Day 153 :: Typical Turkey

Day 153 - Selcuk, Ephesus
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Usually when something bills itself as the "biggest" or "best" in the world (or in Florida or Europe, etc), there's a good chance it's going to be crap. Like pretty much anything you see advertised while road tripping across Interstate 80. Or the Yankees. It's not just a place's inflated view of itself that gets you in trouble, it's the expectations such advertising raises. Even a nice hotel can be disapointing when it was advertised as the world's finest.

So you can imagine our cynisism as we pulled into Atilla's Getaway, which hails itself as "one of the best hostels in Europe." Lying in Southwest Turkey, a few miles outside of Selcuk and just steps away from the ruins of Ephesus, Atilla's boasts a swimming pool, great food and a perfect place to meet other travelers. We coldly figured that it probably once was a great hostel, say in the Clinton Era, that the pool would be filthy and dinner's would be feel rather lonely. These are just the sort of problems we learned to expect from Asia or any place that hails itself as the best.

We couldn't have been more wrong.

This place actually is a desert oasis. The pool is a temperature perfect 75 degrees. The showers have hot water every hour of the day. The food is delicious. The staff constantly goes out of their way for guests. The rooms are tidy. And in the evening it's packed full of travelers. It just might be the best place we've stayed in over five months of traveling.

Swimming Pool


Fountain (our room in background)


Bar



Backpacker "Living Room"


If you're interested in our photos from Selcuk and Ephesus, a few more can be seen here.