Ephesus, Turkey and a very picky airline

Today’s events confirmed my thoughts about flying, and by that I mean; I pretty much hate it right now.  Flying with a group of 26 people, and enough luggage to last us 3 months is a bit ridiculous for me!  We arrived at the airport about 3 hours early, which ended up being a good thing.  We were greeted at the door by x-ray machines that had to check all of our things before we even entered the terminal.  At this point we were informed that no liquids or creams were allowed in our carry-on bags.  All 26 of us had to re-arrange our luggage and make sure all of our liquids were in the bag we were going to check.  Next we went to the counter to check our bags.  There, we found out that our checked bags could not exceed 33 pounds, or we had to pay extra.  Every one of us was under the assumption that it could weigh up to 44 pounds, because that is what most other airlines require.  I scrambled around for about 10 minutes trying to situate my bag because it was 5 pounds over.  I gave some of my stuff to a couple people who had a bit extra weight to spare.  As soon as I had this figured out, they told us our carry-on bags could not exceed 17 pounds.  At this point I just gave up because my carry-on was about 10 pounds over the limit.  Oh!  Now would be a great time to tell you that it was about 80 degrees inside the terminal! It was just so hot it made the whole situation twice as worse!  Hot, frustrated, and homesick I checked my carry-on bag and left it at that.  Normally it would not be too big of an issue, but it was so unexpected that I had my ceramic bowls from Morocco, my medicine, and my bathroom supplies all in that bag, basically everything of importance.  After all this, we had to go through security again before boarding the plane!  All of that trouble for a one hour plane ride! 

As I write all this down at a 5-star hotel 8 hours later, I realize any number of things could have happened to worsen the situation.  So I am thankful that did not happen.  At the time though, I was over it and ready to book a flight home!  I lost my cool at the airport.  Hopefully I can use that to learn from.  Next time something happens I will try to let God worry about my ceramic bowls potentially breaking, or my medicine getting lost, or the excessive extra bag fee I will have to pay.  Now that I put it that way, it all seems a little silly to get upset over!  Ok, my medicine was a big deal though!

Before the flight, I actually had a pretty good day.  We visited Ephesus in the morning with our guide.  It is a very well preserved Roman city with some famous architecture principles.  I was more excited for the fact that Ephesus is one of the seven churches mentioned in Revelations.  Paul also spent a significant amount of time in the city doing missionary work.  It was more than amazing to walk in the same streets that existed in the bible days.  This is a place where Christianity began to take a hold throughout the world.  It is days like today that I wish I had someone here with me to share the experiences with.  Also it is days like today that I wish I could call home and dump everything on my mom.  Somehow it always helps me feel a bit better.  But since I cannot exactly do that, I guess you lucky readers get to hear it all!  I apologize to you!