Izmir (Ephesus) Turkey

Turkey was a destination we were unsure about. We had been warned ahead of time by the cruise staff to be extra careful in both Turkey and Egypt to be wary of the food, sanitize our hands frequently and only drink bottled water because the last two eastern-Med cruises had experienced outbreaks of gastro-enteritis after visiting these locations. Armed with that knowledge and several bottles of hand sanitizer, anti-bacterial wipes and bottled water we set out for an adventurous day in Turkey.





From the port of Izmir (ancient Smyrna), we drove via coach through the Turkish countryside for about 1.5 hrs. The scenery was beautiful with rolling hills, mountains, orchards and fruit trees everywhere. We stopped for a toilet break along the way. The little girls were not impressed with the "toilets" in this country but it was a good opportunity to practice some camping skills.






























Our tour guide was amazing and combined with the cool/sunny weather and miraculous historical sites, we had an incredibly positive experience in in Turkey... (and no sickness either, yay!)

We spent the majority of our day at the ancient city of Ephesus - most famous for its account written by Paul in the Bible. It is impossible to articulate how magnificent these ruins were and still so much of it in tact! It's overwhelming to realize how magnificent some of the world's ancient civilizations were.

Before returning to our ship, we stopped at the site of the Temple of Artemis - one of the 7 wonders of the ancient world - then on to a Turkish carpet weaving centre where we saw demonstrations of silk weaving, carpet tying and were treated to some traditional Turkish snacks including "apple tea" (like American apple cider).

We had hoped to splurge and buy a hand-made silk carpet to bring home but when we discovered that the silk carpets the size of a placemat were selling for $900 and up, we settled for a cotton-silk blend carpet instead. Regardless, we think it's a fun souvenir to have our very own authentic Persian rug and even though it cost less than the pure silk, we still paid a hefty amount (perhaps it will fly???)

Overall, we were pleasantly surprised by our visit to Turkey and would definitely put it on our list of places to go back to... Istanbul, anyone?