Honeymoon Adventures

We're a little behind in updating our blog, while we've been joyously in the midst of adjusting to married life. Here are a few photos from our honeymoon - what an adventure! Two days before we were to depart I lost our passports. I searched our apartment for 6 hours to no avail. We prayed hard, asked others to pray, and called everyone who had been in this apartment for the wedding. Finally, the Lord found our passports for us (thanks, Mukmuk, for the tip ;) and we were on our way. It made us that much more thankful for this trip...

We had an amazing time touring the Mediterranean and some of the countries that surround it on the Costa Concordia (we would definitely recommend a cruise - a great way to honeymoon!).

While Egypt was amazing, our favorite port of call was Izmir, Turkey where we traveled a bit inland to visit the ancient city of Ephesus. One of the most excavated sites in the world, it has been worked on for 130 years and only 10% has been uncovered! We were awed by the massive library that has been reconstructed (see photo), the stone streets, and the huge theatre where Paul tried to preach (see Acts 19). However, my favorite part was the ancient public latrine - they actually had heated stone seats for 40 men to sit in a square and do their business while watching a bubbling fountain in the middle and listening to musicians hired to play in the latrine! What a way to go to a concert :) And all that was only to cover up the sounds of the men as their bowels moved. Ah sweet relief :)

Another highlight of our trip was meeting up with my (Larissa's) friend Aris in Athens. He took the afternoon off from work and treated us to lunch with Greek hospitality - ie, too much food! It was a rare treat to see him again and to introduce him to Clay. What a joy to reunite with old friends...

I've also never taken note of as many cars as I did traveling with Clay. Usually when I travel I'm awed by the scenery, or the architecture, or the various people. However, Clay noticed all the European cars and enjoyed pointing them out. We each picked our favorites. I loved the little Smart cars (must be illegal in the U.S. because I've never seen them here - they'd be great for city parking!). And Clay likes the Fiat (Mr. Bean, anyone?)