Ephesus

Ephesus

Ephesus was a huge city.  Second biggest in the Roman world and that is saying something.  It had a fancy library and gigantic theater and more marble columns than any civilization has a right to.  It was the end of the Silk Road and the capitol of the Asian Provence of first century Rome.  This place was the cool place to hang out.

We had a Rick Steve's audio guide to the place on our iphone and the kids listened attentively.  But I think the best thing that happened was when I asked them to look for something they don’t understand.  Find a mystery and then come tell me what you think it makes sense.  Eden found a hole that likely was for storing small things.  Sam found a gap between the inner and outer walls of the library that was a secret passage.  I’m pretty sure Rick would not agree with their conclusions but I didn’t say anything.  The coolest part about travel is when you feel like you are finding something for the first time. 

My favorite find was a bit of fourth century graffiti of two gladiators.  Somebody had etched them on a wall over a lovely painting.  In the world before spray paint, hoodlums had a much harder time showing their favorite sport heroes. 

Mary’s House

My kids and I really don’t like having tour guides.  We joke that we would pay to not have them.  They ruin everything.  They give you dubious information and in exchange you have to look like you are paying attention.  We much prefer our audio tour guide.  But our taxi driver was a go getter who wanted to break into the tour guide world and so offered to show us around Mary’s house for free.  I couldn’t dissuade him and so he followed us to the site.  There was probably a vibe there.  Lots of people seemed to be feeling it.  We didn’t have the vibe.  We had a series of stops that were “you make a good photo here”  He gave us candles to pose with and told us things that definitely seemed true (“Many people here feel this is a religious site”).  He will likely make a great tour guide one day.