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Published: September 4th 2008
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It's exhausting being a tourist.
PJ having a rest on a hunk of marble at the Acropolis. Tuesday 2nd September: Izmir, Turkey (Sorry - no pictures! Somebody forgot to bring the camera, but did remember the video camera...)
We arrived in the port of Izmir in Turkey early in the morning. Pete decided to take the group tour which went out to the ancient ruins of Ephesus, however, PJ and Sandra opted for a later rise out of bed. Towards midday we took a taxi with some other travellers into the town centre. The taxi ride alone was worth it - the drivers fancy themselves as race-drivers and ‘burn’ each other off at the lights at every opportunity. Passengers sit in the back seats wide-eyed and slightly worried about their immediate fate as they speed through the streets, narrowly avoiding collisions with any of the hundreds of taxis, pedestrians, motorcyclists and tourist horse-carriages. Sandra of course loved the dangerous element of the whole thing and it was all a bit of fun, while her fellow adult female passenger sat with white knuckles gripping the back of the seat in front!
Upon our arrival, we were greeted by a maze of streets filled with shops selling everything from plasticware to traditional rugs. One only had to glance
in their direction and shop-owners would launch into their hard-sell routine. We decided to enter a shop selling suits for boys but were unable to find a pair of trousers to fit PJ’s girth. We eventually managed to leave with just a colourful vest and a new formal white shirt, having haggled down from E50 to E25.
Sandra had her heart set on seeing the geothermal springs for which Turkey is known and, despite finding out way to Balcove, it transpired that the only people who could use the facility were the masses of Norwegians who take therapeutic holidays at the adjacent hotel. Across the way, we were enticed to visit the Aquapark, however, we explained that coming from Australia we had seen more than our fair share of such places and were not really interested. So much for my thermal springs!
Our very kind taxi driver then took my instructions to take us somewhere ‘nice’ and we headed up to the ruins of Alexander the Great’s fortress of some unpronounceable name where we were met with more sorry looking locals trying to sell us trinkets and rugs and everything in between. After a brief time there taking
some footage and photographs, we asked our driver to take us to a cafe serving Kebaps.
Thankfully, we ended up in a regular street with no tourists in sight, sitting on the sidewalk of a pleasant cafe. After ordering just one plate of food, naturally we received two. I offered the second plate to our driver who, after first politely refusing, gratefully accepted the offering and sat politely at a distance with his cafe-owner friend. (It appears that everyone knows everyone in Turkey, as PJ astutely noticed.) The cafe also doubled as a mini-menagerie: a duck, a rabbit, and a chicken all kept us company as we ate our lunch!
From there, we returned to the Port, handed over E40 + USD10 to our lovely driver and returned to the boat.
Wednesday 3rd August: Athens, Greece
An early morning start saw us boarding our very nice tour buses to travel from the Port of Piraeus to the Acropolis, about 30 minutes away. Traffic in Athens is pretty much a nightmare, and the smog is fairly visible from up on the hills. The Acropolis is, as one might imagine, an amazing place to see, however, with about 20
Too many tourists!
The spirituality and unique ambience of the Acropolis was totally lost due to the huge volume of tourists on the site. There were probably about 1000 up there at the same time as us. Crazy shouting Spaniards everywhere! tour buses of people all crowding the place like ants, it really took away from the magic and spirituality of the place. We found it stressful and unpleasant, coupled with the heat, to be up there amongst shouting tour guides and dogs attacking umbrella-sellers. Above, you can see the magnificent amphitheatre. The seating has been restored to enable wonderful concerts to be conducted there. As we watched, lighting and staging were being put in place. The likes of Pavarotti, Maria Callas, Yanni have all performed there. Many concerts are arranged each European summer with thousands of visitors coming from all over the world to enjoy the unique ambience of the venue. This has been the site of many televised concerts, hence you may recognise it.
Having taken some lovely shots and enjoyed it as much as we were able, we descended the 80 steps back down. From here, we took a taxi to the Plaka, an ancient part of the town (also with its own excavated hole in the ground revealing some sort of ruins) where we did a spot of shopping in the charming and quiet streets filled with a huge variety of shops. We were to meet
Peter’s daughter Katie and her mum, Anna, at midday in the Athens main square. From there we walked back to the Plaka and enjoyed a lunch at a beautiful outdoor restaurant, replete with fans and wate-mists to keep us all cool.
A spot more shopping, and a walk to the uber-trendy spots for the young and young-at-heart; the place to be seen sipping on a long iced-coffee, smooching on colourful couches and enjoying the throng of life in Athens.
Katie and Anna then took us on the Metro back to the Port. A much more pleasant ride than the taxi, given that it was at least air-conditioned and it only cost 80 cents each as opposed to the E30 fares that others paid. It was a really delightful day, although very hot and a very long walk back to the ship from the Metro stop. Katie and Anna looked enviously up at the magnificent ship as she was berthed at the port and away we went through the terminal, waving goodbye. They had another week of Athens to enjoy.
Thursday 4th September: At sea en route to Messina, Italy.
All day to enjoy the delights of
the ship. Peter is calling Bingo today! Woohoo! PJ is running around enjoying everything he possibly can with his friend, Joey, in tow. They have their own on-ship credit cards to purchase drinks and goodies. They help themselves to the soft-serve machine in the Lido buffet numerous times per day, and order pizzas at will. They are enjoying the last two days of bein together.
Tomorrow, we might just take a wander into the town, although Peter swears he is not taking a group tour anywhere - he just wants to chill out on the ship AGAIN!
We are just about at the end of the trip now. It’s hard to think about going back to the real world!
Bye for now.
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