Round 2 - Troy to Selcuk

After a restful sleep and stocked up on a nutritious Turkey breaky-fast we were off to Assos. A coastal town recommended by Uran, our b&b host. Arriving at the hilltop town we ventured up the cobbled streets to the archaeological site where we were treated to picturesque views of the Aegean sea. Left standing were 3 pillars of Anthena's temple. (she has temples littered all over Turkey) From there we leisurely drove along the coastal road, which the locals use as their main thoroughfare based on the number of tractors we encountered.

Our next destination was a town called Bergama, which is known for the ancient city of Pergamum. With such a name and having known to have a biblical mention as being 'Satan's throne'. We came across a few tell tale signs. Firstly to get there Aaron's GPS gave us the backstreet directions. Being the driver of this leg I felt like a rally car driver whizzing around windy, narrow hilltop roads - The one advantage of having a manual car for this trip. Anyway, getting back on track, the road we took was melting! Yes! You read right, the tar was getting so hot that the actual road was a melting, wet, sticky mess. This went on for a good 15 kilometers. Not the most pleasant driving experience. Smelling glorious pine trees mixed with melting tar! Then when we arrived at Pergamum the neighboring towns population was 60, 600 - a little too close to 66, 600 - notice the pattern! Either way the ruins were in good condition and certainly allowed our imagination to envision what it looked like 2000 years ago. The ruins of Pergamum house the steepest theatre on the side of a hill. In its prime it was able to seat 10,000 and one wrong step could mean a 120m fall to the bottom. Ouch!

Instead of catching the cable car down we thought walking down would be more interesting... (Well, Aaron convinced us That it was) On the descend we came across more ruins which was the gymnasium. This we hadn't been able to see on the cable car ride up. At these lower ruins we had the whole place to ourselves, well apart from the maintenance crew who were doing the weekly weeding. By the time we reached the bottom we were highly parched and managed to suck back a litre of coke each! Thirsty work being explorers.

The sun was a good 2 and a half hours from setting so we decided to drive further south, 80km to Selcuk, the town closest to the ruins of Ephesus. A wise choice indeed. The quaint little town and abundant supply of kebab stores was a welcome sight! Selcuk provided us with our first tasting of traditional Turkish delight. (Highly recommended) A quiet evening wandering the markets after a long day exploring Turkey's vast history was well needed.