dripping with passion

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 swoos...

on our last morning in istanbul, we visited suleymaniye mosque, and it turned out to be our favourite of all the mosques we saw in turkey. it stands high on a hill overlooking the city and it is so huge and majestic.   ^^ love, love the courtyard and the entryway. such beautiful symmetry and details. ^^   ^^ and love, love those striped arches. ^^   ^^ there is also a gorgeous burial ground sprinkles with bright purple irises on the grounds outside the mosque. ^^ we had our last turkish meal on the top floor of a restaurant overlooking the blue mosque and the hagia sophia. we sat right by the open window and thoroughly enjoyed. before we left istanbul, we went to church! it felt soooo good to be there, having missed formal church meetings during our time in china and nepal (we still tried to retain sabbath observance and had some “church meetings” together with just the two of us, but it’s certainly not quite the same as being in church!). in istanbul, we met in this ...