Ephesus

It's not really clear to me what divides Asia from Europe, but whatever it is, we were in the part of Turkey that's in Asia. (Always good to check off another entry on the list of things to do before I die. Now I just need to hit Africa, Australia, and Antarctica to visit all of the continents.)

Our tour that day consisted of two parts: a visit to the so-called House of the Virgin Mary and the ruins of Ephesus. (There was a third part in which Stace almost bought an $800 Turkish rug, but let's ignore that. Quote from Stace: "I looked interested, and suddenly I was alone in a room with four of them trying to sell me a rug!") In the end, Mary's house was kind of underwhelming. I think Mary was unhappy with us because it rained like crazy while we were there. Also, there's no concrete evidence that Mary ever lived there. Legend has it that John took her there sometime after the death of Jesus, but it's more a matter of faith than of science. One thing that was interesting is that the site has a Catholic version of Jerusalem's Wailing Wall. People scribble their wishes on tissues or scraps of paper and leave them tucked in the wall.

Then it was on to Ephesus. In some ways, Ephesus was even more cool than Pompeii, but it doesn't get the same publicity. I guess Ephesus doesn't have the same PR firm. Maybe it's the lack of a backstory involving a volcano, or maybe it's that Ephesus is a little more out of the way than Pompeii.

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Anyway, it was very interesting. I'll just throw in a few pictures.

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