Ephesus

We get a call from downstairs saying that the driver is there 30

minutes before we’re due to start, so we just head on down.  What we don’t think about is the fact that this means that we’ll be early to try to pick up Patty and Liz and they won’t be ready again.  Which is exactly what happens.  We get to sit in the van for 30 minutes waiting for them to come down.  Which is a pain in the ass, but John tries to get me to calm down about it.  They finally come down and get in and we get to

hear about their trip yesterday to see the other 5 churches.  They will see the 7^th today with us in Ephesus.  On the way there we have no tour guide, he lives in Ephesus and we’ll pick him up in the town.  Patty and Liz say that their

guide yesterday was not the greatest because he pushed them to move on, wouldn’t let them go on their own and was very defensive about being the only one to give them information.  So, we’re going to see what our guide in Ephesus is like.  Tek gets in when we

are in Selcuk and asks if we want to visit a ceramic place.  Why not, they’re not as easy to send home, but Oscar gets to try to be a potter and they are so nice to him.  The pottery is absolutely amazing, I want one of everything in the place, but it is super expensive and very breakable, so two things we can’t really do.  We head on to Ephesus and

Tek is more of a real tour guide where he will bring you together, give you information about what you’re about to see and then let us wander on to the next thing.  He’s very informative, but not overbearing and will go with

whatever flow we start.  Some of us want to pay extra in go in the Terrace Houses, by that, I mean me really and I convince Patty that she has to see them.  So, she and Liz and Tek and I go through while Oscar and John hang out

 in the city.  I’m so glad that we did it because it was the highlight of Ephesus for me.  Seeing the houses in situ with mosaics intact and frescoes on the wall.  It was what I wanted Pompeii to have been.  It was amazing in there.  One of

 the few times when the past comes alive for me.  We have been seeing so many things, you kind of get burned out on seeing some of it and it takes something extra to really hit a new level.  I felt like I was walking through someone’s living room that they were just in not too long ago.  And it’s

not sitting in a museum in Istanbul.   Another reason that the Parthenon marbles should go back to Athens…such a debate that John and I have been having on this trip with that controversy.  Anyway, we continue our

    walk through Ephesus.  There are so many cats here and they’re super friendly.  When we’re sitting in the theater, one gets in John’s lap and just sits there.  It was a beautiful town and only 15% of it is uncovered at this 

 time.  We go from there to lunch and then head to the Ephesus museum for a 40 minute walk through there.  Again, a small, doable museum that is beautifully laid out and not overwhelming.  We head back to Izmir and get to lay an eye on the Smyrna agora when Patty and Liz get out to see it with their pushy guide, we head back to the hotel to wash the Turkish coffee out of John and Oscar’s clothes (that Oscar bumped in to John and spilled all over them because he had made a flower pot) and have dinner at the hotel again.  We know that we have to get up early for our flight 

tomorrow and want to be packed.  We’ve been debating between the train which is right outside the hotel or a taxi and are going to try the train, until I finally look at an email reminder and realize that our flight is at 7:50, not 9:05

like originally planned.  My trip planner didn’t upload the change because we had to talk to the airlines about it on the phone.  So, now we’re adjusting our wake up call and getting a taxi for sure because the trains are not running by the time that we need to leave.  Great, good job Jo.  At least I saw it before we got to the airport too late to make our flight….