Christmas, continued

Togetherness
Originally uploaded by MomLes.

So, as I was saying before life intruded...

We went to Ephesus the day after Christmas on our own private tour. We're very fortunate to have met a couple of wonderful people at our church: Janet,an archaeologist whose special interest is Christianity in Ephesus, and Mick, whose wife Evin is an expert guide used by the Smithsonian and other august groups. They both gave us time that day.

Janet has helped organize an exhibit of inscriptions found at Ephesus relating to early Christianity. She took us around that exhibit at the museum in Selçuk (the modern town on the edge of the ruins), and her enthusiasm was irresistable. How one can look at a list of names on a block of stone and discover something that sheds light on the book of Acts I don't understand, but she can do it. We were fortunate to be able to borrow her eyes for a time.

Evin showed us and some of Mick's cousins about the site of Ephesus. It's huge, and only partly excavated. It was the most important city in Asia Minor (the Asian part of Turkey) in its day, and remained important until the river silted in. St. Paul taught there (and nearly got stoned in the amphitheatre), Antony and Cleopatra made love there, the ancient mother-goddess Cybele in the form of Artemis was worshipped there, and people built baths and libraries and other monumental structures all over the place. About a quarter of the city has been excavated - there are centuries of innocent entertainment for archaeologists waiting to be uncovered. Amazing place.

Oh yes - the picture. They had public lavatories with running water there in Roman times. The waste was carried away by water draining from the public baths next door. We decided to try a bit of togetherness. The seats would have been far less cold in Roman days.

Evan left the next day and we had Rachel to ourselves for a bit. Mostly we vegged around a lot (I developed a cold on Christmas Day and Ron got his a few days later), but we managed a bit of sightseeing from time to time. We went to Kadefikale (the castle on the hilltop in the centre of town) in time to hear the mid-afternoon call to prayer rising from all the hundreds of mosques in the city - a wave of sound sweeping over the place. Then we walked down the hill, passing the mosque built on top of the stadium where St. Polycarp was martyred, until we came to the ruins of the ancient Agora. This was the public square in Hellenistic and Roman times where all the official business was carried out. It was used as a cemetery in Selcuk and Ottoman times, so it was easy to dig up much of it when archaeologists decided to have a look. There's still a lot underneath the houses around, but there's enough now to get an idea of the scale of the place.

In ancient times the marketplace extended from the Agora to the seaport, and it still does today. I think some of those shops with workshops attached may have been there since Roman days. Who knows? Maybe the family that makes tinware for the tourist trade made swords for the Romans.

Rachel and I poked around the old market on Thursday, spending most of our time in the refurbished caravanserai where people sell things tourists like. It's a lot better than the İstanbul Grand Bazaar - less touristy, fewer high-pressure touts, better quality stuff. We got a few things and then went to meet Ron, who had been teaching across the harbour at Çiğli, for supper at a nice fish restaurant.

Saturday Rachel and I tried visiting the ancient city at Tepekule in the suburb of Bayraklı. Still no luck; still closed. We prowled around Bayraklı a bit, marvelling at the New Year's Eve crowds and enjoying a mild, sunny day. There were people in the parks along the seashore sunbathing and socializing - at the end of December! (And there were bees in the flowers, too, and open daffodils). Ron made a magnificent smoked salmon quiche for New Year's Eve, and then we welcomed the New Year on our rooftop terrace by waving sparklers and watching the fireworks pop up over the neighbours' roofs.

Sunday both Ron and I were under the weather with our colds hanging on longer than we wanted, but by the afternoon we couldn't resist the warm sun so piled our daughter into the bus and headed south to the Teleferik again. When we visited it with Evan a couple of weeks before it was windy and freezing cold, but on New Year's it was warm and sunny with almost no wind. Lots of people up there, too - kids playing with their New Year's gifts; young couples enjoying some time away from the watchful eyes of their families; many generations of the same family picnicking together. They have an unusual sort of facility on the top of the mountain: a "You Cook, You Eat" place where you can buy food at a little convenience store (or bring your own?), rent a barbecue, get coals from a huge central furnace and cook your food. Lots of people were doing that, and the smells were wonderful. Turks are superb barbecue artists.

And then Rachel went home, as you read in the earlier post.

For the rest of the week we're just going to slouch around and be lazy. But on Saturday we're taking off for the Kurban Bayram holidays. To Egypt! Three nights in Cairo, four nights on a cruise of the Nile between Luxor and Aswan. Details are here. Maybe we'll be warm again for a bit.