My time in Turkey was quickly coming to an end. With so many places still to visit it made planning the last stops harder. For my final two new locations I decided on Selçuk so that I could visit Ephesus and Çeşme, a nice coastal town. I loved both places and cannot wait to go back and spend more time exploring.
While in Pamukkale making plans for my final stops in Turkey I knew that on my way back to Istanbul the two places I wanted to visit were Selçuk and Çeşme. Amelie, another solo traveler I’d just met in Pamukkale, was also interested in going to Selçuk, so we went together. With limited time and multiple places to visit, I had to shorten my time in each location which meant spending only one night in Selçuk, the town where Ephesus is located, and only two nights in Çeşme. There were two options for getting to Selçuk, train or bus, both of which were to take about the same amount of time. After talking to the owners of the hotel we stayed at in Pamukkale, Amelie and I took their recommendation and booked tickets on the train as it is more comfortable. It ended up being a very slow train with frequent stops so getting to Selçuk took about four hours to get there.
My original plan before arriving in Selçuk was to check into my accommodation and then immediately head to Ephesus, ruins of an ancient Greco-Roman city, so that I could leave in the morning for Çeşme. That plan quickly changed, on our walk through the town, we saw how cute the small town was. I then decided that instead of going to Ephesus that afternoon I would instead explore the town with Amelie and go to Ephesus in the morning. After checking in, we left our bags and went out to explore the town. That didn’t go as planned, but in the best way possible. After getting lunch we walked by some shops; one which had a bunch of cool Turkish lamps and other beautiful colorful items. We decided to stop and walk through the store and what started as a quick walk through ended up taking up the rest of the afternoon.
Once we entered the store, we were greeted by one of the shopkeepers who showed us all the different colorful tiles they were selling. He then led us to a different part of the shop where his friend was selling Zultanite stone jewelry. While telling us about the stone, he showed us how it changed colors in different lighting, it was amazing seeing the instant change. The shop experience didn’t end there. After looking around the first shop for a while, Amelie asked about a shoe repair as her shoes needed help. We were then directed to the shop next door. We were told that a group of them jointly own multiple shops right next to each other and that he would go and get his friend who is a shoemaker. While we waited we were offered tea and seats and we sat down to talk with one of the shopkeepers. Once the shoemaker came and looked at Amelie’s shoes he showed her other shoe options. We then got to talking and Amelie and I ended up staying there for a few hours talking with the shopkeeper. It was a lot of fun and so interesting hearing some of his stories as he too likes to travel. At one point we asked him for recommendations of places to visit in Turkey, and he took us inside his shop and showed us a photo album he had from his travels around Turkey.
The next morning, at breakfast, Amelie and I met three other travelers who were staying at our accommodation. We had a lovely breakfast with them and got to know them better. They too were headed to Ephesus that morning and so after breakfast the bed and breakfast owner drove us all to the top entrance of Ephesus. Two of the people in our group decided to hire a tour guide for Ephesus and offered for the rest of us to tag along if we wanted. After staying for the first part of the tour Amelie and I decided that we would rather explore on our own, so we broke off from the tour and made our way through the site. One of the places we discovered as we walked through the site was the ruins of the Greco-Roman toilets. While there, we were lucky enough to catch some of another tour group’s descriptions of what we were seeing. One of the golden pieces of information we heard was the tour guide saying: “wouldn’t you love to go to the bathroom hip to hip, lap to lap with all of your closest friends?” While this may sound weird and gross, because it is, the reason for it is that the toilets back then were in one large room with a long stone for sitting on and holes in the stone one after the other with little space. Another piece of information we learned was that the rich hired poor people to sit on the stone before them to warm it before they sat down. The rich were also able to purchase sponges on a stick, this was their form of toilet paper. In front of the toilets was a stream of fresh water which they used to wet the sponge. There were also holes in the ground where they could put their sponge on a stick after they were done with it. The reason they would leave it was so the poorer people who were not able to afford new sponges on sticks could use the sponges that the rich left behind.
After learning more than I thought possible about ancient Greco-Roman bathrooms and bathroom etiquette, Amelie and I continued wandering through Ephesus to the Library of Celsus. When Googling Ephesus, most of the photos show the Library of Celsus and for good reason; it is amazing. From afar the different arches and statues looked cool, but when getting up close it became even more impressive. Being able to walk right up to the Library of Celsus was amazing because I was able to see just how much detail and work there was in the stone. After spending time admiring all the detail in the Library of Celsus we continued through the rest of the Greco-Roman ruins. At the lower gate, where we exited from, there is a bus that runs to and from Selçuk. While waiting for the bus we ended up meeting up with the rest of the group we arrived with and talked with them some more as we waited for the bus. Once back in town I stopped at the bus station to find out the schedule for the buses to Izmir and then Amelie and I found a place to have lunch. After lunch, I parted ways with Amelie as she was staying in Selçuk one more night. I was able to get a bus to Izmir where I then had to switch buses to get another one to Çeşme where I met up with Mica, whom I had been traveling with before.
Mica told me about an amazing beach she had visited that day and that the bus that goes to the beach was scheduled to come every two hours. The next day I decided to go out to that beach and see it for myself. Since I had a long busy day the day before I decided to have a slow, more relaxed morning and didn’t end up leaving for the beach until the one o’clock bus. When I got to the beach it really was as amazing as she had described it. The sand was soft and golden, there were only three other people on the long stretch of beach, and the water was crystal clear. It was heavenly. It was such a peaceful, beautiful beach and while there I remember feeling just so at peace and genuinely happy simply being there alone and hearing only the movement of the water. When time came to catch the 3 o’clock bus, I was enjoying my time on the beach and decided that I wanted to spend more time there and would wait for the five o’clock bus, thinking there would be one.
“No matter what happens, travel gives you a story to tell.”
- Jewish Proverb
After an amazing four hours on the beautiful beach I reluctantly packed up and headed for the bus stop to go back into town. I waited there for a while and the bus didn’t show up. After a while I saw a group of people walking away, I decided to try and ask if they knew if the bus was coming. The people I talked to didn’t speak English but one woman pointed up the road and said her husband spoke English. I followed the group up the road and once there saw that there was a stop arm blocking the road that the bus would have come down. This was not a good sign. The woman’s husband, who spoke English, was at the main road and so I asked if he knew if the bus was coming. He gave me the unfortunate information that there were no more buses coming that day. I was stranded at the beach, and it was at least a two hour walk back to the town. He told me to wait there and when a car came by to ask if they could take me into town. He told me that he would have taken me if he had space, but his car was completely full of people. His last thing was to wait ten minutes and an old man who was sitting out there knew what was going on and would help, and with that he left.
After he left, the old man who was sitting there kept telling me things in Turkish that I didn’t understand and couldn’t figure out. Finally, he walked behind the table he had been sitting at and brought his chair out and motioned for me to sit, so I did just that. I sat because there was no point in trying to say no. Having no idea what was going on, I messaged Mica who was in town telling her I was stranded. Together we were trying to figure out what I should do. I tried using Google Translate to ask the man if there was a way to call a taxi and from what I could figure out it seemed as if the old man was telling me to calm down. I wasn’t so much stressed but rather confused as to what was going on. I figured since I had been specifically told to wait ten minutes, I would give it a little more time before having Mica ask the hotel to call a taxi and have it sent to me. A few minutes later a car drove up and turned around where the old man and I were. The driver rolled down his window and talked to the old man before the old man motioned for me to come over. When I did, the old man opened the car door and motioned for me to get in, so I did. This stranger then kindly drove me into town and wouldn’t accept any cash to say thank you for driving out of his way to rescue me. From what I can figure out after the fact, it seems as if the first person I had talked to called a friend to come out and get me since the beach wasn’t on any main road. There was no other reason I can come up with for this person to have driven out there.
Once I got back to town and told Mica the whole story, we had a good laugh about it. We both agreed that Turkish people are very nice. This wasn’t the first time either of us had Turkish people go out of their way to be nice and helpful to us. It was a great example and reminder that there really are good people in the world who are willing to go out of their way to help a stranger. After having a good laugh and resting in the hotel room, Mica and I were joined by Amelie who had just arrived from Selçuk and the three of us went out to dinner. The next day was sadly my last day in Çeşme, as that night Mica and I were taking an overnight bus to Istanbul. I spent the day casually strolling through the town and sitting on the coast enjoying the view. The view from Çeşme happens to be of the Greek island of Chios, the island my mom and I got stuck on the month prior when she and I had Covid. In the afternoon I decided to spend some time at a coffee shop and watch the world go by. I was then joined by Mica and Amelie, and we were able to hang out there for a while which was a lot of fun. That evening Cynthia, whom we had all met in Pamukkale, arrived in Çeşme and the four of us were able to go out for one last dinner together before Mica and I had to leave. It was a fun last dinner for the four of us. We were all sad that we had to part ways.
“The more I traveled the more I realized that fear makes strangers of people who should be friends.”
- Shirley MacLaine
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