Rhodes, Crete and Santorini

Day 3 & 4 of the Cruise

Rhodes

The third day of our cruise we went to Rhodes. Clifton and I booked an excursion for this day that was five hours so we were wondering if we would like being on a tour for 5 hours but the tour was well worth it. We took a 45 minute bus drive to Lindos which has an amazing Acropolis at the top of 280 steps with an amazing view of the Aegean Sea. On the way up you get to walk through the village that has tons of stores to shop for souvenirs. Then after Lindos we drove back to Rhodes and went through the old town. The Old Medieval town is the oldest inhabited medieval town in Europe. The entire town is surrounded by stone walls and feels as if you are stepping right back into history when you walk within its walls. Two thousand people live in the medieval town.

Crete

Clifton and I were so excited for our last day on the cruise because we were going to Crete and Santorini. Crete was another disappointment for us. We heard it was beautiful but we think we were dropped off at a not so impressive location on the island. There was not much to see and the shopping was not that great. It reminded us of Athens but not as dirty. We are still not sure if we were just dropped off in a bad location or if that was really what Crete had to offer. Not much more to say about Crete.

Santorini

Santorini was absolutely incredible and made up for the fact that Crete was not that great. The view from the boat was beautiful. There are only three ways to get to the main city of Fira on Santorini Island. You have to go by cable car, walk up 580 steps or by donkey. We chose the cable car which was terrifying for me because I am not good with heights but I made it. Once we were at the top there were tons of hotels, restaurants, and shops to visit. After walking through the village for a while we decided to settle down at a bar to watch the beautiful sunset. We were right on the side of a cliff overlooking the island and the Aegean Sea. It was picturesque to say the least! After watching the sunset we opted for the walk down the hill back to the boat rather than the cable car. We were warned by the cruise ship director that walking up and down the hill is not that great because it is the same road that the donkey's take so it is full of poo and pee. It was pretty dirty. Plus it was extremely windy this day so we had dirt and what we were thinking was dried poo blown up all over us. There are a couple of pictures that are pretty funny of me walking down this dirty hill. We were laughing the whole way down because it was so disgusting but we did it. It was like an obstacle course trying to dodge the donkey poo. haha! Even after the disgusting donkey poo obstacle course we still felt as if Santorini was the most beautiful island we visited and would love to go back and stay a couple of nights.

The next day we disembarked from the cruise ship at 7AM and headed to the airport by taxi after being scammed by about 5 taxi drivers outside the port telling us that the metro was striking today. Of course we just decided to go ahead and take a taxi because we were exhausted and we did see the metro running just fine on the way. Dang taxi drivers! Such scam artists. After our long wait at the airport we finally took off and made it home. We had such a wonderful vacation in Greece.

Mykonos, Kusadasi Turkey, Patmos Day 1 and 2 Cruise

Day 1 & 2 Greek Cruise

Mykonos

After being in Athens for two days we were ready to get to the Greek Islands and be on our cruise ship. The first hour was pretty hectic on the cruise ship. You have a meeting right when you get on the ship giving you all the information you need about the cruise and then you have a safety drill where you have to go stand in front of your life boat with your life jackets on in case of an emergency. We were ready to get on the cruise ship and relax and have a drink and all of a sudden we felt like we were back in school with meetings and safety drills scheduled right off the bat. Once we were done with all the necessary meetings and drills we were able to relax and enjoy the view on our way to our first stop in Mykonos. We weren't expecting much from Mykonos because we weren't getting to the port until 7 and we had to be back on the boat by 11:30. We were mistaken about Mykonos. It was one of our two favorite places out of the whole cruise. It was what you would expect Greece to look like with the white villages and right on the sea with beautiful views. It had the greatest shopping out of all the islands visited in my opinion and wonderful restaurants to choose from. After we walked around the village we decided to choose a waterfront restaurant and enjoyed the view and Greek cuisine. In the slide show you will see two things we thought were very interesting in Mykonos. First off, octopus is a very popular dish in Greece. Clifton and I were not brave enough to try it but we took a picture of the octopus on the grill and a few ready to be thrown on the grill. The other thing we loved was the massive pelican we got a picture of. The pelican is an integral part of the island and is considered the mascot of the island. It's name is Petros or Peter and is usually seen along the harbor which is where we got the picture of it. We were so sad to leave Mykonos but it was definitely a great start to our cruise.

Kusadasi, Turkey

The next morning we arrived in Kusadasi, Turkey where we had booked an excursion to see the House of the Virgin Mary and Ephesus. Our first stop was the House of the Virgin Mary which is believed to be where the Virgin Mary lived and died. It is an amazing story but entirely too long for me to fit in this blog for how this house was believed to be where the Virgin Mary lived and died. Here is a link to find out more information about this sacred site. http://www.sacred-destinations.com/turkey/ephesus-house-of-the-virgin

After we visited the house of the Virgin Mary we took off towards Ephesus. Ephesus was an ancient Greek city, and later a major Roman city, on the west coast of Asia Minor, near present-day Selçuk, Izmir Province, Turkey. It was one of the twelve cities of the Ionian League during the Classical Greek era. In the Roman period, it was for many years the second largest city of the Roman Empire; ranking behind Rome, the empire's capital. Ephesus had a population of more than 250,000 in the 1st century BC, which also made it the second largest city in the world. This was another great sight to see. Only 20% of the actually Ephesus city has been found and they are finding more and more every year.

There were so many objects like tombs, statues, pedestals, lying around that had been

excavated. It was incredible to take a tour through this area that again had so much history. After

Ephesus we took our bus back to the city and walked through some of the stores. We

were warned that you need to bargain with the Turkish people trying to sell you things and that

some of the stores will rip you off. These people in front of the stores were so aggressive and

made you not want to walk into their stores. I did walk in a couple of stores that didn't have the

aggressive sales men and women in front of the store and I had my first experience of haggling.

Clifton was so proud of me. I really wanted this hand painted mirror but it was 20 euro and I said

10 euro and she said 15 euro and that is final and I actually walked out but was soon chased by

the woman and offered 13 euro where I said sold. I do not haggle with anything. If I see a price

and I like it I buy it and that goes with cars and houses. I am pretty much told by my husband to

be quiet when house shopping or looking at anything to where you can come down on the price.

After this purchase Clifton said to me I am so proud of you and just couldn't believe that I walked

out of the store. He had nothing to do with my bargaining. So one of the pictures in the

slide show is of my victory at the store. This picture might actually be framed and placed next to

my amazing purchase! hehe!

Patmos

After Turkey we headed towards Patmos where we had another excursion booked to see the cave

of the Apocalypse and St. Johns Monastery. After our visit to Turkey and Patmos we felt like we

had seen so much history in one day. The cave of the Apocalypse is believed to mark the spot where St. John received his visions from Christ that he recorded in the Book of Revelation. After

the grotto or cave we then went

to St. Johns Monastery.The Monastery of St. John the Divine also known as the Monastery of St. John the Theologian, is a fortified Orthodox monastery. Both places were incredible and Patmos is the third most sacred city in the world.

These three cities I have written about were all amazing and different. Mykonos was great shopping, food and nightlife and then Kusadasi and Patmos were very sacred cities with incredible history. Our first two days in the Greek Islands were enlightening and brilliant.

Athens, Greece

Athens Day 1 and 2

This last week has been my fall break so Clifton and I decided to take a trip to Greece. Our first two days were spent in Athens. I have to be honest and say it was very disappointing to both of us. Don't get me wrong the Acropolis was incredible and magnificent to see but the rest of Athens was a let down. We were luckily warned before hand that Athens is a dump and that we will love the Greek Islands so much more so we were somewhat prepared for our disappointment. The buildings, walls and monuments are covered with graffiti and the streets are dirty. The service was not good and the people were actually rude. We didn't even take many pictures of anything besides the Acropolis and the Plaka area because the rest of Athens was not worth taking pictures.

Now to the good part of Athens. The first day we went to the tourist area which is called Plaka. The streets were filled with amazing stores, full of handmade products and of course some of your cheap souvenirs. The streets were also filled with dogs and cats. It is amazing how many cats and dogs just roam around the streets. They are all friendly and will just lie in the middle of the street passed out. It was pretty funny! We ate at a restaurant that had a great outside patio and this cat came up and jumped into my lap and just fell asleep in my arms. It made me kind of sad because it was obvious it just wanted a cuddle so I held him for a little bit and then had to put him down once we left. The next day we reserved for the Acropolis. This is probably the most amazing sight I have seen to date.The Parthenon and other main buildings on the Acropolis were built by Pericles in the fifth century BC as a monument to the cultural and political achievements of the inhabitants of Athens. The term acropolis means upper city and many of the city states of ancient Greece are built around an acropolis where the inhabitants can go as a place of refuge in times of invasion. You can see the Acropolis from all over Athens. It was built in 432 and is so surreal to walk on and around. The whole Acropolis is still an archaeological dig site. They are excavating all the time and there are tons of pillars, pedestals and statues just sitting around that have been found. When I used to think of the Acropolis I just thought it was the Parthenon and not this massive area that is still being worked on to find more artifacts. After the Acropolis we decided to go the Acropolis museum. The whole front of it has all glass to where you can look down and see the dig site that is where they found many of the artifacts. So as you are walking toward the museum you are looking down to this old civilization that they have found many statues, pottery and other objects from the ancient Athens civilization. The museum is dedicated to all of the items they have found in the excavation. A lot of the first floor was glass as well so you could see the dig site inside as well.

So I know I said that Athens was disappointing but anyone going to Greece has to go to Athens because the Acropolis is incredible but my suggestion would be to only stay one night and go to the Plaka area and the Acropolis and then head out to the Greek Islands. We feel so lucky that we got to see such history in Athens and it was only the start of our trip. There was much more history to be seen on our cruise.

Stavanger Volleyball Tournament

In September I went to Stavanger, Norway for my JV volleyball tournament. It is the one tournament/game we have for the entire season and we only had three weeks to prepare and only two practices a week. So a total of 6 practices to get my team prepared for a tournament. Another coach and I were responsible for 18 boys and girls in another country which was pretty intimidating to me. We landed in Norway and immediately had issues getting into the country because we had an Indian and Chinese passport holder and they did not have the proper paperwork to get into the country. Depending on what country you are from they require special visas along with the passport to enter certain countries. After 45 minutes and a lot of pleading with the Norwegian customs officers allowed them into the country. We arrived at the International School of Norway and ate dinner and then headed to the hotel. We were exhausted and we had an early morning game so I went straight to bed. The next day was pretty interesting for me. It was the most relaxed tournament I have ever been in and this was the first time I was a little stressed about the fact that I did not speak the native language because not many people spoke English. I luckily had a Norwegian girl on my team and she was forced to stick by my side most of the day due to the amount of people trying to communicate with me in Norwegian. We ended up winning one game out of four which I was proud of considering we were playing club teams and I had girls who had never played and only 6 practices. In looking at my team you could see that we were definitely an international team. I had three Canadians, two Americans, one Iranian, one Austrian, one girl from Belgium, one girl from Holland, one girl from Trinidad and Tobago and one Norwegian.

That night we got to do a little sightseeing around Norway which was great. It is a very cold and rainy city. Even colder and rainier than Aberdeen which was shocking to me but I still liked it. We also go to do a little sightseeing the next day before we took off to go home. It was a great experience for me and it ended up being fun. After this tournament I was asked to go to London to coach the JV girls soccer team. I of course said yes since it is a free trip to London. I am only coaching them during the tournament because their coach cannot attend the tournament so hopefully I do OK!!