EXPLORING EPHESUS | How to Avoid the Crowds!

We have the second most important ancient Roman ruined city to ourselves. Just us. And we're just strolling down this ancient Roman road alone. Just mind blowing. Mind blowing. Why are you going here? This is amazing. This is amazing. I'm gonna touch all the marbles.

Good morning. If you missed yesterday's video, we flew into Izmir late last night. We rented a car, that white wind that you see behind us, and we drove to Ephesus this morning. We are up bright and early to try to be one of the first ones at the ancient Roman ruins.

The more we travel, the more we've come to appreciate and being places before everybody else gets there. We don't ever get up this early normally, but we've done it so many times the last few weeks.

It's just so nice to be able to explore these beautiful places without being crowded by a bunch of other tourists. I have a good feeling that's gonna be the case today no matter what. But we're gonna try to be there at 8 o' clock as soon as the gates open.

You're welcome.

Good episodes.

We didn't make it. For the gates to open. It is currently 8, 10. We got a little lost on the way here, but we think we've made it. We just parked our car in a parking lot. We're pretty much the only ones here. So we're either in the right place and we're gonna have it to ourselves or we're not in the wrong place.

There are a bunch of tourist shops selling things though, so I feel like we're at least close. And one of the signs is just genuine fake watches, which might be my favorite sign I've ever seen.

So there's two different entrances. There's a top entrance and a bottom entrance. We've heard the bottom entrance is where all the tour buses drop off. And so we've come to the top entrance in hopes that we can, like, have it to ourselves as we work our way down to all of the other tourists.

And we've heard the sun's behind you when you go this way.

Let's see how it goes.

Hiding our tripod. Because there's a sign that says tripod. Oh, thank you.

Thank you very much.

There's no.

No one here.

There's no one here.

There's no one here. It's just us in Ephesus. So worth only having one cup of coffee. Sleeping for five hours. Skipping breakfast, Getting a Coke instead.

So as soon as we got here and we realized we had the place all to ourselves, we Wanted to get as many shots as possible without people in them. So we've spent the last hour and a half running from the top to the bottom of Ephesus.

So cue epic music montage of just us.

This is so much.

It's so beautiful.

Wow, Cara. We literally have the place to ourselves.

I can't get over it.

Oh, my gosh.

Oh, my God.

This is amazing.

Wow. We are currently inside of the library all by ourselves. Like, this is the most iconic place probably in this entire complex. And it's just us. This. It's like every morning when you're dragging yourself out of bed and your alarm's going off. It's just like everything inside of you doesn't want to get up. But then you get here and you totally forget about how miserable you are getting yourself out of bed. And it's always, always worth it. So get up early. That's the moral of this vlog. There's usually not morals, but that's today's.

This is the underground entrance to the amphitheater. Like, where all the important people walk through to go. I don't. I. I picture people singing in amphitheaters, fighting. No, that's a coliseum. Oh, maybe giving speeches.

Acting, acting.

There you go. You went dark really fast. Killing each other.

And this is where the ancient Romans went potty. Not very private. It's happening.

It's happening. Loud groups of people with name tags and guides.

It's about 9 o'. Clock. We've just hit the first big tour group.

So now we come back to the top where we started. And we're going to do it all again. But this time, we're going to learn something.

We've downloaded a free Rick Steves audio guide. We feel like he is our adorable, knowledgeable grandpa who's going to show us John Exodus.

So here's what we know so far. This city was first settled over 3,000 years ago by the Greeks. And then at its height, it was a Roman city. There were over 250,000 people that lived here.

And.

And it was the second most important city in the Roman Empire.

The craziest thing is they've only excavated a fraction of this city. It was huge. And this entire amphitheater was underground until they dug it up. So most of it is still underground.

Okay, on with the tour.

There's so many kitties at Ephesus. Hello, Kitty. Hi. You're happy, aren't you? More Fun facts episode has a ton of important biblical history. Paul came here and wrote his first letter to the corinthians he wrote the verse, love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast. Here. And this is the last place they thanked Jesus. Mother, Maryland. Okay, moving on. Rick also told us to picture all the tourists in shorts as Romans in togas, and that just makes it so much more fun. Also, I still cannot believe that, like, two hours ago, we were the only ones on this road, and now it looks like this. I won't talk about it anymore. But if you come here, get here when it opens.

So this is the road that led down to the harbor. It was like the main road that went through the town. And the reason the Ephesus turned into such a big city is because it was a very important port city. But eventually the harbor silted up and it was unusable. And so that's kind of why it's turned into the ruins that you see today.

Okay. Probably the most interesting thing that we've learned so far. This used to be the third largest library in the world, and it was filled with over 12,000 scrolls.

Everything was written on papyrus, which was from the Egyptians. They would send the paper here, and they would write things down on it. But then the Egyptians found out that their library was getting bigger than theirs in Alexandria, and they got jealous, so they sent. Stopped sending papyrus here. So the Romans had to figure out something else to write stuff down on.

So they came up with this idea to create parchment out of leather, which they would write on. And then to save it, they would stack it together, fold it over, and.

Bind it on one end to make a book.

Books.

The first books here in Ephesus, in.

This library behind us.

That is just crazy. And we're still using books.

Okay, last fun fact of the day. This was one of the largest theaters in the ancient Roman world. It sat 25,000 people, which is interesting because we learned that that's the way they actually estimated the population of Ephesus. These theaters were built to fit 10% of the population, so that's why they think 250,000 people used to live here. Also, Sting held a concert here. Once the tour has come full circle, we are back at the top of Ephesus and quite a bit sweatier than we were when we started.

We skipped breakfast to get here before everybody else did, and it was so totally 100% worth it. But it is 12:05, and I am so hungry.

We're going to get some lunch.

We've come to a restaurant that our Airbnb host from last night owns, because he's adorable. And he invited us to come for lunch today. We ordered a little bit of everything because that's what happens when you're starving and you haven't eaten all day. We're starting with some bread with some of their homemade yogurt sauce and tomato sauce, and it looks amazing.

I thought that was not cute.

Everything tastes so much better when you haven't had breakfast.

This is excellent. It's yogurt, mint and garlic. Three of my favorite things. So good. And this bread.

For our main course, we got a mixed kebab plate. Because we are at a place called the Kebab House.

I'm sure we will eat this very quickly, just like we have everything else.

All right. Now we're driving three hours to Palm. Cale.

Airbnb host thinks we're a little crazy for leaving the camera and the driving by to get it. Now we have a three hour drive to Pale, hopefully not all on these really bumpy cobblestone roads.

Take the ramp to his Marriott in the Toyolu, Bellevue Baglid.

All right, we've made it to Pamukkali. We've checked into this great little hotel, but we are both absolutely exhausted. So we are going to call it a day because tomorrow morning we are getting up bright and early again to explore the cotton castle and ancient Roman hot springs.

Hopefully getting up tomorrow is as worth it as it was.

So tired.

What are you doing right now?

Putting my hard drive in my backpack.

Why?

Because we're leaving all of our stuff in the car. And if everything got stolen but my hard drive, I think. Think I will be okay. But I cannot lose this. All of our videos that I haven't edited yet. My sister's wedding. I mean, I just. I have to have it or I'm not gonna have fun. Okay.

Yeah. Really awesome.

Take a picture. She's a.

I thought we were the only ones here. I thought we were the only ones here. We don't have any food. I wish we did.

I wish we had some food to give you. What is this?

Cat. Goodbye.

I'm sorry.

All right, walk like, just a little more normal.

And the verse, Love is patient. Love is kind. It does not envy. It does not boast. Boast. Dang it.

Ready?

Oh. It's like the parking lot. They have lifeguards. And I'm pretty sure my forehead's getting a sunburn.

Yeah. I did not just buy that hat to be cute. It's very functional. Nate wants to steal it from me now.

It's so well preserved. Yeah.

Yeah. They had nice.

Nice pots.

Sam.