I arrived at the bus station in Selcuk when it was already dark out and while I was looking at my phone to see which way to go, a man ...

Ephesus and Troy

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I arrived at the bus station in Selcuk when it was already dark out and while I was looking at my phone to see which way to go, a man came to me and asked me where I was staying, took my bag and walked me to my hostel.

To my surprise I was THE ONLY guest in the whole place and had a 12 mixed dorm all to myself! So nice!



My first day in Selcuk I decided to take it easy, sleep-in, relax, and then in the afternoon I went for a quick stroll around town and visited the castle.









On day 2 I once again relaxed and woke up late and then took  bus to the cute town of Sirince and walked around.
I hiked up and down and got a nice view of the city from above. As I reached a high point I sat on a rock and started to reflect about my journey, the things that I’ve done, the many things that I have witnessed, and really looked inside myself to track my personal growth.
As I sat there I looked down and saw my curly hair, the one that I have always hated and straightened on a daily basis, it sat there… curly, and I didn’t really mind. It got me thinking of all the superficial things that I once had and how I am surviving with very little and I am as happy (or even happier) than before. This journey has opened my eyes too to see what is necessary and to show me who are those that are there for me no matter what. 

Curly curly hair!

Living in a social media world is funny and strange because with a now culture of likes and followers we start to believe that the numbers on your instagram account, or the likes on a post, or the people who follow you is what matters but that is so not true.  Sometimes when I tell somebody that I write a blog of my trip the next question is “how many followers do you have?” I simply respond “I don’t know, I don’t care, it’s like my diary, I write it for myself, and for my mom!” In years to come I want to look at this blog and say “wow I did that! Andrea I am glad you followed your dream, you took that year off, you had the best time of your life!” because I did, because I am having a blast, because I put myself first for the first time in a very long time, because I am living in the here and now and it feels so good.
 As I sat on the rock my automatic thought of “how lucky I am” came to mind but maybe it has very little to do with luck! I am starting to switch my mindset and allowing myself to take some credit for all the effort that took to sit on that rock at the top of Sirince.
It was my very hard work, my motivation to do something for myself that got me there. I remember opening a “world traveling” bank account back in 2008 and putting money every week no matter what (even when I didn’t have a job); I kept changing the year to 2010, 2012, 2014… I even wondered “will I actually ever travel the world?”, the money in the account went up and down as I took different trips but I always knew that deep inside I wanted to travel “the world” (more like take a long extensive trip), to experience other cultures, to feel free! I am lucky, I am beyond blessed but I need to remember that this just didn’t drop out of the sky, nobody made me work 7 days a week, or 3 jobs, it was a choice, a choice that I did with all my heart, giving 120% of myself in everything that I did and I believe that when you are your best self, and when you give to others the best that you can give blessings come your way.
This journey has not been all happiness and rainbows, I’ve been scared, I’ve cried, I’ve regretted choices, I’ve been hard on myself for some stupid stuff I’ve done, but it has also come to shed light to the things (and mostly people) that are important. It’s funny to see how I have lost “friends” on facebook since I started traveling, I once was told by a “friend” that my instagram posts were annoying, I told her to unfollow me and wondered “Why are some people not happy about other people’s happiness?” but the only conclusion is that those people are not important, the ones who are are those that have your back no matter what and are happy when you are happy. It also got me thinking that part of somebody’s growth also includes letting go of the things and people that do not bring anything good to your life, and sometimes saying goodbye is sad, mostly for me because I am a people's pleaser and I just want people to be happy, to be taken care of, and overall I just want a better world with people who are positive and live in harmony.

So there in the rock I was counting my blessings, taking it all in, and most importantly… being thankful!

I got up after a while of reflecting on the experience and kept exploring Sirince, walking the cute little town and taking pictures.








Absolutely in love with Pomegranate!







Nazar even on the floor!


I just loved taking pictures of the cats around town!





The ladies were just too cute!!

How cute?

Turkish Laundry!
The main thing in Selcuk is the famous ruins of Ephesus! So on day 3 I woke up ready to finally go see it. I am not an archaelogical kind of person but decided that since I was in Turkey I needed to see Ephesus.
I went out of the room and found out that there was a storm and lots, lots, lots of rain!!! I asked google if Ephesus was really worth seeing since I was feeling lazy and not a ruins kind of person but google said once has to go, so I went!

As I left the hostel it was raining cats and dogs so instead of walking the 5 miles I decided to take the bus to the entrance of Ephesus. Once there the heavy rain stopped and I was able to see the whole place without the much rain.



The Roman Amphitheater











My favorite part of Ephesus were hands down all the cats that were all over the ruins!







That night I decided I had enough of Selcuk, packed my bags, and got on a bus to Canakkale, AKA Troy!

While in Cannakale it was raining but still visited Troy because I thought it would be cool but it turned out to be the biggest disappointment ever! The archaelogical place had absolutely nothing but some rocks left. The city of Cannakale didn’t have much going on for it either other than the one wooden horse they used to film the Troy movie. 


Wooden horse in Cannakale

Wooden horse inside of Troy


ZzZzZ

This was the most "exciting" part of the "ruins"

After only one night I decided I've had enough and went back to Istanbul to spend the last couple of nights in Turkey and then head to Israel!!!



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About Post Author

Hi! It's me... Andrea! In 2016 I decided to drop everything and take a year to enrich my life and travel around the world. It turns out the world is just too big for 12 months! Still on the road and sharing my experience as a solo female traveler around the globe!

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About me




Hi! It's me... Andrea!

In this blog you can live vicariously through my journey around the world!

Please feel free to share tips or places to go!
Contact me: andreaheartstraveling@gmail.com