SWAG

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SWAG

Do you know what SWAG is? Or how about WAG?? Just as I expected….let tell you what it stands for, SWAG is a scientific wild ass guess and WAG is, well, non-scientific.

And so it goes (oh wow, what a great title for a blog that never got posted, anyhow) with the city of Ephesus. It is the ancient city long before the Romans came along and it’s also where most people believe (or SWAG) where Apostle Paul stood on a stage in a stadium that seated over 25,000 people and preached. (I stood on that stage today). It is also the city in which Queen Cleopatra had her library (and it is quite impressive). Most impressive is the Roman villas‘.

The Roman villas are currently undergoing excavation and is open for public viewing. The villas are covered since the exposure to the element could damage them. The cost thus far has been five million Euros’ and has been open to the public for about five years. This was the highlight of the city tour for me.

The villas floors are marble and mosaics of lions, people and complex patterns. The walls look as if they were painted, some are and some are marble. You can see piping in the walls, walls for sewage and water. Again, those Romans were quite the engineers and builders.

We walked down the marble streets, the same marble on which the Roman’s walked.

How romantic, huh? Well…..only if you were of nobility otherwise your life would suck back in those days.

Remember though, some of it’s just swag. Scientist are pretty sure from their evacuations and digging they are replacing the city to its former glory. But its still swag, nonetheless

And one little fun tidbit of information, the local beer, Effs come from Ephesus.

Afterwards, we visited this small village called, “the cute little village.” Indeed the name was correct. Had lunch at a little restaurant where the owner wanted to practice his English. It was fun. Afterwards, tasted all types of fruit wine from several wineries. Yes, not only is this region known for its mountains covered with olives trees, they sneak in a few grape vines that grows on the ground in clusters. I suppose then, they are not truly grape “vines” but you know what I mean.

One last fun comment on defensive walking. I’ve crossed roads in some pretty traffic congested cities in my life (Paris, Rome, Berlin) however none compare to these roads in Turkey. The car has the right away, and the first car that honks, gets the right away. Crosswalks mean nothing; the lines painted on the road (if there are any) means nothing.

Okay folks, and so it goes.

Prost.

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Photos

walls
to look like wall paper in the roman villa

villa
interesting to see

the theather
where Paul peached

water system
into Ephesus

Roman column
of a lion

nike
and me

marble walkway
still in use today

the main drag
and the library in the background

all orginal
walkway in front of the shops

public bathrooms
at least the men had something to go on

library
impressive

villa floor
of a lion, like this house

Comments

[Scott Weissbeck]

I love your blog!