Well the last few days have been beach days for us mostly here in Greece and Turkey. We travelled first to the port city of Kudasi Turkey. Kudasi is very close to the ruins of Epheseus which is an incredible ancient city which is still undergoing excavation today. It was once an ancient port city until the sea retreated from the area. In fact our bus ride out to the city goes through what would have once been water over a thousand years ago to get to the city of Epheseus. The ruins today are over five miles away from the present coast line. It gives you a pretty good idea of how the seas have retreated.
The tour of the ruin was fascinating because a number of the buildings and artifacts were in such good condition. I learned the difference between an odeon (covered theatre) and theatre (larger and open air). We were able to walk on the original marble streets through the ruins and see the facade of the ancient library of Celsius.
The civilization that once stood on this area was quite advanced in architecture, the arts, and trade. It was a treat to see it.
One of the other stops was the stop to see the house of Virgin Mary. It is on this spot that it is believed that the Virgin Mary spent her final days. This place was discovered in a vision that a woman described to someone who was doing research on Biblical history. She received another vision when she began speaking another language. It was determined that the language that was being spoken was Aramaic and seeing that this woman who was largely uneducated could have learned it from anywhere this began to lend some credence to her claim. It wasn't until later on that another researcher took interest in her story and used it as a basis for an excavation. As a result the story helped lead to ruins which were dated back to the time of Mary and thus a a chapel and shrine were erected. Soon after the Catholic Church approved this as the official place that Mary lived. Since then Popes and other pilgrims have made their way to this place.
From there we toured the local shops and bazaars before we enjoyed a nice lunch of kebabs, souvlaki, and a drink called rake (lion's milk as the locals call it). It is like ouzo but seems stronger. We managed to avoid the carpet making demonstration. While the demonstration would have been interesting, the sales pitch afterwards would have been frustrating. They are beautiful carpets but we weren't interested. Besides, its poor form to barter in Turkey unless you are serious about buying something.
Bodrrum was our next port and one of the highlights of the day here was our day cruise and beach stop. Our boat took us to a secluded bay and because of the supreme heat we cooled off by diving into the ocean. After the refreshing swim we went had lunch on board and made our way to another beach. Sharon and I rented an umbrella and beach chairs and relaxed by the ocean.
Of course, since we were in Turkey we had to buy some turkish delight while we were here. It is simply fantastic. Hopefully there will still be some to share with our friends by the time we get home.
