Last Day in Turkey

On a trip like this it’s a little difficult to keep up with everything that has been going on.  Even what I’ve written barely scratches the surface of what we’ve seen, what we’ve learned, and where we’ve gone.  But even the surface-scratching sometimes takes a back seat to other activities, and the journal gets delayed until the next day, when sitting in an airport.

Each day needs an extra hour or two, just to process and absorb the day.

Yesterday dawned cloudy and a little cooler, a change from the weather we've had so far.  The last several days have been ideal, sunny and mid 70's every day.  Couldn’t ask for anything better.

We headed south from Kuşadası, with two destinations for the day, Miletus and Didyma.  There’s not much left of Miletus, but the theater is well-preserved.  It used to overlook the waters of the Aegean Sea, but silting over time has moved the sea several miles to the west, and all the flat lowlands around the theater are now used for farming wheat and cotton.

Miletus was an important city, planting colonies around the world, controlling trade, producing thinkers like Thales and Hippodamus.  It was also the Apostle Paul’s last stop before traveling to Jerusalem, where he knew that imprisonment awaited him.  Paul gave his farewell address to the elders here.

Then on to Didyma, the site of one of the largest temples in the ancient world.  Dedicated to Apollo, this place is gargantuan, with each pillar being 6.5 feet in diameter and reaching a height of 65 feet.  120 of these columns, at $8-9 million, made it expensive also.  Some of the columns were never completed, even after 500 years of construction.

Here, an oracle would answer all your nagging questions, provided you brought an acceptable offering and were willing to wait days, weeks, or even months for an ambiguous answer.  Oracles at other sites gave their answers after breathing the gasses that issued from the ground.  Here there appeared to be some similar state of ecstasy  needed for the oracle.

The contrast is stark—The people seeking answers expended enormous cost and effort for vague, ambiguous guidance.  We have unlimited access to God’s Word and Spirit—and yet we often don’t take the time to listen.

Back in Kuşadası, we had some of the afternoon left, so we strolled downtown to the market area to look for souvenirs.  Lots of cruise ships coming in and out means lots of people selling stuff to tourists, so the market area is large, a maze of streets and narrow alleyways with all imaginable trinkets.  Except T-shirts.  I could buy a lot of T-shirts, but everything offered was either famous brand names, sports teams or airlines.  I didn’t want a shirt from Qatar Airways.  I wanted one from Kuşadası. It took surprisingly long to find one.

We had some fun tasting some fruity teas in some of these shops and looking at the local wares.  One of the things we wanted was some Turkish small change so I changed ten bucks at one of the money exchange booths for local currency and we spent this, requesting the change in coins and small bills.

Another big spread for dinner overlooking the Aegean, on what was our last night in Kuşadası, then we had to get to bed early to make it to the airport for our next destination:  Athens, Greece.

The hotel graciously provided a full breakfast at 5am so we could leave by 5:30.  Today is a travel day, taking the bus back to Izmir, a flight to Istanbul, and then another flight to Athens.  We’ll spend a couple days in Greece before taking the long flight home.

One thing I always find interesting is to plot our route as it all plays out.  Here, the circle is complete.  We are now back to the starting point in the circle: Izmir.  We haven't covered all that much of Turkey, but we did manage to see some areas.  Turkey is a beautiful country.  The scenery along this entire route was enjoyable.  Would definitely go back.