After breakfast this morning, we bid farewell to Fethiye. One thing I didn't mention was that Mustafa Kemal Ataturk's pictures were everywhere in Fethiye. He was a founding father of the Republic of Turkey and it's first President. He seems fairly well respected in Fethiye in particular.

After that quick recent history lesson, let's move on to our main agenda for the day. Going to Ephesus and exploring ancient history. When I told my mom I was heading to Turkey, the first thing she told me was - do not miss Ephesus. So we began the longish 4 hour drive to Ephesus. We ended up finishing the Throne of Glass audiobook on this trip (started it earlier this week) and stopped for lunch on our way there to eat some Borek from Cetin Borek.

A little while later we were at Ephesus. We had planned to spend approximately two hours here but Im so grateful we built in buffer. Since it ended up taking us 4+ hours exploring. We got a ticket for the ancient city archaeological site and the Terrace Houses. This was one of the best sites we saw on our trip. Well maintained and so well preserved. Here are a sprinkling of pictures. It is hard to capture the magnificence in just this though.

I hadn't realized that Ephesus was also the area where Mother Mary supposedly spent her last days. We made our way to visit her house but ended up being 10 mins too late. Caught a picture of a fabulous statue on our way there though.

And then finally, we made our way to the airport. I am sitting on my plane back to Istanbul now where we have another day to spend before heading to Seattle. I'll keep you up to speed on our explorations.