the ancient city of ephesus (and an epic haircut)

after our stop in dubrovnik, we had an entire day and overnight at sea before arriving in kusadasi, turkey. kusadasi is a lovely little coastal town, but the main reason cruises stop there is because of its proximity to the ancient city of ephesus. our tour group took a bus from the port to the ruins and we had an awesome time exploring this historic, significant place.

it was pretty amazing to walk around imagining the column-lined avenues, large amphitheaters, and once magnificent buildings teaming with life and activity thousands of years ago. we were particularly excited to see the place where the apostle paul preached, and before we explored we considered paul’s teachings in the epistle to the ephesians. being in ephesus made me reflect on my time in the holy land (i studied abroad in jerusalem in 2007), and that made me happy.

despite the sweltering heat and the big crowds, we loved ephesus!

 
^^ my cute pops with the goddess nike. you can kind of see where the nike swoosh comes from?! ^^
 
^^ we were amused by this little boy taking a break in the shade with his ipad. modern technology among ancient ruins! you can’t see too well on the right, but that pillar is engraved with roman letters. just amazing to think about how old this stuff is! ^^

^^ inside a covered excavation area, we were able to check out some remains of some multi-story ephesian homes. the mosaics and frescoes were incredible to see! ^^

^^ the people i love the most in all the world! ^^

^^ imagining being a listener to paul’s preaching. ^^

^^ mom and dad with the tour company’s trip directors, ron and pam. we got to know them pretty well and we absolutely love them. such good people. ^^

^^ inside and outside paul’s preaching place. ^^

we had about an hour of free time back in kusadasi before we had to get back on the ship. it was fun to be in a different part of turkey (we visited cappadocia and istanbul back in may). we found some turkish ice cream (our favourite!) and wandered the charming streets.

 

ian had been needing a haircut, and when we walked past a barber we decided to continue his streak of different exotic haircut locations (his last three were in london, galapagos islands and yangshuo, china). when the barber suggested ian also get a shave, we decided to go for it because he has always wanted to try a proper shave from a barber. it turned out to be a pretty epic experience which included a cleansing face mask, eyebrow threading and burning stray hairs off/out of the ears! yeah … i was sitting behind the barber chair going through pictures on my camera when ian said, “look, chare,” and i look up to see this guy singeing away with an open flame – haha! by the end we were good friends with the barber and ian felt thoroughly pampered :) and we hopped back on the splendour of the seas.

 

next stop…greece!