Back Home (Turkey)

Even though Turkey is far, far, far away from home, it was comforting to return. We are beginning to understand the language, culture and food (albeit limited). After leaving Greece on the ferry, we took a bus up to Selçuk to spend a couple of days.-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Ephesus (sister town to Selçuk) is an ancient Roman city that has been uncovered to show its once-obvious aristocracy and wealth. Ephesus is the best-preserved Roman city in existence (odd since it is in Turkey) and covers about 2 square miles - taking the better part of a day just to walk through the marble streets. The streets were themselves fascinating to us because the marble cobblestones showed wear from the thousands of carts being driven on them and evidence of the underground trenching that contains terracotta pipes. As the phrase "money doesn't stink" says, Ephesus had a gravity-driven water system throughout the entire town with fountains to provide clean water and a complete sewer system to discard dirty water, e.g. from the fancy group toilet room. The highlight of Ephesus includes the giant library with beautifully carved statues of the towns people and the amazing theater. The theater was about three times the size a Red Rocks Amphitheater in Golden, Colorado and was constructed so the acoustics would allow the people in the back to hear the performers just as well as those at the front row.-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------For the travel back to Istanbul, we learned that by taking a plane we would save 15 hours on a bus and it would only cost $7 more per person. So, we opted for flight. In hindsight, the bus may have been the safer bet; we flew into Istanbul in hurricane gusts. I was thinking of my good friend Sooz during the very bumpy flight, especially when I had to hold Braden's hand on the landing. We made it without any permanent physical damage and spent a windy night walking the streets of Istanbul.-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------While in Istanbul, we went to the impressive Topaki Palace. The four successively smaller, stone-wall courtyards provided protection to the greater population, politicians, harem ladies, and the sultan, respectively. There were many secret passageways to enter and exit from one elaborately decorated room to the next in the harem. Also, there was a private veranda that the sultan was able to indulge in food inconspicuously during the fasting month of Ramadan. The treasury room displaying exquisite 3-inch diameter emerald encrusted daggers and a 2-inch diameter diamond pendent that was referred to as the spoon maker's diamond because it was originally bought for 3 spoons because it was too large to be considered a real diamond. Extravagance was spilling out of the palace.