We arrived in Kusadasi, Turkey early in the morning. I chose to go on an excursion to
Ephesus. My tour guide today was a
thousand times better than my guide in Athens was yesterday. He was very knowledgeable and loved talking
about Turkey. He had started being a
tour guide in college to pay for expenses, but loved it so much, he stuck with
it even after getting two degrees. He
asked people where they were from – a lot from Australia, UK, and Canada. Apparently people were reluctant to say they
were from the US and he said “My country is 95% Muslims, but we are bad Muslims
because we like to drink” He went
on about how they weren’t the kind of
Muslims that you see on the news and they aren’t a threat to US citizens. I thought it was kind of weird – I’ve been to
Turkey 4 times and love it – I don’t feel the need to hide the fact I am
American like I might in some other countries.
Apparently Turkey makes other people nervous and it was nice that he was
trying to endear his country to other people.
He was really funny and gave us a lot of insight into Turkish history
and culture.
He said there are 4 Ephesus’s and we saw all of them. Only 10% of the area has been
excavated. Everyone sees the same
things, but he went out of order on the tour to try to spare us some of the
crowds. After the day I had yesterday,
I’m glad he did. We went to St. John’s
Basilica first – He was originally entombed there, but later moved to the Vatican.
When Jesus was crucified he told John to take care of Mary like his own mother
so he took her to Ephesus and they lived there for a long time. They lived there until she died (or assumed
to heaven – Catholics don’t believe she died.)
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| baptistry |
We went to Mary’s house which was basically a small
chapel. It is a major pilgrimage spot
for Catholics and three popes have been there to confirm it is indeed Mary’s
house. History fascinates me. They said that for centuries people
celebrated a holy person every year – they had forgotten who, but knew they
were worth celebrating. It was on the
feast day of Mary’s assumption which was a clue that this was indeed her house.
We went on to visit the city part of Ephesus which was
typical Roman ruins – evidence of shops, baths, houses. We saw the grand theater where Paul preached
to thousands. It is amazing how
centuries collide – Sting held a concert there in 1991 in the same theater that
Paul spoke! The vibrations from the loud
speaker causes some of the ruins to fall. No one was hurt thank goodness, but
they stopped having loud rock concerts there.
They still have other concerts there, but no loud speakers J
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| Theater where Paul spoke to the Ephesians |
They took us to eat a traditional Turkish meal. It was this brand new tourist attraction with
shops, cultural shows, and a huge buffet dining area to accommodate bus loads
of tourists. There was tons of
meat! Pork, lamb, chicken, veal, and
turkey – yum! And of course baklava
which I love.
On our way back to the ship we stopped at a rug shop for
then to give a demonstration. This was a
my fourth time in turkey and my fourth time at a rug store. I have always
wanted one, but of course I don’t have thousands of dollars for a rug or room
for a huge one. They have wool/cotton
ones and silk ones. Small silk ones cost
as much as big wool ones. Turkish rugs
are double knotted and are practically impossible to destroy unless you cut
it. They last for generations and
actually gain value the more they are walked on
- walking tightens the knots and makes them stronger. The older they
are, the more they are worth. They
showed a woman weaving a rug and talked about how long it would take to make
one. The skill is passed down from
mothers, you can’t go to a university or somewhere to learn how to do it. I finally decided to pull the trigger and buy
a rug – a SMALL, WOOL one J I forgot to take a picture of it before they
wrapped it up for me to take home – I will post a picture later.
I decided to go to the main dining area for dinner and was
hoping to sit with others, but hey didn’t sit me with anyone so I ate dinner
alone. I was in line waiting for dinner
to open and there were several pairs of old ladies – I should have asked them
if I could sit with them, I guess I just assumed the server would sit us
together. This one lady seemed like a
hoot. She was talking to a stranger telling her how her husband died a few
months before her 50th anniversary.
She wanted to take his ashes to Italy but didn’t know where to put
them. She was sitting in the Sistine
Chapel and it was crowded and it just felt right so she pulled his ashes out of
her purse and just left the bag under a bench in the chapel! Ha!! I
wonder if people knew what they were when they found the ashes. She seemed fun!!
Tomorrow is a sea day!
Reading, walking and napping!
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