Whirlwind exploring

Last week Katie's parents made the long flight over and since this isn't something that we get to do often, it only made sense that we should see as much of Turkey as possible.

Full disclosure, I've got a lot of pictures and probably some video I want to get out this week. So you all have that to look forward to with some cool tidbits of history thrown in. 

The layout was intense, her parents were flying into Istanbul on Wednesday night. After picking them up from the airport, we caught a ride to our hotel in Sultanahmet, which is old town Istanbul. 

Business card selfie

After dropping off our bags we started walking around the streets of old Istanbul.

A common theme of this trip were the animals that kept us company

Getting some advice from out Hotel clerk, he recommended Doy Doy, a not so touristy local restaurant that served quite authentic Turkish food. This allowed  Mom and Dad to get acquainted with the delightful taste of the area. 

It's like one giant pizza bubble

Early the next morning, (4am actually) we had to be up to catch a flight headed to Izmir.

This led into our day of exploring the area around Ephesus, one of the largest cities of the ancient world. 

First we made a stop by the House of the Virgin Marry. However it was raining a lot at this point so taking pictures was kinda hard, especially because they didn't allow pictures inside of the actual house. 

Fetched this from the internet, where is was raining far less

This holy site is also known for the great Wishing Wall. 

A special place where you write your wish on a paper and tie it with thousands of others. You can really get a glimpse of how much rain was coming down here.

Next up were the actual ruins of Ephesus. 

Ephesus was the third largest city of Roman Asia minor, certainly one of the biggest cities we've come across yet. 

Frankly one of the most impressive aspects of Ephesus is its pluming. 

Thousands of gallons of water could be moved around the entire city, impressive considering the time period.

Brian finds the great thrown

In a manner of speaking, these are ancient toilets. The water down below was recycled from nearby baths, with soaps mixed in to help with the smell. 

The classic "Katie found cool ancient script" picture

Incredibly beautiful walkway that stood in front of "rich people" houses.

The awesome part is the the color is still there after centuries. So very rare

...And cool

 And of course, one of the highlights of Ephesus, the ancient library.

Nearly all of this is the original stone

The full name being the Library of Celsus and was finished being built in 135 AD.

Librarian in front of the Library 

Below was the center point of all of  Ephesus.

 The main street of Ephesus

Below is what was described as ancient graffiti that was on the massive street.

An interesting piece of history, this is kind of the first billboard. 

A little hard to understand? Here is a rough translation. 

Yes right across the street from the library was a brothel. Ephesus was a port city at one point and time, so many sailors came through. So the brothel had to get the word out, thus advertising was born.

This massive amphitheater was capable of holding over 25,000 people, one of the largest theaters of the ancient world. 

 That was our tour of Ephesus, many more pictures will be posted later. I've got more coming from this day, but this just felt like a good stopping point. Leave a comment and let me know what you think. Till next time, enjoy some wet coupled people pictures.