We spent the past 2 days in Kusadasi, Turkey. This was definitely the most touristy city we have been to so far. There were two other cruise ships docked with us. If you look at the picture below you can get a sense of how small the MV Explorer is compared to some of these HUGE ships. The white one in front is a Royal Caribbean and the little blue one next to it is the MV. She might be small but she it mighty!! The first day at Kusadasi was not all that exciting. We just walked around town for an hour or so, but we were getting harassed like crazy by shop owners to come into their stores. The cat calls were getting a little out of hand so we spent the rest of the day relaxing on the ship. It was actually really nice since the ship was empty! We basically had the whole thing to ourselves.
Today we got up early to go and see the house Virgin Mary spent the remainder to her life before she died. That was a really cool experience. We got to walk into her house, and then there is a spring of Holy Water right next to it. Down the road from the house it a wall with thousands and thousands of prayers written on anything from tissue paper and napkins to bus tickets. The prayers are tied onto these poles connected to the wall. It was a really cool thing to see. Then we took a taxi to go see Ephesus. Ephesus is a town of ancient ruins. It is believed that many of Jesus's disciples spent many years of their lives there. It was awesome! It amazes me how many of the ruins are still standing. Something my friends and I also discovered is that ruins and monuments in other countries are not roped off. So you can go up and actually touch and climb on the ruins. There may or may not have been some Greek statue poses made on some of the pedestals. Overall it was a wonderful place to see. By far one of my favorite sites so far on this trip.
Tomorrow morning we leave Kusadasi for Athens, Greece. We only have one day of class (tomorrow) between out departure and our arrival so that makes us students very happy. We are more than half way done with class since we have so many port days coming up in the next 6 weeks. This trip is flying by and it is about to get a whole lot faster. I miss everyone at home so much, but I do not know how I am going to readjust to looking out my window at home and just seeing grass or other buildings. I am getting so used to seeing the beautiful sea water or an interesting foreign city. Maybe I'll just take a picture of my porthole window and just put it on my window at home :)
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