Ephesus Photos!

The gang in front of the theater where Paul once preached.

Ephesus - Library Ruins

The streets of Ephesus - what is left of it that is. Once a place where Caesar & Cleopatra visited and the place where Paul once preached. It is amazing to stand on the same streets that they once stood on themselves.

There are many, many more photos of both Istanbul and Ephesus, too many to post them all. If you would like to see more photos then just let me know and you are welcome to come over and view them. I hope you enjoyed my stories and photos of my trip. God Bless All!

Photos of Istanbul Finally Posted!

Mom bargaining over tea cups while mam-maw finally decides how many she really wants -- 4,6, or 8. She did FINALLY decide on 6 tea cups and saucers.

Spice market with beautiful spices

and wonderful smells

Blue Mosque

Amazing Blue Stain Glass Windows
inside the Blue Mosque

May 20, 2006

Trip to Ephesus

Never would have thought that I would have been up in time to see a sunrise, did you? Well, this morning I watched to sunrise while riding in the back of a van to the airport. Today we were off on our day long side trip to Ephesus. We started off at 6am to the airport and then flew from Istanbul to Izmir, Turkey. Once we got to Izmir, there was a driver there waiting for us to take us to Ephesus, which was an hour’s drive. It was great because we got to see the countryside of Turkey and was able to take some great shots out the car window. We drove into Kasadise and picked up 6 other passengers that would be joining us on our tour. We picked up our tour guide and we were set. In our group there was 2 Canadians, 2 Hindus from India, 2 Buddhists from Thailand, 2 Muslims from Turkey (driver & tour guide) and 3 Christians from USA. It was a very diverse group but we all had a great time together. We all had such an easy time talking to each other and having a good time. We started at a clay sculpting place where they showed us how he sculpted the clay vases, bowls, plates, etc. We watched them drawing and painted the creations, which is unreal because they have to be so precise and it takes such a long time. I could not do it that is for sure. We then saw the shop and of course they were all there behind us asking us what we liked or with there calculator ready to figure out how much you would pay. It was unreal. The pottery was very unique and beautiful and I love watching them do things like that but then being pressured, asked, and always hassled as you look at all they have made is just too much. (No one in our group bought anything). We left from there and went to where the Virgin Mary supposedly lived after Jesus. It was just a cute little house up a huge hill and you were rushed through by monks so that you didn’t hold up the line. We all spent about 15 minutes here walking around and then we were in the van and off again. This time it was to get some lunch (which was included in the tour). We had a buffet prepared for us, and it looked like other tour groups, and it wasn’t too bad at all. Their fries on the other hand tasted like they had been sitting out for at least 2 days before serving them. They were really, really hard.

After lunch, came the main attraction – Ephesus. This was the main reason for the trip.

Ephesus had splendid buildings and was dedicated to the Goddess Artemis (Dianna). Ephesus became one of the biggest settlements in Anatolia and one of the most popular cities of this ancient world. This city is where historical and world changing people stood and walked down the streets. Included in this list are Caesar, Cleopatra, and Paul. Paul, the disciple of God, preached in this city. We walked along the ruins of this amazing city and imagined to ourselves what it was like thousands of years ago right. It is hard to image that you are walking where Paul once did and standing in the huge theater where he once preached the gospel. I have to admit that I don’t like tours so I did tend to pull away from the group and go off taking photos but the city was still amazing. It is just hard to get your head around the fact of what this place once was and who once was here in this exact place you are now. I know I keep on saying that but it just shows you how two days later while I write this I am still in awe. It is hard to explain about these ruins in words without exactly seeing your yourself just take my word for it that these ruins were from thousands of years ago and some were still standing in amazing shape and going strong. I will have to read more on this city to be able to tell you because I do not remember everything that the tour guide said. There is just so much information and history in this place that you cannot remember everything. We walked around for about 2 hours taking photos, seeing the columns & different structures still standing, listening to the tour guide, trying to hide from the heat and sun, and chatting with one another in the group. We went from Ephesus to another ancient site where there once stood a temple to the Goddess Artemis (Dianna). Today there is only one huge column of this temple still standing, however, it is still amazing and it is considered one of the Seven Wonders of the World. When we were finished there, the tour was yet to be finished. We traveled from there to a leather store where we were ushered into a room and told to sit down. We sat down and then music came on and a light show started. The all of a sudden a man came out and I realized that they were doing a runway show of a few of their leather jackets. At one point they came and grabbed my mom and the Canadian guy and took them back stage. Mom came out a few minutes later strutting her stuff in a burgundy leather jacket. The Canadian guy came out with a huge black, curly wig on and a long multi colored leather jacket on. It was so funny to watch and you could tell he loved it. When the show was over we heard about the leather which was interesting and then of course we got the chance to walk around and look at all of them. I wasn’t even about to look at one b/c I knew that once I even touched one someone would be over there hassling me about it and getting me to buy it with the $0 amount of money I have. It was great that I had my mom b/c I could just step back and they would hassle her. She did look good in the leather jacket she tried on. In the end no one bought anything but it was interesting. Next we stopped at a carpet weaving place. Yeah I wasn’t looking forward to this one at all (especially since I had encountered carpet sales men before this). However, it was really interesting and learned a little bit about the carpet business. Once the lecture and showing of the different carpets had ended, the Indian guy, mom, and I sat there and just chatted about carpets and traveling. It was really interesting and he was such a nice guy. We had such a good time with this group that I hated to say bye and go back to the airport. We took a group photo and then Mam-maw, mom, and I got into a different van and headed to the airport. This drive was absolutely gorgeous. We drove along the coast line. We saw the Aegean Sea and off in the distance we would see some Greek islands.

Our plane left Izmir at 10:22pm and we got back into Istanbul around 11:20pm. No one was there to pick us up but of course God orders our footsteps and he brought someone to our rescue. We had to wait only 10 minutes so the driver could pick up another passenger from the airport and then we were off. We were at the hotel and sleep a little bit after midnight.