We arrived in Kusadasi, Turkey. I had no expectations of what my day was going to like. I knew it was going to be hot, and we had an excursion. However, by the end Jason and I were in awe and loved our day in Turkey. In fact, this was our favorite day of the whole trip. I'll get into more of that later...We got on the bus and drove about 20 minutes to a long winding road up a mountain that a bus should never be on. At the top of that hill was Mary's house (yes Mary mother of Jesus). The tour guide said that it is also believed that Mary Magdalen lived there as well. They both went there after Jesus' death, and lived there until they died. I looked at Jason with tears in my eyes. I love Mary Magdalen. I don't know much about the Bible but I do know her story. So I was pumped to get up there.
This was one of our first sites off of the bus. Bit much for a tourist spot if you ask this Canadian :)
Group of us waiting in line to see the house. Man do we ever look like tourists with our cameras, stickers to tell us what buses were on, and radios so that we could hear the tour guide.
This is the house... I can't even begin to explain to you the feeling inside the house. It was so peaceful, I'll never forget it. It felt like time stopped for a moment in there. Again, I can't explain it. It had a feeling unlike anything else I've ever experienced. It was an empty stone house with a sort of shrine in it.
On sight there was a spring, so everyone was filling up bottles of this "holy water" to bring back. We tried for Jason's mom but ours leaked so we ended up throwing it out on the ship.
We then went down below (Mary's house is on top of that mountain you see in the background) to the ancient city of Ephesus. Just to give you some history here... Ephesus was the second largest city next to Rome when it was built in the 1st century BC. That's right I was walking on streets from before Christ people! Also they found Ephesus in the late 1800's and have been excavating it ever since. At this point they think that they only have 55% of the city uncovered, crazy eh? I have so many pictures and things I could tell you about this, but you're just going to have to go because it's well worth it. Here are some of my favorites...
One of the main streets. I was amazed at how smooth the roads were and the beautiful pillars that lined the streets. Jason and I were joking that all the people reminded us of Main Street USA in Disney. Yup, we're geeks.
Us (I know I know I'm looking hot in many ways here) in front of the Library. This structure was amazing, although it was hot we took the time to look at all the details. I have no idea how they did this stuff back then. In fact, I'm not even sure how they'd do it now.
There were a lot of stray cats. You could tel all of the Canadian and US folks because we were all trying to feed them, pet them, and give them water. Oh I forgot to mention it was 43 C this day in Turkey, and it wasn't even their summer weather yet. If I stopped to think about it I wanted to die, but I was so fascinated that I didn't really complain too much until we got back to the ship, and I realized how gross I was.
This my friends was AMAZING. It's the largest outdoor theatre in the ancient world that could seat 44 000 people. Apparently the acoustics are perfect and some modern day artists, like Elton John, have even done concerts there without electrical equipment. How the heck did they know how to do this back then??? 
Below is the street to wear the Mediterranean sea used to be...I say used to because it's further away than that now. I stood there looking down it thinking of all of the people that had travelled that street and still do today. People back then like Cleopatra, and Biblical dudes such as John, Mary, and Paul. Speaking of Paul, he was getting ready to preach in the coliseum above. However, he got run out of the city because just before he was about to preach a man, who owned the shop were the idols that the Ephesians worshipped were being made, told everyone in the audience that he was a fraud and to not believe him. I was standing where Paul once stood...this to me was insane! We really want to go on a Holy Land tour some time now. If I was impacted this much, and believe me I was, by standing somewhere where Paul had been...what would it be like to be where Jesus was? I can't even wrap my mind around that one! 
Before we left Ephesus they had a cute little show about the Gladiator fights that used to be back then....Cleopatra was there and everything :)
After that it was off to a local restaurant for a traditional Turkish meal...yum, yum, yum. I ate so many yummy salads, kabobs, and hot dishes. In the photo above is the dessert section. I was pumped (you see Lindsay and I have determined that we have a separate stomach for desserts, didn't matter how full we were we were always able to get down some desert). I loaded up my plate, headed back to my table, put up with the comments from the peanut gallery at my table, took a bit from my first dessert, and quickly spit it back out. EVERYTHING HAD FREAKING GOAT'S MILK IN IT...and in case you're not guessing where I'm going...I HATE goat's milk. It's soooo gross. So much for dessert that day, I'm sure I compensated with a piece of something yummy on the ship though when we got back on.
After lunch the bus took as to a local rug making place where we learned a lot about Turkish rug making. It was amazing, and I was certainly wishing that we had the money to purchase one. Some day....
Lastly we had some free time to shop before we needed to get back on the ship. So Jason and I decided to head to a local market and buy some goodies. Jason had to purchase some Turkish Delight, I still don't know what it is. Would have made sense to buy ourselves a box so we could try it, but we didn't; he wanted it for his boss. Then we slowly made our way back to the ship with enough time to shower, and then sit out on our balcony to watch the ship pull away. We loved Turkey. I don't know if I'll ever go back, but I'm thankful that we were there and got to see it.
This is the house... I can't even begin to explain to you the feeling inside the house. It was so peaceful, I'll never forget it. It felt like time stopped for a moment in there. Again, I can't explain it. It had a feeling unlike anything else I've ever experienced. It was an empty stone house with a sort of shrine in it.
On sight there was a spring, so everyone was filling up bottles of this "holy water" to bring back. We tried for Jason's mom but ours leaked so we ended up throwing it out on the ship.
This was a wall just past the water where it is believed that if you tie something on and make a wish it will come true. As you can see most people used tissues.
We then went down below (Mary's house is on top of that mountain you see in the background) to the ancient city of Ephesus. Just to give you some history here... Ephesus was the second largest city next to Rome when it was built in the 1st century BC. That's right I was walking on streets from before Christ people! Also they found Ephesus in the late 1800's and have been excavating it ever since. At this point they think that they only have 55% of the city uncovered, crazy eh? I have so many pictures and things I could tell you about this, but you're just going to have to go because it's well worth it. Here are some of my favorites...
One of the main streets. I was amazed at how smooth the roads were and the beautiful pillars that lined the streets. Jason and I were joking that all the people reminded us of Main Street USA in Disney. Yup, we're geeks. Us (I know I know I'm looking hot in many ways here) in front of the Library. This structure was amazing, although it was hot we took the time to look at all the details. I have no idea how they did this stuff back then. In fact, I'm not even sure how they'd do it now.
There were a lot of stray cats. You could tel all of the Canadian and US folks because we were all trying to feed them, pet them, and give them water. Oh I forgot to mention it was 43 C this day in Turkey, and it wasn't even their summer weather yet. If I stopped to think about it I wanted to die, but I was so fascinated that I didn't really complain too much until we got back to the ship, and I realized how gross I was.
This my friends was AMAZING. It's the largest outdoor theatre in the ancient world that could seat 44 000 people. Apparently the acoustics are perfect and some modern day artists, like Elton John, have even done concerts there without electrical equipment. How the heck did they know how to do this back then??? Below is the street to wear the Mediterranean sea used to be...I say used to because it's further away than that now. I stood there looking down it thinking of all of the people that had travelled that street and still do today. People back then like Cleopatra, and Biblical dudes such as John, Mary, and Paul. Speaking of Paul, he was getting ready to preach in the coliseum above. However, he got run out of the city because just before he was about to preach a man, who owned the shop were the idols that the Ephesians worshipped were being made, told everyone in the audience that he was a fraud and to not believe him. I was standing where Paul once stood...this to me was insane! We really want to go on a Holy Land tour some time now. If I was impacted this much, and believe me I was, by standing somewhere where Paul had been...what would it be like to be where Jesus was? I can't even wrap my mind around that one! Before we left Ephesus they had a cute little show about the Gladiator fights that used to be back then....Cleopatra was there and everything :)
After that it was off to a local restaurant for a traditional Turkish meal...yum, yum, yum. I ate so many yummy salads, kabobs, and hot dishes. In the photo above is the dessert section. I was pumped (you see Lindsay and I have determined that we have a separate stomach for desserts, didn't matter how full we were we were always able to get down some desert). I loaded up my plate, headed back to my table, put up with the comments from the peanut gallery at my table, took a bit from my first dessert, and quickly spit it back out. EVERYTHING HAD FREAKING GOAT'S MILK IN IT...and in case you're not guessing where I'm going...I HATE goat's milk. It's soooo gross. So much for dessert that day, I'm sure I compensated with a piece of something yummy on the ship though when we got back on.
After lunch the bus took as to a local rug making place where we learned a lot about Turkish rug making. It was amazing, and I was certainly wishing that we had the money to purchase one. Some day....
Lastly we had some free time to shop before we needed to get back on the ship. So Jason and I decided to head to a local market and buy some goodies. Jason had to purchase some Turkish Delight, I still don't know what it is. Would have made sense to buy ourselves a box so we could try it, but we didn't; he wanted it for his boss. Then we slowly made our way back to the ship with enough time to shower, and then sit out on our balcony to watch the ship pull away. We loved Turkey. I don't know if I'll ever go back, but I'm thankful that we were there and got to see it.Next stop Athens.....good chance I won't be getting to this any time soon with the company I have coming from Virginia, but you never know. (PS- Blogger is really pissing me off with their picture uploading and spacing...it took me over 2 hours to do this one post today... so I apologize for the bad layout...I odn't know how to fix it)
1 comment:
Hey dude, cool to see pictures of this place now that I've heard you talk so much about it. It's crazy what Ephesus looks like. They must be restoring it along the way?
Holy land tour - I would love to do that too! I can't even imagine how cool it would be to be in a place that old and with that much history. Glad you got to experience some of it!
PS - yeah you were pretty "hot" huh?
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