Izmir, Turkey
Trip Start
Jun 28, 2007
1
29
52
Trip End
Oct 01, 2007
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Izmir,
Turkey
Friday, August 3, 2007
From Lisa:
A visit to Turkey definitely wasn't on the original list of places to "must-see", but it turned out to be quite a nice surprise. We took off early for the house of the Virgin Mary where she was guessed to have spent the last years of her life. Brought here by St. John, the house overlooked an incredible valley. It was a humble house that humbled those who entered it. Olive trees and so many notes scrawled on pieces of tissue paper. There were also three fountains we were invited to drink from...health, wealth, and happiness. After drinking from Happiness, somehow Cheryl got caught up in the other two fountains and had wealth and happiness splashed all over her! :-)
The water was icy and tasted wonderful
Virgin Mary statue
! Then we went to the archaeological ruins of Ephesus. ABSOLUTELY AMAZING! I wanted to stay all day! Unfortunately, we only had a few hours and then on to the ruins of the area where St. John spent his last days. By this time the sun was BLAZING! It was incredibly hot, so getting back to the ship was a welcome relief!From Cheryl:
As Lisa mentions, Turkey was not really a place we expected to see, but now I also want to go back. There is much history, Christian history, here. I had no idea. The house of Virgin Mary was first. As the story goes, Jesus, from the cross, asked John to take care of Mary. He said to Mary that John was now his son and that Mary was now John's mother. In fulfilling that promise, John brought Mary to Ephesus (another place we saw this day) but it was a pagan community and John feared for Mary. He built her this home we saw and moved her to the top of the mountain, but still within the protection of the city gates. It was a very small, yet overwhelming place to see. Again, there is no way to explain the feelings when you see such a Holy place.
Ephesus was SO BIG! It is incredible the way that they lived here. They had indoor plumbing, hot baths, and many other comforts. These people were truly brilliant. This is another place where you could spend ALL day and not see but a fraction of it. What really interested me was near the exit where they had a ton of ruins excavated, cataloged, but not yet fit together. I made my way away from our tour and past some chain links to get a closer look at the HUGE puzzle that somehow, someone was tasked with completing. I wanted that job!
