| After an early morning walk around Pamukkale's white cliffs and ruins, we took a 5 hour bus ride to Ephesus to visit the Ancient Wonder known as the Temple of Artemis. The only thing left to wonder about is what the temple looked like in its heyday. There's nothing left but a reconstructed pillar. The ancient city at Ephesus is much more wonderful. We spent the day there before taking an overnight bus ride to Eceabat. At 5:00 am, the bus driver woke us and pushed us out of his bus into a deserted town square with one parting word, 'Eceabat.' Left in a little town at that hour, with the street lights off and the surrounding houses closed and dark, buffeted by a freezing and constant wind blowing off the Dardanelles, we might as well have been in Antarctica. At this moment the usefulness of tour guides never seemed greater. Our beds back home never seemed farther away. Miraculously, we found a youth hostel with one vacant room; we could have kissed the hotel clerk. |
