a few days ago this one was very much alive. I stayed FAR away.





The guide then led us right past the Temple of Athena without even stopping!!! I stepped away from him at that point to see the temple. I couldn't believe he was just skipping right over it.





I met up with the group back at the ruins of the council hall.



The guide gave us 20 minutes of free time after this and so we wandered around a bit but there wasn't too much else to see so we made our way back down to the bus. After the ruins of the past few days we were a bit underwhelmed but we knew going into the day that these ruins would not be as impressive.

Back on the bus we drove about 30 minutes to the next set of ruins at Miletus. When we got off the bus the Germans and mystery guys once again took off on their own but this time they didn't even wait to hear what time we should meet back at the bus. So bizarre???

The main attraction here is the impressive theatre.









The guide led us up to the top of the theatre. The wife of the Irish gentleman did not want to climb to the top so she decided to take a seat and wait at the bottom. Well, that decision caused her to miss the rest of the tour of the site as we exited the theatre through a passageway at the top.



These cells are where early Christians and other persecuted people were kept before they were forced to fight each other/animals in the theatre.



Looking towards the theatre from the other side, can't even tell it is there!




Our guide took us to the ruins of the large bath house built for the wife of Marcus Aurelius, Faustina.

The ruins were interesting but I was more captivated by this adorable turtle that was crawling around the ruins.









There's that turtle again!







After that we had free time so Dad took the opportunity to use the facilities and I took a few more pictures of the theatre.





Back at the bus we were joined by the Irish couple and the tour guide. We were all there at the appointed time but the others were not. Eventually the two mystery guys showed up but the German couple were nowhere to be seen. We waited and waited and waited. Where the heck were they, the site was not that big?! We were all pretty annoyed by the time they showed up.

Continued in next post

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

We drove to Didyma next where we stopped for lunch before touring the ruins of the temple.

We were taken to a restaurant where we were the only customers. The mystery guys did not come into the restaurant or the temple with us. No idea where they disappeared to???

We were served fish and the German husband said he did not want fish. They brought him chicken instead. I wish I had known that was an option as I hate seafood. The fish came with head tail and all the bones, no thank you!

Since my fish was basically untouched the waiter gave it to a dog that was relaxing outside. That dog later became our good friend.

After lunch we made our way outside and waited for our guide to rejoin us. While waiting we made friends with the dog that got to chow down on my fish. He was so friendly and when we went into the site of the temple he came with us along with another one of his doggie friends. The guide joked that he did not pay admission.









The scale of this temple was impressive. It must have been truly massive when it was intact.









Our canine friend stayed with us as we explore the temple. We named him Heinrich.







The guide gave us 30 minutes of free time to explore the site and our good friend Heinrich led us around and showed us his home.











This temple and our time with Heinrich were the highlight of the day.

Once again we had to wait around for everybody to get back to the bus. The mystery guys came wandering back late which we had come to expect.

The tour essentially over we just had the ride back. We were glad to be done with the tour. While we enjoyed not having to drive ourselves that would have been preferable to being with the group we were with. The guide while friendly was often inaccurate in his statements and the other guests aside from the Irish couple were odd. The German couple was condescending when speaking with us and the Irish couple and they would always disappear from the group and return late. The mystery guys never spoke to any of us were also always disappearing and turning up late. In the end we wished we had just driven ourselves and explored the sites on our own. Oh well!!!

Back in town we decided to wander down to see the last standing column of the Temple of Artemis, one of the ancient wonders of the world.



I found it amusing that a stork had built its nest on the top of this ancient and famous column!





That night we had dinner at the same place as the night before as we enjoyed the banter of the couple that ran the place so much and the food was cheap and good. We made friends with a neighbourhood cat during dinner. Alek named him Cyclops as he was missing an eye. I named him Polyphemus, a cyclops from The Odyssey.



A shot from the town as we walked back to the hotel after dinner.

 

[DisneyJo]

Wow you didn't have very good travelling companions, they sounded very rude and shouldn't have been there. I'm sorry the tour wasn't as good as you expected but at least you met some nice furry friends and a tortoise

 

[Steppesister]

That just sounds horrible! Although the sites were, as always, spectacular, the company sounds awful. So sorry! Trying to keep up here, but I am reading and enjoying every update!

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

Wow you didn't have very good travelling companions, they sounded very rude and shouldn't have been there. I'm sorry the tour wasn't as good as you expected but at least you met some nice furry friends and a tortoise

Yes, at least we made some furry friends! And in the grand view of things this was just a small bump in an otherwise great vacation.

That just sounds horrible! Although the sites were, as always, spectacular, the company sounds awful. So sorry! Trying to keep up here, but I am reading and enjoying every update!

Yes, the company definitely left something to be desired.

Not hard to keep up as I having been updating as slow as a tortoise.

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

Our last day at Disney continued.

After checking out the decorations and Yacht and Beach Club we wandered over to the Boardwalk. Out of all our trips we had never ventured to that side of the pond.




The Boardwalk was lovely but as with Yacht and Beach Club I didn't feel the same Christmas spirit there as I did at AK, GF and WL. Perhaps it was the lack of enormous Christmas trees? lol













We also checked out the Boardwalk Bakery while we were over there and I saw that they had cannoli so I just had to get one! I am absolutely obsessed with cannolis and I am always looking for good ones. Sadly nobody around my home makes them, or at least not real ones. A cannoli must be made with ricotta cheese or it is not authentic! A bakery here claims they sell cannoli but they fill them with the same cream as a cream puff or an eclair, not a real cannoli!

Anyways! I bought my cannoli and took it outside to a table and gobbled it up. I give it a 3/5 on my cannoli rating scale. It was made with ricotta cheese but the shell left something to be desired. Oh well, the quest for the perfect cannoli continues!

There were some photo booths on the Boardwalk that work with photopass so we decided to try them out. Mom and I did a set and Alek and Erich did one. For some reason the ones that Mom and I did never showed up in our account but Alek and Erich's did!



In addition to the photo strips you also get each photo individually.


After that we wandered back over to the Beach Club. We had a few minutes to kill so we grabbed a seat near the Quiet Pool and relaxed in the Florida sun for a bit. Once we got close enough to our ADR we wandered over to Beaches and Cream and checked in. The rather grumpy CM that checked us in stated there was no way we would be able to be seated until the exact time of our ADR. Okay.... I didn't mind waiting but I thought her attitude was funny especially as I saw two empty tables inside....

We waited 10 minutes for our ADR time and then got called in....

The service inside was much friendlier.

Beaches and Cream is a Disney tradition for us. We always go for lunch and Alek and Erich order a Kitchen Sink for dessert.

We all ordered regular burgers except Mom, she got the Patty Melt. She also got some kind of fancy drink but I don't recall what it was.







As always the burgers were delicious!!!

Next came the main event, the ice cream! The kitchen sink does not appeal to me or Mom so we get our own treats while the boys make themselves sick.

I think the sever was dumbfounded that Alek and Erich planned to eat it all themselves.





I ordered the much more appealing No Way Jose



Even though my sundae was delicious I could only manage to eat about half of it. How did the boys do?

Still working away


Getting closer to the bottom



Can't do it anymore!




In the end I think they managed to eat 3/4 of it. Revolting! lol


We rolled ourselves out of there and made our way to Epcot to spend our last few hours of vacation in our second favourite park. We still had some Christmas events to see!

 

[DonnaBeeGood]

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[Lifelong_Dreamer]

Wow, those tour companions were something else! Glad you only had to pit up with them for a day.
And I can't believe your brother's ate that much of the Kitchen Sink!

I know, it is disgusting how much they can pack away!

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

April 23 - Turkey

Today was our rest/spare day. I had built an extra day in during this leg of the trip to account for bad weather/illness/fatigue etc that might have interfered with one of our other touring days. Everything had gone as planned so far though so we now we had this as a rest day where we didn't have anything in particular to do.

After breakfast we decided to drive a short 20 minutes into the hills to visit the village or Sirince. This village was originally settled when the ancient site of Ephesus was abandoned. What you see now though is more modern dating to the 19th century at the earliest. This little village in the hills is known for being picturesque and for its fruit wines.

The drive up through the hills was beautiful and very windy. It was lucky I didn't get car sick! Once at the village we paid to park the car and then set out to wander the village.

Unfortunately, the village has become very touristy and the main streets were lined with stalls selling cheap touristy souvenirs. We sampled some of the fruit wine and dad ended up buying a bottle. There were all sorts of wine - strawberry, raspberry, etc.

We eventually got off the tourist drag and got high enough to have some views of the village.













After about an hour we left the village and made our way back to Selcuk. On the way we saw these two which was something we saw commonly during our trip. Doesn't look all that safe but to each their own!



When we got back into town we noticed that there were a lot of families out and about and the kids were all very dressed up and then we passed some schools and noticed music playing and large groups of people and then I remembered that it was a National Holiday. It was National Sovereignty and Children's Day. The rest of the day we saw Turkish flags hanging everywhere and banners with the image of Ataturk commonly displayed. There was also music and activities for the children throughout the town.

Also occurring that day was the Saturday market. After leaving the car by the hotel we decided to go check out the market. It was MASSIVE! It took up several blocks and you could buy almost anything there. Fruit, veggies, meat, cheese, spices, flowers, shoes, underwear, clothes, books, home decor, etc.



















This market happens every week and all the locals seem to turn out for it. For a rather small town we couldn't believe how big this market was!

For Children's Day they had brought out some antique toys for the children to play on and they had shut down a street so they could play without worrying about traffic.



After wandering around town we decided to stop at the baklava shop that we found a few days previous and bought some treats to take back to the hotel.

It was mid-afternoon at this point and we decided to just hang out at the hotel for a bit and just relax. Dad and Alek went up to the rooftop terrace with their books while I did a little shopping. I got a few scarves from a shop next to the hotel and then I bought two small tiles from the shop in our hotel that I use as coasters.

After that I joined Dad and Alek on the terrace for a bit just enjoying some down time.





Continued in next post...