After leaving Troy, we made our way along the coast of the Aegean Sea to Assos, an ancient coastal city overlooking the island of Lesbos that was once the home of Aristotle. The winding road that lead us there made me grateful for my father's experiences with driving the mountain roads of Montana, as the possibility that a two cars, much less a tour bus and a car could pass one another in the space allotted seemed to defy the laws of physics. Once there, we breathed much easier and were rewarded for our feat with what must surely be one of the most beautiful views of the ancient world. Aristotle's former home ascends steeply from the modern-day beach resort community of Assos, a small area that is somewhat sheltered from Poseidon's fury by the island of Lesbos, which lies about a mile off the coast. We entered the city through the necropolis which lies at i
ts foot, not having realized that the main part of the city lay at the end of the road that turned to the left and seemed to lead back into the village that currently lies behind the ruins of the ancient city (we often made such mistakes as the roads near tourist sites in Turkey tend to be marked with the names of very specific features of locations, without the notes in parentheses for those of us who don't know what it is we are looking for). We wandered around the necropolis and on to some of the ruins that lay beyond the wall beside it, then drove further down the road to the theater, where we found a few goats wandering around looking for their favorite plants among the tangled undergrowth.
After Assos, we had a lovely lunch at a roadside restaurant with a beautiful view of the countryside, after which we made our way through some coastal mountains to the flatter areas along the sea and on to our next destination, Ayvalik. After some trouble locating out hotel and some trepidations about the somewhat makeshift elevator at the hotel, we settled our things in our room quickly and went to the seaside to find a restaurant. Ayvalik is a seaside resort town that is probably more densely populated during the high season, although it seems that the economic downturn of recent years has taken its toll there as well. Our hotel was in a neighborhood that seemed to be an offshoot of the main part of the town, more designed for busloads of tourists to make their way to and from other locations than for small families looking to explore the town itself.
The next day we drove through the larger industrial city of Izmir, the town whose airport I had used on my way to Sirince a few months before our trip. We arrived in Selcuk, Sirince's valley-level neighbor, late in the morning, and decided to make our way to Ephesus that day rather than trying to do so the next morning before driving all the way to Canakkale. One of the owners of the hotel brought us to Ephesus himself, pausing as we piled into his van to grab a few handfuls of unbelievably delicious fresh-off-the-truck strawberries for us to
eat for refreshment before making our way through Ephesus. Considering the difficulties my mother's blood-sugar issuescause her, it's a good thing we had those because we didn't really get the chance to eat anything until a couple of hours later when we left Ephesus and had a late lunch.
Ephesus was everything we expected and more: one of the best-preserved sites of the ancient world. It was fairly full of tourists from all over the world, but not nearly as filled as it would have been in summer. The two hours we spent exploring the site were nearly perfect in terms of weather-it was sunny, warm but not hot, and there was a breeze that kept us from overheating from our exertions. Just as we made our way out of the immense amphitheater, a storm began approaching in the distance. The hotel's driver picked us up from our souvenir shopping just as the first raindrops began to fall, and we settled in for a delicious lunch of gozleme as the deluge hit. As soon as we finished, the rain abated and my father and I wandered up a short hill to the Cave of the Seven Sleepers; we opted to skip the side trip to "Mary's House" in favor of a nap for Mom and a hike to St. John's Church and Monastery for Dad and me.
One of the highlights of Selcuk was the nesting storks just outside our hotel window; t
here were three nests atop the telephone poles nearest our hotel and my parents got some great pictures of them. They made a clicking sound with their beaks each time one of them arrived in the nest after foraging; it took a few minutes for us to realize what the sound was but we were delighted once we made the connection. Such huge birds! I hadn't seen any since the trip I took to Europe when I was 13, when I saw them in a small town in Hungary and realized they were not mythical creatures.
The next day we began our two-day drive to Istanbul with an overnight stop back in Canakkale.
ts foot, not having realized that the main part of the city lay at the end of the road that turned to the left and seemed to lead back into the village that currently lies behind the ruins of the ancient city (we often made such mistakes as the roads near tourist sites in Turkey tend to be marked with the names of very specific features of locations, without the notes in parentheses for those of us who don't know what it is we are looking for). We wandered around the necropolis and on to some of the ruins that lay beyond the wall beside it, then drove further down the road to the theater, where we found a few goats wandering around looking for their favorite plants among the tangled undergrowth.
After Assos, we had a lovely lunch at a roadside restaurant with a beautiful view of the countryside, after which we made our way through some coastal mountains to the flatter areas along the sea and on to our next destination, Ayvalik. After some trouble locating out hotel and some trepidations about the somewhat makeshift elevator at the hotel, we settled our things in our room quickly and went to the seaside to find a restaurant. Ayvalik is a seaside resort town that is probably more densely populated during the high season, although it seems that the economic downturn of recent years has taken its toll there as well. Our hotel was in a neighborhood that seemed to be an offshoot of the main part of the town, more designed for busloads of tourists to make their way to and from other locations than for small families looking to explore the town itself.
The next day we drove through the larger industrial city of Izmir, the town whose airport I had used on my way to Sirince a few months before our trip. We arrived in Selcuk, Sirince's valley-level neighbor, late in the morning, and decided to make our way to Ephesus that day rather than trying to do so the next morning before driving all the way to Canakkale. One of the owners of the hotel brought us to Ephesus himself, pausing as we piled into his van to grab a few handfuls of unbelievably delicious fresh-off-the-truck strawberries for us to 
eat for refreshment before making our way through Ephesus. Considering the difficulties my mother's blood-sugar issuescause her, it's a good thing we had those because we didn't really get the chance to eat anything until a couple of hours later when we left Ephesus and had a late lunch.
Ephesus was everything we expected and more: one of the best-preserved sites of the ancient world. It was fairly full of tourists from all over the world, but not nearly as filled as it would have been in summer. The two hours we spent exploring the site were nearly perfect in terms of weather-it was sunny, warm but not hot, and there was a breeze that kept us from overheating from our exertions. Just as we made our way out of the immense amphitheater, a storm began approaching in the distance. The hotel's driver picked us up from our souvenir shopping just as the first raindrops began to fall, and we settled in for a delicious lunch of gozleme as the deluge hit. As soon as we finished, the rain abated and my father and I wandered up a short hill to the Cave of the Seven Sleepers; we opted to skip the side trip to "Mary's House" in favor of a nap for Mom and a hike to St. John's Church and Monastery for Dad and me.
One of the highlights of Selcuk was the nesting storks just outside our hotel window; t
here were three nests atop the telephone poles nearest our hotel and my parents got some great pictures of them. They made a clicking sound with their beaks each time one of them arrived in the nest after foraging; it took a few minutes for us to realize what the sound was but we were delighted once we made the connection. Such huge birds! I hadn't seen any since the trip I took to Europe when I was 13, when I saw them in a small town in Hungary and realized they were not mythical creatures.
The next day we began our two-day drive to Istanbul with an overnight stop back in Canakkale.
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