Paul's Real Letter to Ephesians

If I had been St. Paul writing my letter to the Ephesians, I would have started it by saying, “Dear Brothers and Sisters, good luck keeping those souvenir shop vendors from trying to sell you Roman coins and fake Rolex watches.”

Seriously, Folks. These guys don't know the meaning of the word no. And we haven't even been to Egypt yet where the street vendors are supposed to be worse.

But what a great day we had overall. Through a website called cruisecritic.com (which connects cruisers to others on their same cruise and allows them to share ideas, etc), Bill had gotten us on a private tour of Ephesus. There were 25 of us, and the person putting together the cruise had gotten us a very knowledgeable tour guide (he actually had been an archaeologist and was retired from that career). We got started very early – meeting at 7:30 and on the road by 8.

Our first stop was at the home believed to be where the apostle John and the Virgin Mary had lived after the death and resurrection of Jesus. Remember in John's gospel, Jesus handed over his mother to the care of his beloved friend John (Mother, behold your son; John, behold your mother). Tradition holds that John and Mary went to Ephesus. When things became a bit too hairy and unsafe, they moved to a house in the hills above Ephesus. It is believed that Mary's human life ended in Ephesus (Catholics believe she was assumed body and soul into heaven). John eventually died a natural death in Ephesus, and is buried near there.

Most of the structure that sits at the site is not original, although the foundation is from the original house. The home is very small, and where the kitchen would have been is an altar with a bronze statue of Mary. The tour moves people in a line through the home and out the other side, where there is a picture of the Blessed Mother with all of the citations from the Koran written below (and there are many references to Mary in the Koran).

After the tour, you pass by the first of very many souvenir shops that we will see throughout the day. Bill had predicted that it would be “Mary's House and Gift Shop,” but in fact, it should have been “Mary's House, Gift Shop, Snack Bar, and Internet Cafe.” But at least the souvenir hawkers didn't bug us much there. And the bathrooms were clean and had the trifecta (toilet seats, toilet paper, and soap!). My single purchase was a scarf in case we went into a mosque (which we didn't). The vendor told me it was cashmere but since it was only 5 Euros, I'm thinking perhaps he wasn't telling me the truth.

Following the visit to the house of Mary, we went to the ruins of the ancient city of Ephesus. It was fascinating to see where people lived thousands of years BC. The city had, at one time, been home for 240,000 (not including slaves), and they were surprisingly advanced, with steam heat and rudimentary indoor plumbing. We saw their shopping area, examples of where they lived, a magnificent library, the public latrines (to which the rich people sent their slaves to warm up prior to their own visit), and the Grand Theater where the Ephesians watched gladiators, plays, and heard St. Paul make his case for Christianity. The theater held 24,000.

After seeing Ephesus, we ran into our first commercial event. Our next stop was to a Turkish carpet store. Our guess is that tour guides in Turkey get paid by store owners for bringing a busload of captive American tourists to see their presentation and get the sales pitch. Should anyone purchase a rug, they probably get a cut.

I must say it was interesting to see the women weaving the rugs by hand. The craftsmanship was amazing. The carpets were absolutely gorgeous with vivid colors, but quite expensive. I know that you can work out fabulous deals, but it was still above my price range. I have a house in Mesa to pay for! But let me tell you, it was not because the salesman didn't try. Usually if you don't make eye contact with a sales clerk, you're safe. Not in Turkey. Here was the best deal that one of our fellow tourists was offered: He lives in Canada and his wife isn't with him. The salesman said if he would put a $500 deposit on the carpet, the salesman would fly with him to Canada, bringing the carpet with him. If his wife didn't like the carpet, he would give him the deposit back. The traveler didn't accept the offer. We did get a beverage out of it. (Let me just tell you that there is a reason you don't hear a lot about Turkish wine. Still, it was fun to taste it.)

Following the visit to the carpet store, we saw the Church of St. John. The church is actually in ruins as well, but we were able to see the place where John is buried. And we were able to get a good idea of what the church looked like in its day.

After that visit, we were taken to Commercial Opportunity #2 – a leather store. The leather they make is gorgeous. It seriously feels like silk. We saw a fashion show, and were given another Turkish beverage – apple tea. That stop was actually fairly lucrative for our tour guide as several of the people purchased leather coats. I'm sure they got good deals. We tried to simply look at some of the jackets, but a salesman followed us around so closely that it gave me the creeps.

By this time it was 4 o'clock, and we were all very tired. So our tour guide took us back to the ship, with a quick stop to see the location of the temple of the Goddess Artemis (which was the goddess that St. Paul worked so hard to get people to give up for Christianity). In its day, the temple had apparently been enormous. All that is left is one column.

This was the stop that produced the most aggressive shop vendors. They stand in your way. They touch you. They ask you again and again if you want to buy this genuine ancient artifact for a euro. They accept American dollars. They accept Euros. I think they might have accepted Monopoly money. You have to just keep walking. But one store did advertise “Genuine Fake Watches.” Perhaps this was the only truthful vendor.

I was disappointed that we did not have the opportunity to try some local Turkish food. I would rather have tried falafel and foregone the leather and carpet stores. Sigh.

Tomorrow is a sea day, and we are both very glad. Everyone on the ship seemed tired tonight at dinner.