EUROPEAN VACATION – WEEK 8

 

Every day, the crew changes the floor mats in all the elevators.  The mats tell us what day of the week it is; otherwise, we might not know.  This week began in Athens when the third leg of the cruise ended and our last one began.  We decided that our theme for this leg would be: ‘independent travelers’.  In other words, we’d search for things to do on our own as opposed to opting for the generally overpriced Holland America excursions.

 

We started by taking the subway into Athens from the port city of Piraeus.  In the city centre, we visited the National Gardens, took in the finish of the Athens Marathon, and visited the Temple of Zeus and Hadrian’s Gate.  The photo below shows the temple of Zeus with the Acropolis in the background.

 

 

On our way back to the square where we were to pick up the subway, we came across a tiny Greek Orthodox chapel, tucked in under a modern office building, on the corner of a busy street.  A plaque on the little church said it had been built in the sixteenth century.

 

 

We sailed that evening for Volos, on the north coast of the Aegean Sea in that part of Greece known as Thessalonica.  Volos is where Jason and the Argonauts are purported to have sailed from, according to the legend.  We had decided to find the bus station and see if we could take a bus to the mountaintop village of Makrinitsa.  It cost us less than $10 for two round-trip tickets.

 

 

The village is literally at the end of the road, built on a steep hill overlooking Volos.  It is absolutely beautiful, with its own unique charm and character.  The roofs, the streets and the narrow pathways are all made of slate.  Although it had started to rain by the time we got there, we made the best of our visit and walked all through the place, settling eventually in a restaurant where other cruise ship passengers had taken refuge while awaiting the arrival of the next bus.  We had a delicious lunch and met some interesting people who gave us valuable tips on how to find the best cruise deals.  They’re true independent travelers; rarely, if ever, taking a Holland America excursion.

 

When the time came, we trudged down the hill to the tiny concrete-block bus shelter in the pouring rain.  By the time the bus showed up, there were at least a dozen of us huddled in the tiny space, and it reminded me of the old contest: “How many adults can you squeeze into a Volkswagen Beetle?”  Proof once again that misery loves company.

 

From Volos, the MS Rotterdam sailed east toward the Dardanelles, the strait that separates the Aegean Sea from the Sea of Marmara; then across the Sea of Marmara, and through the Bosporus to Istanbul.  We looked forward to visiting Turkey’s largest city and its many attractions.  When the ship tied up at 4:00 pm, we went ashore and walked across a bridge toward the centre of the old city.  Istanbul has somewhere between 14 and 17 million people, depending on who you talk to; perhaps no one knows for sure.

 

That first evening, we walked to the area which contains the best-known tourist attractions and managed to get into the Blue Mosque.  This incredible structure was built under the reign of one of the Sultans who wanted to out-glitz the nearby Hagia Sofia.  The Hagia Sofia was built during the sixth century on the orders of the Byzantine Emperor, a Christian, and was later converted to a mosque when the Ottoman’s conquered Istanbul.  The Sultan was kind enough to leave the old church alone, but had to have a better one.

 

We arrived at the Blue Mosque just after prayers, took our shoes off, and were stunned by what we saw.  Besides being massive, the building is absolutely beautiful.  The whole of the interior is covered in rich carpeting, and the walls and ceiling are glazed in ceramic tiles.  The ones on the huge central dome are predominantly blue, hence the name.  Since there are no seats in a mosque, one sits on the floor.  Or, like I did, lie on the floor and just look up.  The sacred place I was expecting to find in Jerusalem, I actually found in Istanbul.  You could feel it.  It was so quiet and peaceful there that Elva and I could speak to one another in whispers.

 

The next day, we hit the ground bright and early and walked to the Topkapi Palace, home of the Sultans during the Ottoman Empire when Turkey was a world power.  The Ottoman armies brought home great quantities of riches captured from their defeated enemies, much of them on display in the Museum Treasury.  It is an astounding assemblage, consisting of diamonds, precious stones, clothes made of silk and gold thread, cradles made of gold, and thrones made of all kinds of exotic materials.  One section of the Palace holds numerous relics considered sacred by Muslims.

 

Finally, we came to the part of the Palace which most interested me: the Harem.  Our audio guide explained that each Sultan had his harem, or collection of concubines.  One had between 400 and 500!  Unfortunately, they’re all gone.  Otherwise, this might have been one to strike off my bucket list!

 

So, as usual, I let my imagination run a bit.  I wondered, for example, how any man would manage to keep so many women in shoes?  How good a cook would a concubine have to be to rise to the top of the heap, as it were?  What did the concubines do to pass the time while they waited for a booty call?

 

The audio guide explained that the concubines were guarded exclusively by an elite military corps of eunuchs.  I was tempted to ask one of the guards on duty in the Harem: “The qualifications for getting into the eunuchs’ core must have been pretty stiff, eh?”  But I thought better of it and kept my question to myself.  You see, Turkish men don’t strike me as having a sense of humour, certainly not similar to mine at least.  They’re aggressive-looking brutes for the most part, at first sight anyway.  Still, I did wonder where eunuchs went on vacation, and what they did on their nights off.

 

Before leaving Istanbul, we spent a short time in the magnificent Hagia Sofia, still resplendent after more than 1,500 years.  The church, now a national museum, is undergoing extensive restoration but was worth the visit nonetheless. 

 

And we walked through the Grand Bazaar; a mesmerizing maze of shops selling all manner of goods that makes the West Edmonton Mall look like a convenience store.  A day and a half was insufficient to do justice to Istanbul, but we did the best we could.

 

The weather has changed since November 11, and it’s feeling a lot more like the fall here in the Mediterranean.  We’ve been so spoiled thus far.  Next stop on our journey was the small Turkish port city of Dikili.  I don’t really know why we stopped here, except that it happens to be the nearest port to the ruins of ancient Pergamon, an important Greek and Roman city.  Why is it so important?  Well, as near as I can figure, it’s because the Roman theatre’s steps are the steepest yet discovered. 

 

Seriously!  Ruin-wise, we’re running into the law of diminishing returns here.  Elva and I are almost ‘ruined-out’.  We see others scrambling to see every last fallen marble block and stone column and we admire them, but the ruins are starting to look the same to us.  Besides, we’ll see more when we’re in Rome in the next couple of weeks.  So instead of Pergamon, we walked along the pretty sea wall in Dikili in the morning and headed back to the ship before the rain started.

 

On our second visit to the port of Kusadasi, we’d opted for a guided tour with John and Cheryl with a company called Ephesus Shuttle.  Our guide and driver took us to two ancient cities: Priene and Miletus.  Because we were the first to arrive and crowds were light, we had plenty of time to discover and learn how Greek and Roman cities were laid out and organized.  In spite of being ruined-out, we did learn a few things!

 

 

Next, we visited a village called Domitia.  Greeks living there were encouraged by the Turkish government to emigrate to Greece in 1933, and most of the houses were abandoned for decades.  Some are being renovated, and the place has a haunting beauty to it.  Finally, we had lunch at a roadside country restaurant, and feasted on fresh bream; the best fish I’ve had since we arrived in Europe.

 

On Saturday, we arose to bright sunshine and warm temperatures in the beautiful harbor city of Marmaris.  We’d decided to just stroll around the place to see if we could fill the day.  As it turned out, we found ourselves in the midst of a first-class resort town, featuring a gorgeous waterfront promenade, hotels, restaurants, and outdoor cafés.  We walked for 90 minutes before stopping for some tea and, for me, a dip in the warm harbour water on a nice sandy beach.  The temperature must have hit 25 degrees.

 

For the rest of the day, we just people-watched as the locals and cruise ship passengers strolled by.  Many local men and boys were fishing along the waterfront, and the place just had that pleasant, relaxing feeling.  Marmaris is now on my top-three among places we’ve visited, and we may just come back here someday.

 

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