Turkey

We had so many experiences crammed into 10 days that just looking at the pictures is like, "Wait, I forgot about that!" In a perfect world, I would be able to relay to you all of the information and history we learned about on our trip...but alas, the world is not perfect and more importantly- neither is my memory. So, my plan is to do a post for every port we went to. You guys have nothing better to do right?? Just kidding.

I've been so very bad about keeping a written journal of the past couple years, so this blog has filled the role. Plus, unlike sunglasses, you cannot lose a blog. Or can you?

Anyway, about Turkey. We flew into Istanbul and had a day and a half there and then the boat took off for Kusadasi, Turkey. Here is a map of the middle east so you can get a visual of where we were. The path I drew is the part of the trip I'm referring to in this post.



Zoomed in:



A cool thing about Istanbul is that half of the city is in the European continent and half is in the Asian continent. This cruise actually went to 3 different continents. So cool!


We went a little outside of Kusadasi to the biblical city of Ephesus. This is the city that Mary was said to have spent the remainder of her life after Jesus was crucified. We got to go in her house!




Outside of the house people write a prayer request on a piece of paper and then tie it to this fence with tissues. Our tour guide told us that your prayers are never heard more than in this spot in the world and that lots of people come to ask for healing. I believe that God hears our prayers no matter where we are in the world.



Then we walked down the roads of this ancient city.





Can you just imagine living back in those times?



We finished off the day with some traditional Turkish apple tea and Baklava. Baklava is a sweet pastry that tastes like warm condensed milk with crushed nuts in it. Basically- heaven. Yum!