Ephesus, Priene, and some Churchy Churches

Another post about Turkey...shocking! 

Thursday of our trip, we woke up to a lovely Aqua Fantasy breakfast buffet.  Or in my case...I hurriedly ran to the buffet, sneakily stuffed food into my bag, and ran to hop on the bus.  Mornings are not my strong point.  I enjoy sleep a little too much!

The first stop of the day was Ephesus! Oh man, I loved Ephesus! Ephesus was the coolest because it is ancient ruins, but so much has been excavated, so it was really easy to imagine the city that was there.

This was right outside Ephesus, but it cracked me up. At least they are honest! hahaha

A lot of the sites that we see I start to feel like Donkey (from Shrek), "I like that boulder, that is a nice boulder." I feel like, "I like that ruin, that is a nice ruin." "I like that column, that is a nice column." It starts to blend together, and I feel like I have to lean my head and squint a little to imagine what used to be there. Ephesus was cool because you could see so much of what used to be there! 

I thought this was a pretty cool shot. 

Yes. Toilets.

The Library of Celsus.

Another one of my favorite aspects of Ephesus was that Paul also went to Ephesus as part of his mission.  It was the coolest thing reading Acts 19, while standing in Ephesus. The best part was that people were assigned roles, and this chapter was acted out, and it was amazing. It completely brought the scriptures to life. There was some chanting of, "Great is Diana of the Ephesians." And when they, "rushed with one accord into the theatre," you better believe we did the same. So great! It was definitely one of my favorite aspects of the trip.

Karen and I pointing to the picture of Ephesus in the Bible. Huge theater in the background!

Something that was so interesting to see, was that in this chapter Paul speaks of their worship to false gods, like Diana.  Walking around Ephesus, it was so easy to see how people of this time struggled with false idolatry.  There were multiple frescos of gods, and we saw multiple temples. It's no wonder the people were so confused!! Ephesus had one of these temples...the Temple to Artemis. 

On the same grounds of Ephesus was the Church of Mary.

I love the little red flowers.

Hey, look. It's a baptismal font. That's neat.

Ok. That was a lot of Ephesus pictures. But I'm sure it is not hard to see why Ephesus was one of my favorite spots. I need to track down that video of our little performance.

This day, we also went to a Priene. Priene was pretty, but after going to Ephesus it wasn't quite as grandeur. But still great! Priene was one of the locations of the Temple to Athena.

We love jumping pictures!

Camila. Love her! Our sassy Colombian.

We were all pretty warn out by this point, but we had one more stop of the day. The Church of St. John. "Apparently" this is where John was buried...but in the church...we tend to think otherwise. I'm sure if you thought that John had died...it would be a pretty cool sight though. It still was a pretty church.

We are on the antiquities...don't tell Bro. Jackson! 

It was another great day in Turkey. We got back with enough time to jump into the pool at Aqua Fantasy (I still can't get over that hotel name). It wasn't quite as warm as hoped, but it was fun getting in the pool. Then, spending the night walking along the beach (that sounds romantic, but it was definitely with all girls), and sharing stories on the pier!

Another great day amidst the ruins!