Last Day in Turkey

Today (Monday, May 12) started out great with a good breakfast at the hotel overlooking the Aegean Sea. We boarded the bus early and headed straight to Ephesus so we could get ahead of the tours coming from three cruise ships docking that morning. Ephesus is a wonderful site. (Picture Above is the Ephesus Library). Paul visited Ephesus after his second journey. (Acts 18:19-21) There is much about Pauls 2nd visit in Acts chapter 19.

(Picture: DJ and Jack outside of Library)

Ephesus is currently located about 3 miles from the Aegean Sea. During the first century the Aegean Sea came right up to Ephesus.
here have been excavations going on here for over 100 years. The library has been restored, great ruins of Roman latrines, and much much more. Ephesus is an old city, the earliest parts date to around 1000 BC. In the 4th century BC Alexander the Great captured it and made many advancements to the village, making it a great city. Much of the ruins we see today are from this Hellenistic and Roman period. There is a large theatre, one of the largest known. It was across the street from the Agora and just down the street from the library. Remember this is the city where Paul got in trouble with the silversmiths making the little idols of Diana. Her temple is located very near to Ephesus, a couple of minutes by bus. We walked down the Arkadian Way, the main street of town coming up from the ancient harbor, that is now silted in and barely even visible. We (Picture: Benji Norris, visiting the Roman latrines) saw several milestones on display, used across the Roman empire along the roads they built. There was a Domitian temple near the library, this is key when looking at the pictures from the museum. The statue of him was one of the largest around in that day. He was very much hated by most all in the empire, when he died (Picture: Norm Web on Library Steps) his statues and imaged were torn down and mostly destroyed. Only the head and an arm remain here today.

(Picture: Man named Abraham... he is from Miletus, he is Mentally Retarded , Our guide has known him since he was a child. Abraham thinks that he owns all the ruins at Miletus. He walks around and hands our flowers to everyone. And, he loves to have his picture taken.)

Our last stop of the day was Miletus. This was a city Paul met with the Elders at as recorded in Acts. The harbor had silted in but today, but you could still walk to the Lion's Harbor where Paul would have docked to come ashore for the meeting. I walked around and took lots of pictures here of various typical Roman era ruins. Finally, back to the hotel for a nice evening to watch the sunset over the Aegean Sea from the terraces on the back of the hotel.

I don't know if I will be able to post for the next several day's we are leaving tomorrow for our Greek island cruise. We found out today that the cruise may provide Internet access... for a cost of course. :o)

Take care, Billy and Carole

Day 5

Thursday, May 8, 2008: Started the day kind of tough with a suit case rip on Carole's bag. That put us behind a little in getting ready to go. After breakfast we boarded the bus for the airport for a flight to Izmir – also called Smyrna. At the airport the bag crisis was delayed some by a wrapping of the entire bag in plastic wrap – a little piece of mind. The flight was about 45 minutes down to Izmir. My bag made it fine, but, we did trash it and billy went to the market and purchased another one for me. I just have not had good luck with bags on this trip... my carry-on broke while we were in Nashville and I got a new one in the airport of New York.
I hope to be able to upload more tomorrow. Take care and I hope everyone has a wonderful night!
Update: Friday Morning: Network is extremely bad here in Izmir. I can not get on line but for a few seconds at a time. I miss talking with my kids! I will try and call tonight. Lot's of Love, Mom

Day 4

Wednesday, May 7, 2008: We started the day with breakfast at the hotel. column sat in the middle of Hippodrome We headed to the ancient site of the hippodrome first. There is not much left of the original hippodrome, mainly a few columns and obelisks in the middle. In its prime days it would hold around 100,000 people for the races and other events that were held there.

Blue MasqueFrom there we walked across the street to the Blue Masque. This is an active mask and is one of the largest around. There are wonderful Turkish carpet all through the masque, I think that is why they make you take your shoes off to go in.

After that we walked over to the AyaSofya. This was originally built as a church, this lasted several hundred years and then was converted to a masque when the ottoman empire took over. It was a masque fore several hundred years also. When it was converted all the religious mosaics and paintings were plastered over to cover them up. Some years back it was converted to a museum. Much of that plaster has been removed and it actually helped to preserve many of the original mosaics from the 6th century. It is a large building. The dome in it is the second largest in the world, not bad for being around 1400 years old.

Topkapi Palace After this, we walked to the Topkapi Palace. This was home to the Sultans for over 700 years of the Ottoman empire. Here we ate lunch overlooking the Bospherus and toured through several of the palace rooms with clothing, armament, treasures and other items of the Sultans reign.

From the palace we went to the Istanbul Archaeological Museum. This was a wonderful place with lots of interesting historical items. Ferrell took us to 4 specific items with biblical interest. A stone from the Jerusalem temple with inscription for no gentiles to come past this point. A farmers calendard with matching farmer dates to the biblical record. A cylinder with inscriptions of a nebu... name from the book of Jeremiah, and most interesting to me the reliefs from the gates and walls of Babylon that Daniel would have seen during his time there. To this day they are still very vivid in their color.

On our way out Jack and Dj stopped to pick a nose after this we went to the Grand Bazaar and then on a boat tour of the Bosphorus. After the tour we returned to the hotel for dinner and a good night's rest.

Day 2 and 3

We made it to Istanbul! What a unique city this is! (but, more on that tomorrow) We are consumed with exhaustion. It is 6:00pm Tuesday evening and we have had very little sleep for the last two days. Tonight I plan to catch up on my beauty rest... the dark circles under my eyes show I am not a “Jet Setter”, like most of those on this trip. :o)



We did not do any site seeing today because of our late arrival but Ferrel has us scheduled for a 6:00am wake up call! I want to be “Bright eyed and bushy-tailed” in the morning (as my dad would say :o)
We did drive by the Marmara Sea on our way to the hotel and saw many ships in the harbor waiting for their turn down the Bosphorus waterway that divides Istanbul between the two continents of Asia and Europe.
We also saw the Princes Islands off in the distance on the Marmara Sea. These Islands are popular vacation spots. What struck me as very interesting is that Automobiles are not allowed on the Islands. Vacationers travel the Islands by Horse and buggie.
Tomorrow we will take a boat ride on the Bosphorus waterway, Visit the Topkapi Palace (which evidently has priceless jewels on display (I can't wait!!! You all know how I LOVE jewelery :o) and we are going to the Istanbul Archaeological Museum. DJ mentioned something about a Grand Bazaar, which is a great shopping location. I hope we go there as well.
Lillian, get your Atlas out so you can see where we are, make sure you show Jack! I hope you had a great day at school today. I love you

Turkey here we come!

We leave in 3 day's! I can't believe it! There is so much to do, I really wonder if I will be ready. We start our journey with DJ and Jackie on Sunday afternoon and drive to Nashville. We will rise really really early Monday Morning to fly to New York where we will meet up with the tour group and Ferrel Jenkins.

Lillian understands that Billy and I will be gone for two weeks. She has cried, begged, and clung to me for the last week. She really does not want us to go.
Jack on the other hand, is clueless. :o)

I ask that you please remember us in our prayers for save travels over the next two weeks.

Thank you so much!
Carole