A Day in Kusadasi

Assalamualaikum, everyone! I have returned with a new travel post, this time of our time in Kusadasi!

I woke up quite late, it was almost 12 noon when I checked the time. The rest of my family were already up and had eaten breakfast, so I had my brunch. By 1pm, we were all ready to set out for our visit to Ephesus, one of the most important ancient cities in the Roman Empire. Of course only the remains are left, after countless earthquakes.
When we arrived, the ruins were nowhere to be seen. It was only the parking, and a restaurant. A man came up to us and told us that Ephesus was up on the mountain, and in order to get there, we need to take a shuttle - we have to walk down the mountain back to the car since cars aren't allowed through the ruins. He also offered us a book on the history of Ephesus and description of what each building was for back then. While waiting for the shuttle, he treated us tea and apple tea. Yusuf got a free sandwich.

When the shuttle arrived, we were informed that the shuttle will first stop at the Ottoman Weaving Centre, where they show how Turkish carpets are made (it's really carpet heaven) and there's also the sale of jewelleries. We weren't really in the mood to buy any of it, but we did take a few pictures.

By the time we arrived at the entrance into the ruins, we barely entered when water started to drop from the sky. It was raining! All the ruins was outdoors, of course, so we quickly went into the gift shop and bought four plastic raincoats because turning back is not an option. That's right, we traversed the land of Ephesus in these plastic bags and faced the rain.

I regretted not bringing my winter coat with me; I only had a cardigan on and my fingers were numb from the cold. The rain didn't help either. Never the less we continued on, reading information boards on the ruins, some of them being the Odeion, the Library of Celsus, the Commercial Market, and the Grand Theatre. I'd say we've ventured around 90% of the ancient land - it was already late when we started so at 6 pm, we reached the exit and didn't really think of finishing the rest.

The walk down was quite long, but the ruins were majestic, even though half of the structures were gone. Some of them were initially built in 3rd century BC, but because of a major earthquake, they had to be rebuilt from scratch in 4th century AD. I think my favourite place would be either the Library of Celsus, or the Commercial Market. The library was grand and had huge pillars. It was also y mother's favourite. At the Commercial Market, I could somehow imagine the environment back then and felt that it might be loud and lively. Even though only the remains are left, the history stayed alive.

There was a double rainbow by the time we reached the library and the marketplace (they were side by side), though the anger one was very faint. There were also a lot of cats down the entire road , some of them shielding form the rain. Cats are always worth mentioning.

The rain had subsided as we reached the exit and it was already 6pm. We had a marvellous field trip and planned to read more on it later - for now, we're all starving. We drove back to town where restaurants lined by the seaside of Kuşadası. The sea at night was wonderful, just like the dinner we had. The restaurant served great food!

Back at our Airbnb, we took advantage of the washing machine downstairs to wash our clothes once again, and dried all of them in our room, width chairs lined in front of the heater. We won't be able to wash anything the next few days.

And that wraps up this trip. Can't wait to tell you the next one! Assalamualaikum!