Greece and Turkey

Santorini, Greece
When you imagine Greece, like in the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants movie, this is exactly what Santorini looks like. The typical white domed homes in clusters along the cliffs, fishing boats all over the bright blue water, and huge, volcanic islands in every direction. This place was just BEAUTIFUL!!
I escorted a tour that took me to a town called Oia, a very charming (although highly expensive!) shopping and hotel district. Trademarks of Greece: family owned/run gold jewelry stores, Greek souvenir shops (full of crappy looking pottery, clothes, etc), hand painted pottery stores, body shops with many olive oil soaps and loofas (I know that is a weird one, but it is true), and wine shops that sell alcohol (Ouzo, Kumquat, etc), olive oil, vinegar, and vacuum sealed olives!
After going through this town, and then going to the highest mountain on the island to have a breath taking view, we were taken to a local winery for lunch. Things that grow in Santorini are unique because they do not water any of the plants, due to fresh water shortages. Instead, the plants absorb the humidity. So when they grow the grapes for the wine, they put large baskets over the grape plants, so they do not grow tall, but wrap themselves around these baskets. Kind of interesting!
Traditional Greek food was served and it was actually really good! I can’t tell you any of the names of anything we ate, but I can describe my favorite things- a cold bean paste, breaded, deep fried hunk of cheese, a tomato pancake (mashed up tomatoes mixed with bread pieces, then fried in oil), greek salad (of course! with hunks of tomato, cucumber, onion, olives, and thick parsley pieces), grilled chicken breast, and grilled shrimp (still in the shell with the eyes! That freaks me out! Haha). They served their local red and white wines. For dessert they gave us this chilled sweet dessert wine, which is made with a special type of grape, and has no sugar added- and you wouldn’t believe it from the taste. They served it in little shot glasses, so I wasn’t sure if I should sip it like Bailey’s or shoot it like Tequila…so I sampled a little bit and was pleasantly surprised that it was very smooth and did not burn the throat…although it tasted like sweet, cough medicine. It paired well with the delicious baklava they served.
After getting dropped off in Santorini, I walked around the touristy shopping district, bought a few local goods, and made my way back to the ship. Now there were three ways to get down the huge mountain to the pier: walk down 500 steps, take a suspended cable car, or ride a donkey. I chose the donkey, of course. I ran into Matt and Darren, so we did it together. There are tons of donkey’s waiting to be ridden down, just sadly standing in the sun, probably infested with fleas and lice. But we had to have this experience. Well, I was put on the first donkey who was the “leader” followed by Matt’s donkey, and then Darren’s donkey. Then there were about 7 passengers behind us on donkeys that were all attached to each other by rope! This made us a little bit nervous because our donkeys could take off, gallop down the hill, jump off the mountain…who knows. So the steps are REALLY steep, and I basically felt like I could fall off my donkey at any moment. My donkey liked to take VERY WIDE turns around the corners, making me feel like I was going to go tumbling down the mountain every time. Lucky for me, my donkey stayed away from the walls, polls, and other donkeys (bc I was leading), but Matt and Darren got many scrapes and rug burns on their legs because they didn’t have a donkey as smart as mine. Darren’s knee even went into Matt’s donkey’s butt hole. Ew. So, everything is going fine, and then they send down a HERD of donkeys, so they can pick people up at the bottom of the hill. Well, mine gets really excited, and doesn’t want them to get in front, so mine TAKES OFF! And it’s a STEEP HILL! I got way ahead of the group, and before I knew it, my donkey ride was done. I was quite sore in the butt cheek area, but it was well worth it and was really a funny experience.

Athens, Greece
Took the train out to the Acropolis for only 1.60 euros! Kind of confusing, I had to take three trains, but the Greek people were extremely friendly and very helpful. Again, I got asked if I was Greek. “you look a little bit greek, there is some greek in you.”
Anyway, the train perfectly drops you off right at the Acropolis. It was a gorgeous day outside. I made my way to the entrance, student ID card in hand to get a discount…and I find out that the first Sunday of every month, it is free! What great luck!
So the Parthenon is HUGE, amazing…It took 9 years for them to build it, and I can see why. The columns are sooo tall, made up of many discs stacked on top of each other, then more cement pieces running on top. I can’t imagine how they did this without the equipment we have today. The views from the Parthenon are also gorgeous, overlooking Athens with millions of homes, green hills with monuments preserved in the middle…it was really cool. I made my way down to the area of the Theatre of Dionysus, which was really the entire point of making it out to Athens that day. I learned about this theatre in college and instantly knew that I wanted to visit it some day. I was a little bit over taken with the amount of history that happened on this stage. You can sit on the original steps of the theatre, looking down on the stage. They have also displayed several of the stone chairs that were assigned to the elite, towards the front of the stage. There were boards that ran along the edge of the stage, which were covering the once used passage way “under” the stage. Ugh! It was so neat to see this! I even cried a little bit because I started thinking how lucky I am to have this opportunity!
There was some more shopping around the Acropolis, so I took advantage and bought some Greek olive oil and some pretty jewelry. I really wanted to eat a Gyro, but they were jacking up all the prices- 8-10 euro…that was way too much for me. I found the train to go back, and decided I would look for somewhere to eat on the walk back to the ship (it’s about a 30 minute walk!) I kept seeing fast food joints, shady looking places, and finally I stumbled upon a fun looking, walk-up restaurant. It kind of reminded me of a Mexican food place because the walls were bright colors, music was fun, menu was up on a blackboard with colorful handwriting. The lady who worked there was soooo nice, and made me a special gyro- in a grilled pita bread she put grilled chicken, lettuce, cucumber, tomato, hummus,…and French fries (chips) I guess that last ingredient is something unique to Greece. Haha. Anyway, it was REALLY good, and just what I wanted!

Istanbul, Turkey
Things that I found very interesting: Turkish people stare at you. A lot. I think they think we are movie stars. There are tons of religious buildings in every direction. Huge, old, churches that are very unique looking to Turkey. The Blue Mosc is located here, and I probably should have escorted a tour so I could see it, but I saw some pictures. Apparently, there are many mosaics made up of teeny tiny painted tiles. It must be fascinating to see. On my way to the Grand Bazaar, we went over a bridge where men were literally standing shoulder to shoulder in a line across the entire bridge, fishing poles placed over the sides. At particular times, everyone prays/sings very loudly in Istanbul, so loud that we could hear it as we sailed away from the port.
The Grand Bazaar is crazy! Some of it is covered, some of it is not. The covered part is like a really busy freeway, and then you can take some exits off the sides that lead you to not so crowded shopping. My goodness, anything you can think of that you would want to buy is here- jewelry, shoes, underwear, bags, belts, tea sets, wooden boxes, pottery, jeans, and of course, TURKISH DELIGHT! I ended up buying a few things after lots of haggling and bargain hunting (Nat, I think you would have liked this place.) Everything was so cheap anyway, but they will always go much lower. I found a really good stand that was selling Turkish delight by the pound, so I sampled a few of his, and decided on chocolate covered pistachio- they vacuum seal it, so family, get ready to try it when I get home!