Izmir [İzmir] | JBinnacle – A Travel Logbook

It is not paranoia if they are really after you. And I am paranoid enough not to set a foot onto a bus before I make sure my suitcase is on board with me. So, guess who had to wrangle their suitcase down the stairs, since the hotel staff did not do it? Yep, I did. At least down is easier than up. Anyway, we were our merry way by 9:00, and continued until noon, when we were ushered into a “typical fur-working centre” which was… I don’t know how describe it, to be honest. But neither typical nor traditional are words I would use.

First, we were taken into a room with a catwalk and given notepaper to write down the numbers of items we liked. For about an hour, four or five models showed off anything but typical leather items, a lot of them reversible. Then, we stepped into the shop. I touched some of the items – they were extremely thin and weightless, which was weird. The prices were extremely high, too, even taking into account “the 70% discount because we were special”. I am happy to report I was at no point approached by any salesperson – again, maybe I do not look targetable to Turkish people?

Lunch was okay, it had some nice dips and a soup, then another sad-meat main dish – albeit with your very own pita bread! Dessert was the only one I liked – a churros family treat called tulumba.

Lunch at Ephesus

Afterwards, we continued onto our way to Ephesus, which belongs to the current settlement of Izmir | İzmir, and is an archaeological site considered World Heritage. Coincidently, it was more than warm. It was scorching. We were there for two hours and a half, from 14:30 to 17:00. Again, leaving way before closing time to reach the hotel around 17:30, and yet this was the archaeological site where we spent the longest!

Ephesus was a city in ancient Greece – which back then included several areas of what is now Türkiye. Ephesus was founded around the 10th century BCE, and it became home to one of the Wonders of the Ancient World, the Temple of Artemis, which was built around 550 BCE. It was controlled by the Romans between 129 BCE and 395 CE, and during this period, it became an important site in Christianity starting the year 50 CE or so – with the apostle Paul of Tarsus living there, and reportedly being home of “the seven churches of the Apocalypse”. The city suffered attacks from the Goths, and was damaged by earthquakes before being finally abandoned in the 15th century.

Some of the ruins in Ephesus, including Trajan's fountain and the entrance to the therms

Though the temple of Artemis was off-site and it has been destroyed, many monuments from different periods still stand or have been restored. There are two theatres, a small odeon, and a larger one – with the large one being probably the greatest in the ancient world, seating 25,00 people. There were two agoras, one for commercial meetings and the other one for business. During the Roman times, the Gate of August was built to honour the Emperor.

Since the temple is long gone, the most important building remaining is the Library of Celsus, rebuilt from the pieces left. Tiberius Julius Celsus Polemaeanus was one of the Ancient Greek governors of Roman Asia, who paid for the library himself around the year 125 CE, and is actually buried underneath. The library once held up to 12,000 scrolls in 180 square metres.

Celsus library Ephesus

Ephesus theatre

The guide kept hurrying us up, saying that he had a surprise for us – which turned out to be an immersive show about the history of the city, and after that we had to leave. The film was okay, but I would have much preferred to have more time to wander and see the real thing. The only item that was real – I hope, though it was probably a copy – was the final statue of Artemis.

Statue of Artemis Ephesus

We left afterwards. We did not get to stop by the place where the temple used to stand. We did not see one of the most famous sites outside the city either – the so-called house of the Virgin Mary because, according to the guide, “it was a recycled myth”, it was probably the house of Artemis’ priestesses. Which in my view made it even more interesting, but oh well…

Ephesus Hitit Hotel had an outdoor swimming pool that I dipped into, but it was too cold to stay for a long time. I also tried to go out of the hotel to find something to see, but the street did not seem safe. To the point that our bus driver actually saw me going out and came to ask me if I was all right…

At the end of an already crazy, crazy work period, I had a very bad project. I determined to spend all the income from that one project on a big trip. However, at the same time, I was too exhausted to do a lot of planning. I decided to book a circuit, and since China was about 7,000 € above my budget, I ended up choosing to visit Türkiye. It also felt like a good moment to do so, before tensions in the Middle East escalate even further than they have, and while the country is still somewhat laic and not the Islamic Republic it seems on the path to turn into.

I booked my trip in August for October as that was when work would be over for the year. The only thing left was crossing fingers for good weather, and survive work till then.

Overall, the experience was on the wrong side of disappointing. The tour I chose looked good on paper, but it turned out to be badly managed and even more badly implemented. I’m not even a food-driven traveller, but none of the places we visited offered much in regards of Turkish dishes except the same sweets over and over again. Most hotels were falling apart – literally – and in the middle of nowhere, so when we arrived there around 18:00 at the latest, there was nothing around to explore. On top of that, pure bad luck this time, my flight connection were rather inconvenient – I arrived late on my first day in Istanbul, and left early on my last, so there was no way to enjoy those days.

One of the big problems I ran into was the diffusion of responsibility, as I booked a trip from Viajes El Corte Inglés, distributed by MapaTours and implemented by the local Oxin Travel, whose guides were… let’s say lacking.

I was excited when my travel agent called to give the documentation, a couple of weeks before the adventure started. There were some errors in formatting, and a reference to a photograph which was not there – I tried not to worry about that. A link can easily break when paperwork is prepared for printing. It was a sign (or a metaphor) for all the small things that would go wrong, I see now.

I am aware that I come from an incredibly privileged place, complaining about a nine-day to Türkiye. However, I paid for a service I did not receive, and that miffs me. On top of everything, the single supplement was 400€, because Türkiye does not do single rooms whatsoever, almost 20% of the total price excluding extra day trips.

I booked a circuit named Turquía Única (Unique Türkiye), which started and ended in Istanbul. The itinerary included Ankara, the region of Cappadocia, Pammukkale, Izmir, Pergamon, Çanakkale, Bursa and back to Istambul. I landed on the 2nd and returned on the 11th, but I was only up and about between the 3rd and the 10th. I also made the mistake of booking the optional Istanbul day trips trying to avoid long queues at ticket booths and monuments.