epistle

{does anyone else like pronouncing the "t" in that word, just for fun?}

the apostle paul visited ephesus (or so the bible tells us), and so did i! though i think it is probably safe to say our experiences were a little different.

mine looked like this.

























and this is definitely a new addition since paul's time.



poor guy was really missing out.

ruined

remember that one time when i went to turkey?

(i know, my blog backlog is totally pathetic.)

well, i am also counting that as a trip to greece. or at least as a trip to ancient greece, because we spent a few days climbing all over some pretty bodacious ancient greek ruins. (ancient + ruins = department of redudancy department?)

sometimes ruins are totally yawn, but these ones had been preserved and reconsructed so well that you could really spend hours just wandering around, imagining the days when these ruins were bustling metropoli, filled with people wearing togas (one of my favorite exercises).

the largest ruins by far were at ephesus (of bible fame), basically a whole city that has been reconstructed. but i am reserving those photos for a post of their very own. luckily for this post, we also hit up priene and didyma. (and luckily for us, you can hit them up without knowing how to pronounce them.)

behold!

{we encountered some rain at didyma, which would have been a disaster if they weren't selling animal umbrellas at the tourist shop across the street. to honor the temple we were visiting, we named him apollo.}

{priene is a city of ruins, up at the silent top of a mountain, so it has a serene, almost eerie sense. it also has the ruins of the temple of athena, so "battlestar galactica" references abounded. dana was very patient.}







{and yes, i am wearing polka dot socks with my sandals. desperate times, people.}

in short, i give (ancient) greece two enthusiastic thumbs up. and don't worry if you haven't had your fill yet. there is more to come.

topkapi is tops

a while back i was trying to think of ways that we could make a bunch of money without having to have jobs, and i concluded that we should become jewel thiefs. one good heist and we would be set for life. especially, i now know, if the heist involved topkapi palace.

we are talking emeralds the size of my face, people. gold-leaf, pearl encrusted thrones. (michael jackson tried to buy one. tried and failed.) the sixth largest diamond in the world. topkapi palace is a jewel thief's dream.

topkapi palace is also a dream if you're into fake religious artifacts, such as the bone from john the baptist's forearm and a piece of mohammed's beard, both of which claim to be there and both of which, i am certain, are not.

and, finally, if you're just into wandering through gorgeous grounds (tulips everywhere!) and scoping out old gazebos with delicate tile work, topkapi palace might be the place for you, too.

one mosque, two mosque, new mosque, blue mosque

it can be sort of easy to forget that turkey is a muslim country.



until, of course, the blaring call to prayer wakes you up at 4:30 in the morning.



or until you remember that half the women around you have their heads covered.



or until you visit some of the most stunningly beautiful mosques you have ever seen in all your live long days.



it starts with the ayasofya (or hagia sophia, depending on where you're from. i like the first one better because the spelling doesn't remind me of the word hag. but, to each his own.)



ransacked by crusaders, the outside is not much to look at (IMHO. again, to each his own), but the inside is just breathtaking, a wonderful hodge-podge of muslim artifacts, including massive disks of calligraphy bearing the name of Allah, and christian influences, like intricate tile mosaics of Jesus and the Virgin Mary, the doctrinal cross-over owing to the fact that the ayasofya has served as both a mosque and a christian house of worship in its long and eventful life. now it is technically a museum, but don't tell it that.

{my tour book pointed out that this is one of the most impressive religious mosaics in the world. never mind that the bottom two-thirds is missing.}









across the way, you'll find the blue mosque.

the blue mosque is sort of the opposite of the ayasofya. the blue tile and soaring minarets make for a gorgeous exterior, but dana pointed out that the inside is sort of like a convention center. since the mosque is still in use, we decided to forgive this. in fact, we arrived right at prayer time and had to wait outside while the prayer finished up before we could go in.













the minarets on the outside actually caused a big scandal back in the day because there are six of them, the same number of minarets at the big mosque in mecca. no mosque had ever rivaled mecca like that, and no one knew quite what to do. the final solution was to add a seventh minaret in mecca. now you know.

or, if you are looking for something a little more modern, you can head over to the new mosque, which is, of course, not really new at all, but we are speaking in relative terms here.

i can totally pass, right?