Wilda and the Museum London Art & Travel Group in Turkey and Greece

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Hi All:

Well slowly but surely, I am getting this blog up and running. My server has not been working and so this is the first time that I have been able to get on line. With 4 days remaining in the trip, it is really difficult to know where to start. Sorry there are no pictures, but I just couldn't manage that at this time.

So I will just hit the highlights:

Istanbul-Our guide Ozlem met us at the airport. She is Turkish but has studied in the US and is working on her Phd in ancient studies. A lovely woman, extremely bright and well organized. We soon became very attached to her.

We were staying in the Ancient part of the city and it soon became obvious that my ancent Turkish history is non-existent. We visited the Blue Mosque - my first visit to a mosque on the second morning and had an interesting discusssion with Ozlem about the wearing of the head scarf. As Turkey is a secular state, they have outlawed the scarf at the universities, but now there is a movement to have the scarf reintroduced, in fact there is a huge court case going on about the issue right now.

We had a beautiful cruise on the Bosphorus which connects the Marmara to the Black Sea. Check out your atlas and you will see exactly where were were.

Hotels, Weather, Food and Shopping

The hotels have all been great. A big variety and in wonderful locations. The weather has been terrific, just the occassional overcast day. The food has been varied and very good - Ozlem took us to some amazing restaurants where we had traditional Turkish food. Excellent.

Shopping- We have had such a busy trip that in Turkey we had little time to shop, although we did manage to hit the silk market in Burgama for about 20 minutes. Good thing that it wasn't longer as we could have done a lot of damage.

The high-light of shopping was going to a carpet shop in Turkey. It is actually a school where young women are trained in carpet weaving. Some of the silk carpets have 1200 knots per square inch and take up to 18 months to make. The director of the school showed us the whole process of producing the silk from the silkworm and then the dyeing of the silk and the wool. Some of our group bought carpets which they had shipped home. The negotiating for the carpets is quite the process. These men are some of the smoothest salespeople that I have ever met and anyone in sales would be wise to take lessons from them. They put us all in a large room and served us drinks - pretty much whatever you want and then started pulling out the carpets and explaining from which area of Turkey they were from and the prices. Of course my favourite was and 8' x10' silk carpet which was going for about $40,000, although I am quite certain that I could have brought him down to $32-35K, but none the less, I am going home without a new carpet --sorry Sandi.

Country Side-It was such a delight to land in Istanbul where they were in the middle of their tulip festival. Green grass and flowers, who could ask for anything more after the winter that we have had.

Cruising the Aegean - We caught our cruise ship in Ephedarus, after the tour of the ruins there. We have seen so many ruins, dating from the bronze age in about 7,000 BC in Troy that they are beginning to all run together, but when I get my pictures organized, I know that everything will be clearer. I feel that I have had a intense two week ancient history course on Turkey and Greece from the Bronze age to the 20th century including the periods of the Byzantines, Ottomans, Mycenceans, Minoans, Greeks and Romans and many more.

The Aquamarine, our cruise ship held about 1,000 people and was completely full. We had anticipated that the cruise would be a quiet time for our group but some of the day trips started at 6:30 am and because we wanted to see the islands, most of us took part in them. The smaller islands of Patmos, Rhodes and Santorini are so beautiful with the high cliffs, white houses and the blue mountains, just like the tourist pictures and one of the main reasons that I wanted to come to Greece. Crete is the largest island about 140 miles long so we are spending 3 full days here. The wild flowers are beautiful and the goats and sheep climb the mountains. Crete is the 4th largest producer of olives in the world with most of it for olive oil.

Tomorrow we are flying back to Athens and spending a fews days in Mycenae before returning home on Friday. Hope all is well with everyone in Canada.

All the best

Wilda

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Comments

[Willa]

Well
Hi Wilda!! Of course, I had completely forgotten that you were swanning around the Greek Islands, Turkey, etc. I thoroughly enjoyed reading your blog. I will look forward to the arrival of my carpet with great anticipation!! You shouldn't have. Enjoy the rest of your trip! You'll be happy to know that winter is actually over. Let us know when you get the photos organized. xo Willa and Richard

[Christine Noble]

exciting isn't it!
I really am glad to hear you are having a good time full of adventure. How have you enjoyed the food? Want to hear all about it when you get home, perhaps over tea? thinking of you Prayerful Blessings Christine

[Pat Mussieux]

Greetings, from one Blogger to Another!!!!
Hey Wilda, Nice job on the blog! So good to hear from you. The carpet salesmen there sound just like the ones we experienced in India......I didn't bring home a carpet either! (guess they aren't THAT good, eh????) Sounds like you are having a fantastic time. Thanks so much for sharing.........can't wait to hear more when you get home. I hope you're taking good care of that precious suitcase! Happy Pat :)

[Mary]

Bravo Wilda
I am so impressed that you are doing this Wilda, WOW! The trip sounds fantastic !