Today, May 25, we went to Virgin Mary's house in Ephesus. I was surprised at how moving this was for me. I really wasn't expecting that to happen at all. You see I don't usually relate to to any religion, but I grew up Catholic. However, in that moment I felt something rush over me and found myself almost in tears. It was a very cool feeling. The house is supposed to be where St. Mary spent her last years together with St. John. It was discovered in a dream by a nun in the 19th century and found and verified by two popes in later years. At the house you first walked in to the actual house, I had to cover my shoulders with a scarf they provided because I wasn't dressed appropriately ( I didn't realize we were going there when I got dressed that morning!), but you walk in and see this beautiful alter and a statue of St. Mary behind the alter. It was so pretty and I felt it was only appropriate to genuflect and do the sign of the cross as I left. After I left I donated money and got candles and made two wishes and put them in candle case. There were 4 or 5 water fountains there for you to drink out of that each represented something different, like wealth and happiness. They were all full of holy water. I drank out of all of them. There was also a wishing wall that many people from all over have wrote down their wishes and put them on this wall. I of course made two more wishes and placed my wishes on the wall. Sevim said she made one 12 years ago and it came true when she got married. After that we went to the Roman City in Ephesus, which is where Christian people hid. It was really cool to see. The library was amazing and I really wanted to see the first advertisement ever recorded, which was for a brothel. I really wanted to also see the actual brothel, as bad as that sounds but the road was blocked off. After that we went to a Turkish rug store. We got to see how the women made the rugs by tying each and every knot by hand. I really felt sorry for them because that is so monotonous. It would drive me crazy! We got to see the silk worms and how they get their silk as well as all of the beautiful rugs they had! Unfortunately they were too expensive to buy, but I did get a free coke and glass of homemade wine out of it! :)
Today, May 26, we didn't see anything, it was more of a traveling day. We traveled to Marmaris and ate lunch, I ate Mcdonalds for the first time in so long! It tasted just like home! It is our last day in Turkey and I am really going to miss it. Sevim didn't go with us to Marmaris, but she came to the hotel this morning to say Gule Gule (Bye). It was so sad and I am really going to miss her! It is amazing how close you become to someone you've only known for 11 days! We are on the ferry going to Rhodes. I am so excited to see what Greece has to offer! The ferry is very unique, especially since I've grown up on boats. It was a high speed ferry so it was like a ferry speed boat! Really cool and not what I was expecting! Once we got to Rhodes it was really late so we just had time to eat dinner and go to bed. It had a beautiful view though!
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