Ephesus

Ephesus...have heard so much about it....finally time to go....was looking forward....and i managed to get on the exclusive tour....which only takes 12 people, when they are not full then a crew member is allowed to go...man when i heard there was space...so nice....it would be 5hrs and we would visit the Virgin House of Mary and then Ephesus and at the end the carpet shop...that is always part of all the Turkish tours.....so in the morning i had 2hrs of work and then day off till 10:30pm when i would start with my nightshift for 2 weeks....damn.....that def has its positives and negatives...you are free the whole day..but sleep pattern really gets disrupted and of course on port days i wAnna go out...but more about that later...lets chat about Ephesus.....

So the tour left at 9am.....there was one couple from the States and a family from San Diego with 4 children (3, 5, 7 and 9), both very nice couples, as it turned out....so it took about 1.5hrs to get there....on the way there the tour guide gave us some facts about Turkey...

-The main nuts which they have agricultured are pistaccio, walnuts and almonds (of course i remember that fact...hahaha)

-Turkey sits 97% in Asia and 3% in Europe, Istanbul is the only city which is half in Asia and half in Europe

-Turkey has 8 neighbours....3 in Europe (Bulgeria, Cyprus and Greece) and 5 in Asia (Syria, Iran, Iraq, Armenia and Georgia)

-Turkey is surrounded by 4 bodies of water: Agean Sea, Black Sea, Meditteranean and the Dardanal strip

-Turkey has 3 religions, 94% is Muslim, 4% is Christian and 2% is Jewish

-Since 1922 Istanbul is no longer the capital

So...first stop the house of Virgin Mary, she came there with John (not John the baptist) and it is believed it was here she died. The house was small but well preserved....we were allowed to walk inside but not take pics....then we also saw the holy springs, water which was blessed by the popes....the three popes that have visited the house....we were given a small crater which we could fill with the holy wAter....here are some pics....

Next stop Ephesus....it would be about a 1.5hr tour through the ruins and she would explain the most important and interesting sights....yay.....so most of Ephesus was destroyed in the major earthquake of 278AD where the population shrunk from 200 000 to 80 000....and up to now only 10% of Ephesus has been excavated....it is 9km squared....first we visited the political area.....there we saw the city hall and the small theatre where even today they still have classical concerts in summer.....she also showed us old water pipes...original water pipes....and then we walked on the main street towards the Hercules gate that was constructed to divide the political area from the aristocratic area.....and also to show up to where they were allowed to have horse carriages and from where only walking was allowed....on top of the gate were two Statues of the Nike Godess, Nike is the Greek Godess of victory. Interstingly....most ruins in Ephesus have been reconstructed....because like i mentioned most of the city was destroyed by the earthquAke....the main street on which the gate is found is called the Curetes street....here are some pics....first pic is taken at the top of the Curetes street looking down at the Celsus library....then the next pic is the Hercules gate and the last one is the Greek Godess Nike, that used to be on top of the gate.....

While walking down the street we saw the baths, Trojan Fountain the terrace houses, the Latrinia (public toilets)...intersting the public toilets for men used to be a place where they conducted business, they would sit on the toilet, then use sponges to clean themselves, there was running water infront of the toilets and in the middle of the toilets there was live music playing....how very strange....here is a pic of the toilets...

Also on the road we saw a lot of round symbols with 4 lines...this apparently was the secret symbol for Christianity....first the fish symbol was used but when that was discovered the round symbol was used....here is a pic

In actual fact the symbol was used because all the Greek letters for the word fish can be seen inside the symbol....the Greek word for fish looks like this ΙΧΘΥΣ.....so interesting....and clever.....then time to see the most famous part....the Celsus library....of course it has been reconstructed but looks quite amazing....here apparently there were more than 110 000 scrolls.....here is a pic....

The last little bit was the market square and the large theatre which could hold 24 000 people....just for interest...the Collesseum can hold 60 000... here is a pic of the theatre.....i must say i thought it looked quite impressive.....the tour was very interesting...but if i have to compare Pompeii to Ephesus i would def prefer to see Pompeii, Pompeii has not been reconstructed it is in is natural state and it is impressive to see the original site....but i liked them both...maybe im also bias cause the pizza afterwards was amazing....hmmmm...maybe....just maybe....anyway moving on.....

Last stop....carpet shop.....we got shown how the hand made wool carpets are made, a rug about 6m sqaured takes about 5 months for two ladies....they are different from other carpets cause the Turks use double knots...then we also got shown how silk is made....well "made".... From the state the silk worm dies, then makes a cocoon, then it gets put into boiling water, then strung out, or unwoven, it is then pulled straight and stiff.....here is a pic....there is a hand machine which unthreads the cocoon until you see the original, now dead, silk worm.....here is a pic...

We then had a small carpet demonstration, being shown that the colour of the carpet can change depending how it lies....got offered some Turkish coffee or tea....of course i went with Turkish apple tea....we all know how much i hate...and i really hate..Turkish coffee.....after that time to go back...we arrived back an hour late....and i was so happy to see kim....off we went into Izmir to yes....eat and yes....buy nuts....hahahA.....so first off lahmacun pizza and some kebab...as always it was fab....and this time the kebab had this tomato gravy on top...really good...now for those of you who dont remember this Turkish pizza...here is a reminder....damn...makes me hungry.....

And then...off to the nut shop...where we bought as always....mixed nuts....peanuts with skin in tact and lots of coarse salt....and dried fruits with raw hazelnuts and raw almonds....so so good....and then stroll slowly back to the ship where it was time for me to sleep cause i would be starting nightshift at 10:30 tonight...long night ahead until 8am....how the hell will i survive...the problem with nightshift...often very dead...and then there is not that much work...then time seems to drag and that is when u feel the tiredness...but anyhow...now off to sleep and my next blog....well it will be Istanbul....so cheerio.....

 

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