Ephesus, Turkey

Written by: Annie Hoban
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It has been an amazing past two days. Our second cruise ship port was in Kusadasi, Turkey and we took our first guided tour of the Ancient ruins of Ephesus. This incredible city was built by the Romans and included remains of fountains, the temple of Hadrianus, the library of Celsus, the gate of Hercules, the temple of Artemis, a very large amphitheater, and much more. It’s truly an indescribable feeling knowing that you are walking the streets that gladiators and chariots roamed.
After the tour of ancient Ephesus we continued to a Turkish rug making shop in the town of Kusadasi where we sampled some Turkish coffee (very tasty) and pastries as we learned how silk worms are used to make the rugs by hand using a special knotting technique. After seeing many rugs that I thought would look great at home, Dan proceeded to walk her out of the store after learning the prices ranged from $300 to $45,000.
Next stop was the Church of St. John the Apostle. We are both very proud of ourselves for finding the church because it was off the beat and path, we took public transportation (quite intimidating in Turkey), and we hiked up yet another large hill to the remains of the Church and we found a mosque (The mosque of Isa Bay) which was constructed in 1375A.D. We both agree that apart from ancient Ephesus, the Church of St. John is one of the most amazing places we have ever seen. The church was built in the 5th century and Turkey must be fairly new to the whole tourism business because nothing was roped off. We were able to walk on every tile and column on the site. We even saw a woman pose for a picture on St. John’s tombstone. This place is quite an amazing part of history.