Saturday, August 3, 2013

Ephesus

The city of Ephesus has been settled since the 10th century BC. The ruins are the most intact of all the ruins in Europe and so far only 10% of the city has been excavated. At is peak they estimate 250 000 people lived in Ephesus. The city had parliament buildings,  a library,  running water (plumbing), a coliseum,  public washrooms and a gymnasium. The main street was marble covered and lined with elaborate carved fountains.  As mentioned, the sun was a little hot :)
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Friday, August 2, 2013

Ephesus




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Ephesus




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Ephesus

Went to the ruins at Ephesis. It was hot.  Real hot.  The hottest ever.  I thought there was going to be one more dead Christian in Ephesus. I drank three liters of water in 2.5 hours. Survived,  but just barely :)



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Thursday, August 1, 2013

Gladiator Fight Yesterday


Not a real one.  Nobody died. 

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The Facebook Traveler

There is a new type of traveler out there - the facebook traveler. They don't really have a personal interest in the country they are traveling to.
 They aren't interested in the history, cultural or natural wonders of the place.  What they are obsessed about is getting the perfect picture so they can upload it to facebook and change their status.  They can be standing in ruins 12 thousand years old and they could care less about the history of the place or how beautiful it looks standing on the clifftop over the Mediterranean sea. In fact they rarely seem to notice either of these things as they are so busy with their camera.  I think if you waited 24 hours and took them back to the same spot they wouldn't recognize it as they never looked at it in the first place. They were too busy with their camera. The facebook traveler travels through many countries but can't tell you one darn thing about the country visited at the end of the trip. It's all about how it appears online.  Lots of pictures,  lots of countries listed on their homepage.  But no real interest in traveling other than creating a particularly adventurous online image.  I only care because it's starting to affect me.  I feel I am in some sort of national geographic documentary. Like I am a rare endangered species that needs to be photographed constantly. 
I have had more photos taken of me than the lions of the Serengeti. I am constantly stopped in my tracks and asked to pose for pictures.  And one is never enough.  They need to be taken from all angles in all different lighting with different poses. Tyra Banks I am not.......but I am starting to develop her temperament.   I don't understand why they want me on their pictures.  We are not friends.  The money they paid was for the tour,  it did not include the purchase of my friendship. 
Out of annoyance I started doing silly faces in the pictures only to discover that silly faces means the picture must be taken again and you could be subject to a group scolding. 
I hate cameras.  




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One of the seven ancient wonders of the world

We visited the ruins of the temple of Artemis. It was one of the seven wonders of The Ancient world and one of the reasons why Ephesus was so rich.  People from all over the world would come to see the temple and worship on it.  All that is left right now are the columns you see in the picture.  There was a turtle swimming in the water below so that caused some excitement in our group. 


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