Glimpses of Greece and Turkey

Mykonos, a Greek island in the Cyclades, battleground of Zeus and the Titans in the Greek mythology.
Greek tycoon Aristotle Onasis and Jacqueline Kennedy stayed frequently here after their marriage.

The Parthenon atop the Acropolis as viewed from their hotel.

Twice a year, my niece Roxanna goes on a trip - outside the United States in summer and in the US, where she stays now,  in the fall. Last summer, she went on a tour to Greece and Turkey, culminating on a seven-day trip to the Greek isles as well as Istanbul and Kusadasi in Turkey. 

"I plan my trip way ahead of time," says Roxanna, who lives in Florida where she works as a medical technologist in a hospital, in an email. "After coming back from a trip, I plan for the next trip to keep me sane. I got inflicted by the travel bug."
She often travesl with friends, "mostly single women who are seasoned travelers" like her. "I feel like I got to see places on earth before it disappears. I want to see the ancient and new wonders of the world while they exist. Traveling is my passion," says Roxanna, who hails from San Fernando, Romblon, in the central Philippines.
Roxanne, nicknamed Baby, migrated to the US after joining her siblings in Canada. From Canada, she went to Texas and then moved to Florida.
"My philosophy is that I will travel while I am able - physically, financially and mentally. Hope alzheimer or dementia won't strike me before I retire," she kidded. "About 75 percent of the travelers I met outside the US are retired elderly, with canes and taking all sorts of medication." 

View of the Caldera, a  basin-like depression
caused by the collapse of the center of a volcano.

The sights of them strengthen her resolve to travel while she is young "because traveling involves a long while of walking, too. It's a waste of money paying for a trip if you just stay in a bus or a hotel because you can't go with the group on a walking tour."
She prefers guided tour offered by tour companies. "There are several types of tour: budget, first class, luxury, independent. I take a tour based on the itinerary I like. It could be first class or budget. I have not taken a luxury tour, too expensive for my budget.
On a 12 to 15-day European tour, she says, her budget is usually $5K-plus for airfare, options, pocket money and meals. She doesn't shop on tours knowing that prices on tourist destinations would be about thrice the normal price. She usually picks the month of May for a tour outside the US. "That's when the airfare is low and tourist sites or landmarks are not too crowded."

Blue-doomed church on the island of Santori.

Going back to her latest tour, she picked Greece because the tour packaged included Turkey. From Orlando, they layed over in Philadelphia and then flew to Athens, where she says she felt the ancient glory of the city. They stayed at the Divani Acropolis Hotel, which was close to the Parthenon, and toured Athens the following day to see its major landmarks.

They spent the second day touring the city of Athens and dined in one of the tavernas at the Plaka, a shopping district, where they enjoyed watching Greek folk dances and listening to Greek singers. "We ate authentic Greek food and tasted wine: ouzo (yuk), mousaka, dolmades and gyro (pronounced as yee-ro)."

Performers dance at a taverna where they dined.

It was cold in Athens when they went there with light showers in the afternoon. "Good thing I had brought a sweater. In Europe, you always bring a sweater whatever is the season."
On the third day, she and 47 others in the group from the US started their cruise to the Greek isles. All in all, there were 1,300 passengers in the cruise that started from the port of Piraeus where they saw lots of Filipinos. "I think majority of the port employees were Pinoys (Filipinos). They were all over, from the port entry, ticketing, porters, baggage handlers, visa checkers, etc. When we boarded the ship and got into our cabins, we found out that the steward was also a Pinoy. So we got a special service."
The situation was similar in her other cruises. "I had been to the Bahamas and found out that about 60-70 of the cruise crew were Pinoys. And, yes, you are always well-taken care of. They give excellent services and the Pinoy entertainers were good as well."
The first place they went to was Istanbul, Turkey. "Istanbul surprised me. It is a fascinating place, it straddles two continents. One side is in Europe and the other in Asia. The European side was the capital of the Ottoman Empire. The Asian side is called Asia Minor or Anatolia. The two continents are divided by the Strait of Boshphorous."

White houses with blue domes, a postcard view of Santorini in Ola.

One of the memorable places they had gone to was the Sultanahmet mosque or Blue Mosque, so-called because the tiles used to adorn the interior were blue. "It's a beautiful mosque, with a massive history."she gushed. The also went to Hagia Sophia, a former cathedral turned into a mosque and later into a museum."The Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia are  facing each other.'
Roxanna said they were told by their guide that the Blue Mosque was copied form Hagia Sophia, which had a distinct byzantine architecture, and just added seven minarets.

Other places they visited were the Topkapi Palace, the official residence of the Ottoman Sultans for about 400 years. "Lots of history. Inside the palace, we went into three different rooms where gems and stones of the royalties were kept. No cameras were allowed so we did not take any picture."

On a tender going to the port with co-travelers Cora and Art.

Their last stop in Istanbul were the bazaars where she had a good experience in price bargaining. "Once you touch something they will not stop (pestering you) until you buy. So if you don't want to buy anything just let your eyeballs roll around and zip your mouth."
The bazaars, she said, was a place where you have to haggle for a good price if you want to buy anything because the prices are marked up by "probably 10 times".
"I wanted to buy a souvenir and saw this small replica of the Blue Mosque. Although I was just looking around and didn't say anything, a salesman started following me and persuading me to buy something, probably sensing that I wanted to buy something," she recalled.

The city of Athens viewed from the Acropolis.

"Finally I saw the one I liked. You can pay either in euro or Turkish lira. At that time 1 euro was 3 lira, 1 US dollar was 1.5 lira. When I asked for the price, he said 30 euros. I said 10, he said 20. When I acted like I was going away, he said 'how much do you want?' I said 15. He looked at me and said ok, which confirmed my suspicion that the price was jacked up so much."
Going through the bazaars for food, coffee and spices, their last stop was a carpet store where some Americans in the tour bought carpets. "We watched the demo on how they weave carpets by hand, no machine was involved. While watching the demo, they served hot apple teas (very good) and lion's milk (Turkish liquor fermented anis which I did  not like).
"There were two kinds of carpet/rugs: silk and woolen.Silk was more expensive, from $2,000 to $5,000, depending on the size. They ship it to any parts of the world but it would take weeks or months. First you choose what design you like. If the design was not readily available, they will weave if for you, with your signature weaved into the carpet and would be shipped to your address when it's finished.

Plaka district where shops and restaurants are located.

"Some Americans in the tour bought rugs that would be shipped in the next few weeks. They were really nice and I could have bought a carpet if I had the money. We returned to our ship at night and went to other islands, one island each day. One of the islands was called Kusadasi, where the ruins of the ancient city of Ephesus was one of the tourist attractions. Kusadasi is a also a place where the Virgin Mary was believed to have lived after Jesus died.


"There are so many things to say yet but I would rather let your readers go to these places to see what I am saying. They are beautiful places to visit."

The first Olympic stadium in Athens where the Olympic flame
starts and ends at the place where the Olympic games is held.

We invite travelers to post their travels in this site - free. If you can't compose the story, just give us the details, we will do it for you. Pictures are a must to accompany the story. Send your story and photos to casianomayor@yahoo.com.




Please visit my other blogs Salt of Life at http://www.salt-romblonwriter.blogspot.com,
Miscellaneous at http://www.miscellaneous-oddnews.blogspost.com and Fun in Life at http://www.salt-funstories.blogspot.com.



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