Day 04 Tuesday, October 11, 2005 Cecilia Morrissey ceciliabeau@hotmail.com

FLY TO ADANA,TARSUS - HOME OF ST PAUL,ANTIOCH MUSEUM, MONASTARY OF SIMON

Today we all awoke for our early flight to Adana even before the call to prayer, which some of us still hear at about 5:30 each day.  But today our bags were out by 4:30 AM, and unbelievably the entire breakfast buffet was ready for us at that early hour.  We were all on board our bus by 5:15, and Meli congratulated us on our punctuality.  As we rode to Ataturk International Airport, we could see the boats on the Bosporus Strait, and it looked like a city on the water spanning Europe and Asia.  Adana and then boarded the 28 passenger bus which was to be our transport for the next 11 days.  We were warmly greeted our driver Hussein.  We drove along the busy highway to Tarsus, Paul’s home, Meli asked each of us to talk about our expectations for the tour as well as our areas of interests. In addition to the stated goals of the tour to visit the “Footsteps of St. Paul,” the groups’ responses varied from interests in crafts and culture to birds, music and architecture, as well as history and Islam.  Meli told the group of her beginnings in the tour business and her current interests in religious interpretations as well as the evolutions of religion.  She emphasized that the tour would include learning about the current culture in order to enrich our understanding of the past. Our bus ride took us along the Mediterranean coast where we saw the fertile valleys between the sea and the mountains.  Turkey is actually the food basket of Europe, with cotton being the most important cash crop, as it is essential to the textile industry.  In Tarsus we observed that the new town(s) were built right over the old.  As a result, virtually all of ancient Tarsus is buried underneath.  Nevertheless, we stood at the ancient gate, while Meli talked with us about Paul’s early life and the informed suppositions to be made about his education and life in the city.  The group walked down to a city known as “St. Paul’s well,” where a few houses have been excavated.  We also engaged in an animated discussion about the biblical reference to Paul as a tentmaker, with many opinions expressed about the contradictions inherent in that reference.  After a short walk around the retail district we were back on the bus to head out to Antioch on the Orentes which is today called Antakya.  Our view from the bus included extensive agriculture and herds of goats, and we wound up through the hills through the area known as the Cilician Gates.  After our arrival in Antakya we visited the Hatay Archeological Museum.  This museum turned out to be a treasure trove on ancient artifacts, particularly mosaics.  Of great interest was the room containing a richly carved sarcophagus. Then we were back on the bus for a visit to St. Simon Sitilit’s monastery, which is located outside of the city high, high in the hills.  We drove up the winding road through olive orchards and beehives.  Our group wandered through the ruins marveling at the quiet in the very late afternoon.  During our visit Meli explained the term “basilica” and the evolution of the term to mean a church where a saint is buried, as well as the use of terms in the Christian church which were derived from Roman practices, such as “pontiff and liturgical practices which are also based in Roman tradition.  Back in the city we walked to a local restaurant where we enjoyed local cuisine, particularly a baked cheese dessert.  Our hotel for the night was the Antik Beyazit Hotel which used to be an Ottoman style house.