Adventures with four girls: Turkey (1/3): Ephesus and Sirince

I'm actually writing this w-a-y too long after our trip so I'm sure I will forget some very important details and have to come back and update and update as the fun memories come back to me.

In any case, I am so very taken with Turkey. It has it all - amazing history, beautiful scenery, clear blue water, friendly people, vibrant cities. I could go on and on. Before now Jordan was probably our most favorite vacation but Turkey just gave that little gem of a country a run for its money...

We were also so blessed to have three families from San Francisco fly all the way to Turkey to meet us for this amazing vacation. Between our four families, we had 11 kids. Anna was the outlier at age 4 and all the other kids were from 6-11. Built in playmates all around! All the wives (plus two husbands) went to graduate school (University of Chicago) so we go way back (to the mid-90s) with each other. And feeling even more blessed by having our former neighbor (now 16 years old) come along to be an extra set of eyes (especially on the boat since Anna is our one non-swimmer). We miss our neighbors and feel so fortunate to have made friends like that in Charlotte who trust us 1/2 way across the country with their daughter! Thank you, Mary and Rob!

Ok, so here goes a description of our 12 or so days there.

First stop: Ephesus and Sirince. I've wanted to go to Ephesus for a long time. I remember being confused and amazed as a kid when I realized that some of the New Testament took place all the way in Turkey. It seemed so far and so different than the Palestine/ Israel/ Egypt area. So I definitely wanted to fit Ephesus into our first family Turkey trip (I've already decided that there will be more!).

Many people who go to Ephesus stay at one of the large beach resort hotels on the coast but for my first stop, I was envisioning historic and charming and luckily, Turkey could definitely deliver there. We made our home base the wonderful village of Sirince (probably 45 minutes or so from the historic Ephesus ruins (if I memory serves me correctly...). I think we were all wondering if the "off the beaten track" village was worth it since it was our first destination after a lot of travel but we quickly decided we really fell into a wonderful village and a sensational place to stay. Only 3 of our 4 families started the trip in Ephesus but we rented out the entirety of the Sirince Terrace Houses so very graciously operated by Charlotte and Omer (who are an example of a parent's nightmare of their daughter traipsing off to explore the world, falling in love and still being there 30 years later...). But in any case, Charlotte seems to have made that unlikely love story work out very well and here they are hosting travelers from all over and being very, very good at it.

The Sirince Terrace Houses are a collection of three (so far - more are coming) houses perched on the Sirince hillsides. They were very old with wonderful old stone walls and lots of history and charm. We all dined together outside on a terrace overlooking the town. The roads were as wide as one car but luckily there aren't many cars there. The kids enjoyed exploring around and going from house to house (ours was about a 5 minute walk away on another hillside). The two other families were bunched together at the main building where we had our meals.

Seeing Ephesus was wonderful but with 9 small kids, it probably wasn't all that it *could* have been. Plus it was hot and our guide was just okay (he didn't quite get that a group full of small kids needed the pithier more attention grabbing version!). But it is truly an amazing place. We particularly liked the Terrace Houses to get a better sense of how the 1% lived back in the day!

The girls and me upon arrival enjoying some fresh-squeezed
lemonade and elderflower juice. We loved our view and
the charming village of Sirince

A street in Sirince. And, yes, occasionally a car would
come by and we would all scramble to get out of the way

Currie and Anna

The kids' table (only 2 families our first night)

Attentive kids learning about history at Ephesus

Climbing high is more fun

You can tell how much Anna is enjoying the tour!

The kids enjoying a shady break with nice views

Regan and Currie

Meredith, Currie and Regan

Our family

Meredith and I think this was a well... but I can't remember...

The main commercial street of Ephesus leading from the main part
of town to the swanky part

Still learning!

Anna getting treated very well by Stephanie

The Terrace Houses (we appreciated the roof covering!)

Note Regan's progression as she gets higher - doing fine here

Still doing fine here

Eliza and Anna

Regan is starting to get a *little* nervous about how high we are going...

Little more nervous

This is where she loses it! We are probably 20+ feet of the ground
with a clear floor so we can see the excavation/ archeology
work going on below. Beautiful mosaics but Regan
couldn't enjoy them!

The library

Ephesus "handcuffs" for trouble makers

Where Paul tried to preach but pretty much got booed off the stage

Sophia picked a pear

I didn't manage to get a photo but Tom managed to belt
out a song on the stage so some of us got to check out
the acoustics. Wish we had a video - that friend can sing!