May 21st, 2010 Ephesus

href="file:///C:%5CUsers%5CETHANY%7E1%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_themedata.thmx">

6AM We arrived at Ephesus. I to pay 80 Euros for the day tour. Even the taxi “bargain” to Mary’s house and the bottom gate of Ephesus that the tour guide wanted to deal me was 50 TRYs. I walked 4 kms to a sewing garden.

8:30AM I walked another 2 kms to the top gate. Mary was another 6 kms on a mountain. There are no buses there and the taxi drivers down wanted 40 TRYs for a round trip. I decided to walk up.

Around midway toward the Aegean Sea

11AM I am finally at the top of the hill. That was certainly challenging seeing all the buses pass me and was only going to 15 minutes to top it. But I made it and even saw another couple of girls from SF on the bus, one from Canada and the other from Australia there. There were a bunch of Turkish kids interested in taking pictures with us, though they were far more interested in me as I am Asian. I am not sure I believe Mary would really live up this hill. It made almost no sense to live up a mountain when you can go much closer to the sea.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_the_Virgin_Mary

This is not all the way up yet.

1PM I got to the bottom in about 1 hour. On the way, I saw a Japanese guy my age also walk up. I guess Asians are cheap.

2PM The way down was much easier. The admissions to Ephesus was another 20 TRYs. I guess the ruins of this rich city during Roman rule is pretty nice. But now I wished I had gone to Cappadolce instead. I am sure I could find things in Ephesus like rubles, amphitheater and fallen columns and everywhere in Italy and Greece on large scales.

Church at Ephesus

Before and after: I was responsible for separating a short column.

The Library at Ephesus

The Amphitheater

3PM I was burnt out from walking and caught local bus ride back from the bottom gate for 2 TRYs It saved around 4 kms then I tried to nap at the ticket office, which did not work that well. I was offered a portion of some pudding again but it was just mediocre.

The Circumcision Ceremony

Turka and the man who offered me tea

5PM I saw a celebration ceremony for circumcision. I then bought a 1.5 liter bottle of coke for 3 TRYs, had some cheese kofte for 7 TRYs for dinner and waited at the bus stations. I tried to have a conversation with a Korean couple but they were jerks. The women (28 and married) must think she is hot stuff and thought I was hitting on her or that I was trying to rob them. I asked the guy whether Koreans are having some problems with young people not getting married because of inability to support kids through schools. He said it does not matter. I asked him how old he is. He said 30 and I said you look young.

The Cheese Kofte

9:30PM We left for Istanbul again. Now it was raining pretty hard outside. We passed the big fastfood place again. This is much better than those you would pass in Vietnam, you know, with air conditioning and all. But I did not eat there.