Spinning like a top

Today was a noteworthy day. Among the unique occurrences:

-- I officially lost and had to replace my “Cruise Card” -- my all-in-one on-board credit card and identification. It disappeared somewhere between our cabin and the meeting place for our tour this morning, in the span of just about 15 minutes. The Purser's Desk was quite adept and efficient at replacing it, suggesting I wasn't the first panicked guest to rush their podium. And yes, I plan to check my account for unscrupulous joy riding.

-- My jeans are suddenly a bit snug in the thighs. I'd like to think this is a direct result of all the muscle-building stair climbing we have been doing. We are on the 12th floor of our behemoth ship and we have only taken the elevator maybe five times. This includes this morning when I ran back to our cabin to hopefully retrieve the lost Cruise Card. Yes, folks, I actually ran up eight flights of stairs since it was faster than waiting for the elevator. More realistically, though, I suspect perhaps I've been sampling too much gelato and full-fat yogurt with honey and will therefore be renewing my gym commitment once I get home. Barbara, consider yourself warned.

-- I have run out of room on my back-up to my back-up for my photos. Yes, I understand this is a bit anal, but consider the source. Nightly, I copy my day's photos to a folder on my handy-dandy laptop and then also copy them to a thumb drive. I have plenty of room left on my camera's SD card as well as my tiny laptop, but my 512MB thumb drive is now maxed out. I'm resisting buying another one, struggling instead to take comfort in having a back-up at all. Feel free to place bets on how long this will last.

-- Our tour today blew my mind. We spent the day in Turkey. Our port town was Kusadasi, a very pretty city on the Aegean Sea with red tiled stucco buildings and palm trees. It is mostly known for its bizarre bazaar. Haggling is practically a national sport here. As I twice purchased Saturn station wagons in order to avoid having to negotiate a price, it should come as little surprise that the big purchase today was a set-priced gelato (a scoop of cinnamon and a scoop of yogurt). But this was not what today was all about.

The bulk of our day was spent touring about the mountains and valleys just outside Kusadasi, in an area called Ephesus. There were actually three proximate locations of the town of Ephesus over history. The primary one figures prominently in the Bible just after Jesus came and went. And it is this one that made my head spin.

In its heyday, Ephesus was a city of about 300,000 people. Today, you can walk around unbelievably intact ruins of the town hall, the senate, the library, shops, the hospital, the public baths, even the “red light district.” Even more unbelievable: archaeologists estimate that only about 15% of the town has been uncovered.

Throughout the town, etched in marble walkways outside storefronts, you can see a special marking early Christians -- targets for persecution -- used to signal their faith to fellow followers. Sort of the original version of a fish on a car's trunk or in a Yellow Pages ad. Tucked around the corner of the main street was a huge amphitheater with seating for about 25,000. It was here that Paul – from the Bible – preached to the Ephesians. Apparently John and Luke hung out here, too. Regardless of one's religious beliefs about the whole Jesus thing, it is simply mind boggling to think about walking across the same marble stones and pathways as guys who helped author the Bible. Between this and Olympia and the Acropolis, my brain is pretty much on the verge of an utter explosion.

Which brings us to tomorrow's port: Santorini -- a Greek island that is part of what's left of a massive volcanic eruption back sometime before 1600 BC, perhaps having something to do with the Lost City of Atlantis. We don't have any tours scheduled. Instead, we hope to settle our brains a bit by gazing at the reportedly iconic Greek scenery.

Oh, and Mom tried raki today, the Turkish version of the Greek ouzo. Verdict: the raki was a little weaker and therefore she prefers ouzo. Party on, Mom!

Photo score: Toni = 911; Mom = 1073