Day 7 - Morning: Patmos

Our ship docked at Patmos around 7:00 am. Our group plus Debbie, disembarked at 7:30 am ready to walk the 2.8 miles uphill to St. John's Monastery.


There was an optional excursion we could have signed up for, but we figured why pay the big bucks when we could just walk up the hill for free. It took about an hour to walk to the monastery. We were all pretty much spread out & going at our own speed. I stopped to take lots of pictures, so I was by myself a good share of the time. It was beautiful walking up, passing all the little houses & Greek countryside. We passed a couple of little shrines along the road. Later on in the trip, we learned that the shrines are put up by family when a loved one dies near the place. The shrine is then maintained by the family.


This little hedge hog wasn't so lucky either







About half way up the hill, Megan, one of the girls in the group was starting to have a hard time walking because of an old knee injury. So a taxi was flagged down. (Taxi's were constantly passing us going up & down the hill) Three others from our group volunteered to ride up in the taxi with Megan and split the cost with her (20 euro). The taxi took them up to the monastery then picked them up later and took them back down to the bottom of the hill.

St. John's Monestery was named after St. John (Apostle of Jesus) who came to Patmos in the 1st century A.D., after his exile from Ephesus. The chapel was very ornate with lots of gold leaf. It was also very small.


The courtyard



We also walked through a kitchen area and saw a couple of brick ovens and a big hollowed out log with a sign that said it had been used as a bread trough.


I love this picture. These monks were sitting there as we came out of the Monestery. We took lots of pictures, pretending like we were taking pictures of the scenery.


Pictures from the walk back down the hill:
There's our ship waiting for us to return


I couldn't get enough of the blue water:


We walked past a house, and this was growing next to the fence. The blossom was HUGE, about 5 inches across. I later realized it was an artichoke plant.


Back to the ship - our next disembark is Kusadasi a picturesque Turkish village that lies on the Aegean coast. From there we take an excursion to Ephesus.

Day 6 - Mykonos

We arrived at Mykonos about 2:20 in the afternoon. From there, we boarded a smaller boat that took us to the island of Delos, about a 20 minute ride across the water. Delos is the legendary birthplace of Apollo and his twin sister Artemis. For 500 years, Delos was the religious and commercial hub of the entire Aegean sea. Today, the only people that live on the island are the people who watch over the ruins. The entire island of Delos has been declared a national museum. It was pretty amazing to walk among the ruins & see what has survived for over 2,500 years. There were some beautiful mosaic floors that the students in our 'Utah' group were able to appreciate, after having a project in their Mythology class last winter to make a mosaic.



By the way...Timpanogos High School purchases 5 of the best student mosaics each year, has them framed and then they are hung in the school for ever more. Kimball was one of the 5 students who had their mosaic purchased by the school this year!


Back to Delos - These are walls of houses.


This is the site of the theater. It was massive. It was also HOT, HOT, HOT!


Close-up of Kimball sitting in the ruins of the theater


Another view of Delos


Back to Mykonos. Such a beautiful place. Resort town = expensive! It would be so much fun to spend about a week here.


The walk ways were all painted to look like cobblestones


This area of town, down by the waterfront, is called "Little Venice"


The windmills of Mykonos. The most recognized landmark of Mykonos


The crepes were ambrosial! I ordered a chocolate, strawberry & nut crepe that Kimball shared with me. Everybody else in our group had their crepe & was eating, I was still waiting for mine. I had to go remind the guy about my crepe, he had forgotten to make it. Why am I always the one that this happens to?


Later on in the evening, we found a little cafe where some of us decided to partake of some Greek food. Kimball and I had a chicken kabob & a a chicken gyro. This time it was Kimball's turn to get forgotten. We had quite an argument with the lady over his order. She insisted his food was part of what she had brought out. Only when several of us got out our receipts and showed her where the food had gone to, did she realize she had made a mistake. Then there was no apology. She just said "just a minute" and turned to go get his food. Kori told me that the Greek are very proud people, and you won't hear an apology from them when they have made a mistake.

Mykonos is also an island of pelicans. They are supposed to come out & wander around in the evening. Sadly, we only saw two of them. But we did see a ton of cats. Mykonos is an island of cats, and they were everywhere.

Continuing on . . .

The whole time we were in Turkey (Istanbul & later Kusadasi), I felt like I had stepped into the Aladdin movie. (or the Aladdin casino in Las Vegas)


This is the entrance to Topkapi Palace, the official residence of the Ottoman Sultans. The Ottoman empire ended in 1923. Since then it has been the Republic of Turkey.


We went to this place called the Istanbul Handcraft Center. Inside was a store that sold oriental carpets. We went in, sat down, and watched as beautiful rugs were tossed on the floor in front of us. They also gave us all a cup of apple tea to drink in a traditional Turkish tulip tea cup.

After they displayed all the rugs on the floor, the high pressure salesmen came out trying to get us to make a purchase. There were a few in the group that bought a rug, but they were way out of my price range.

Here's my new North Carolina friend Debbie, and her reaction to the price of the rugs:


This is what our cabin on board the Cristal looked like. Not fancy, but it was adequate for sleeping. With the beautiful view's we spent most of our time out on deck.


Speaking of those beautiful views, here's a couple of them:


On morning I was out on the sun deck sitting on a lounge chair, reading. I looked up to see a group of porpoises jumping out in the water just out from the ship. I saw them another night also, just as the sun was going down. I didn't have my camera with me either time.

Istanbul not Constantinople

Early Saturday morning at 6:00 am, our ship was scheduled to enter the Dardanelles Straits on it's way to our first port of call, Istanbul. In the ship newsletter, it told about three war memorials from World War I that would be visible on the port side as we entered the strait.

The first, the Helles Memorial, in the form of an obelisk, stands on the tip of the Gallipoli Peninsula. It is a memorial to the men who fell in the Gallipoli campaign and whose graves are unknown or lost or buried at sea in the Gallipoli waters. A second smaller obelisk is dedicated to the fallen French troops. The third, a large monument looking like an arch is the Turkish Canakkale Martyr's Monument of Gallipoli, dedicated to the fallen Turkish troops.

I wanted to see these war memorials, so I got up early Saturday morning and was out on deck by 5:45. The sun was just coming up, and the ship had already passed thru the beginning of the strait. We were just passing the 3rd monument, the one that looked like an arch.



I was out on deck again that afternoon as we approached Istanbul. There were mosque's and their minarets everywhere! Our tour guide told us that Istanbul has around 3000 mosques in the city.

The Sultan Ahmed Mosque (or Blue Mosque) with it's 6 minarets.

Our excursion of Istanbul was on Sunday. Because the Spice Market and the Grand Bazaar are closed on Sunday, we were able to get on a tour bus that took us to see them as soon as we docked Saturday afternoon. We only spent 1/2 hour at the Spice Market, and one hour at the Bazaar. Not much time, but it did give us a feel for what was there.
Here are some pictures from the Spice Market:


Dried apricots stuffed with pistachio nuts

Turkish Delight

Inside the Grand Bazaar:


There were street vendors everywhere we went:

He was selling wooden tops. I bought one for 1 euro.




These pretzel things were really good.

He was roasting chestnuts (we didn't get any, because it wasn't Christmas) HA!


Buy a wooden flute!


Outside every attraction would be these people, trying to get you to buy their postcards. "10 for one Euro!" (p.s. That lady in the red shirt on the right is Stacee, the lady I shared a room with. That's her daughter Marin on the left.)

Here's the Blue Mosque. (or Sultan Ahmed Mosque if you are Turkish)


Yea! I was so excited to see the Blue Mosque in person.

Inside. It was beautiful!


This is Hagia Sophia - a building rich with history. First a basicila, later a mosque, and now since 1935, a museum. When it was converted to a mosque, they plastered over many of the mosaics. Some of them have been uncovered, and they were gorgeous.

Close up:


There are some pillars inside Hagia Sophia that originally were part of the Temple of Artemus at Ephesus. The Temple of Artemus was one of the 7 wonders of the ancient world



This is the Galata Bridge, that bridges Istanbul of Europe to Istanbul of Asia.