Day 65: Ephesus, Turkey

Wednesday, October 30th

We got up at a decent time. We started our day with coffee and the gym. We realized that we scheduled the tour today for 12:30 pm and the ship time was an hour behind, so we really need to be off the ship and ready by 11:30. Luckily, we were already up & at em, and we still got to enjoy our breakfast after our workout. Christopher booked us a private tour through trip advisor for the ancient city of Ephesus today!

Our tour guide was waiting for us with a sign right as we got off the ship. She was wearing a bright yellow jacket and was full of spunk. She walked us to our driver and we were on our merry way.

Today was far better than we expected. Our tour guide took us in the back entrance of the ruins instead of the “front” which was definitely the move. There were far less crowds, & the weather was perfect. We learned so much. It was so nice to have our own private guide, & she was an amazing photographer, so this was a huge bonus for us! We got to see the famous library and walk through the gates of Hercules. They say you come out stronger on the other side. It was incredible to see the symbols Christians used back in the day to let other Christians know they were there.

Ephesus is very well preserved. We went to a few other must see spots for a quick photo and then headed back to the ship.

I got to watch another gorgeous sunset over the mountains of Turkey from the gym.

We had a nice dinner in main dining sitting next to all our new friends. We made our normal dessert run upstairs before it closed.

We got to bed nice & early. We started watching Umbrella Academy & quickly got hooked.

Christopher’s highlight was grabbing a beer right outside of all the ruins. He always loves to try a local beer everywhere we go.

My highlight was running around the old city of Ephesus & taking in all the history. We had so much fun taking photos, and our tour guide truly made it such a memorable experience for us. I almost forgot to mention, as we were driving back, her & the driver realized they knew each other. They grew up in the same town & he was friends with her brother. It had been over 20 years since they had seen each other, and she was in tears of happiness! It was such a beautiful thing to witness. The world really is a small place!