After the crazy traffic, overwhelming history and giant size of Istanbul, we were ready for a change of pace. We found it in Selcuk, a city of about 24,000 near the Aegean sea and close to some amazing classical ruins.
See where Selcuk is:

The main reason to visit Selcuk is because of the well-preserved ruins of Ephesus, which are within walking distance of the city. Plenty of people pass through with only one night in town, but we got a great deal on a room and decided to stay for three nights. We took a night bus from Istanbul which wasn’t very comfortable, so when we arrived we were pretty tired. We had a lazy day around the hotel (which had a pool) and then checked out the ruins the following day.

Dangers and Annoyances

If you’ve ever thumbed through a Lonely Planet, you are familiar with this section. Turkey doesn’t have the most touts of any country I’ve been to (the title currently belongs to Egypt) but they are annoying nonetheless. Everyone is always trying to sell you something, and it gets old pretty fast. Whenever you walk by a group of restaurants, whether or not you plan on eating, you can see the guys getting ready to stand up and invite you to their restaurant before you get within 10 feet. There are people hanging around well-touristed areas that chat you up for a few minutes, ask you where you’re from, tell you they have a brother or distant relation that lives there, or that they have a business there, and then invite you to their carpet shop. And when you actually walk in front of the carpet shops, it’s even worse.

This constant hassling spreads to the bus stations as well. Walk near the ticket offices and you are assaulted by three or four men, each waving a brochure for a bus company. The problem is, you can never be sure they even work for the bus company. But if they arrive with tourists buying tickets, you can bet that your ticket will cost more because they have to pay the guy that brought you there. It takes a lot of determination to brush them all off and actually deal with the people at the counter. The same thing works with hotels. As soon as you get off the bus, a few guys crowd around and start aggressively trying to get you to their hotel.

We’ll get better at dealing with it, but it’s definitely annoying.

Nice and Quiet

Ramadan started a few days ago, but we haven’t noticed a whole lot of craziness. We’ve seen people eating, so not everyone here is a devout, practicing Muslim. I remember when I went to Egypt and I first heard the call to prayer, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. I thought the city of Cairo might ground to a halt while everyone prayed, but of course that didn’t happen. Nothing really happened. It’s the same here, and I don’t think everyone is fasting at all.

The only really crazy thing that happened is that at about 3am last night some people walked down the street banging some drums. We think there were a few groups walking all over the city, playing some simple drum music at 3 in the morning. The only explanation we have is that perhaps it had something to do with Ramadan. I hope not, because it lasts for a month.