Where's the biggest turkey in Turkey?

Yes, this is Don pointing at a real live turkey in the old town area of Istanbul,
population 15 million and counting, give or take a flock of at least 6 turkeys!

Marble/stone street through the ruins of Ephesus.

Don in the amphitheater where Paul addressed the Ephesians.

We just got back from a six day trip to Turkey. Now, I know that you are thinking: "Turkey? Why on earth did they choose Turkey?" It's not quite up there with Paris, London, Germany, Italy, etc. However, based on the time we had, the season of the year, rumors of violent conflict, and not wanting to do a repeat trip anywhere, it was the destination we chose. One really amazing sight to see in Turkey: Ephesus. To walk the same streets as Marc Antony and Cleopatra, the Apostle John, Mary, and the Apostle Paul was an incredible experience. To

sit in the amphitheater where Paul preached to the Ephesians was
thrilling. There was a British lady who did an impromptu singing performance for us while we were inside the amphitheater. The acoustics are still incredible today, even though half the building is gone! You can see her standing on the floor of the theater in the picture to the right. It gave us goose bumps to imagine sitting in the same seats the Ephesians sat in to listen to Paul!

Overlooking the path to the library (big structure at the end of the road).
This is a road that Marc Antony and Cleopatra used.

One last major attraction just outside the city walls of this Ephesus location is the house where it is purported that Mary, mother of Jesus, lived. John the Apostle is known to have lived in Ephesus for a time, and since it was Jesus' last command to them that John was to treat Mary as her mother, they are fairly sure she lived here, and passed her final days in the house we are standing in front of below.

In front of the house of the "Virgin Mary"

Don is very adventurous when it comes to trying out new foods and new cuisine. Although I had to talk him into trying his first Chinese food when were newlyweds, he now far surpasses my palate's taste for variety. I did finally succumb to trying some authentic Ottoman cuisine. We made friends with some of the  servers and managers of the restaurants in the neighborhood around our hotel. Every time you walked down the street, they were all out in front of their establishments, hawking their food/goods/services as if you were on the midway of the state fair. It kind of became a joke between Don and I. You won't believe how many friendly Turks there are when they think there is a carpet to be sold to a westerner!

One of our favorite restaurants in Istanbul, The Shadow. We made a major
impression on the staff when we told them we found their restaurant on TripAdvisor.
The employee who had suggested posting on TripAdvisor to the owner loved me when I said that
he should tell the owner that I said to give him a raise! We got excellent service and a few extra
free perks (baclava, tea) after that, with him having high hopes that we would return to
TripAdvisor with glowing remarks about the establishment--which we did!

Standing on the main road with our guide, Betul, a lovely
and very knowledgeable young lady!

In front of the library building in Ephesus.

I will leave you with just a few more pictures of our excursion to Ephesus (above) and a picture that Don took in Istanbul (below) at night of the biggest church in the world: the Hagia Sophia. It is a beautiful old building famous for its huge dome and the fact that it was the largest church in the world for the first 1,000 years of its existence.  Enjoy Don's excellent photography--from his cell phone no less!

The Hagia Sophia--second church on this location completed in built in 537 AD. The four minarets at the corners were added later, when Constantinople was conquered by the Ottomans and turned into a mosque.