The Ephesus Museum Is FINALLY Open for Business.

After three years in Turkey and seven trips to Ephesus I was thrilled when last month I saw that the Ephesus Museum was finally open!

My little brother visited me in October and one of our trips out of Istanbul was of course to Ephesus. This was my seventh, SEVENTH, trip (I am the queen of the one day Ephesus/Sirince tour). In the very nearly three years that I've been living in Turkey and coming to Ephesus, the museum, which houses most of the original statues in Ephesus-the ones there are reproductions, has been closed. With no word about when it would be open. However on this trip while taking a short cut from the "Temple" (single remaining, sad, crooked column) of Artemis and the Basilica of Saint John we passed the museum and there were people going in!! Whether he wanted to or not my brother was going to go to the museum with me.

We went to the Basilica first where we discovered that you can buy a combined ticket for things. Since we'd already gone to Ephesus we didn't need that but for 15TL instead of 20 (10 at each place) my brother could buy a combined ticket for the Basilica and museum. Muze Kart holders like myself have free entry to both places.

Almost all my pictures are black and white which I could pretend was on purpose for artistic, aesthetic something something but that would be a bald faced lie. Frankly I was too tired to drag out my big camera so I just used my little point and click on which I have no control over things such as white balance, f-stops, shutter speed, other fancy camera words. It's a miracle I ever manage to take a decent picture really. One of the many reasons I love hanging out with my brother; free camera lessons. He told me something earlier during his visit about shooting in low light and it was like a revelation. My life is never going to be the same.

Zeus. Of course.

A satyr. Dude's creepy, no?

Battle scene made out of mother of pearl

The museum even includes a statue of the god Priapus. A headless statue but I don't think his head is what people recognize when they look at/think about Priapus.

Hello Big Boy...

Priapus, son of Aphrodite and Dionysus, is a minor god in the Greek pantheon who, as a fertility god was the protector of farm animals and male genitalia. Apparently there's a pretty well intact fresco in Pompeii which I'm going to look for when I'm there later this month. Apparently, despite the giant and perpetual erection he was impotent and blamed donkeys for the loss of his honor. Although it seems that he hates donkeys because one thwarted his attempt to rape the goddess Hestia so...I think he didn't have much honor to begin with. You can read Priapus' full details here.

It's really a gorgeous museum. The set up and flow through the rooms is really nice and there's a semi-sheltered outdoor area to the museum as well. Naturally I played with the cat while my brother wandered around. I always joke that no trip is complete unless I have fallen down; well I didn't exactly fall but I'm counting it. As I was crouching down to pet the cat my backpack, laden with camera, extra lens, water bottle, etc., etc. pulled me over backwards. Luckily the result was simply me sitting down super clumsily instead of falling on my back to crush any of the equipment.

Worth a three year wait? Eh, maybe not. Worth taking an hour or so to visit while you're in Selcuk? Definitely. The statues they have in there are stunning and as I said the museum itself is rather lovely.

Behind the T-walls: Morocco part 4, "Mehndi"

I made an appointment at the Henna Cafe Marrakech, while in Morocco. The artist came to my Riad, and did all of the designs by hand! 

First, she mixed the red henna powder with eucalyptus oil, and water (I think?), and some other natural oils. It makes a thick green paste which she put into a syringe, to pipe the mixture on like decorative frosting. The needle attachment actually made it easier for her to do a more intricate design. Note, there is no injecting here, just decorating on the skin, not IN it...

She started with my feet.

Then did my hands. I chose to do my palms, rather than the tops of my hands. I don't know why, I just wanted it that way.

The design came out looking like this.

 Once it's on and dry, you put a lemon juice and garlic mixture on it, and leave it covered overnight to 'set.' In the morning, you just peel the paste off, and it makes a rich red color, that lasted about 2-3 weeks, and turning beautiful shades of brown and red and yellow as it fades.

Cheese and Rodin

There has been a lot of "Parmeiux Adventuring" in the last couple of months, and Andrea has been doing a great job of keeping the blog-fires burning as I continue my deliquency. Although my better half has already briefed you on some of the best parts of our visit to Amish country, PA (namely the CHEEEEEESE!), I thought I'd share some of my favorite images from this trip:


My favorite Cheese


The world's best Fromaggier, and an angry Shropshire Stilton

...and some fun bits from inside the Clocktower Cheese shop:








We did make into Philly as well on this trip. And having been a couple of times before, I didn't really take many pictures. But I did enjoy the Rodin Museum, and some of the monumenty things surrounding it, and although many of them are replicas of the originals, they're still pretty cool looking.

I particularly liked Rodin's cast of The Gates of Hell which was beautiful and a little unnerving. It called to mind images of The Last Judgement from the Sistine Chapel, except in 3-D, and much, much darker.



It is believed that this work was is based on Dante's inferno, although much has been speculated, no one is aboslutely sure what Rodin's inspiration truly was. I like to think that Dante's influence can be seen there, as I felt that you can practically feel the torment and pain of souls truly experiencing the poetic justice of their sins, much like those from Dante's epic poem. So I leave you with this final photo: