Day 6 - Selҫuk, Ephesus, and Kusadası

05.21.2011

Personal:

- The father of a shop owner (who is studying economics) is a retired imam of 21 years for to recently retired mosque. He wrote all of our names in Arabic and gave us half off at the shop J

- Church of St. John ruins

- Bizim Ev Hanımeli Restaurant and Cafe – most delicious, homemade food yet; about 30 different dishes; nestled in the orchards of Selҫuk; everything tasted excellent and was gluten free for the most part (didn’t know what 99% of it was though)

- House of Virgin Mary – unifies Christianity and Islam with 1) Mary is the mother of Christ; 2) Jesus is a great prophet; and 3) Jesus is the second coming. Holy Water; prayer wall with tissues;

- Ephesus (Efes Örenyen) – Bibliotek; Heracles passageway; Amphitheatre (overlooking a valley formally filled with water); we took a picture for Clark Crane on the ancient Roman Toilets (you can see Brad and Miles below haha)

- Yamaҫevler Archeological Terraces – we took a detour tour just outside the walls of Ephesus to see newly excavated marble terraces that would be multimillion-dollar homes by today’s standards; world’s largest puzzle

- Grand Önder Hotel – overlooking Aegean Sea where all the cruise ships visit; plenty of swimming and relaxing; blogspot.com was blocked; fireworks over the beach at night

Research:

House of Virgin Mary – see above; prayer wall resembles Western Wall in Jerusalem; one of the tissues was a prayer to get the current governing party out of office (AKP/Erdoğan and political Islam)