The plan was simple. A week in the sun with a few mates - relax, eat, drink, burn, peel, tan.
There was nothing else to it and the only thing that mattered was that the sky remained blue and that that big orange ball of fire was in full effect for the majority of the week.
So with that in mind, the only thing to choose was the destination, and with budgets being tight, the cheapest option on offer would have to suffice.
The travel agent was virtually out of ideas as our dates and budgets weren't exactly matching up.
"Well, Turkey is good value at the moment," I recall her saying, trying to keep a straight face as she played her final hand.
We took the hand straight off her arm. Turkey would do just nicely. We were off to Kusadasi.
There was, however, the minor matter of a fairly intense war going on in nearby Kosovo, and as a result, nobody was venturing within cruise missile distance of the troubled territory.
As it turned out, the only issue we had to deal with was an extra hour on the plane as the flight path had to be redrawn - a minor inconvenience, really - and we arrived in sunny Kusadasi in one piece, with the whole town to ourselves - I'm not joking.
Despite our best efforts to do absolutely nothing that didn't involve eating, drinking, lying in the sun or all three simultaneously, we were eventually seduced away with the promise of an experience of a lifetime that was no more than a short bus ride away.
I know what you're thinking: The Banana Boat.
Well, that was another story, but this particular trip was a chance to travel back in time with the assurance that Michael J Fox was not part of the package.
It was a day trip to the ancient city of Ephesus that, unbeknownst to us, was no more than 10 or 15 kilometres away from the party town of Kusadasi.
So all five agreed, handed over the Turkish Lira* and signed up for the excursion that was set to depart the following morning.
And that was the plan in the plain light of day, but it was soon forgotten once night fell and dinner and rosé wine came into the equation.
A loud thumping noise woke me at an unholy hour the next morning and a crazy man was beckoning me to follow him to where the bus was waiting to take us on our trip.
The crazy man in question was actually my roommate - the organised one of the group - and he was quite happy with his three from five ratio that made it to the bus before departing.
The coach had to do a lap of the town to collect some other folk, so I took that as my cue to catch up on some much-needed sleep before we got to Ephesus.
I awoke feeling only slightly better as the bus bounced off the side of the road up to a big field in the middle of nowhere. At least it was now bright outside as the sun was starting to rise.
The guide announced that we had arrived and we were now about to feast our eyes on one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World - the Temple of Artemis.
This was more like it, my first Wonder of the World. I grabbed the camera out of my bag, made sure it was wound on and hopped off the bus to marvel at this amazing sight.
Boy, was I in for a shock.
What stood before me was a big, swampy field with one solitary ten-foot column sitting uneasily in the middle of my camera's viewfinder. There even appeared to be a bird's nest perched on top of the column.
I couldn't even laugh, I was so tired. I took the obligatory photo turned on my heels and retired to my bed at the back of the bus. I was convinced that that was the end of the excursion. I assumed that we had been duped, but at least I'd be back in bed within the hour.
The next time I awoke I felt a lot better but the apartments were nowhere to be seen as we were now in the ancient city of Ephesus.
It was immediately fulfilling. It was like stepping into another world as we strolled down Curates Street with the guides now earning their corn filling us in on all things historical about this former thriving Ionian League city.
The city of Ephesus dates way back beyond the Bronze Age but was thriving around the period 600BC right through to Roman times.
The restoration work on the site of the former city is spectacular and some of the rebuilt structures are an absolute wonder. The Library of Celsus, the Basilica of St John, the Odeon, the amphitheatre... You could just walk about all day and never get tired of the place.
The still intact amphitheatre can hold up to 40,000 people and was, up until recently, used for rock concerts and operas before they realised that the reverberating sound was damaging the structure.
The only thing that made us leave was the midday sun and so we had to bid farewell to an ancient city and another era.
And within a couple of hours we were back by the pool lying in the sun. We would have been back sooner if it wasn't for the second part of the excursion - the part they failed to mention - the trip to the Turkish carpet factory. Avoid at all costs, unless you're Des Kelly or King Solomon, I suppose.
So if you are in Kusadasi or anywhere in western Turkey, make sure you get to see this true wonder of the world that is Ephesus. Just take it easy on the Raki the night before. Trust me, it'll be worth it.
Ed Leahy
* This trip was in the pre-Euro days of foreign exchange and a fellow traveller had brought £500 worth of Italian Lira instead of the actual currency, Turkish Lira. Needless to say, the shops were just a little reluctant to accept it.
