Walking with the Romans

I was in Germany for a week with 9th grade students at a Model United Nations Conference and had hoped to catch up on some blogs.  However, instead of the usual 1st class hotels, we were booked into a youth hostel, and that meant the bathroom was down the hall, and most importantly, No internet!

Today is May 1, and it is Labor Day in Turkey, so no school and most businesses are closed.  I have a little time this morning.

The settlement of Efesus was probably first inhabited about 1050 BC. One of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, the Temple of Artemis, was here.  Efesus was first Greek, and at its peak around the 1st century BC, it was a part of the Roman Empire and had a population of 250,000.  It was built on the banks of the Aegean Sea, but silt from the river Kaistros, filled in part of the port and the sea is now a couple of kilometers from the city.  

The goddess Nike.  Supposedly the swoosh came from a shoe executive visiting this carving, who decided to name his shoe company "Nike."

Our guide, Orhan, was a history major in college, and painted a very good picture of life in the 1st century as Romans in chariots rode and walked down the marbled streets.  He asked us to try and picture this as we made our way down Curetes Street.

Columns all along the street

The Temple of Hadrian

The Terrace Houses, owned by the wealthy, had mosaic floors, and hot and cold running water!

At the end of Curetes Street was the Celus Library, one of the more complete walls of any building in Efsus.  This was two stories high.  The four female statues out front are replicas, as the original are in Austria.  Many antiquities are missing in Turkey, as the person/group who first excavated a site, most often from Austria, Italy, or England, took treasures back to his/her homeland.  Turkey is trying to get many of the historic items back, with limited success.  

Because of its size, there were many bathhouses, latrines (with water running through troughs), and living quarters further off the main streets, but one or two were located in the main city area for use by soldiers, and the wealthy. Outside the city walls were bathhouses and latrines for travelers to use and clean up prior to entering the city.

Can you guess?  A latrine on the main street.

Last on the tour, and closest to the sea, is the Grand Theatre.  It was built and rebuilt with many additions, to its final capacity of 24,000.  St. Paul preached here! The ruler of Efesus didn't like his ideas, and argued against St. Paul in the theatre as well.

Grand Theatre

Besides being a great historical place with Greek and Roman influence, to know that early Christians settled here is amazing.  This is where many lived, with apostles and disciples residing here for a time, and where St. John wrote his gospel.  With only 25% of the ruins uncovered, there are a lot of treasures yet to be found.

After Efesus, our tour was off to Pemukkale and Hierapolis.

The House of the Virgin Mary

Many posts are pretty easy to write, but still take over an hour to get the text and photos the way I like.  It's much like a reporter trying to convey the "who, what, where, when," that I learned back as a freshman in college as a journalism major.  But this post will be more difficult because it involves all of the above, but also has to include emotion to try and get the entire message to you.  

During our break, on Wednesday there was a day trip to Efesus, so we were waiting for the mini bus at 6:45 AM to pick us up.  We met up with another small bus, also going to Efesus on our tour, but it was then continuing on to Pamukkale and ours was returning to Bodrum.  More on our spontaneity in a later post.

We stopped along the way for an outdoor breakfast on the shores of Bufa Golu or Bufa Lake. It was beautiful and cool eating outdoors.  We then traveled to the modern city of Selcuk, which is about 5 kilometers from the Efesus ruins.  There, our guide asked who would like to go to Mary's House. Only half of the group chose to go and the rest toured a ceramic factory. Mary's House cost an additional 35 TL, and the entire trip was only 70 TL.

One bus drove us up the hill above Efesus for about 10 minutes and got to the shrine.  This is now a pilgrimage site for Christians, and a holy place for Muslims as well.  They believe that Jesus was a prophet, and Mary was "Meryemana" Mother Mary. So many tour buses go to this site. St. John took care of Mary at Jesus' command, and died in Efesus.   

My poor attempt at getting the entire board photographed so that it can still be read

This site was built into the side of a pretty steep hill, and as you can read above, a German Catholic nun, who was blind, kept having visions of Mary's house in Efesus.  She described an area in such specific detail that researchers found this site just like she envisioned.  The only remaining part of the house was a foundation, which is still visible about 12-24 inches above the floor, and has a line drawn where the original and reconstructed walls meet.  

After having to stand in line, I remember being surprised that hardly anyone was still in the room when we entered. I have to admit that my attitude going into the house was basically that I was going to see a historic site, much like St. Peter's Basilica or the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican. It would be cool to see, but no other expectations.  At the far end of the one room house is an alter, with two kneelers on each side along the walls, and candles and low lighting with the alter fully illuminated   Pope Paul VI visited here in 1967 and a glass box with mementos is located to the left of the alter, with letters from Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI also in glass boxes to the right of the alter.  

I think we were in the room for about 10 or 15 seconds, when I realized that I was having trouble breathing.  I don't know if I was holding my breath or what, but even trying to take in deep breaths didn't seem to work.  It wasn't a panicky or bad sensation, but was certainly very different. I didn't feel the need to rush out into the fresh air, but there was an overwhelming presence that I just couldn't exhale and remove.  I did exit out the side door, after only being in the room for maybe 30 seconds, and felt a little light headed.  I didn't feel like I rushed, but kept thinking that I should stay longer. But it felt right to leave, and I was breathing normally.  Peggy was right behind me.  I felt weird and looked at my shirt, and the static electricity was clinging my shirt to me tighter than I can ever remember.  It was like it was vacuum packed to my skin. Neither of us said anything, as we walked about 20 paces to the spring water that flows from beneath the house. By then the shirt began to loosen, and Peggy told me that out of no where she almost started crying in the house.  I showed her my shirt and told her my experience.  We didn't say a whole lot more, trying to just take in what had taken place. The spring comes out of a wall and we washed in the water and filled a water bottle.  

Next to the fountains was a prayer wall.  People write down their prayers and tie them to ribbons.  After the past couple of minutes, Peggy of course found a piece of paper and we both wrote down our intentions and tied them to the wall.  

We had a total of 30 minutes here, and it seemed to be only about 10.  The bus was waiting, but we still stopped and bought some things before leaving.  Once in the bus, and later visiting Efesus, the episode was always in the back of our minds, even when seeing the magnificent ruins. We continued to talk about it on the bus, later that night, and have tried to explain it to others back home with whom we've visited.  

I suppose there very well may be a physiological explanation for what happened to both of us, but we are choosing to believe the holy spirit, through the intersession of Mary, came to us. Whew!

Bodrum

The Bodrum Peninsula is in the southwest part of Turkey, along the Aegean Sea (Ege Denizi).  The Knights of Hospitaller built the Castle of St. Peter in the 1400s, and it is the "land mark" of the city of Bodrum now. 

The Castle of St. Peter

The city is old, with some areas dating to the 11th century BC.  We stayed at the Manastir Hotel, which is on the grounds of an old monastery.  

The original entrance to the monastery

Happy Hour at the Manastir

The castle is now open to the public and houses the Museum of Underwater Archaeology.  Many ship wrecks have been found in this area, and many of the treasures are housed in this museum.  

Amphoras held wine in the ship's hold, as water could not always be found and stored

The castle had several towers and rooms, each dedicated to different articles found in the wreckage of ships.  Besides the towers, there were eating areas, sleeping quarters, a dungeon, chapel, gardens, moats, stables and more. They now keep glass, coins, clothing, pots, gold, etc. separately in different parts of the castle that were found under the Aegean. 

During WWI the Germans decided that Castle looked like it could "hide" enemy artillery so it shelled the place (and the Turks sided with Germany in WWI), and it didn't get refurbished until the 1960's and later made into the museum.

As with any tourist area, there are lots of shops, many similar to those we saw in Istanbul.  There were also many, many bars and restaurants, but only a few Mosques, as this is a "liberal" party town.  

Enough purses?

Afternoon cocktails

Although we slept in Bodrum 4 of our 7 nights of break, we really were only in town for 2 1/2 days.  From Bodrum we traveled by ferry to Kos, Greece for one night, and spent one night in Pomukkale for a total of 4 days away.  We were told we traveled over 700 kilometers from Bodrum to Efesus to Pamukkale on Wednesday and Thursday.   

We returned to Bodrum late Thursday night and then had a relaxing day Friday, after all our running around.

Drinks before dinner Friday night

Sunset from the same spot as above

The tourist season really doesn't start in Bodrum until May, so we hit it with lower prices and less people, as many businesses opened up again while we were there.  Plus, the summer gets pretty hot and very humid!  So, this is one trip we hope to take again, and next time stay in Bodrum a little more travel less.  

  

    

   

Living history in Turkey

Our Spring Break has ended and we returned to Ankara Saturday.  Two weeks ago when Tyler  and Mitch left, we wondered what in the heck we were doing here.  After our travels this past week, we've been able to reaffirm our decision to be here as a great one.  

There are way too many items to post at one time, but I'll give you a taste of what we did and then later delve into each in future posts.  

We arrived in Bodrum, in southwest Turkey, on Saturday about noon and spent the day there wandering the streets and seeing all the docked boats.  Bodrum is located on the southwest coast of Turkey along the Aegean Sea.

On Sunday we visited the Museum of Underwater Archaeology in St. Peter's Castle, as it was as windy as it normally is in Haxtun.  We planned to go to Kos, Greece, a nearby island, so we took a ferry ride there on Monday morning.  

The tree where Hippocrates taught his Greek medical students

The view of the Greek harbor from our hotel room

We got back to Bodrum Tuesday evening and booked a trip to Efesus on Wednesday. We left Bodrum at 6:50 AM and bused to Efesus.  First we went to the home of the Virgin Mary.  Whew, what an experience. This is where she and St. John went after Jesus' death, and where she was believed to have died. 

After Mary's house, we went into the city of Efesus.  Romans walked the same streets we walked, and St. Paul preached in the Odem, or great theater, where it eventually held 25,000 people.  

After Efesus we went on to Pamukkale where we spent the night.  This is where there are white calcium rock formations with hot pools. Right next to the pools is another ancient city, Hieropolis.  Here, St. Phillip was martyred and buried.

We bused back to Bodrum by about 8:00 PM Thursday night and had a fantastic sunset from our hotel.  

On Friday we just rested!!  We sat by the pool, which opened while we were gone, and then again went down to the shopping/restaurant district for our last evening's dinner.  

We had a beer by the water before dinner and watched another beautiful sunset.  We flew out in the morning and were back to the lojman by 12:30 Saturday.  

That's the week in a nut shell.  I'll start now on individual city trip posts which will follow in the coming days. 

Easter in Turkey

It was an emotional Easter Sunday, as we went to bed at midnight,  the time here sprung forward an hour, and Mitch and Tyler left at 4:15 AM.  Of course we couldn't go right back to sleep, so I watched the second half of the Wichita State-Ohio State game and went back to bed at 5:30. It was a quiet lojman after two weeks of kids.  

We did our regular bus trip, walk, city bus, to the Vatican Embassy to Mass.  We are really lucky to have a great priest and it is always worth the effort to get there.  

We didn't have long to feel alone, as we were invited to a dinner with eight others at 3:00.  Right when we got back from church we started peeling potatoes for scallops, and Peggy baked biscuits and cleaned and prepared strawberries for short cake. 

Potatoes and baked cauliflower

Fran, from Seattle, and Jan from Fairplay were hostesses at Fran's lojman. It was a special treat as we had a spiral ham!!  Remember, no pork in Muslim countries.  Jan has a car and took Laura, who has privileges to the US Army base here, and they got a ham!! And bacon too, yes, Fran put it in deviled eggs.  It was really good with the eggs, especially since it was the first pork we've had since breakfast at the Embassy Suites in Denver the morning we left.

Yes, that's really a ham!

The highlight was having a little kid there.  Nicolas and Jonna, from Jamaica, have a 1 1/2 year old son, Jonnic (pronounced Jonique).  He was quite intimidated for a while, having missed his nap, but then realized he had 8 other people who all wanted to play with him so he had warmed up.  

Mom and Jonnic

We laughed and talked a lot.  Besides the Jamaicans, we were from Seattle, Colorado, South Carolina, Washington state, and Iowa.  Most had kids and memories and stories of Easter's past, but to keep the mood light, we just enjoyed the moment and company.  

There were no egg hunts, but Jan did make a "Toyne" bunny bag for everyone.  It was filled with candy-remember the army base-and other cool little gifts (I got a can of Spam too!)

So, although we missed our families, we were blessed to spend time with friends here and celebrate. It appears that with international teaching, families are usually an ocean away, so everyone looks out for one another and special memories are made in different ways in different settings in different countries.  We're thankful.

More Family Time

Tyler, Sam, and Mitch have visited different areas around Ankara. Some of the same excursions were repeated both weeks, but Sam did some things Tyler and Mitch didn't do, and they also did some different trips.

All went to Ulus, one of the old parts of town, wandered the streets, bought some gifts, had lunch, and experienced "old" Ankara.

Sam with Ishan in Ulus.  Ishan is 64, and this is the first cross he's ever made-from Peggy's design-for us.  He's very proud of it, and his neighbor has a picture of the cross on his IPhone!

Mitch and Tyler having lunch in Ulus.

Trips to Goreme and the Cappadocia area are a must for travelers.  Gerks were in Goreme twice in a week, both times staying at the famed Flintstones Cave Hotel.  

Tyler and Mitch with Mehmet-manager of the Flintstones, tour guide, olive grower, Muslim, and all around great guy! 

Back in Ankara with Sam, we went to the Tunus area, walked along Tanali Blvd, ate at a small cafe we found and ended at a bar near the bus stop and had a traditional Raki drink.

The bar server explaining how to drink Raki-straight, with a water chaser, or with one ice cube and water added to make it "mother's milk," creamy looking now and supposedly so named by American service men who discovered the drink in Istanbul. That's Jan with us.

Tyler, Mitch, and I went to the Anatolian Museum in Ankara, where only 2 of 5 sections were open due to remodeling.  But, we saw lots of Hittite carvings, and Roman and Greek ruins and coins.  

This Hittite carving is about 5000 years old!!

On Saturday, we experimented and took the Fast Train to Eskisehir,  a 1 1/2 hour trip.   We really just wanted to ride in a super fast train, but we were pleasantly surprised with the town that was just beautiful and made for tourists.  We walked along their "river walk," complete with tour boats and gondolas (no singing Italians), ate these delicious cig borek (large puff pastry type sopapilla stuffed with meat), walked through markets and shoe maker/repair shops, and just had a good time.

The monitor shows 253 kilometers per hour. That's 150 miles per hour!  It's an electric train and so quiet and very, very smooth on the tracks.  

Our last lunch out. 

As with every adventure, the unexpected seems to make the story richer with time.  Sam's plane was broken in DC and he got bumped and got here 4 hours late, with his luggage about 30 hours after that.  Tyler and Mitch got delayed in Munich on their return, and didn't get their connection in Toronto.  They had to spend the night and were a day late getting back to Boulder just arriving in the last hour or so. Plus, there are stories that only they can tell, and probably some involve making fun of me.   

It was great for us to see "the boys", especially all together in Istanbul, and we've now caught our second wind to make it the next 2 1/2 months until our summer break begins.