Kusadasi to Ephesus to Magic Head

Yesterday, we were in Kusadasi, which is a city by the Aegean. Our first stop in the morning was at a carpet shop. We learned how they make the rugs, and saw the beautiful threads.

We learned how they extracted the silk from the worms, which was facinating.

And, of course, we got our very own Turkish carpet (not pictured here). Since I don't want Harry to gak on it, we'll be turning it into a wall hanging.

From there, we went on to see Ephesus, an ancient city. You know, like St. Paul's letters to the Ephesians, Ephesus. Amazing.

This was the hospital in the city. It was also the origin of the gynecologist, a necessity since this was also the site of the first state-sanctioned brothel, and they wanted to keep things clean.

Below is the main drag of the city. The wealthiest houses on the left, the library down below. The harbor would have been just beyond that.

This is the row of wealthy houses. You can tell because of their size, but also because of the intricate semi-precious stone mosaics in front of them.

The temple of Hadrian. Probably not close enough to see from this shot, but Medusa is all over, as are images of people from all over the world who came to visit here. Pictures of elephants and tigers. We think our flights are long now, just imagine how far someone would travel to bring those animals here!

Also incredible, when you consider how long ago this was, is that they had a sanitary sewer. In the middle ages, people were dying from poor sanitation, and the Ephesians had it figured out thousands of years prior.

The libary of Ephesus.

The weather wasn't very good, in fact, the wind and on and off rain got to be quite intense, but we were really excited to get to experience this.

And the theater was amazing.

100,000 people would have sat in this theater. And using the 5x calculation, that means the city's population was about 500,000.

Built after the fact, this was the door that the gladiators would have walked through to get ino the arena during Roman times. I kept having to repeat my questions because it was so unreal that we were standing in the same place as these things had happened.

For example, St. Paul would have walked down this very walkway to board a ship in the harbor to sail to Greece to evangalize.

This building is the Basilica of St. John. He preached here and was buried here originally. There are questions about where his bones are now, but they are no longer here.

And this spot just typifies Turkey. In the front, the ancient Temple of Artemis. Behind it, the Jesus Christ Mosque. To the right of that, St. John's Basilica. And behind that, a Byzantine fort. All pieces of time, and now coexisting happily.

From there, we headed to lunch. We ate in a traditional black goat skin tent.

While the ladies made us what Beerman refers to as a Turkish quesadilla, C-man called a Turkish crepe., and I thought of as a Turkish pasty. It's real name is gozleme. It is a pastry crust filled with greens, potatoes, and beef and cooked in a wood fire.



It was delicious. While eating it, the crazy strong wind blew so hard, the lights went out. So we waited it out a bit before our planned trip to Mary's house. We waited a bit, and then drove up the mountain. When we arrived, we learned it was closed. A 500 year old maple tree fell on the roof. I was so, so sad. I don't know why I was looking forward to it so much, but I really was. We tried heading to the Ephesus Museum after, and that was closed too. We learned later that the wind had blown a house roof off nearby and killed 3 people. I guess it was fortunate we were not hurt, but I was still sad.

So we went back to our hotel to play some Foosball. C-man was an animal about it, and did not want to stop playing.

Once the rain died down, we went out for a walk through the town. I cannot get enough of all the bakeries. Even the local gas stations have delicious, fresh bread.

We walked along the beach of the Aegean Sea for a bit.

And said goodbye to it with a bit of sadness.

We headed back to the hotel to have dinner, where C-man's fan club awaited him. Every time he goes anywhere, everyone knows his name, hugs him, and most importantly (we've taken to calling him 'Magic Head') - rubs his head. I think he's such an anomoly, a child on a tour with blonde hair and a toothless smile, that they can't help themselves. And, of course, C-man loves that he has a fan club. It may be a hard transition home.