All about Turkey

Even though I was semi-absent from half of our trip to Turkey, Matt borrowed the camera when I was confined to the ship. The first day I was totally fine, though, and the first day was pretty thrilling.

We landed in Izmir, which is southeast of Istanbul, and actually located on the Asia side of Turkey. It's Asia Minor.

So...

I WENT TO ASIA!

And you know what? It's gorgeous.

Box checked. Maybe that's why my body was all like, "ok, we hit a new continent, so you can be sick tomorrow, it's only Istanbul and it's only Europe."

But yes, Asia. Guess what - they had ruins, too!

 It's hard to see it, but in my hand is a pudding-size container of water we were given in the van. Clever alternative to bottles.

 Don't worry, Matt wasn't pushing this over. It was totally leaning all on its own.

 We did our best to get pictures where there weren't hoards of people.

 That giant thing was once the library, the library people!

 Library up close...

 Apparently Sting has performed here, along with other modern musicians.

 The group taking a short break.

What we neglected to take pictures of in the afternoon are a few things, including lunch. Lunch was outside under shady trees and consisted of a ton of delicious things - things like roasted veggies, carrot puree stuff, bulgur, which is similar to rice in consistency, meat patties and chicken skewers. Oh- and sour cherry juice. All great.

We also visited a government-run rug shop, which is essentially like any other rug shop with slightly less pushy salespeople. Less pushy because, as our guide explained, they get paid either way. They're trying to keep the art of rug weaving alive, so they get their subsidies no matter what. We saw silkworms, women actually weaving rugs, and then finished rugs spread out across the floors. They made some really great stuff, too - no purchases were made though, since the patterns just don't go with our modern style. (Even our guide said she only had a runner in her modern apartment).

Since we had some time before going back to the port, our guide asked us if we'd rather visit a leather store or a pottery place. We were ambivalent about both, but opted for the leather store. I knew Matt and I wouldn't get anything there since last Fall we got leather jackets in Florence.

We thought that it would be a similar marketplace setup. Boy were we wrong! We were taken to the expansive Rossini Leather store where we were treated to a private runway show where they had models on staff to do a presentation (and drag a few of our friends up to help model), before we were escorted into the large shop area. The runway show was an unexpected treat and highlight - I feel like I've been shopping the wrong way this whole time, buying clothes without seeing a fashion show first!

Back on the ship is where things got off track for me. Needless to say I didn't make it out of bed the following two days as we were docked in Istanbul, but Matt ventured out and had a great time. He even went to a Turkish Bath! (Google it, people! For the pictures alone!)

He didn't take any pictures of that, but he did capture some other things in the city:

Matt was very neutral about it all - maybe because he didn't want me to really know how awesome the city is and be sad I missed it, or maybe because it was just another large city. He did say the Grand Bazaar was chaotic and everyone was super pushy and that's certainly something I wouldn't have liked.

It would have been nice to go to Pinkberry, though, as I haven't had that treat since October. Sigh.

Maybe we'll go back and visit a beach resort area. We heard those are nice. And beachy.

All about Greece.

After a solid day at sea, we finally landed at our first stop, Olympia. You know, where the first Olympics were held.

 Matt just had to touch.

 So many ruins!

 Photobombing Chris

 Just us.

 All over Greece we saw this pretty purple tree.

Not pictured: our trip to a Greek winery where we sampled all of their wines and had a bite of cheese, bread, olive oil and outstanding tomatoes. Mmm.

Lunch was late in the afternoon and worth it. The salad was a last-minute decision and our eyes were bigger than our stomachs. But man was it good.

 I had these meatballs (really meat-ovals) with potatoes.

 Before heading back to the boat, our guide took us to this great beach and outside restaurant/cafe.

 Time for some Ouzo! Here's our group from the left, Joyce, Chris, Laura, and Irene.

 ...and too cool to sit with us was Mike.

 Oh Ouzo. We could have stayed here relaxing longer, but that darn boat was leaving.

The next day we woke up in Athens. Once we got away from all the very insistent cab drivers at the port, we made it over to the ruins for the day and had a guide show us around.

Here's an old theatre.

 Climbing higher...

 Parthenon!

 Inspecting photos....

 Aw, so nice.

 Selfies! Chris looks so into it.

 Matt and Chris were in Athens last year for work and totally meant to get to this, but in the dark of night they just couldn't find the giant thing, so we had to walk over.

 Victorious!

 All the boys.

 As is customary, Matt had to take some pictures through the trees, or in this case some green bush.

We also had lunch. Matt and I shared this plate of fried zucchini

 And lamb! The dino helped, too.

Not pictured: we totally found a frozen yogurt place that sold Greek frozen yogurt. Tart, tangy, thick and creamy. Topped with oreos of course. An excellent way to end the day before heading back to the boat.

Greece was friendly and delicious. I think I'd like to go back and check out more beaches and/or islands...

I survived a 10-day Eastern Mediterranean Cruise

But only just barely. I guess in all the excitement of visiting Greece, Turkey and back to Italy, my immune system got a little wacked out too, because I ended up a bit flu-y. I felt so horrible that I went to the ship doctor and got antibiotics and cough syrup. And had to miss checking out Istanbul. So sad.

Still, I managed to be healthy for the majority of the day trips to Olympia, Athens, Izmir and Naples. The trip essentially covered all the oldest parts of the world, seeing as how we were in the concentrated area where civilization really started. Each excursion was a plethora of ruins (and old dust) and chock full of history.

Ten days was a bit too much though. Considering my grad school classes are only 8 weeks long, I really had to be doing work around the clock before I left and am now definitely behind. (Blog posts for the next few weeks might not be as robust as a result).

Here are some teaser pictures for you, because I know that's why all of you are sticking this out and reading:

Olympia, Greece.

 A little feta with your salad, anyone?

 Greece beach!

 The gang drinking Ouzu.

 The Acropolis in Athens, Greece.

 The boys.

 Izmir, Turkey.

 Istanbul, Turkey.

 The top of Mount Vesuvius outside of Naples, Italy.

 So high we can touch those clouds!

 Vineyard at the foot of Mount Vesuvius.

 Our second trip to Pompeii.

 (I even found my pillar I took a picture with two years ago!)

All in all, we had a good time and got to hang out with our friends. There were running jokes, amusing events and brushes with minor celebrities. Who knew that Flavor Flav enjoyed cruises? Not us until we realized he was on our boat.

More details to follow! Hope everyone has a great week and I can ditch this sickness!

On a trip, back on Monday the 14th!

In the meantime, here are a few travel-related articles I've read recently that might interest you:

10 Things Never to Say to a Flight Attendant

50 Things Every Traveller Should Know

Travel Tips