Back to Biblical times and before in Ephesus

Sunday, Fathers Day. I have gotten so mixed up on what day it is that I thought it was Saturday and forgot to wish Ron a happy Father’s Day until sometime after breakfast. Oops! We were up early today so that we could eat breakfast and meet Semih, our guide to Ephesus at 9:30. He was a terrific guide, a college professor at a tourism school and has a degree in linguistics. He was amazingly knowledgeable and obviously a teacher because he explained things so well, asked questions and really held our attention for most of the 8 hours. We learned that the names Ephesus and Asia were derived from one Hittite word for mainland capital. I remember that because we had a test at the end of the tour so we could get college credit for the tour. We saw the ruins of 4 cities of Ephesus. The first two sites we just passed by in our van. These were the oldest sites which were quite a bit inland from the sea. If you know your Bible or history you know that Ephesus is a sea port. Well, it used to be. After passing the first 2 sites of Ephesus, we arrived at the ruins which is the Ephesus of the Biblical times. We walked past the Roman baths, the senate building and theatre. There the governing people could meet together. We say the relief statue of Nike. Man, I wanted my photo taken in front of that relief in my Blazer shirt! Unfortunately, there were so many people around it, I never got the chance. We saw the large homesites with mosaic floors and imagined what it was like the those times. Did you know they had central heating back then?? The upper floors had floors and walls of marble with space in between 2 slabs. The kitchen was below and a heat source and the heat from fires warmed the air that rose between the walls and flooring layers and heated the marble. I think I could have lived then if I had central heating! We continued on to the lower section of town which was the oldest. It was built in the Hellenistic period and had a huge library. It was the 3rd largest in the known world at that time, the largest being in Alexandria. Ephesus was the capital of Asia then or what is now known as Asia Minor. We saw where the marketplace used to be. We saw where John set up shop to sell his tents. He was helped in the town by Aquila and Pricilla. That is where John converted so many to the Christian faith that the people quite buying silver icons of the pagan gods. So who ran him out of town? The silversmith, of course! It was thrilling to be in the same city as so many early, influential Christians. What faith they must have had. We also saw the public theater. John stood on the stage of the theater and Sue and I ran to the top of the seating. It holds 25,000 people. John talked and Sue and I could hear him. It was really fun Of course, Jan did a soft shoe and drew a crowd, I am sure.

After Ephesus, we headed to the Temple of Artemus, one of the 7 wonders of the ancient world. There is only 1 pillar left standing. We ate lunch at a little home run café called Anton’s with wonderful Turkish food. We had grape leaves, green beans, seaweed, tzatziki and beans. They looked like blackeyed peas, kind of. Our main course was spicy meat balls or a stewed chicken with peppers and egglant or potatoes or bulger. It was wonderful. Ron and Scott also had Turkish coffee and Turkish beer.
After lunch we went to a little town called Sirince. It is a hill town up a winding tiny road with olive groves and peach trees on either side. Ok, a bit of a hill, a steep cliff on one side. Pete would have preferred to have the driver on the other side of the road, away from the dropoff. We had that on the way down when we were going twice as fast. The little town was very cute. We had some time to see the church (at least some of us did, the ones who wanted to tackle the hill to get there). We also had time to shop a bit. It has been really hot in Ephesus, so my sleeveless top was even to heavy and kept me way too hot. I stopped at a little stall to buy a light, white top. The cutest old woman was running the little stall. She looked about 80 years old and was sitting on top of the clothing she was selling on a platform. When I asked for another size she hopped down to find the right thing for me. Then she just climbed right back up to get something else farther back. Quite a nimble woman. She spoke almost no English, but could say the numbers or type them on the adding machine. She was asking 15 Turkish lira for the shirt. As I was thinking if it was the one I wanted, she came down to 10 lira. That is about $6.75. Now how was I to ask to pay less than that?? I guess she knew I couldn’t bargain. Now I needed to take off the HOT shirt and put on the breezy white one. I looked for a WC and a restaurant worker pointed me to the wine shop. What a treat that was! The shop was dark, cool and had free wine tasting. I changed my clothes and they never tried to sell me anything, just shared their facilities. We went back in to show Ron and Pete the store. It had seating about 5 inches off the floor with wonderfully colored pillows and a short table. Old wine bottles decorated the shp and the walls were covered with bottle racks. Again! How I wish I had my cord to download a photo or two! Anyway, instead of hiking to the church or buying trinkets, we tasted a couple of wines, bought a couple of bottles and relaxed among friends. We got a bottle of pomegranate wine and a bottle of 2 year old cherry wine (that is good for cherry wine). It is 17% alcohol by then and quite tasty whereas the pomegranate wine is cold, very little alcohol and quite refreshing. I guess this is the time for cherries in Turkey. Those and mulberries and peaches come soon. I could certainly come back to Turkey!

Back on the road to Kusidasi. There we saw ANOTHER carpet demonstration. They sure know how to sell rugs in this country. Hey all you friend of mine out there. One owner of a shop wants to come to Oregon and have a Tupperware type home party to buy handmade Turkish rugs. Now that is credit points I’d like to earn! After having Turkish coffee, wine, raki and anything else you might want at the carpet store, we headed to the Grand Bazaar to spend the last of our Turkish lira. We did well. I finally had to have Jan bargain to get her gifts with the rest of the lira. She is good at it. I hate bargaining, but Jan knows what she wants and knows what to pay. They had wonderful pashminas, dishes, leather jackets, jewelry, and anything from soup to nuts! We wandered back to the ship for a shower and change before dinner and sailing off into the sunset. Actually, we didn’t sail until midnight, but we have some beautiful sunset pictures anyway!

On to Athens! I am really looking forward to the Acropolis and Athens. Hoopa!