Rock Star tour of Turkey

Our cruise ship docked in Turkey today...this was the stop I was most excited about and even booked a shore excursion in advance.  I looked on Trip Advisor and found Private Ephesus tours to be the number one ranked tour and when I looked online at the prices, I was amazed.  Jacob, Autumn, and I got a private tour with guide and driver for $150!!  We thought for sure it was too good to be true, but it wasn’t.  That was way cheaper then the big group tours offered by the cruise line.  We felt like rock stars when we got off the boat and our guide was standing there with a sign with my name on it.  Our driver came and picked us up in a nice Mercedes van just outside of the port and we were off! 

Our guide said it would be best if we saved the House of Mary for last as that was where everyone would be headed right now. So we started our tour with St. John’s Basilica. It was amazing, when we arrived we got right in and had the place almost entirely to ourselves. The ruins of the church are all that are left, but it still was a lovely place to visit and hear stories about what it once was like. The apostle John was buried here, but his remains are no longer in the ground. She said they are unsure where they are as several different countries claim to have them, but they will likely never know for sure.

After a quick stop to buy Autumn’s belly dancing outfit (for only 8 euros by the way...I was so excited!) we headed to Ephesus.  This was actually the fourth city of Ephesus as it was continuously moving due to the ever changing landscape of this area (the sea is now 7 Kilometers further outland than it was back then...so the changing land/water mass and the malaria that came along with this natural phenomenon caused the city to uproot everything and move several times).  I think the thing that amazed me most here, is the way they let people just wander all over the ruins of this ancient city (as you can see in my pictures).  Almost nothing was blocked off.
  

And our guide (here she is with Autumn below) has been doing this for 16 years and she talked about an area of terraced houses that weren’t even there 10 years ago...they hadn’t been discovered yet.  It’s just amazing to think what else they are going to find in the next 10 to 20!

Here is the large amphitheater of the city.  It was their Colosseum of sorts, where they used to hold shows and gladiator battles.  It was even used by the Turkish people 10-15 years ago for rock concerts!  Our guide saw Sting there when she was in high school...how awesome would that be.  Unfortunately the use of speakers actually destroyed the top half of the amphitheater and it is no longer the venue for such things.

The most impressive of structures was definitely the library.  It’s amazing to see the longevity of things they built back then.  They definitely built things to last.

Next up was lunch.  She took us to a traditional Turkish restaurant.  We didn’t order anything, there were no menus, they just start bringing different dishes and you all share them.  There were many cold starters...yogurt with cucumber (very sour yogurt...not like what you would get in the US), carrots in a yogurt base, greens beans with egg, salad, and an eggplant dish.  I was proud of myself for trying all of them...I didn’t particularly like any of them and the eggplant one I had to quickly drink some water to get the taste out of my mouth, but atleast I tried :o)  The main course was good...chicken kabobs and “meatballs”...they looked like little football shaped hamburger patties, but the seasoning was quite tasty.  They were nice enough to make Autumn some french fries since most of the food contained yogurt, but she was under the weather and wanted nothing to do with food :o(  Poor thing.

After lunch we were off to the House of the Virgin Mary.  Our guide was right, it was not very crowded at all by this time so we were able to take our time walking around.  It was amazing to think that Mary actually lived in the house and you couldn’t help but feel special being able to step foot where so long ago she once stood.  I said a quite prayer as we walked through the house and lit a candle outside.  We were able to fill a small bottle with water from the well by her house, said to be holy water, to take as a memento.

We also tied our wish “baby wipe” to this wall.  This is a tradition started by the Turkish people.  You take anything...a kleenex, a ribbon, a baby wipe :o) and secure it to a tree with a wish written on it to have your wish granted.  Because they were scared of people climbing the trees here to do it...they make a wall where you could secure your “wishes.”  We of course had to leave our wish on the wall with so many others... 

After a quick stop at the Temple of Artemis (a temple that used to have 127 pillars and only has one remaining...so not much left to see...ha!) we headed back to the cruise ship.

We were so happy with our private tour...they didn’t even make us visit a rug store...which is unheard of on guided tours in Turkey.  I would totally recommend this company for anyone planning a trip to the area.

We loved our time in Turkey and are hopeful we’ll get the chance to return someday soon.  Our next stop on the cruise is Athens, but with one sick baby and a husband getting sicker by the hour I think we’re going to take it pretty easy tomorrow and just do a quick tour of the city.  Hopefully everyone will be back to their happy healthy selves soon!

Click here for the full Turkey album.