Athens, Back to Turkey, and the Joys of Airport Sleepıng...oh, and Istanbul!!!

Hello all!!

I have been trying to stay in touch but this past week has been hard for me. No internet on the ship and when we found it on some islands it was just really expensive. So I wanted to catch you all up on my last week...

Last Saturday we were in Athens, Greece for the day. I find that people aren't lying when they say that's all the time you need there. We went on a cruise-organized tour which was hardly worth the money but we went to get an initial feel for the city. They drove us to the Olympic stadium, built for the first modern day olympic in 1896, it's supposed to be exactly like the ancient stadium. We were taken to the parliament building, where the tomb of the unknown soldier is...and they have a changing of the guard there. In my travels i've seen a fair few guard changings but this one was the best...they do such funny high step moves and wear short skirts...hehe...after that we were taken to the Acropolis. I thought that Athens was the only city with one but acropolis is just a high hill so alot of greek cities have one! From there Megz and I made our own way around, leaving the group. We didn't go up the acropolis to the Parthenon because we didn't feel like we had enough time for that...but we got some cool pictures from around that area. Then we walked into the large Athens flea market for some adventure and found our old trusty McDonald's for lunch...we just needed something familiar that day! Then back to parliament to see the guard changing, wasn't included on the tour and then back to the ship...

I'm sure there are other cool things to see and experience in Athens but we were mostly satisfied with our time there. One interesting thing I did learn is that the Athens metro system is kind of like a museum. Everytime they dig for a new line or a portion of a line they find more buried artifacts...so the digging stops and the archeologists come in...and then when they resume building and make a station some of those artifacts are displayed there...such a cool concept!

After Athens a good number of our friends from the ship disembarked and we were left only with a few familiar faces. The next day we were supposed to visit the island of Kalymnos (sp??) but due to high winds we weren't able to port there so the captain steered us in the direction of Kos again and we spent another lovely day there.

After Kos the next day was Bodrum, Turkey again and our point of disembarkation...We were so excited to get a place to put our stuff and organize our bus to the airport for a really early flight...instead, due to the bus schedule, we opted for sleeping in the airport and, in the end, it wasn't as bad as you would think.

So we hung around Bodrum until the last bus of the day to the airport...we didn't really do a dang thing. We were hoping to the ruins of the Tomb of Mausolus which many people call the Tomb of Halicarnassus, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Halıcarnassus is the ancient name for the city of Bodrum and Mausolus was the governer of the province...for all you weird knowledge people, like me, you'll be interested to know that this is where we get the modern day word mausoleum. The Tomb of Mausolus is, I am told, the largest tomb ever built...All that's left now is ruins, of course...and unlike the Temple of Artemis they are blocked off and you must pay to enter...it wasn't open the day we were there...I was majorly bummed out!

So skipping ahead again...we did sleep in the airport after making the major trek to get there in the first place. We took turns sleeping while the other read, for us it worked well and in between "shifts" we would each walk around a bit and use the facilities...by sunrise we were delirious and in major need of a pillow but we held out and boarded our plane around 8AM for the hour flight to Istanbul.

It was quite an adventure finding ourselves in Istanbul...it is, afterall, a city of 15 million people. We wanted to stay in a particular area around the Blue Mosque, the area is called Sultanahmet. So we took a bus, then a ferry, then a tram, and then we got ourselves REALLY lost on foot. The other problem was that we hadn't made a reservation for a room so once we did find it we had to weed through the many hostels in that area to find ours...the Orient Hostel!

The people here are quite nice but hardly any native English speakers so we've not made many close friends here. The first day we arrived we slept for a few hours to catch up from the airport experience and then headed out to see what we could see.

Day two: we made our way to the famed Grand Bazaar...and wow...it is grand! It's such a maze and not as cheap as I thought it would be. Then on to the street vendors (man, I've spent alot of money in this city!) where I bought a new, beautiful, scarf...and just in time...right after that we went into the Blue Mosque. It was AMAZING...more beautiful than I could have imagined...and we had an ex-tourguide offer to show us around and explain some things. The building itself is comletely impressive but what interested me more was the history of the place. Click on the attached link to learn more for yourself.

Day three: Megan made her way to Gallipoli, an important area in Turkey for Australian military history...I am embarrassed to say I don't know that much about it. She took an all day tour while I stayed behind in Istanbul to see some more around here. I ended up taking a 4 hour Bosphorus (the river that separates Asian and European Istanbul) Cruise and I was able to see so many palaces up and down the riverbanks. I also saw the miliary hospital that Florence Nightingale worked in.

Day four: Megan was back...yay (I was getting a bit lonely!) and we went with a few people we met to the Prince's Islands, just south of Istanbul. It was oke...a rather lazy and long day. When we returned to the mainland we went over the the Taksim side of town and walked up an enormous hill to the main shopping street, nice but too expensive for me! On the way down we took the short metro down the hill...my guidebook lists it as the oldest subway in the world...pretty cool!!!

Day five, leave day, today!: We woke early to take care of last minute things. Packed up all our stuff again. We headed out to the Grand Bazaar to buy a few things we were longing for and then on to the Egyptian Spice Bazaar for a quick walkthrough. On the way back to the area where we are staying we randomly ran into a girl we spent time with in Selçuk, which was great! After a quick chat with her we went on to the best bit of Istanbul, in my opinion! The Aya Sofia!!!

The actual name is the Hagia Sophia (not sure why we call it differently...). It is the oldest church I've ever been in. Not sure when the original church was built but the one that still stands today was built around the year 532AD. Commissioned by the emperor Justinian, the church was originally Christian but fell to the Muslims in 1453 when Constantinople fell to the Ottomans. Back in the 30s it was converted from a mosque to a museum and many restorations have taken place to bring out the beautiful mosaics from its Christian past. It is the most impressive thing I've seen in all of Turkey and I can say without a doubt the most wonderful church I've ever been in. The mix of its past over its 1500+ year life span is amazing to see.

Well...that is all for now from me. We board a bus for Bulgaria in just a few hours. The bus ride to Varna, a city on the Black Sea, takes 11 hours so we'll be on overnight. Unfortunately the computer I'm using now won't work fast enough for me to upload all my pictures for this post. You'll have to check back later to see them all...sorry!

Hope this finds you well...love you all!!

LuLu