TGIF

Friday June 10.
2am, laying in bed staring at the ceiling, can't sleep.  Don't wake Amber.  
Amber moves around.
"are you awake."
"yes, I can't get to sleep. You?"
"can't sleep either."

So apparently Turkish delight has some caffeine in it.  We think there may have been an espresso bean one in the mix.  Whatever it was, it sucked.  We didnt get to sleep until after 3.  The 5am alarm came awful early.  

Anyway, Friday was a half travel day.  Shuttle trip to the airport, flight to Izmir, shuttle to bus station, bus to Selcuk.  Around noon, we arrive in Selcuk and check into the hostel, Homero's Pension.  We get an over decorated room with three single beds (grrr) a shower, bathroom, and ac.

At around 2 we head out to the ruins of Ephesus.  It was a nice 35 minute walk (probably 45 minutes for people who don't have to keep up with Amber).  We could have easily grabbed a shuttle but we thought the walk would help us wake up.  I think it helped but we were still super groggy.  

The ruins were pretty amazing.  It started off a little slow but after seeing so many ruins and imaging the city at it's peak, I was impressed.  We saw the ruins of a church dedicated to the Virgin May, who lived there after Jesus' death.  We saw the stadium where the disciple John gave a speech against worshiping the roman gods.  We saw the library, baths, marble streets, and all kinds of things I can't remember right now.  After at least 2 hours we started to run low on fuel.  The ruins are about 3Km long.  We walked 3Km to get there and another 3Km to get home.  
On the walk home we stopped at the site of the temple of Artemis.  There wasn't much left of the temple.  The marble  had been "recycled" for use in other monuments.  The most amazing part was the fact that one of the most impressive buildings in the world once stood there and now there is almost nothing.  We also visited the ruins of the Basilica of St. John.  At one point this would have been one of the largest churches in the world.  I think it was an earthquake that brought it down.

That evening we washed up, took a little nap, and had dinner with the other pension guests.  We met another Canadian, two brits, and a French guy.  The dinner was a delicious home cooked Turkish meal- much better than the food in Istanbul. We were still feeling the effects of being up all night from the Turkish delight so we went to bed early.