(written on June 4 by Devri)
We woke up in Asia! Specifically Izmir, Turkey. After getting ready and scarfing a quick breakfast, we headed downstairs to catch our tour bus, which in a surprise move left the meeting point early! Don’t worry, we caught our bus, but we weren’t able to sit all together as a group. Our tour guide was a jolly fellow, but we all had a difficult time following what he was saying due to a somewhat rambling nature and maybe not being as fluent in English as others.
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| Breakfast of Champions |
We got to Ephesus and had to wait in a long line for the bathroom, and then we finally got to go into the ancient site. Ephesus was really cool, and according to our guide, one of the best excavated cities in the world. He told us that we could take our time looking at things, but whenever we tried, he really just kept moving. We decided to leave our group so that we could explore the little theater near the beginning, and then we ended up having to rush through some other sites to meet him at the Roman Terrace Houses and hour earlier than we expected. I think the group must have just kept walking the entire time. We also felt rushed a little in the Terrace Houses, but I think it really was just hard to understand our guide. After the Terrace House, he gave us an hour to explore the Library of Celsus and the Angora (Marketplace), get food, and meet on the bus. It was our hottest day, and we were pretty hungry by that point, and I felt pretty rushed through this incredible site, which was pretty frustrating.
After grabbing a quick snack of gelato and chips, we got on the bus and then he took us to a Turkish rug shop where they fed us some bread, cheese, and apple juice and showed us a demonstration on how they make their handwoven rugs and carpets. The carpets were breathtaking, and they had lots of rugs on the walls that looked like paintings and photographs. They showed us some of their exclusive rugs in an air conditioned room with nice, soft benches, and then they tried to get us to buy a rug or 5. I thought the demonstration was cool, but we were there for over an hour and I would rather have spent that time at Ephesus. I tried not to be irritated, but here I am, two days later and am still irritated about it. So, let me go back to the good things about Ephesus:
The little theater was really cool, and we all had fun exploring the tunnels, walking up and down the old steps, and imagining all the people who had been there so long ago, including the Apostle Paul. It was so cool walking the streets, trying to imagine what it would have looked like back then. They start everyone’s tour at the top of the hill, and then we all progress down hill to the Terrace Houses, the Library of Celsus, the Angora, and the really big theater that was closed for renovations.
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| In front of the Bath of Varius |
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| (In the background) Odeon of Ephesus (smaller theater) from the upper Agora |
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| Entering the Odeon from the covered staircases |
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| View of Odeon from the stage |
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| Odeon with view of orchestra (gravel area) and stage (where the crowd is standing) |
Ephesus's Odeon was built in the middle of the 2nd Century A.D.
Odeon seating
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| Looking down from one of the covered staircases |
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| Brian performing for us in the orchestra |
Michael and Devri at the top of the covered staircase
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| Prytaneion in Ephesus |
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| Hydreion |
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| The Pollio Fountain |
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| Heracles Gate |
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| Heracles Gate |
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| Curetes Street |
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| Temple of Hadrian |
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| Can you spot us walking past the Temple of Hadrian? |
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| Temple of Hadrian, ~118 A.D. |
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| Scholastica Baths |
The Terrace Houses were really cool, and they were enclosed in a big, modern structure so we were out of the sun. It was cool seeing their floors, tiled with designs that looked like rugs.They also had beautiful frescos on the walls that were still visible. I found much inspiration there.
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| Roman Terrace Houses |
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| Posh living for Ephesus's wealthy Romans |
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| The mosaics are incredible! |
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| The ladies of our group: Lara, Leta, Julie, Devri, Rachel |
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| Puzzle pieces for the restoration teams |
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| The tile floors of the Terrace Houses look like fancy rugs |
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| Mosaic Floor in one of the Terrace Houses |
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| Gabe hitching a ride down the stairs from the top of the Terrace Houses |
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| Michael and Greg at Hadrian's Gate |
The Library of Celcus was incredible to see. I wonder what it looked like filled with scrolls, and how their library system worked. Did they have their own version of the Dewey Decimal System? Were people allowed to check out books? How far did the farthest travel have to go to read books in their collection?
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| Library of Celsus |
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| Hadrian's Gate |
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| Inside the Library Celsus |
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| Library of Celsus |
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| The Gate of Mazeus and Mithridates |
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The Gate of Mazeus and Mithridates
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I loved seeing the shops in the Angora, or maybe there were homes. The marble streets and columnade were really fun to see. I kept thinking, Paul was here. Ephesus had public toilets and baths. It was a bustling port city back in it’s time, which is crazy to imagine because it’s pretty far inland now. At some point, it stopped being a port city, and therefore stopped being important. Over time, it just got buried.
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| Marble Street |
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| Near the Commercial Agora |
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| Where's Michael? |
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| Commercial Agora on Marble Street, Library of Celsus in the background |
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| Theater under construction. You must point and raise your left arm |
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| Grand Theater of Ephesus (250 B.C. with renovations until 1st century A.D.) |
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| Harbor Road and Grand Theater of Ephesus (25,000 capacity!) |
If we go back, we are going to have to find the ruins of the Temple of Artemis, as well as the public toilets. We all wished we had had more time there and a guide that was easier to follow. I’m grateful for what we did get to see while we were there, and the next time we study the New Testament in 2 years, it’s going to be fun remembering our time in Ephesus.
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| Learning how silk strands are made |
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| Silk to strands |
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| A rug weaver |
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| The "paintings" are actually hand woven rugs |
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| Snack time at the rug place! |
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| Kirt and Julie's new Turkish rug |
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| Back in Izmir and the Ship |
We made it back to the ship right at the All aboard time, and most everyone just wanted to relax before dinner. At dinner, we ate way too much, and continued to blow through our bottles of water, but at least our dinner attendants are onto our water drinking habits and keep us well stocked. We were all feeling the back to back to back port days, and were really excited that we weren’t getting into Istanbul until 9 a.m.
We had prepaid for laundry service before embarkation, and it was time to get it ready to go. They would only let us do 40 items per cabin per cruise, so we got 40 and my mom got 40. Then, Mom decided to do her needed laundry in her sink, and gave us all of her 40 items. After Gabe went to bed, our room attendant delivered the bags for laundry, and Brian and I went to my mom’s room to sort out what we needed washed to get us to our next city with a washer and dryer. After we got each bag of twenty items carefully logged onto the form, we left two bags in her cabin and took the other two back to ours. Housekeeping would pick them up in the morning.
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