Emily Sámos

... He spoke all through the tour about the extensive history of the place with pride and passion.<br><br>The ruins are buried under layers of earth and this process whereby a thriving community gets lost over centuries by being interred is a mystery to us really. The quality of the stonework at Ephesus mirrored that we had seen in Greece and the expertise of the stone workers astonished us. Also the extent of the complex with its way down to what used to be the Aegean Sea until ...

... as impressive as Istanbul's minus the agressive shopkeepers. The carpets are a work of art..there were lots of fake knock off shops too...watches, pocketbooks. Some people were going crazy buying that stuff!! Now we are exhausted and our new friends, Kathleen and her husband have just called to say we have an early go tomorrow in Athens. This should be another long day. We're loving every minute of it!!!

... couples because apparently we don't look like we have much money to spend on carpets. They were right of course and we were able to slip by the merchants and out into the street. I couldn't find a patch for my backpack so instead of being hassled to buy something, we spent the afternoon on the beach.<br>(Whitney)<br> <br>Ephesus was amazing. Usually, I am not really one for history, but this site was so intact it was easy to imagine ...

... sunsets before we go down to get dressed for dinner. Today we are just going to sit at the pool as we steam towards Eygpt. Tomorrow will be our longest excursion to Cayro and then onto Giza. I included a photo for CC and Sidy to show them the boat that grammy and kookie are on. Miss all of you.We have heard from Rach and Doni, but no message from Liv, Joe and Keith are you guys a live? <br>Love to all<br>Davo and Janet<br>

... coffee with creamy milk. Feeling a little out of sorts today bit tired after all the travelling and miss everyone back home including dan dan lots and lots. <br><br>Going to go out and have something to eat this evening and then up very early for the ferry to Paros but tomorrow we have booked a 4 star hotel with swimming pool on my fave Greek place Paros its so cool so excited about going there tomorrow.<br><br>

... trip so not done too bad. As the waves where nearly 5 foot high it was impossible to swim on this part of the beach but Ian had saw that there was another part of the beach around the harbour where you could swim so we headed there and went for a lovely swim together.<br><br>Manchester united where playing Manchester City and we saw that one of the bars next to the harbour had it on so off we went for a few beers ...

... enough for you and everything was no trouble at all. I really would like to go and do some more of Turkey is such a beautiful place and really inexpensive and easy to get around so hopefully next year when we are in Greece its easy to get to so will try and do a bit more of it. Met lovely people and ate tasty food the only issue really was the people trying to hassle you to go and buy things from there shops it can become tireless and I found it worse in ...

... and monastery we had a couple of hours of free time in the port town of Skala. We found a restaurant that had the second best pasticcio (Greek lasagna) I've ever had (the best is still my mother-in-law's) and we walked around the shops. We got back to Samos around 8 PM. For dinner we weren't very hungry so we just got some spanakopita from a bakery by the hotel and ate it on a bench by the water watching the sunset. <br>

... are still under excavation. It's well worth it to see the old frescoes that are still on the walls in full colour and floor mosaics that have been restored or are still intact. In addition to all that, we were able to ask Nials of some of the meanings of the carvings we saw at St John's Basilica yesterday. We learned a little ancient Greek, and also learned how the alphabets came about from the simple wheel sign (old crosses) that became abcs. We learned how the ...

... a little bit of a tan from Egypt still, and I've lost enough weight that my bathing suit actually looks pretty good right now. So why the Hell not. It felt good to actually have sun to bathe in after the rainy days of last week. That's it for the moment. Uploading photos started to be a little more difficult so until I find a place where it is easy I will have to just keep them on hold for you. Next... on my way to jet through Greece!