Turkey

So today I spent the day in Kusadasi, Turkey. It was my one stop in Asia. 5% of Turkey is in Europe, but Kusadasi is not. We started out the day heading up the mountain to the House of Virgin Mary at Ephesus. It is a reconstructed house on top of the foundation of the believed original house of the Virgin Mary, where she lived out her life after the death of her Son. The Vatican maintains this site and 3 nuns and 2 priests care for it.

After that, we headed to Ancient Ephesus to see the ruins. The site is thousands of years old but most of the uncovered sections can be attributed to the Roman times.

Celsus Library

Roman Potties

25,000 person Theater

Photo of a photo I bought in Ephesus

Afterwards we went back to Kusadasi and saw a rug demonstration. It was very interesting but I did not buy a rug as they cost hundreds to thousands of dollars. Instead I went to a pub and had some Turkish beer. It was really good, I’ll have to look for it in the states. Carissa and Matt, you guys will have to see if they have it in London.

Well, tomorrow we are at sea all day so I'll be posting a 'life on the ship' blog since I don't touch on that much in these posts. Hope everyone is doing good!

Santorini

This morning we arrived at the Greek island of Santorini. I went to a wine tasting at a vineyard in Oia, toured around Oia (pronounced EE yuh), went to an archaeological museum in Fira and then toured around Fira and had lunch. I can’t begin to describe how beautiful it is here so I will let the pictures tell the story. I took over 100 pictures, but I won’t subject you to them all.








Now after a day touring this hilltop villages, I had to get down somehow....
Meet my new friend.....We set sail for Turkey tonight!

Food Shots

I know the food posts are always popular so here are a few things I've had on the ship. Hopefully tomorrow I'll get some great stuff off the boat.

Katakolon and Ancient Olympia

Today we docked at Kataklon, Greece, the port entry for Ancient Olympia. Kataklon is a small fishing village with a population of only 500. The city, along with Olympia, is in Peloponnese (the southern part of mainland Greece) on the western coast of the Ionian Sea.

After a 30-minute bus ride, we arrived at the site Ancient Olympia, home of the original Olympic Games. It is a rather large archaeological site. Chariot races can be tracked back to 1000 B.C. while the reorganization of the games occurred in 776 B.C. with the addition of the 200-meter foot race and the decree that the games will be held every four years. Below is a picture of the Temple of Zeus. The Games were held in his honor. The temple is Doric-style and had 32 columns surrounding the temple. The all tumbled when an earthquake hit the region in 6^th c. A.D. Inside the temple once stood the Statue of Zeus, a 50-foot gold-ivory statue that is one of the Seven Wonders of the World. It was taken to Constantinople in the 4^th c. and did not survive.

This next picture is of the entrance/exit gate of the Olympic Stadium. It was the only way into and out of the stadium for athletes, judges and spectators. The tunnel was 32 feet long originally.

Here is the layout of the stadium. There were no seats at this point, spectators stood around on the grassy inclines while judges were in the box seen on the right. The white line across the middle of the picture is the white marble finish line of the foot race.

Here I am hanging out in Palestra. This building is located next to the gymnasium and like it was used for athlete training, specifically for wrestling and boxing. Funny side note, the Greek word from which we get ‘gymnastics’ actually means exercising totally naked. I wouldn’t advice trying that at Gold’s Gym.

Corfu, Greece

We arrived in Corfu this morning. I got a bit of a late start because I forgot to change the time on my alarm clock. Then I had a flip-flop blowout about half a mile away from the port and had to turn back for a change of shoes. It is not easy to walk in broken flip-flops.
After getting my act together, I walked into old town Corfu, an area packed with tourist shops. It’s a cute little island but not too much to see. I went to the Palace of St. Michael & St. George. It was built in the early 1800s when Corfu was under British rule as the Governor’s official residence. Today it houses the Museum of Asian Art. Said museum is air conditioned so, of course, I checked it out. From the back of the Palace, I got a good view of the walled ancient citadel. It was originally built by the Byzantines and expanded under the Venetians. Surrounded by a moat, the only way across was by a moveable bridge.We’re heading towards Katakolon, Greece now and tomorrow I’m off to tour Ancient Olympia.

Dubrovnik, Croatia

I slept with my curtains opened so was greeted this morning by the sun rising over Croatia. It was beautiful. The water is very blue and the coastline is dotted with islands

I had breakfast delivered to my room so I could prepare for going ashore for my kayaking trip. I took a tender (small 120 person boat that takes you to the port) into Dubrovnik and met up with my kayaking group. About 20 of us kayaked around the Adriatic Sea, dodging cruise ships and smaller boats. We had an outsider’s view of the old Dubrovnik city walls and tower.

Little history background….Croatia broke from the former Yugoslavia in 1991. Dubrovnik is in the far south part of the country. The area is also called Dalmatia, and yes, it’s where the dogs come from.

We paddled around the haunted island Kolorina, an uninhabited island that was once the home of priests until a French invasion forced them to flee, cursing the island on their way out. It’s safe to visit during the day, but you must vacate by sundown…or face the consequences.

Midway through we stopped at a little cave for lunch and a little snorkeling. There weren’t too many exciting fish in the area but it was still fun. All in all, an awesome day. I only wish I could kayak in every city! Tomorrow’s Corfu. I don’t have a planned tour so who knows, maybe I’ll find a Grecian kayaking tour company to take me for a spin.

Pictures

Sunset view from my room

Passing by Sicily in the morning

A tour of the massive kitchen

Cooking with the crew

A day at sea

We don’t get to Croatia until Saturday morning so I’ve been keeping myself entertained around the boat. As of this morning, we had sailed about 300 nautical miles from the Rome port and were 400 nautical miles from Dubrovnik. We passed by Sicily this morning and I had a great view from my room.

I went on a tour of the ship’s kitchen earlier. It’s quite large. Interesting facts…during an average week the ship goes through 137,000 lbs of fresh vegetables, 1,675 lbs of butter and margarine, 23,040 eggs and 332 cases of beer. Needless to say, I’ve been taking the stairs over the elevator to counteract these frightening numbers. The main decks of the ship span about 11 floors so it’s been quite the workout.

After my kitchen tour, I caught a cooking class in the Food & Wine Culinary Center. The demonstration was conducted by Drew, the cruise director, and Colby, the Party Planner. It was absolutely hilarious as they are not exactly profession chefs. I would probably classify it more as a comedy show that just happen to create a meal by the end of the routine.

Okay, again pictures will have to be posted separately. The upload is eating up my minutes.

My first dinner

I had a lovely dinner tonight. While I was up getting dessert I met a woman that invited me over with her friends. So I end up eating dessert with a group of six 70+ women traveling from Florida. They were quite a hoot and offered some very colorful commentary on life.

Internet access is spotty as we cruise around Italy’s boot but should get better for the rest of the cruise as we’ll be closer to land.

Pictures

The Lido deck, where I napped until my room was ready

Sailing away

I made it!

After a rough start yesterday, I made it onboard. My bank accidently cancelled my debit card yesterday so I almost had to fly to Rome with no US cash to my name and only 4.50 Euro. Luckily we got things cleared up as I sat nervously at my gate. For those wondering, the grand weight of that red suitcase – 57.5 lbs! Yikes.

My flight from Chicago to Rome was looking good when a cute guy sat next to me and recognized me from the Dallas to Chicago leg. That didn’t last long. When I finally faded off to sleep he had already popped 2 Ambiens, a Valium, and was on wine split number 7. I was amazed he was able to wake up when we landed in Rome.

I made my transfer to the boat and got onboard with no problems. It took a couple of hours for my room to get ready so I wandered around the ship, grabbed some lunch and then took a brief nap poolside on the Lido deck.

My room is great. It’s small but there’s plenty of space for my 57.5 lbs of stuff. We had a practice drill with life jackets and the full nine-yards. Afterwards I went to my room to unpack and didn’t even realize we had set sail until I noticed the scenery outside my balcony had changed. I can feel the movement but it’s very faint.

Well, I’m going to go tour around the boat some more. Later tonight there is a singles/solos meet and greet. If I can stay up until 10:45pm, I’m going to check it out. I leave you with a shot from my balcony as I sit here on my couch and type this. Scratch that, can't get my pictures to load right now. I will try again later!

Heading Out!

Well, somehow I managed to fit everything in my suitcase and I am about to head off to the airport. I'll be flying to Rome after a brief stop in Chicago. Too bad I won't have time to grab a little deep dish.

Happy Birthday, Kristi! Have a great day and don't take any lip from that Rockenbach fellow.

Ciao!