OnTheRoad

Selçuk, near the famed ruins of Ephesus. The town is a pleasant break after Istanbul and Bursa, a much more digestible size with an excess of restaurants. Apparently it's mad come summertime, but it was quiet enough while I was there.

The same could not be said of Ephesus - hit it early to avoid the hordes of tour buses that arrive in the late morning. If it's that busy in Winter, I don't want to know about the Summer! The ruins are well worth your while, however, so do make the effort. Audio guides are available if you so desire (at 8 lira a pop, while the ticket itself is 10 lira), but you can just read from your guidebooks if you prefer :) Or latch onto someone else's tour group, if you can find one speaking English.

I stayed at Nur Paynsion (or some spelling similar to this), which was good value at 15 lira, including breakfast. Technically this was for a three bed dorm, but given the time of year and scarcity of guests, it was basically my room. Young Tom's good fun, and in many words his Kiwi accent is stronger than mine... Get him to say "really" for you :)