Hotel Sandalis Sámos

H's Notes
We woke to find ourselves mooring in Kusadasi. Our tour to Ephesus had been planned for the afternoon so we took ourselves off for a walk along the seafront and out to Pigeon Island which gives Kusadasi its name.
The tour to Ephesus was quite stunning and the ruins were far more extensive than we had ever envisioned. According to our guide Ihsan who was born in Greece but who has lived in this area for over 30 years, only a quarter of the Ephesus complex has been ...

... 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!!!

... on them or carried drinks over some of these incredible pieces that took years to make. Once the presentation was over, our host called in his 'associates' and we were effectively cornered by 10 or so Turks trying to engage us in conversation in the hopes that we would buy as many carpets as possible (starting at around $2000 US for the small ones and $6000 US for the big ones). It was quite amusing - they didn't bother us as much as other ...

... 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?
Love to all
Davo and Janet

... and he had booked us somewhere on the front at a bargain price again well done Beebs.

We spent the day doing what many Greeks do nothing much, had a mooch around the shops and Ian spotted a language school so he is now printing his CV off to go and hand it into them. We went for lots of chocolate milk drinks another thing I am addicted to cold chocolate milk with crushed ice its fit and Ian love Frappe ...

... 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.

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 ...

... than anywhere. But apart from this no issues with such a lovely place. To prove this we met a lovely girl on the ferry from Turkey who had lived in England for 12 years working had a brill conversation with her about the differences between Turkish and English men!

Got the local bus to a place called Kokkari with no accomodation again and asked where the toursit office was in a little jewelery shop they said that it was down the road but it ...

... of being gobbled up by urban development as land always seems to be. Arriving back in Istanbul via bus meant that we were on the periphery of the city as long-distance buses were contained outside. Free mini-bus or van services would drop you off into the city and if they were nice, to your hotel. We were lucky enough as the van dropped us off in Sultanahmet about a 5 min walk away from the hotel. Thanks to Alex persuading the guys as sometimes, the vans may ...

... the LAN. Maybe we haven't come all that far after all. After the museum, we strolled up to the top of a hill where the church of St John the Baptist used to be. There are still ruins there, so I paid my money and took a look. In fact, St. John is buried there. I'm not all that religious, but it was a bit strange walking around where John the Baptist was laid to rest and being about the only person around. I bet if I went to Bruce Lee's grave, there would be a line ...

The bus journey from Istanbul was a shocker. Really long and very uncomfortable. But there was a bus boy who served as much cold water, coke, tea or coffee as you wanted!!! AND he makes sure you get kicked off at the correct stop! Brilliant! We wanted to stay in the same place we had in 1998 but the prices were a bit steep (ANZ Pension). So we decided to try out the opposition - All Blacks. Bargin price with brekky. The young guy's name was Leonardo. He was ...