I felt proud for getting the kids into bed by 9:30 last night but that still wasn't enough, I Had to drag Emerson from her oillow at 7:30 this morning. We entered Kusadasi early so had time for a Turksih tea before kicking off our tour. We met up with our guide and driver in a huge 15 seater just for the four of us, the kids loved the sprawling space :)
We headed straight to the House of the Virgin Mary, passing the Adapark (Wet 'n Wild) where we had to fend off the protests from the kids for not taking them on the 450m water slide, it would be Eurpoes largest, if only Turkey was in Europe. 
At the house of the Virgin Mary we got overcome with some wierd catholic unhappiness, on hearing that you could place a wish on the wishing wall Emerson wished that Peter and Sandra would come back to earth which put us all into a pall just before entering the house. The security guards mistook this for some deeeeeep catholic beliefs and bowed as they ushered us in. 1) What a meagre house for the mother of Chrst to spend her lasy days on earth, 2) what a ridiculous climg St John had every day up this mountain in and out of Ephesus! Here in the the house are the gifts of two Popes (or Papa) that have visited this holy place. On the other side of the house we hit the holy springs where I'm proud to say that none of us sizzled as we drenched ourselves in Holy water, I was pretty certain Gab was going up in a ball of flames but it didn't happen.
By the time we got to the wishing wall we'd oncovered Emerson's plan for divine intervention and got her to submit an alternate wish on the wall - that God and Jesus love her until her parents ever get her Baptised - A scared little 8 yo making the best case for ethics classes yet. Anyway, Max who has already been baptised asked that God help him win every console battle he ever plays in, the sinner and the cleansed.
Down into Ephestus Emerson made sure we understood how hard it was to live in this city by complaining about the sun and the heat in an intense and insisant fashion throughout our journey, 6000 years old you say? I'm hot. Hadrian? That same guy that build that Arch in Athens yesterday? Daddy give me a carry. The 3rd largest library ever? Where is some water? 25000 people in one theatre 6000 years ago? When is the movie starting tonight?
Max managed to pay some attention drawing the comparison between Ephestus Ostia Anticqua near Rome with the merchant huts and mosaics tha tline their floors.
From Ephestus it was a short trip to the Temple of Artemis, one of the seven wonders. Today there is an impressive seagull nest on the top of the sole remaining pillar of the temple. 
On the way back to Kusadsi we played a Pantheon quiz that I thoroughly failed at, Max did very well so to aide me for the next one, here is the Panthoen:
Aphrodite - Goddess of Beauty, Pleasure & Desire
Apollo - God of Music, Arts & Knowledge
Ares - God of Bloodshed & War
Artemis - Goddess of the Hunt
Athena - Goddess of Intelligence & Peace
Demeter - Goddess of Grain agriculture and Harvest
Dionysus - God of the Frat House
Hades - King of the underworld
Hephaestus - Metalworker and husband of Aphrodite, he birthed Athena from the head of Zeus
Hera - Wife of Zeus and queen of the Gods and god of Marriage and women.
Hermes - God of boundaries, trade, travel, Language
Hestia - God of the home, hearth chastity
Poseidon - God of the sea, contender for patron seat of Athens v Athena
Zeus - Supreme ruler of the gods, brother of Hades and Poseidon
So by this time we've messed with a few demi-gods and non-gods and arrived in Kusadasi. Five minutes into the Bazzar and gab has been suckered into buying some genuine fake Beats headphones and speakers. A few minutes later we lost Gab so the kids and I strolled for a ittle while in the sun, shop after shop selling the exact same stuff, made me want to run a market between them, but there is aleady negligible markup in any of this.
Yesterday in Athens we saw a methhead mum with two little boys, she had them running in and out of the port hitting people up for money. Today I sat and had some Calamari in the sun and over a few beers I watched a man walk back and forth all the time I was at lunch, trying to hook a tourist into buying his fake perfume. He was dismissed 95% of the time, sometimes with a confronting lack of respect. I've done it myself, it's easy to see what these guys do as a sham, a big joke that asks us to condemn them, but the reality is this guy today, and the little boys that will replace him, know nothing better. With no better education, a parasitic life dependant on what they can swindle from others where do they turn? I took more pitty on today's guy than I did the little kids at the beginning of his journey yesterday. I didnt' buy any perfume, so he was bemused when I passed him a few notes as I left the port. We may be in the cradle of democarcy and civilsation, but it has prospered further in other corners than here.