Selcuk – Jon Haines

I woke in the morning again experiencing the surreal sunrise in a foreign land. I felt like I was very close to being in Israel or the middle east like you always see in pictures…and that in fact is because I was getting closer. “We are almost to Selcuk and the landscape has changed drastically-sand and bushes now with “mountains”. It seemed like there was no water around anywhere. We were driving smoothly and quietly on the road curving around the dry semi-mountianous ridges which were separated by miles. We made one more stop where I got off and tried to go to the American restaurant–forget the name and then we got back onto the bus and pulled into Selcuk’s bus station. After being to so many cities since August, the usual procedure-got off, got a map, got oriented found our hostel. The town was really different and very arabesque and beautiful. We walked through the stony streets looking for our hostel which was sort of up on a hill. I really felt like I was walking in one of Jesus’ places. After finding the hostel (http://www.anzguesthouse.com/, 1064. Sk, Kocakapı, İzmir, Turkey, we went in and were greeted by a man and a women with Australian accents who then gave us our key and we unpacked in the room and cleaned ourselves up. It had been a long night especially for me. I charged my camera which was dead and got a shower, through which could easily talk to the other people on the outside of room we found out. Then after some took a nap we decided to head out around 11 am and look at the town. Of course the sun was beating down without a cloud in the sky and everywhere was very dusty and dry. We found the main street again and found a Kebap place that charged 1.20 lira for a huge kebap, it was amazing. I got a beer too. It was wonderful. From there I stopped at the bank and exchanged Euros for YTL and then we just looked around Selcuk. There were alot of weapons stores…. Then we decided to go see Mary’s house and we paid a driver who was relatively expensive, but not between five people, to take us there. The house was far up on top of hill above Selcuk with a winding road that kept the sea and the city in view. As we got out of the car he asked, “Half hour? You need no more than half hour” We said uh yea give us an hour and half. We walked following the signs and became very prayerful and then we saw the house. Though it was reconstructed, there is no doubt that that was where Mary stayed with St. John after the crucifixion until her death. On leaving the area, we there was wads of paper put up against a wall which we could not figure out the symbolism in it. After getting back in the car, I was amazed at where I had just been, probably the most holy place I could be the whole semester. We started driving down the mountain and stopped the car since there was a great view of the mediterranian which we took pictures of. We headed back down into the town, passed a statue of Mary and were dropped off in Ephesus, an ancient city now preserved. Brendan and I hung out at the flea markets around there having fun haggleing for stuff. This is where I became really good at haggling. It was quite hot out for October and we proceeded through the gate to the ruins.

I’ve never seen so many carved and used stones as a part of a city. I considered buying an audio guide but decided not to and take alot of pictures. I went back and got a map instead hoping it would explain everything to me. The sun continued to beat down on the ancient stones while I tried to place myself as close to the ancient civilization as I could. I imaged this place while it was alive and bustling, I thought of all the times in Mr. Foley’s latin class when I studied about this exact site and the ancient people’s customs and language. I couldn’t put my mind around the fact that I would probably be here only once in my life and I needed to make the most of it right now. It was just wonderful to be there and to touch the stones which hands 2000+ years ago forged with inscriptions.This is the time I had the most time to myself on the ten day trip to meditate and contemplate my life and its direction. I couldn’t help but think how being in all these places might make this the prime of my life. I proceeded further and further through the ancient city examining what seemed like every rock I came across. It was about 2:30 in the afternoon when I passed the urinal part of the city…very interesting privacy in these restrooms. Then we finally saw the icon of the Ephesus, the facade of the temple. This area lead out towards the arena which reminded me of a full sized soccer stadium today. On the way there was a huge agora area with colums just lain out on the grass everywhere. It was amazing and I tried to take a short cut climbing to the stadium! I sat at the stadium in amazment of what I had seen that day. I continued to imagine the ancients filling the stadium and saw a man orating on the front stage…it turned out to be John Paul. At this point we decided to continue because the sun was starting to get low in the sky. I could have spent all day in that ancient city.

We walked a certain distance away from the city, probably about 100 yards and ended up at the Church for Ephesus (where the Council of Ephesus was actually held!) I climbed up a staircase near the enterance to the Church but it lead nowhere since the Church was in ruin. There were a bunch of people praying the rosary around the sanctury there and apparently Mass is still celebrated there sometimes. I explored the back of the church and it was larger than I had expected for a church of the second century though there was no way to tell how high it was. The baptistry was in the back and once we had all been satisfied with looking around (I was looking for artifacts much of the time) we were resting on a pillar in the back of the church and it started rolling. We all rolled it together and Kate Donnelly fell behind it and screamed because it was rolling on top of her! Then I said a quick prayer and we decided to leave. We walked back towards the parking lot and found our ride, the man who seemed to be in a hurry. He drove us back around the beautiful mountainside and back to our hostel where we decided to get cleaned up and go get some dinner.

We went back to the same place where we had lunch and I got two Kebaps and a beer. I made good friends with the guy cutting the meat. At dinner we were talking about crazy things we had done already this semester. “Hey guys, guess what?…We’re in Turkey!” was the on going joke because it just seemed so unbelievable. After finishing up chatting and watching the sunset we decided to go look for some dessert while I while I was looking for a cool sword or something in one of the shops. I found an ice cream place and got some, and all the dessert places where always stocked with Turkish delight. Then after chilling a little bit we headed out the same direction as we usually did out of Selcuk hoping to find the Basillica of St. John, this time is was dark though. We walked towards a hill at the base of which was just some more ruins but I realized that this was actually an old roman aquaduct because the columns were placed every 3o feet or so and seemed to go across the whole city. I made sure to grab a piece of one, which I would later lose. After getting into a sketchy little neighborhood area with cats running around everywhere in the dark Ali and Kate decided they wanted to go to bed and so Brendan also. John Paul and I decided to keep exploring. Then we saw what we assumed was the basillica and headed towards it. Once getting to the top. We continued hiking up towards the endarked basillica walls and were startled by three people jumping out of the bushes who decided not to go back to the hostel. Brendan and I approached the front tall wooden door entrance and tried scaling the wall. I climbed up the 20 foot high doors and could have gotten in, but it was more done for the picture than anything. I scaled the walls of the Basillica of St. John with Brendan. After this we took some more pictures on the ground and continued our hike on the other side of the basillica. There were palm trees lining this road and the basillca to the right, a neighborhood to the left. After a little more hiking the girls decided for real to head back while John Paul and I continued to take pictures…adjusting our exposures and just experimenting. Then we headed back to the hostel too and found found everyone hanging out in common area. They were playing backgammon and chatting with the other residents who were from all around the world. There was a couple from Australia who had been travelling around the world for 9 months now and a two guys from New Jersey. The owner of the hostel brought Hookah out for everyone to smoke. We talked about our adventures around the world and later I learned how to play backgammon. I left earlier than everyone else and explored going up on the roof. I looked at the Turkish moon and wondered at what I had seen that day and where I was in the world. Then I went back down and went to bed.

We woke up around 10 and went to the same restaurant to have brunch where the owner was really happy to see us again. We wandered the local streets again and I stopped at the bank to exchange my Euro into some more YTTL. Then we went off to the basillica again, this time we were able to get in after paying a small fee. It was amazing being inside another ruined church but this one was so much bigger. I could climb up on the pillars and see all around where the altars and baptistry were and now looking at the actual tomb of St. John around which so many tourists were standing. It disaspointed me to see them observing everything like a museum and not realizing the religious significance of the site. I expored the entire Church and contemplated on a few pillars the remains of such a great site and prayed to St. John my patron saint. It seemed liketwo thousand years ago and in the very back there was a great view of a whole valley out to the sea. After looking at these things for a long time, and climbing on the pillars, it was time to leave, passing yet again another group of poeple trying to make money off of tourism. We headed back to the hostel to get our things and check out, and this we did, after we bought a water mellon from a street vendor. It was sad parting with the fellow English speakers, australian though they may be. We got back to the bus station, payed the fine and got our bus to Kusadasi.

We got off and proceeded to find the ferry service office. We were informed that the ship to Greece was leaving soon, arond 16:00 and that we should hurry after presenting our passports. We arrived at the port, which was not open yet sat down around a table in the shade. John Paul and I pulled out our knives and we shared the water mellon amongst the group and had the last of the Turkish delight which was not saved for gift recipients. In just enough time we finished the very satisfying water mellon and were allowed out onto the dock to load the boat. At the dock, I had never seen a ship this big before, but we were directed to another, smaller one which we boarded and a Greek flag was sailing in the stern. After finding a place to stand along the railing, we wished goodbye to our beloved Turkey, and said once more “hey guys, we were in Turkey,” then we took off into the sunset.

Austria

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