Troy and Ephesus

​We started the morning with a drive to legendary Troy, stepping back into myth and history among ancient city walls and ruins that inspired Homer's Iliad. And of course snapping the mandatory photo with the massive Trojan Horse .
​After heading south for an overnight stay in Selcuk, we spent the day exploring the breath taking Greco-Roman ruins of Ephesus. Walking down the grand marble streets past the Celsus Library and the Great Theatre really makes you feel like you’ve traveled back in time, the fact that you are doing it with hundreds of other people disgorged from a cruise ship brings you back to the reality of overtourism—the qualities that originally made it special are quickly diminished.
​For lunch, we watched traditional gozleme being made from scratch—thin dough rolled out by hand, stuffed with savory fillings, and cooked on a hot plate, they were delicious.
​Then came the ultimate travel endurance test: a 16-hour overnight train ride followed by a 5-hour drive to finally arrive in the surreal, fairy chimney landscapes of Cappadocia.Read more