December 4th-5th

---

This was our day to visit Ephesus. This ancient city was rebuilt 4 times due to earthquakes and fire. Ephesus's streets are paved with marble and lined with columns. The library was the third largest in its time. There were bath houses for the rich and poor. The council amphitheatre was bigger then most of our playhouses now, and the amphitheatre for drama and games could hold 24000 people. There is a part of the ruins that are covered and excavated with exacting care. Here the terrace homes display their painted walls with birds and vines, fruit and flowers. The floors are covered in mosaics of increasing complexity. Other rooms have panels of marble split to have mirrored images in stone side be side. The terraced house climb on top of each other as they move up the hill side. The roof of one becoming the decorated floor of another. To think that the architecture and beauty could be so stable 2000 years ago, that the beauty shines through now leaves me gasping with awe. The rest of the day was left to our own whims with great fried sandwiches, wandering the town streets again and cosy book reading in the hotel.

We arrived in a small Adriatic town to stay in a pension that has odd shaped rooms, a terrace that looks out over the town and down to the sea, pillows on the floors and a cosy vibe. Thursday is farmer's market. Every street was filled with stalls and the market square was heaped with veggies, fruits, dried fruits and spices. There were pancake sellers that had huge piles of unbaked pastry, that defied my imagination. The pastry is rolled as thin as phyllo dough into circles with a three foot diameter. These are piled up two to three feet deep. Then they fold them into squares to sell. We walked the market and then the water line. I watched an incredible sunset through the coal smoke haze, across the water it set into a soft mountain range. Then we wound our way up to the pension through tiny streets, all cobbled. We played backgammon again before supper and ended the day on the water edge for supper; Jacob tried octopus.

Good Night and Sweet Dreams

---