It was nice to awake to an Immodium-free morning.  Stomach is behaving normally once again, and good thing because we will be spending the entire day trapsing through the Greco Roman ruins in the city of Ephesus.  If you click on the link you will see some of the pictures and get a sense of just how startling these ruins are when you approach them.  The original city dates back to 6000 BC, but the preserved architecture is mostly from the 500 – 600  BC timeframe.  It has undergone some restoration, but most of the foundations and major building blocks seem to exist from that original age.  Though I haven’t been to any other Greco Roman ruins, I believe my friend (who has) when he tells me that these are by far the most impressive in the world.  The heat is sweltering, and there are tourists everywhere which makes it a little cumbersome to make our way along the meandering 3 hour self-guided tour, but all in all, no question one of the highlights of the trip.

We meet our first Americans in Turkey here.  2 girls from the West coast, and 2 guys from Michigan ‘08.  We bounce from the main site of Ephesus up the winding mountain towards Meryemana (The House of the Virgin Mary).  This is the house that she is said to have spent the final years of her life in.  It was about 90 degrees + in the sun, and the road that takes you to the house is about 5 clicks  up a steep curving mountainous road.  On our way up there, we passed a dudhpakh guy, about 40ish, walking his way up the hill.  We figured he was headed to the same place because there is nothing else up there, and we debated pulling over and offering him a ride.  He looked well to do, so I reasoned that if he was walking, it was some sort of religious pilgrimage.  Others had their own theories about what he was doing, with Nads suggesting he was something just short of the boogie man initially.  But when we got to the top, we decided to just drive around the site and head back down the mountain (we were a little “ruin-ed out”), and we decided we would stop and offer him a lift when we saw him again.  To her credit – even Nads was on board with this act of kindness.  When we met him, he had covered a good distance, but we pulled over and asked if he wanted a ride.  I think he was a bit taken aback (I think he literally took a step or 2 back), and he told us he was enjoying the walk, and thank you anyways.  So the rest of the way down, we debated what he must have thought of us (terrorists, boogie men/women, just nice people but he really did want to walk, etc.).  And so the time was passed – all because of this Australian man who decided to do something crazy.

After these 2 sites, we made a pit stop for a hearty lunch and refueling in an attempt to steel us for some more sightseeing.  But the attempts were half-hearted passes at Basilica St. John (a church built by St. John the Baptiste, where he is now buried I think), and a mosque – we were done.  It was sweltering (did I mention that?), and the luxurious pool was screaming our names at this point.  Time for a dip in the icy cold waters, and a refreshing Churchill!