Artemis and the 40 Boobs

11-12 October

Did you know that Ephesian Artemis has about 40 boobs? She stands sarcophagus-like with a breast plate that has oodles and oodles of boobage poping like pomegranate seeds or black heads from her sternum. Other theories say they're bulls testicles. Regardless, if she was lactating she'd pass out after about two minutes. She was incredible!

Ephesus is one of the best preserved ancient cities in the world. There was lots of marble, graffiti, statues, pipes, columns, houses and pathways which really added to my empathic approach to history. Met a nice Australian woman called Belinda, who, despite her hesitancy towards ruins, thoroughly enjoyed the site too. We spent time finding weird signs and taking photos of American nannas posing like playboy bunnies in front of Ionic columns. The library at Ephesus was incredible, although Iwas a little disturbed that Epistome, the goddess of knowledge had lost her head. Also sat in the half-colosseum Ampitheatre and on a Roman public latrine. I've got lots of photos of Efes which i'll put up when I get round to it - they'll warrant further comment. Spent the night at a bourgeios hotel watching BBC world which was nice for a change.

Next day went to Pemmukale at the sight of the Roman city of Hierapolis. Our tour guide was a retired geologist so we learnt buggery. Luckily, the whole minibus had collectively rebelled against Attila the 2 toothed tour-operator so that we weren't force fed lunch at 11am, so not all bad. The ampitheatre at Hierapolis was also brilliant and a boisterous canadian guy who spent the whole time breaking into showtunes got to test his lung capacity. Unfortunately, the concave carvings beneath every Ampitheatre seat assisted his vocal capacity and we were amusingly plagued for the remainder of the trip. After seeing the city, we went to the calcium carbonate terraces which function as bathing hot springs looking out over the valley. Really incredible blues against the white of the deposits and the water was lush. Have some great pics of those too, will put up soon.