Greece, Turkey

Santorini, Greece

Wow, what a town.  There is no pier at Santorini, so we were tendered in.  I took about 5 mins, no big deal.  As you look in the distance you see what you think is snow covered mountains – but it is white houses built on the top.  We had to do a double take!  When we see white on top of a mountain we automatically think snow.  We looked at each other and first thought how was there snow here when it is 30 degrees.  Then realized that they were building.  Hahaha

We assessed Travis’ (Cool Town) feet, and he decided that they were too sore to walk around for hours today.  We were sans T-man today.  We took the donkeys to the top.  What an experience.  It was a little smelly, and scary.  Tim and I were attached to a guide, who yelled all the way to the top.  Vhari was sent on her own.  She must have been on the Secretariat of mules, as her mule would not be passed by anyone.  What a great mule for a competitive athlete.  Haha.  Had a great day of shopping and looking around.  Tim hit a new food record.....Breakfast – eggs benny, fruit, cottage cheese two glasses of chocolate milk.  Lunch – beer and Greek salad, snack – gelato – snack – donair/coke – (all in Santorini) Upon returning to the ship – snack - pasta and meat sauce/salad – ice cream.  Supper (about 1.5 hours later) appie/soup/main course and dessert.  On my!

All in all a great day.

Turkey

OMG – I think that I would rather go to the dentist then go back to Turkey.  It all started when Tim pre-set the price to see Mary’s House and Ephesus.  110 euros round trip for for both attractions.  We got to Ephesus, and the guy said that it would be 50 euros more to Mary’s house.  Tim went a little nuts on the guy.  Needless to say we did not pay a penny more than 110.  As we all toured through the ruins, we have officially decided that we are ruined out.  The cabby said that the usual time to get through Ephesus was 1 ¾ hours.  We managed to do it in 45 minutes.  Hahaha  There is only so much you can take in.  The ride home we where it got really unnerving. The cabby insisted to take us to a Leather or Carpet Factory.  We kept saying no no NO!  He kept insisting. (at this point I thought that we were doomed.  Never to see Canada again) He finally came clean, and told us that he got money to take us there.  We went – looked like we could kill someone – and we left.  He kept trying not to take us back to the ship, but we all lost our marbles at one point – and we made it back safe and sound.

Tim and I went back out to the market.  Funny everything is 50% off.  All we wanted to buy was a cork screw.  The first place was 9 euro – I then said that everything seems to be 50% off, so that means 4.  He was not empress.  We did not buy it from him.  We finally found one that was not a mortgage payment and came home and enjoyed some Turkish wine.

There is a lot of beauty here however it is tainted by the aggressive Turks.

Notes by Tim

I was hoping to have my mind changed when I got here – not coming back.

Notes by Vhari

I can’t believe that my parents did not let me go to the Waterpark

Notes by Travis

There is no way that the cab driver was licensed.