Ephesus

It has been quite interesting reading the parts of Acts where Paul visits different Mediterranean cities at the same time as we are visiting them. We read Acts 19 the day we went to Ephesus, and it added much to the tour seeing the streets Paul would have walked on. We saw the square where the tradesmen rioted against Paul because he put a dent in their idol sales, and the massive amphitheater where he may have preached. The amphitheater is very cool - first, because it's HUGE (25,000 capacity), and second, because it has perfect acoustics. Julia stood at the stage at the bottom and I stood at the back, 20 plus meters up, and I could hear her gentle speaking perfectly

 

We arrived at the port of Kusadasi, which was a twenty minute tour bus drive from the ancient city of Ephesus. This was one of the few places we've visited without archaelogical machinery and scaffolding all over the place. This was because all restoration and excavation in Turkey is stopped for tourist season, which was great! According to our tour guide Ephesus was the biggest city of its time except Tokyo! I guess this means it was bigger than Rome!

 

It was amazing to see a large part of the city (actually only 15% of the 1st century city) restored so you could actually see what the city would have looked like. It was easy to get an idea for how the city would have looked and what life would have been like. As the Bible mentions it was a very worldly city - an advertisement can still be seen beckoning arriving sailors from the harbour to the city's brothel. The city had many slaves like Rome, and they were even made to sit on the marble toilets to keep them warm for the rich people.

 

After coming back to the port we decided to go to the beach - bad idea. The beach was absolutely packed, so we had to go into the water one at a time, one person guarding our stuff. Since we didn't have any shade and it was almost 40 degrees out, when we weren't in the water, we cooked. We lasted about 20 minutes. We ended our time in Ephesus getting famous Turkish coffee and becoming Facebook friends with our nice Intermediate Hist/Geo teacher waitress (Turks are VERY friendly).

 

- Andy

 

Istanbul

Istanbul is quite a fascinating, unique city! It is the only city in the world that is part of two continents (Europe and Asia). From our experience, the city and its people reflected more of the Middle East and Asia than Europe, probably mostly due to the prominent Islamic presence. Local students we spoke with said that 98% of Istanbul's residents are Muslim, however they joked that they don't all practice it. The first morning, we ate our breakfast on the back deck of the cruise and could easily point out 11 huge mosques (there are over a thousand in the large city of 15 million people).

Instead of doing one of the cruise tours, we explored on foot (wish we had one of those km trackers to put numbers to the amount of walking we've done in Europe!).

We started at the largest bazaar in the world, rightly named the "Grand Bazaar". It is famous for its size and also its beautiful, covered portion. This sure was an experience! There were THOUSANDS of little shops and vendors. Immediately, we were swarmed by vendors of all ages holding products in front of our faces and saying, " Where you from?". Although slightly taken aback by their intense marketing efforts, we quickly discovered how hilarious these Turkish vendors were. Andy had been hoping to find an Ozil Germany jersey... so he bartered to get one for ten euros.

 

Next, we had a delicious Turkish lunch! Yum! When we finished the meal, our friendly waiters insisted we have their apple tea... on the house! Oh we also tried Turkey's ice cream... SO different than anything I have had before. It's cold, still drips but it's more of a sticky, almost jube jube substance.

 

After lunch, we went to Istanbul's famous Blue Mosque. It is the largest in the city and has six minaretts (those tall spikey-looking towers with large speakerphones for the call to prayer announcements... most only have two or four). It gets its name for the blue tiles inside, decorating the ceilings. We went inside the Blue Mosque with all the tourists. Women must cover their head, shoulders and knees. Men and women must all take off their shoes. Our attention was directed to the well advertised free brochures, one titled "Why Jesus is Not the Son of God". I suppose churches have pamphlets arguing the opposite, but it did make me feel a little uncomfortable.

 

We were in Istanbul on a Friday, which is the Muslim Sabbath. As there are every day, there were FIVE calls to prayer. All of the men would pour in and out of the mosques for prayer at those times and you could easily hear the calls (which to us, sounded like Arabic singing) anywhere in the city!

Then we wandered the palace grounds, grateful to find shade and a faint breeze, before heading back to the cruise ship.

 

Lastly, I understand why Edmund in Narnia was so fond of Turkish Delight... it is mouth-wateringly delicious! On the second day, which was really just a morning, we hung out in a coffee shop and ate fantastic delicacies from an authentic Turkish bakery! Andy's favourite was the baclava.

- Julia

 

Marriage Building

We've been listening to sermons by Mark Driscoll on marriage. He and his wife, Grace, recently published a book on marriage so the sermon series, which started in January 2012, is based on chapters in the book. We haven't read the book, but listening is great because we were able to listen together on trains.

They have been FANTASTIC! Andy and I both HIGHLY recommend listening to these whether you are single, dating, engaged or married with any number of anniversaries under your belt. The sermons are firmly rooted in Biblical truth, vulnerably honest and offer very practical steps/challenges to move towards God's design for relationship and marriage. We've only listened to the first four in the series (pretty sure there are eight total). I can honestly say that I can't wait to listen to the rest!

Our cruise goal has been to read Tim Keller's book, "The Meaning of Marriage", as recommended by our pastor, Dwayne Cline. We are both halfway through and so far it's been mostly theological and has emphasized points on pursuing holiness and fueling friendship. We expect the next half will be a bit more practical.

If you have been praying for us, THANK YOU! God has been teaching us much about ourselves, each other and marriage. At some point, we'll try to write about our new learnings.

 

Santorini

It seems to me that every picture I've ever seen of Greece was taken in Santorini. The rugged coastline, royal blue Mediterranean Sea, narrow cliffside streets and, of course, the WHITE buildings were all so beautiful and so Greece! Santorini is a Greek Island formed by a volcano. One thing I was not expecting was the arid, desert terrain of the island. There was barely any vegetation... a few small shrubs (most of which looked dead), brown grasses, some potted palm trees, other tropical plants and, of all things, tomatoes (apparently grown without being watered).

 

We spent the afternoon and evening exploring the town of Fira, population 2000. Cruise ships are not able to dock at this port so guests are tendered to shore by boat taxis. I was amazed at the color of the water up close... it's such a bright royal blue and very clear, I've never seen anything like it! From the dock, we took a quick cable car / gondola to get us up to the town. From there, we just explored by getting away from touristy shops and discovering hidden gems! It was a fun day in Greece!

- Julia

P.S. This boy was in Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. We met the hosts of the director, who insisted I get a picture with this little guy haha.