Blog of Ephesians

Our next stop was Selçuk, mostly because it encompasses the ancient city of Ephesus.

Ephesus has an illustrious history – the earliest known inhabitants were there in 6500BC, it was the second largest city in the Roman empire (second only to Rome herself) and it has been ruled over by such renowned historical figures as Alexander the Great and Cleopatra’s Antony.  It was also an important early centre of Christianity and was honoured with guest appearances by some of Christianity's greats - John the Apostle spent much of his life there, St Paul managed to get himself exiled after just a few short years and the Virgin Mary herself moved to Ephesus after the death of Jesus and spent the remainder of her days there (Note: she may no longer have been a virgin at that stage).

What all of this amounts to today is some incredible ruins, and the awe inspiring sensation that comes from walking where so many people who have changed the world have walked before you.

The church where the Council of Ephesus debated whether Mary had any genetic input into Jesus' divinity, in order to determine whether she deserved the title 'Mother of God'.  They eventually decided that she did merit the title since Jesus was 100% divine as well as 100% human, and she has been referred to as Mother of God ever since.

Some sweet sarcophagi, and a really strong guy...

The amphitheatre where Saint Paul delivered his famous speech warning against the worship of graven idols, to a crowd of silversmiths whose livelihoods depended on the making and selling of graven idols... as you can imagine it didn't go down well.

This road was totally epic, it connected the port with the amphitheatre and was just, well, epic.

The library, with the four muses and hundreds of tourists


And everyones favourite attraction at Ephesus... the public toilets! Very cosy... people speculate that there could have been wooden dividers, but I'm not convinced.

Nothing rhymes with Pammukale

Hello, hello

The third stop in our Turkish odyssey had white terraces of the pink and white terraces kind, but with the notable differences of being above sea level and there being no pink ones. Also, there were Roman ruins.

We had been cruelly misinformed that the terraces were only able to be viewed from a distance, so enroute we paid 25 lira each to bathe in a beautiful man-made pool which had the same mineral water within and ancient Roman ruins scattered around the floor. To my delight the mineral waters turned out to be magical and repaired my bleach-shredded hair to the extent that I can pass for semi-normal once more! Hoorah!  


Three lovely ladies amongst the roman ruins, unfortunately we were too busy bathing in the pools to get photos of us bathing in the pools... suffice it to say that they were awesome.


We tore ourselves away, rounded a corner made from ancient library and beheld the terraces just as the sun started to set: they were absolutely stunning and accessible to tourists! I think that it would definitely be worth dredging up the Kiwi ones and getting out the super glue...

The texture was amazingly cool, at times the slope looked quite precarious but not once were we even close to slipping...

Bodrumbling

Hi everyone,

Our next destination was Bodrum, where we accompanied Mark and Basak on their honeymoon – so romantic ;-)



Bodrum is a tourist mecca on Turkey’s Aegean (west) coast. Our visit coincided with the end of Ramadan when those Muslims who observe it are once again permitted to eat during the daylight hours, and the Turk’s are given ten days of holidays to celebrate. It also coincided with the peak of the international tourist season so... it was insanity. Hedonistic, vibrant, happy, super-touristy insanity.



In what has come to be a reoccurring theme in Turkey we ate, swam, slept, scootered and shopped to our hearts content and worked on improving our ‘cutting the bones out of a whole fish before eating’ skills. I’m still completely sucky at this and am counting my blessings that I have not yet choked to death on a stealthy bit of spine – please keep your fingers crossed for me!


The whole trip was such a great family bonding opportunity... my brother Mark on the left lives away in the Arab Emirates, beautiful sister Jess has been teaching in Korea for a while now and is soon moving to the UK. Also a great opportunity for a new hat...  pretty swick eh?
A highlight of Bodrum, sunset dinners on the beach

More family fun out on a private boat in the Aegean... super salty but oh so warm and inviting! Our resident photographer Laine shot this sweet pic of me and Soph taking a dive.
Me and Soph felt the need for a scooter mission so we took to the road to explore the countryside... these photos are from Rabbit Island where the an ancient king built a causeway to the island so he could feed the rabbits and watch the sunset with his wife... very romantic. Now the causeway has sunk and people amuse themselves by trying to walk across it, it's a lot more slippery than it looks! (and surrounded by sharp rocks)
The rest of the expedition consisted of sunbathing and checking out the cookie-cutter housing developments.

And back to Bodrum where we farewelled the majority of the family, with the exception of my parents and sister who joined us for the next adventure...

Wild Turkey

Merhaba y’all,
 
Next we headed to Turkey for the wedding of Dan's brother Mark and a lovely Turkish lady named Basak. After a gorgeous train ride through fields of sunflowers we had a joyous reunion with Dan’s family in Istanbul and then set about the business of eating and drinking until we exploded... and taking in a monument or two.


Mix of the old and new in Sultanahmet, the old city.Walking to dinner in Taksim, north of the bridge and the place to be for great nightlife.

Introducing the team:
My brother Mark & Basak, his lovely bride to be.  Mum (wearing her very first burka I suspect...) and my sister Jess with her gentle giant Justin.

As you can see, my brother Dave was excited to be our roommate in Istanbul.  My step-dad Wayne chilling with me in a typical Turkish cafe and my ever lovely sister Liesl having a jacket for dinner.
And now the cute couples... Viv and Jos, my aunt and uncle.  My sister (in law officially) Michelle and friend Laine.  And the cutest couple of all, my biggest brother Paul and life partner Steve.

We found Istanbul to be an exotic, intriguing, mysterious city which can completely change character when you turn a corner – it’s a bit of east, a bit of west and a bit of all of the different cultures that have taken over Turkey at various stages, with a population that seems pretty tolerant of other ways of life. There were mosques belting out the call to prayer next to night clubs belting out the Black Eyed Peas, belly dancing men that moved like melted butter, endless streams of mezze platters, luxury yachts lazing down the Bosphorus while fathers and sons fished overhead from the traffic jammed harbour bridges, and scantily clad tourists and scantily clad Turks gazing in awe at the Hagia Sofia and the Blue Mosque in the old city... it was really neat to see a moderate Muslim culture in action.

But the neatest thing of all was getting to share the experience with Dan’s family and family friends – it was a beautiful wedding and we miss you guys!


The Blue Mosque, especially beautiful from the outside...

And across the way... the Hagia Sofia, absolutely stunning on the inside.

Traversing churches is hard work
The Basilica Cistern, ancient underground water storage from the Roman times. Mind blowingly large.

I was easily coerced into doing some pre-wedding shots with the happy couple, here's a few of my favourites:


And on to the big night... I was given the thumbs up to ditch my camera and commence drinking, so thanks to Jess for the photos!


The brothers with some extra Kiwi help lining up for the Haka... the Turks loved it so much they called us back for a drunken encore later in the night. Apparently (surprisingly) it was still good.

Sweet Sofia

I was greatly surprised to find myself boarding a plane and leaving India. In my head I knew that leaving was inevitable (after all it is not our home country, we had chosen a date of departure and booked plane tickets), but somehow in my heart I felt that we wouldn’t be leaving. I had a strong sense of unfinished business, as though I didn’t understand India well enough yet and that by leaving I was giving up. But nevertheless, we did indeed depart for the gentle city of Sofia, Bulgaria.

It was so so lovely to be in a place where we could blend into a crowd, drink tap water, wear shorts in hot weather, reacquaint ourselves with alcohol and where I could go out in public without my trusty chaperone (as much as I love his company, it’s not always convenient to have to do everything together). But Sofia was much more than a place to resume our western lifestyles – it is a fascinating city in its own right. The architecture was intriguing and usually beautiful, spanning from Roman ruins to communist era apartment blocks. The streets were boulevards – tree lined, cobble stoned and pedestrian friendly. The coffee was strong, the war memorials were mammoth, the cheese was abundant and the churches were orthodox. But the best thing about Sofia was the joy that the locals took in their city – there were old men playing chess in the parks with a rapt audience gathered around, traditional musicians on street corners with their listeners clapping in time, people chatting merrily away while filling up water bottles at the natural mineral water springs, free walking tours of the city provided by students who clearly love what they are doing (http://www.freesofiatour.com)... every public space that we visited was filled with people of all ages talking, feasting and laughing and it was completely delightful. As a town planner and as a human being, it warmed my heart.


During our 11 hour stop-over in Kiev airport this was about as much of the Ukraine we saw... I could have actually left the airport on my American passport but decided to keep Soph company. So we lay about, stretched out across seats and on the floor until we we were finally released from our transit prison. A young lady with her faithful companion playing the violin on the main street, so quaint.

Our first day was a little grey... but made the most of it and went wandering with out new Australian buddy to see some of the town.


On day 2 we went on a free walking tour of Sofia, hosted by the lovely lady on the left.  As a bonus we also witnessed our first epileptic fit - luckily the man was alright.

Chess is quite the action sport here...
Our guide dropped in a few pop quizzes along the way, Dan used his enormous brain to win me a bottle of the famous local rose oil by answering a tough question... later down the track we came across this building and he also was the first to tell which song was written up the top there... any guesses? Winner gets a present!

Just before leaving Bulgaria, we paid a little visit to the cute little town of Plovdiv. On the left is our interesting lunch called 'lamb inwards'.

Our first amphitheatre experience. It was in the process of being lovingly restored for use as a theatre again.

Wandering through the cobbled streets and checking out the local hotties... so quaint.

Pretty odd photo I know, but just love it for some reason.

Sophie getting creative on the way back to Sofia... and Sophie getting drunk back in Sofia, the Irish bar downstairs from the hostel was a fantastic place to get re-acquainted with our old friend. Oh alcohol how we missed you!