Day 7- Kusadasi, Turkey

Our day in Kusadasi was one of the most memorable days of this trip.This is a picture of Kusadasi to give you an idea of what the city looked like. Turkey was one of the most frustrating places to communicate with the local people. I had a very hard time understanding their English. The other countries we were in everyone had accents but you could understand them really well. Here asking a simple question like "Where is the restroom...the bathroom...the water closet...the toilet....?" "Ohhhh over there." Very frustrating. But Turkey was a beautiful place and even though we could not communicate well the people were nice.

The first thing we did in Turkey was go scuba diving. This is something I have wanted to do for a long time. I found a place that had beginner scuba diving and made arrangement through email to be picked up and spend a few hours scuba diving. I was nervous that the arrangement would be ok. Everything went perfectly. This is a picture of the place where we started.

This is Nicolle who is very excited. She had been snorkeling before but never scuba diving. And Julie who was not so excited. She hates putting her face in the water. She actually did not make it under the water.
This is me. Can you believe I went scuba diving. I have always had a fear of drowning and thought this was a perfect way to conquer that fear.
This is Nicolle showing off her cool swimming moves.

This is me feeding the fish. Our instructor found these little spiky black balls and cute them in half. The stuff that was in the middle the fish loved and swarmed around to eat it.
This is the sign for yes I am still breathing and everything is OK.
Nicolle feeding the fish.

I love this picture of Nicolle. Her eyes make her look like she is very nervous. I don't think that she was though.
There was a sign at the scuba place that said Caution you will never be happy on dry land again. Way true I am already wanting to go scuba diving again.

Our next stop that day was the ruin of Ephesus. We took a private tour so it was just the three of us and our tour guide and a driver. When we got out of the car at Ephesus it started to down pour. When we got back in the car it stopped raining. that was the way the rest of the day went. Also I don't have a lot of explanation of what the pictures are because I understood about half of what the guide said. I did understand that the excavation that is done here was done by foreigners and the Turkish government takes taxes to say they are spending it on excavating but they aren't really doing anything. 'The above picture is of the amphitheatre.
This is the library which was said to have housed over a thousand books, or scrolls as they were in that day.

This is a view looking down the main street of Ephesus.
This is us hiding out under and archway with our guide waiting for the rain to let up. Our guide was really nice and every time he was ready to move to another place he would say "Come my friends." I have not idea what his name was. I could not understand what he said it sounded like R2 to me so that is what I called him.
This is a river running down the street created by all the rain. I was smart today and had my tennis shoes on so I was not slipping on the marble street.
This was part of the bath house. It should not need any explaining.

We also visited St. Jeans Basilica that was located about 10 minutes from Ephesus. As I understood it this was not just a church but a sort of community inside of wall where St. John brought Mary, mother of Jesus, and it was a place where the christian could be safe and worship.

This was inside the Basilica. Does it look familiar to anyone? Can you guess it's purpose?
This is a view from the basilica. Very green and pretty country side.
Our other memorable stop was a carpet factory or school as they called it. Our guide says that we were right near a school where girls learn to make rugs would we like to go see. Of course that sounds like a cool cultural experience. Of course what it really was was a high pressure sales jewelry and carpet store. This is Nicolle testing out the rug for flying capabilities. I thought is was the only way we were going to get out of there. Luckily Nicolle did want to buy a rug.

After the purchase then they taught us how to tie know for rugs and let us try it out.

Overall it was a great day and we had some unforgettable experiences.

More pics coming!!