I like my history - my old roommate Elliott would probably second that notion after the amount of learning books we had in our "Life Pod" at home. I like to think I am pretty switched on (not really, just more than your average person who lives on the other side of the world) with how this area evolved from the start of time and it being the gateway of the world, to the Ottoman Empire and through to the last century. But to be honest - this place has surprised me a lot, and in a good way.
Turkey is a muslim country, so it's natural for people to think of burkha's and all that, especially when this place shares borders with Iraq, Iran and Syria. However like it is geographically, it is a bit in between Europe, the Middle East and Asia so it has developed its own way of doing things which is quite cool. Sure there is still the morning prayers over the loud speakers, and mosques are very common through the streets, but apart from that everything seems very European and liberal.
I am hoping to take some snaps in the next few days in the city, but here are some from the ancient city of Ephesus. This place is about 5km inland from Kusadasi, turns out 2000 years ago it was a city of 250,000 people on a harbour that over time silted up to nothing. The city also got buried and was only discovered less than 100 years ago, since then they have been uncovering it and now there is about 20% of Ephesus opened up.
Another place we visited was Virgin Mary's house, apparently she lived out the last few years of her life there. It also was discovered around 100 years ago after some lady had premonitions about it - I'm guessing it was kind of like those psychic shows where some crazy cat lady looks for some murder victim - only 100 years ago, and in Turkish.
Anyway enjoy.
Jono
PS. The Reds final starts in 30mins - they had better win!
Ears: Lemon Jelly.
Virgin Mary's home.
Pilgrimage
Ephesus
Ephesus
Statues
Hannah
Statue of Nike - This is where they got the "Swoosh" symbol from, can you spot it?
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