{"id":4934,"date":"2014-06-17T08:07:20","date_gmt":"2014-06-17T12:07:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/?p=4934"},"modified":"2014-06-17T08:09:44","modified_gmt":"2014-06-17T12:09:44","slug":"kusadasi-turkey-and-ephesus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/2014\/06\/17\/kusadasi-turkey-and-ephesus\/","title":{"rendered":"Kusadasi, Turkey and Ephesus"},"content":{"rendered":"
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My second most favorite place we\u2019ve visited in the entire world (after Linlithgow Palace in Scotland<\/a>) is Ephesus.\u00a0 We visited during a one day stop in the Turkish port of Kusadasi on our Holy Land cruise we took with my parents and sister.\u00a0 Honeybun was three and Sugarplum was 15 months and both of them had a great day and Honeybun still talks about what we saw that day.<\/p>\n

We started the day by disembarking the ship and meeting our tour guide (we had pre-arranged a private tour since we had a larger group).\u00a0 After messing with the girls\u2019 car seats and nearly heading back to the ship in frustration when I couldn\u2019t get Honeybun\u2019s secure (I finally got it in!) we headed off on our visit.<\/p>\n

\"download<\/a> \"download<\/a>\u00a0Our first stop was at Mother Mary\u2019s House.\u00a0 It is believed that the Virgin Mary was taken to this house by John after Jesus\u2019 crucifixion and she lived out her life there.\u00a0 The house is small and visiting is a quick in, look around, and shuffle out.\u00a0 But even as a non-religious person, it was amazing to see and be in the place where such an important historical figure might have lived thousands of years ago.<\/p>\n

\"download<\/a>\u00a0We then headed to the ancient city of Ephesus which has been largely uncovered and walking the streets now it is so easy to imagine what the city was like in it\u2019s heyday. The visit starts with a bunch of pillars and pieces just laying around and my initial feeling was “ok, more ruins. \u00a0This is nice.” \u00a0But then as you keep walking down the path, the city literally opens up in front of you and it is breathtakingly amazing:<\/p>\n

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Many of the buildings have been excavated and rebuilt and the stories are easy to see.\u00a0 The bathrooms where politicians used to (apparently) have discussions, the houses where the upper class lived and the houses where the lower class lived and of course the Library of Celsus.\u00a0 It was all so real and miraculous.\u00a0 When we were there, I could see the people all that time ago going about their day and living their lives in this important and now miraculous city.<\/p>\n