Field Trip to Tarsus

Back on May 31st I was able to go with Lizzy's class to Tarsus. Tarsus is where the Apostle Paul was from, but that was not really addressed on the field trip. We did get to see some cool stuff though. And better than that, I was able to spend the day with Lizzy and her friends. This is actually the first field trip I've been able to chaperone. I feel a little sad about that...but I digress.

Each of the chaperones were given 5 kids to keep track of and then we loaded on the bus to head to downtown Adana to catch the train.  The kids were pretty excited. This was Lizzy's first train ride (and mine if you don't count the subway in DC).  We took pictures in front of this old steam engine at the Adana Station while we were waiting.

Our bus met us at the station in Tarsus and we rode up to the Cave of the Seven Sleepers. I don't remember much of the legend (I was too busy making sure I didn't lose any kids), but it was about 7 people and a dog that went down into this system of caves and fell asleep for 300 years. All that is open to the public now is the main cavern. There were some pretty cool rock formations.

The funniest thing was that there was a group of Turkish school girls there who seemed to be more interested in taking pictures of Lizzy's teacher (he's a big guy) and a couple of the boys in her class than in looking at the cave.  After we got out of the cave, we let the kids check out the little market that was there. Lizzy bought herself a fan that ended up coming in handy.

Then, we drove back into Tarsus. We stopped and saw an old navy ship and a statue of a snakeman (half man, half snake) who's name I can't remember.  We also stopped to see Cleopatra's Gate. It was the sea gate of the ancient city of Tarsus, but now sits in the middle of the city. Apparently the sea has receded. They say that it was at the gate that Cleopatra first met Marc Antony.

Our next stop was to see a section of the old Roman road that was unearthed in the late 1990s (I think it was '96 or '97) when they were clearing the land to build a shopping center and parking garage.  They can't excavate any more of it because modern-day Tarsus surrounds the area. I wish we had been able to go down onto it, but they didn't let us.

Finally, we went to "the waterfall" (that's the only thing I heard it called) for lunch. It was beautiful! After lunch we looked around and took some pictures. It is said that Alexander the Great bathed/swam here and caught the illness that eventually killed him.

Our guide (Lizzy's Host Nation teacher) also said something about the waterfall being built over an old Roman necropolis. Seems to me that would affect the water, but some of the locals were still drinking it. Lizzy opted for an ice cream cone.  Turkish ice cream is a whole new experience. It's thick and kind of stretchy. I actually had to bite it to steal some off her cone. It was yummy though.

All in all, it was a great day and a nice little adventure. I want to go back and see St. Paul's house and some of the other things there, but for now I'm content.