Erato Hotel Karlovasi

... harbour became silted over seemed out of sync with the rest of Europe in its time of immersion in the Dark Ages. So much knowledge was lost or suppressed at that time by those who contributed nothing to the rational and wonderful development of the world. The civilisations that created places such as Ephesus and the Acropolis were so advanced and their writings and thoughts were burned in the large libraries they had created by the pagan ignorant and the Christian destroyers. How ...

Kusadasi was a surprise!! We arrived around noon and left the ship for a quick visit up a windy 1500 foot drive up a cliff to the House of the Virgin Mary which is supposed to be her final resting place. It was a small stone building in the pines and a truly beautiful place. We then drove to the ancient ruins of Ephesis which remains an awe-inspiring city in an amazing setting. Beautiful marble colonnades ...

... 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 ...

A day at sea and some time to catch up a little. We were in Kusadasi, Turkey yesterday. As we have been steadyly moving east, the age of the cities and the sites we visit keep getting older. . In Rome we were looking at buildings constructed anywhere from 200 BC to the second century. As we traveled through the Greek islands some sites like the Acropolis at Lindos (Rhodes) were originally built around 800 BC. Turkey and Iran it ...

... 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 ...

... and I had a greek meat plate yum yum. After food we went for a walk along the shore this area has strong winds in September called Meltimi that make the waves really high like being in Cornwall so we were sat watching them when we saw either a shooting star or an UFO we are still not sure what it was it kind of fluttered in the sky for a bit then shot off convinced it was aliens!!!! Anyways after that experience off to bed before they try and come and get us.

... ride to Munich (pleasant enough- the plane had the bathroom DOWNSTAIRS and I watched "Juno" and "27 Dresses"), a 3 hour layover, a 2 hour plane ride to Athens, a short 3 hour stay at Haroula's aunt and uncles house in Athens(where I had my first meal- a gyros!- and my first toilet experience (no toilet paper in toilet but rather in the garbage can... for the next 3 months, people!), and finally, a 15 hour boat ride to the island. Like I said, 31 ...

... from Kusadesi was excellent - just long enough with the sun beating down on me. There was also a large group of 20 somethings from Uruguay singing songs on the boat - great for a people watcher like me. :) We're off on a 3pm ferry to Mykonos (apparently a fun fun island!) and will get in this evening. I wonder how it will be to find accomodations from the hoards of people that ...

... the stops were many, and the motivation was not always clear. Granted, there is no bathroom on the bus, but our last stop was about an hour-long breakfast stop for the driver. What happened to packing a sandwich? We were on the bus for 13 hours...we were told twice it was going to be 10. So, we arrived AFTER our cruise departed, but luckily it hadn't gone too far and the tour company drove us to a pick-up spot only 15 minutes away. The boat - MUCH ...