Ephesus

To spend a day at the beach, I fumbled around with buses for two to three hours total to sit in the sand for one hour. Not entirely worth it, but I got to see a town without foreign tourists. Back in Bergama I found kebabs and lahmucan for 1 and 2 Lyra for dinner, then a dessert tasting from one of the many sweet shops around.

I took a bus to Izmir station, then a minibus on to Selcuk and saw Ephesus in the afternoon. It was full of tourists, but it helped me picture what it would have been like with 200,000 Romans living there. The Great Theatre was a highlight. It held 25,000 people! Most of the buildings still had all four walls and I had a book with me that showed what they would have looked like in Roman times. It was all very impressive, except maybe for the public latrine. There were fountains, temples, gates, the library, agora, Church of Mary, gymnasium, and plenty of columns.

The restaurant next to my hostel has excellent food and a very friendly owner who booked a tour for me. The stuffed grape leaves and stuffed peppers were great. There's even a free shuttle to Ephesus in front of the restaurant. The BBQ on the rooftop terrace for dinner hit the spot after walking around all day.

I saw St. John's Cathedral, an old mosque, aquaducts, the museum and a fort on top of the hill. The frescoes in John's tomb were well-preserved and the basilica was huge. The museum was surprisingly good. They took the statues from Ephesus and put them on display there.