Day 21 – Izmir… Ephesus… House of Mary & St. John’s Basilica

 

Generally speaking we are comfortable making our own arrangements for shore excursions and travel outings.  In thinking about it, we may have only ever done 1 shore excursion through a cruise company, everything else has been something we’ve arranged on our own.  That all said, MIL & The Principal made specific arrangements for a tour, transportation for 12, a guide… everything we’d need to get from the port to Ephesus & the House of Mary.  It was going to cost 45 Euro each… but as it was our only guided tour planned for the entire trip, we figured we’d splurge.

You know that with all that planning something was bound to go wrong. We exited the ship and looked for our tour who was nowhere to be found.  A phone call confirmed that our ride/guide wasn’t there and didn’t sound like he was coming.  There was either some glitch in the confirmation of the date/time… or he found a higher paying fare.  Regardless, we were all standing on the port with nothing to do.  However, don’t believe for a moment that that means there was no transportation to be had.  Nosiree.  Like every other port/tourist drop off spot, taxis ABOUNDED… all promising a better trip than the other guy with a better taxi, more knowledge of the area, better English… you name it, they could promise it. 

We’d felt a little disenchanted with the Greek taxis, but we needed something. The Principal, with a little prayer, found a young guy that spoke pretty good English AND he and “his brother” could transport the 11 of us (DN decided to stay in the kids’ area on the ship) in just 2 taxis for 280 Euro.  It wouldn’t be a guided tour, but it also wouldn’t mean we’d be stuck getting lunch at some hole-in-the-wall, AND we’d be able to get out to see St. John’s Basilica… AND it was going to be cheaper than the 495 Euro anyway.  Definitely worth it, so they shook hands and we piled into the taxis.

It’s a somewhat lengthy trip out to Ephesus, and I was starting to get a little concerned… but then we saw the sign that read “Efes” .  YEA!!  The House of Mary is at a higher elevation than “regular Ephesus”, so we opted to start higher and work our way down.  It would be easier for those that were having a little trouble walking.

If you haven’t heard the story of how they found the house, I would encourage you to read it.  While there wasn’t a “Mary, mother of Jesus, slept here” sign… the evidence seems pretty solid… and, at the very least, is very interesting.  It’s a very small, humble house, fairly secluded with a cistern accessible to animals, up and “out of the way” of Ephesus-proper.

The trip down to Ephesus put on display a very large port city with TWO theatres, apartments/townhouses… shops… working streets… a few temples.  You can distinguish the “old city” from the “newer parts” of the city, and they’re still excavating. 

 

 

 

 

Sitting in the shade you can just imagine Paul beginning a church down by the river, moving in to the city from the sea.  People meeting in their “house churches”… St. John staying there doing what he could for the fellow believers… all in a bustling heathen city that took in the troubles of the then modern day world.

Poor Flat Paul didn't draw as much of a crowd. :)

On an interesting note... perhaps the street vendors in Turkey are more honest than those in major cities in Rome? At least they're not pretending that those are real Rolex watches right?

Oh well... our hopes for honest dealing were squashed on the final walk back to the ship as we were offered brand new 64gb iPads for a mere forty euros! For those inclined to give it a try... the ship's crew calls them "iRocks"... because that's what's inside the sealed box. :)

 

Our last trip was out to see St. John’s Basilica which was a small church built upon the tomb of St. John.  When the emperor Justinian found out about it, he decided it wasn’t NEARLY good enough, so he built the Basilica, utilizing the altar of St. John’s tomb as part of the focal point. 

It’s rather poignant that last time I was able to see where Peter is believed to be buried… and this time we’ve seen Paul, and now John. It makes them all seem that much more “real”… they were born… they lived… served the Father… and then died.

The trip back to Izmir was rather uneventful, and we reboarded the ship all agreeing we’d done our fair share of walking for the day.  Tomorrow is Istanbul… or Constantinople… or even Byzantium.  Whatever you call it, it promises to be intriguing and educational.