Day 13 – Thursday 21 May

It was a warm morning with a bit of cloud cover. After breakfast on the 6th floor where the view was better than the food, we set off for Ephesus a short 15 minute drive away. The entry fee is not cheap, but just one of those things you suck up at equivalent to $80 nzd each. We paid for an add on to see the Terrace houses, which made each ticket 52 euro or nzd $104 each. Your ticket includes a ‘Museum experience’ which is a short 4 D video walk through outlying the history of Ephesus. It was ok, but lean on information – more giving you an animated feel for the time.

Of note there are plenty of toilets near the entry and museum, plus souvenir type shops. We had packed some water, however that quickly ran out during out 4.5hrs wandering, so we ended up paying outrageous prices for an cornetto ($10) and a small packet of nuts and two ice teas – the later lot about double what you would pay at a service station in Türkiye.

First impressions of Ephesus is the impressive size, and that they have not even scratched the surface (no pun intended) of all the excavation. The stadium size indicates the population x 10 – the main stadium seats 25,000 so they estimate the city had a population of 250,000. It was originally a port city, however major earthquakes destroyed the city and lifted the land.

The library is one of the best preserved of its kind and is simply beautiful and impressive. I spent quite some time just admiring the detail of the art, never mind contemplating the skill in building such a structure that has lasted the test of time and earthquakes. I love the preciseness of the Romans, down to the last letter literally. Form and function coexist in art form.

The super highlight was the terrace houses. Thanks to the Austrian’s funding and management they are carefully restoring and protecting it. This was the home of about 4 or 5 families of the super rich of the time. My word it is HUGE, I nearly got vertigo at the top level! They had piped heating, baths, in built cemetery, basilica, entertainment hall, fountains, service areas and living. Some of the best art pieces have gone to Austria to be restored however there are still plenty of examples of painting on the walls in the house.

The walls are also adorned with different marble, as are the pillars, and some flooring. Fountains also are artfully created in feature marble. Floors are a combination of marble and or tiles and mosaic art. Just gorgeous.

Additionally the site has all the Roman features of sewerage, water piping, baths, and more carefully thought of for good living. Both Vern and I really enjoyed our time there and came away feeling in awe of it and very happy to have gone. It receives our highest recommendation, and feel it is on par with Pompeii – if not more interesting for the terrace house and library. Both are great and different.

We were both rather poopered after that exercise in the heat and the dry dusty climbs, and once home both of us needed feeding and feet up for a while before doing anything. I had a long hot shower to try and get my body to stop complaining.

On the way back into town on the sea side road we saw a couple of large wild boar just walking down the street. I googled them and they are Anatolian native boar, which can grow up to 300kg .

Parking is very tricky and scarce and we had to go up a street further than the day before, into a residential section. Even though it was about 2:30pm, we had worked up an appetite so we went to the eatery downstairs that we had the lovely dinner last night and shared a falafel wrap. It was delicious and quite cheap 450 Turkish lira – about $12 nzd. It came with fries and salad.

After we recovered and a bit of blog work we strolled down the promenade to a restaurant that was featured in Rick Steves video – Ali Baba’s. It was a bit more expensive but enjoyable nonetheless.

Vern had the mixed grill and I had two entrees – fava bean dip and stuffed mussels. The dip is like we had in Puglia, Italy and I love it, the mussels are stuffed with a dolma type of rice stuffing and were exceptionally tender and delicate. The grill was well cooked, especially the entrecôte steak which was perfect medium-well done and juicy. The meat here is quite simple in that it really has minimial if any seasoning – it is all in the grill.