Ephesus | Chaos roaming the world

impressive flag collections these nice Aussies had there

We had long days lately with half a day of riding and then visiting sites afterwards. Today was planned as exactly such a day: Ride to Pergamon, visit the ruins, camp. The plan, as always, is only correct until it has the first encounter with reality. We slept in a little as both of us are really tired. Flo was out and about last evening and I read until he was back… rather late for our terms. After breakfast, we started packing up. When I came back from brushing my teeth, Flo was talking to our neighbours in the big yellow truck.

Cheryl and Guy turned out to be lovely people. We kept them from cycling to the ruins of Ephesus for a while but it was great to talk to overlanders again. One of the cute and curious things we have in common is that our vehicles are yellow… and rather big for their types. Thus, bumblebee is a logical thing to call such a vehicle. 🙂

it is huge!

Starting after 11am, we made it to Izmir just in time for lunch. From riding through parts of it, Izmir might be a city for us. There are cafés and eateries at every corner and it has a relaxed vibe. Kumpir, baked potatoes stuffed with fillings, were recommended by the Lonely Planet. Ordering one of them for each of us, we faced the challenge of finishing the huge portions. We would have loved to explore Izmir further, but running out of money and of time, now is not the time for it. Might be a good city to visit for a short holiday in the future.

From here, we reached Pergamon in one go. The camp ground looked amazing: Grassy area with trees for shade, a pavilion, power plugs all around and a pool. Again, however, we were the only ones staying here. So we put up our tent in the most awesome place, next to the pavilion which we claimed. This would be the time to get ready for visiting ruins. We just couldn’t. Maybe the camp ground was too awesome or we are just too tired… we decided to have the afternoon off and visit the ruins tomorrow.

It felt like a short holiday from traveling. Sitting in the shade, watching some football, having ice cream. I had a nap during the second half, Flo had a nap right after the game. The rest of the day went by with me blogging and then great dinner with fresh bread and mezze. Tomorrow, Pergamon, I promise.

: impressive flag collections these nice Aussies had there

: powered beach camping, how cool is that?

: are they not too cute?

: it is huge!

: One would have been plenty, I guess …

: leaving Izmir … too early

: All 6s was back in Oman!

: Chilling – Switzerland won 🙂

The boring part…riding the motorway

There was not much left to do for us in Pamukkale other than pack up and move on. From here on, there were four more points of interest for us: Ephesus, Izmir, Pergamon and Troy. Ephesus was only some 250 km away and had three campgrounds for us to pick from nearby.

The ride was pleasant and smooth, with the exception of the motorway of all places. The automated system is kind of a nice idea, but it does not work at all in practice, at least for motorcycles. Out of the four times we passed toll gates so far, it has worked only a single time. We went to the post office twice to check and pay before we would get a fine, but they could find nothing in the system. So either we slip the cracks, or more likely we will get an unpleasant surprise at some point.

Great selection of all vegetarian börek

We had a really nice lunch in a town along the way. We just pulled into a random börek shop on the main road and scored. Outside any tourist region it was dead cheap, tasty and filling. Plus, the staff was real nice, too.

We reached Ephesus around 2 pm. According to our guide book, the crowds should soon loosen up. We were “adopted” right away by an enterprising fellow on the parking lot. He was nice enough that his sales pitches were never too annoying. Plus, he was genuinely helpful. The site is set up in such a way that the ‘right’ way to explore it is to start from the uphill entrance and then walk down the main road towards the southern entrance, where we currently were. There are shuttles going up. One that goes straight up for 15 lira and one that drops guest off for a “tour” at a local leather factory, but is free.

Maybe something to look at in the future

We opted for the free variant, of course, even though we were a bit anxious about what to expect. Well, it turned out that our “guide” just so happened to be one of the drivers. He dropped us off and we soon found out. It was not too b

ad – a straight beeline into a super high class showroom full of lambskin leather clothes in the $500 and up region. It dawned on us that we might even be interested in this stuff, would we not currently have been broke and on this trip. I might check this out once back in decent employment, I guess.

Close-up of the arch

It was over after 10 minutes and we could start the tour. Ephesus turned out to be the most expensive place yet. It was made all the worse by the fact that just about now, we would have been better off buying the 185 lira all-of-Turkey museum pass – with at least 100 lira still to come in Istanbul. Still better than a piece of wire in the eye, I guess.

The place itself was fantastic, though. Heaps of solid info on boards throughout the ruins and loads of uncovered and reconstructed marble architecture. All quite impressive. The ruins stemmed from a huge time period from the 3rd century BC into the middle ages under Byzantium, but most remaining (and impressive) architecture is from Roman times between 133 BC till the Roman schism.

Great place to build a theater on the first place

All in all, we spend about two hours exploring the place. Happy but exhausted, we got back to the bike. Our enterprising friend had one more up his sleeve: Authentic silver coins of varying ages. Of course, for a real good price. We passed on that golden opportunity to get in trouble with customs and were content with a look through. I mean, how often do you get the chance to hold 2000 year old silver coins?

We checked the camp grounds in Kusadasi. One was full, the other one was packed in what seemed to be party central of the town. We considered for a second and then decided to go back to Pamucak and check out the last place in the area. That one was a score. A super laid back area right at the beach, with almost no one around. It sure had seen busier days, but right now there were maybe 10 of the 100 spots taken. We could place ourselves right next to a power outlet to get all the goodies charged again.

perfect sunset over the water here we come

After our sunset walk along the beach, there was one more vehicle on the ground and it sparked my interest. A closer look revealed a Queensland licence plate on a bright yellow overlander truck. The travellers in question turned out to be a real nice couple, Cheryl and Guy, with many a country flag already decorating the truck. I got invited in for a brief chat and ended up staying up way too long …