Kusadasi is located on Turkey’s west coast and is one of the most attractive cities on the Aegean Sea. This resort town has grown from a small fishing village, to a large community that is dedicated  to serve tourists who are in the area to visit the beautiful beaches and the Ephesus Ruins.

We arrived in Kusadasi Turkey at 0900 and met our guide Banu at the gangway.   She was a cute, vivacious young girl in her twenties, who spoke very good English with a Turkish accent. Her dress was casual, with a short skirt and a button-down shirt.  We liked her immediately.  She guided us to the van and then explained that our first stop was Ephesus.  It took about 35 minutes to get to the ruins in Ephesus, and during that time, Banu explained to us all about the culture of Kusadasi and why the Muslim women that lived there were more modern and had more freedom than the muslims in other countries.  In fact the only ones that we saw wearing the Burkas were tourists.

Ephesus was awesome.  We liked it even better than Pompeii. There was an amphitheatre completely intact that seated over 25,000 people.  The town was broken up into two parts; one area for the regular people and then one area for the nobility.  Of course we paid particular attention to the part for nobility since we knew that is where we would have spent most of our time if we  had lived during that period.

Our Next stop was the house that supposedly the Virgin Mary had lived in during the latter part of her life until she died.  It was a beautiful grotto, with a small little mud house that had 2 rooms.  Of course the Catholic Church had managed to get an altar into one of the rooms so once again, we weren’t dressed properly and had to wear a blanket over our shoulders. (I never could figure out what the Catholic church has got against shoulders and knees.).  A little later we saw the burial site of St. John the Baptist, which happens to be close to the temple of the god Artemis. It was pretty ironic to see the Christian church and the pagan temple side by side.

Istanbul

Well we made it to Turkey.  Istanbul – the home of the Grand Bazaar and it is bizarre.  The Turkish men at this Bazaar make our used car salesmen look timid. If you even looked at something, they would follow you forever.  Needless to say, Sue was chased outside until she hid behind Bo and Bo had to tell them “no” in only the way Bo can say “no”.  It actually was a very unnerving experience and quite intimidating even for Sue, the experienced shopper.

Istanbul is rich with history and our guide was a walking history book.  She made sure that we knew all about it from Constantine the great to today’s modern leaders.  Besides its history, it also has a very unique atmosphere with its lifestyle, people and numerous attractions. The city contains mosques, churches, palaces, unique sites that you won’t see in other places.  It is still a very male-dominated society (which went over well with Sue, Jan and I.

Istanbul is actually on 2 continents Asia and Europe with an international waterway between them.  It is 99% Muslim and they pray 5 times a day at prescribed times and everyone knows what those time are because the chanting is broadcast out of loud speakers all over the city.  When I first heard it, I thought a bunch of cats were caught in a wire fence.

We learned that the famous “Blue mosque is not blue.  We also learned that Christians and Muslums live side by side without conflict, although we didn’t hear any catholic masses being broadcast daily across the city.

Mykonos is a Greek Island that is a mass tourist destination.  The industry here is tourism.  The town is full of Churches, taverns, boutiques, souvenir shops, and white houses with blue wooden doors and windows.

We didn’t arrange a tour guide for Mykonos, so the brave adventurers set out on foot.  We walked narrow streets and hills, steps and more steps.  There were shops for anything that you could possibly want.  The prices ranged from okay to “oh my God expensive”.

Little Venice is the name of one corner of the Island.  The high Venetian houses with their multicolored porches and wooden balconies that are built right on the water are what gives it the name “Little Venice”.

No visit to Mykonos is complete without meeting the mayor of Mykonos, Petros.  So,we searched until found him eating fish with Petra.  They were charming and very friendly. They even let us pet their heads while we took pictures.

Santorini Cave Homes

Arriving at the top of Santorini in Fira via donkey, we began our tour with our very own “Michael Glezos clone” for our guide.  (Gabriel doesn’t work out of Greece). Our tour guide walked, talked and had the personality just like Mike.  He even had the same bizarre sense of humor.  He must have been a true “Greek Cousin”.

We saw the island from end to end. It was fascinating.  We went from Oia to the beaches to the Churches.  This is a very holy Island, 13,000 people and 1000 churches. Of course it might have something to do with the fact they aren’t allowed to build any more structures in the city except churches, and once you build a church, you can build other structures (hotels etc) within 200 feet of that church.  Have you ever seen a church built for one?

The interesting thing  about the homes in Santorini is that what you see in the picture  is just the entrance to the home. Tunneled into the sheer cliffs; some of these homes have a entrance at the very edge of the cave and others have been built partly in the mountain and partly protruding on the outside. They are referred to as Cave homes and even the hotels are built that way.

After seeing it all, telling Greek Michael good-bye, it was back to the donkeys and then back to the ship.

Gabriel - our Tour Guide

Once we got to Rome, we met up with our tour guide Gabriel.  What a heavenly experience! The first stop was the Vatican!  Unfortunately we got kicked out of the Vatican because of indecent exposure.  Gabriel tried to intervene but sadly even he could not overcome our short shorts.  We stood with our little noses pressed against the cold wrought  iron fence, watching the faithful being admitted while we had been  turned away.

In disgrace, with heads hanging down, we left for the Colliseum.  With Gabriel encouraging us we climbed to the top, and realized that we stood head and feathers above everyone else.

That day we learned that the pope may be boss of the Vatican, but feathers and speedos clear a path at the Colliseum.

The Big Apple

After Spending all night on the plane, four very tired and cranky travelers shuffled their way into JFK airport looking for coffee.   Several cups of coffee later, we were ready to go sightseeing in the big apple (and I have no idea why New York  is called the big apple so don’t ask!).

The first thing we had to do was find a place to store our carry-on luggage.  We were in luck, they did have storage facilities.  What was the catch? It was in the next terminal, which was just the down the street and to the right.  Let’s see, did I mention it was raining?    So, amid the honking horns and the swearing drivers, the four of us marched in a straight line, pulling our suitcases behind us to the next terminal. Not to be deterred by a little rain and no sidewalks, we plodded ahead, reaching the terminal in record time (2 hours and 13 minutes and 2 seconds).  We stowed our luggage and were almost ready to head to Times square and ground zero. The only thing standing in our way to true adventure was finding a bathroom.

After a short discussion about the merits of public transportation vs taxis, we climbed into the first cab that we saw. First stop, Ground Zero!  We were a little disappointed because  we couldn’t see much.  They are building on the site and it was all boarded up.  We did go to the Church that had all the memorabilia from the rescue and recovery efforts.  That was sobering!

Next stop was Times Square!   It had the most magnificent, unbelievable Toys r’ Us store that we ever saw. There was a full sized Ferris wheel in the middle of the 4 story store.  Jan’s favorite was the 10 foot dinosaur that roared.  Sue and Bo’s favorite was the exit door.