Ephesus

I had the opportuninty to take a daytrip last Saturday. My Travel friend "I" and I had such a fun time exploring the ancient city of EPHESUS! Although I don't know all of the history, I do know that I was standing in a significant place. I know I was in the same theatre that the Apostle Paul preached in from Acts 19. WOW! Here are some pictures from our adventure. It felt so good to take a trip out of the city and the "small window" of space I am familiar with here in my new home. We took a morning flight to Izmir and then rented a car.

I have to tell you how excited I was to be driving in a regular car! So spacious!

So much freedom!

We had our map in our hand and were ready to hit the road.

Funny enough, we ended up taking our own route to Efes (as it's called), and unintentionally avoided the super highway. Instead we took a pleasant drive through some small towns and even saw mandarine oranges growing locally. Who knew?

It was about 12:30pm when we decided to make a pit stop for lunch.

This cozy little restaurant looked inviting, so we pulled over and were greeted by the warmest couple one could encounter. A couple probably in their late 50s welcomed us. I name a couple of local dishes I knew how to say and the lady indicated that they didn't serve that. hmm... they then indicated for us to sit down and said it would be 10Lira each for lunch. We thought it was a good deal and agreed to stay even though we had no idea what we would be served. That was all part of the fun though. We looked in the direction of the kitchen and saw them cracking eggs. Hmmm... still not sure. Then... out came our lunch- well actually a traditional Turkish Breakfast. It included eggs, bread, cream cheese, honey, jam, tomatoes, olives, sweet figs and more cheese. And of course, as is the custom, some delicious CHAI. What a feast!

I liked the peach jam. Cheese is found all over the place here in all sorts of varieties.

Cheese lovers would enjoy it!

Our Turkish Breakfast was delightful. I must say though, that the owners of the restaurant were the highlight for me. Such sweethearts and they had a glow on their faces. I left the restaurant after hugging man and hugging and kissing (on both cheecks) the woman.

These were real jewels. I'm sure I will always remember how they shone.

~ Here I am ~

~ Can you see me? Can you hear me? ~

~ Cool Shot ~

~ Seats 25, 000 ~ Great acoustics ~

~ The Library ~

~ We managed to go on a day with very few tourists. It's pretty rare to be able to take pictures without other tourists - so we lucked out! ~

it turns out I decided to wear my new boots on this day of sight seeing. Note to self: maybe not such a good idea to break in new shoes on a sightseeing day full of walking.

~ Let loose and have fun! ~

~ Re-build ~

~ Restore ~