Our smooth travels thus far become a little rougher as we left Cappadocia. Our flight departed on schedule and arrived on time in Izmir. Unfortunately the man who was supposed to be at the baggage claim with my name on a sign wasn't there. After waiting quite a while, I assumed the car rental arrangement got mixed up somehow. I started making plans for another car when the original car finally arrived. After fiddling with the GPS for about half an hour, we finally got it to speak English and we headed for the apartment that would be our home for one night. Unfortunately, the man who owns the apartment didn't give the full address and we ended up on the right street with no idea where to go. A friendly shopkeeper finally tracked down our host. The sleek-looking online photos of the apartment were nothing like the reality, and it was far from Leroy's standard of clean, but we were happy to finally get to the right place! Unfortuantely, both Leroy and I have been hit with a bout of "Sultan's Revenge" (likely culprit: some unfriendly micro-organisms) which hasn't been pretty. We rallied in the evening enough to walk through a creepy amusement park down the street.
This morning we headed for Ephesus (with me driving, again, since no automatics were available) and got there by late morning. We had a fantastic time touring the ruins and learning more about the city of 200,000 that once existed by the Aegean Sea. Over time, silt from a river filled in the harbor and eventually the town was five miles inland from the sea. An earthquake did serious damage, and before long the whole city just got up and moved somewhere else. The streets and columns and remains of buildings and ampitheatres are fascinating and quite photogenic. The centerpiece is the Celcus Library, once one of the largest libraries in the Roman Empire. It collapsed in the earthquake, but the facade has been reconstructed. The heat was getting to Leroy and me, and we found the space behind the library doors to be cool, quiet, and restful, just like a library should be! The Apostle Paul spent three years establishing a church in Ephesus before being chased away by worshippers of the god Artemaus.We also visited the "Home of the Virgin Mary." It is a shrine created out of an ancient stone house at the top of a mountain. Tradition says that Mary spent her final years near Ephesus, and the mountaintop location of the shrine is an inspiring place to contemplate the life of Jesus' mother. Hardly anyone believes that was really her home, though.
We're in the city of Kusadasi, now, on the Aegean Sea close to Ephesus. Tomorrow we leave Turkey bright and early by boat and arrive by ten on the Greek Island of Samos. I walked along the waterfront this evening (alone - Leroy is still feeling pretty ill) and watched groups of men and teenagers with arms full of long-stemmed red carnations handing out flowers to all the women on the promenade. I guess it's Mother's Day here in Turkey, too!