We arrived into Ephesus at about4.00pm in the afternoon after a very tiring 8 hour bus ride. Our hotel is called Jimmy's Place which comes highly recommended from most of the guide books and is only a short walk from the bus station. Upon arrival there was some confusion with our booking. The confusion was that Hostelbookers didn't book it even though we paid them for it. After some discussion with the slight piffed (at Hostelbookers) owner Jimmy we settled into our room. The first evening was just spent at a delicious Turkish Home Cooking restaurant enjoying some Kofta and rice. It was good. Our arrival day was the 1st of September which was the first day of Ramadan but that didn't stop the restaurant offering us beer which we happily accepted.
The next morning we got up early for a 5 kilometer walk to the ruins of Ephesus. We arrived at about 9.00am and to our surprise we weren't the only ones. Now we're not stupid enough to think that we would be the only ones at the sight but we were unaware that there would be 10 groups from every cruise ship in the area, especially at this time of the morning. Ephesus is big. It stretches over about 2 kilometers and is full of ruined houses, churches, streets, libraries, brothels and ampitheathers. The 2 most impressive sights for me was the Theater which is huge and by far the biggest I have ever seen as well as the library. The front facade of the library still stands complete with it's replica statues and inscriptions. Just trying to get an video or a photo with no one in it is an impossible feat though.
We also went to see another sight near by called The Cave of The Seven Sleepers which is about 7 men who were given some time to recant their faith, but instead gave their worldly goods to the poor and retired to a mountain to pray, where they fell asleep. The Roman emperor at the time sealed them in the cave and apparently they just feel asleep. 120 years later a cattle farmer opened the cave and the men miraculously woke up and headed back to Ephesus to be shocked that all the building supported the cross and that Christianity was an accepted faith now. Crazy huh.
