Monochrome. #23

Boarding for Crete.



Eurotrip 2011: Ephesus and rug sales

The views from the bus were great.


After regrouping with our tour guide, we got back on the bus and headed down to ancient Ephesus. More winding mountain roads and I took some pictures out of the window this time around. After about ten minutes of driving we found ourselfs in a valley with small shops on either side of the road. Merchants were out and hungry for business, looking to sell their faux-lex watches and other replica items. Little did we know the local people selling goods here, at the archeological site of Ephesus, were some of the less aggressive salesmen we'd meet before the day was done ha. After our group was collected and entrance tickets were handed out, we made our way inside the gate to the ruins of ancient Ephesus.

By this time in the morning it was about 10:30am or so. The sun was strong, but I was toughing it out in the sun and not taking refuge under trees when our guide found opportunities to get shade to tell us the history of what we were seeing all around us. I had a half empty one liter water bottle on my person, that Beth and I passed back and forth, and the two (now one) bottle of water supplied by the tour. Since large bags were discouraged, I just brought my camera (with a sock to act as my lens cap thanks to the mistep in the Vatican Museum a week before) and stuffed my cargo shorts with spare batteries, memory and what not.

What all the smart tour groups did.

Pre-plumbing. I'd bet it was a much smellier place in 100 AD.

We worked our way through the grounds and I slowly started to mentally check out. I shot my surroundings and signs explaining what was in front of us for later reference as I found myself getting a little bit sun drunk before the ruins cleared and a magificent structure appeared. This was the Library of Celcius (Celsus). It was ironically named as by the time we were inside of it I was holding on for dear life ha. The good thing about getting inside of the library was that it had plenty of shade. I took another swig off the big bottle we had which was down to about 8oz of liquid nurishment and recovered before our next stop.

Shade!

And the next stop you ask? It was a demonstration by some local actors, giving us all a glimps of what life used to be like when our surroundings weren't ruins, but were in full use. What you see here is a royal procession for Cleopatra and Mark Anthony. I made sure to find a large tree shadow to hide my head behind and had a seat; this is the only reason my shots here weren't better and free of tourist interference.

Don't get caught looking.

Milli Vanilli-esque horn playing.

Gladiators fighting for the entertainment of royalty.

Royalty.

After the presentation, which was pretty good btw, we walked back to the entrance to the grounds. On either side there was merchandise for sale, but more importantly beverages for the weary. One of the good things about Turkey was that they would accept any currency, including the Euro or US Dollar, so the $40 bucks that I cursed having on me thus far came in handy. As usual the drinks were expensive ($5USD for 20oz), but I negotiated a couple bucks off three powerades and flavored slushy; haggling was the way of the world here. After we made our way to the bus we were given a local snack. I downed my powerades and recovered a good deal. The excursion was now coming to a close and they proceeded to return us to the port of Kusadasi to get a tour of one of the biggest carpet makers in the area.

On the way back to port.

Turkmen Carpets presentation.

While on the bus earlier that morning, our tour guide told us about one of Turkeys biggest exports, handmade carpets. She explained that the women of Turkey typically make the carpets, but due to times changing and most women not wanting to deal with the typical tradition of arranged marriages and the like, they are leaving the country in significant numbers. The solution? The Turkish government knows how important handmaking carpets is to the culture of Turkey, so they've invested in carpet making by subsidising carpet makers so that the tradition can stay alive. One of the demonstrations we'd receive in the carpeteer we visited on this afternoon was by a Turkish woman in her early 20's. The process is tedius and depending on materials used and how elaborate the design is, the price of these carpets fluctuate wildly to say the least. We were schmoozed by the prioprietor as his employees rolled out carpet after carpet, from simple to amazing. 5-digit prices were quoted (for amazing), eyebrows raised, ooo's and ahh's made up the background music and then we were led outside. One the way outside, conveniently enough, we walked through the attached jewelry store which drew most of the female excursioners in once more. The salesmen were friendly and outgoing, but we managed to escape out of the frying pan into the fire of the bazaar outside.



From the amazing side of the Turkmen Carpets collection, this one changed colors depending on the angle from which it was viewed.





Bazaar alley.



We emerged into an alley-way full of people immediately exclaiming to us that they could beat every price we heard just minutes before. I don't know what most people who don't know me think when they see me, but I never thought I had 'carpet sale' written on my forehead ha. I took pictures between telling aggressive salemen 'no thank you' to offers and random ice-breaking jokes that many of them obviously have used with some success prior my arrival (and presumably after my departure). Loosing track of how many people I turned away within 10 yards in this bazaar, we made our way out of the lions den and into the coastal area of Kusadasi. It was absolutely stunning.

There were multiple restaurants lining the street and by this time it was around 1pm. While we had intensions of eating some local cuisine, it never happened on this day. The week was moving along, we were spending money on a daily basis within the ship and on excursions, and my spidey senses were telling me the available credit left for this journey was shrinking. I double checked my spidey senses online later and decided we'd have to take it easy so we'd make it through the Germany leg of this two-person Amazing Race episode. We wandered for a few more minutes before heading back to the ship and then found ourselves in one more forced buying opportunity. Much like walking through IKEA or Toys "R" Us, there's no simple walking in and out; you have to walk past some quick buy items first and in this case it took the form of a Burger King (there were a suprisingly large amount of these overseas), Starbucks, duty-free shopping outlets with candy, watches (real ones) and clothing stores. After this final tourist gauntlet we had the great joy of going through security again.



The tourist maze.

Another vacation day gone.

Back in the room and air conditioning, my mind and body was rejuvenated. More fluids absorbed, we made our way upstairs for the buffet madhouse. There was only one more stop on this cruise before heading back to Civitaveccia, and that was Crete. We'd be going to the beach tomorrow. As the ship was leaving port I shot more wall decoration quality shots of the beautiful coastline. I grabbed my camera again for sunset. On our way home the heavenly bodies would be on the opposite side of the ship, so I made sure to take full advantage.

Eurotrip 2011: Greece me up.

The day before while in our room, Beth noticed that along with the do not disturb and dry cleaning services there was another convenient option for those not looking to go to a dining hall or designated table for breakfast everyday. We woke up early to breakfast via room service on this lovely cloudless morning and I had what turned into my 'usual' for the rest of the trip; scrambled eggs, bacon and sausage links, toast, orange juice and an oat cluster cereal from Kellogg's that escapes me currently. I typically skip breakfast since I wake up so late, but with these oh-so-normal hours and long afternoons of walking miles in the sun I figured it was the smartest thing to do. We ate, then I opened the blinds to see what the view was like at our new destination. We then got washed up and headed to the auditorium where we met with the rest of our excursion group.

Ours was the white one...

Athens traffic.

The 'Taste of Athens' excursion was a seven hour adventure that took us through the city of Athens to the Acropolis, passing by several major historical and otherwise notable sites; the Temple of Olympian Zeus and Hadrian's Arch, the National Gardens & Library, the Parliament Building and Parthaninion Stadium. The bus left the parking lot of port and our guide walked us through all the aforementioned sites as we worked our way around tight suburbs in a huge bus. It was odd to see orange trees everywhere along the streets in place of the non-descript trees typical in the US. Where you didn't see orange trees there were these other trees that looked familiar, but foreign at the same time; these turned out to be olive trees. As we worked our way through morning rush-hour traffic in Greece on the way to the Acropolis, it became clear that olives and the trees they come from are like weeds back home. If only our yard weeds made such a great oil for cooking. On our journey we also saw plenty of great views of the many marinas and saw much of the city. Space is at a premium in Athens, and most storefronts, shops and dealerships were literally built on top of each other.

The calling card for our tour group.

We arrived at the base of a large hill where our guide gave us the rundown on what would take place over the next couple hours. Looking around I could already tell we were in for a treat. The tips of ancient buildings and structures peeked from behind trees at our low altitude and I got my mojo working by snapping local surroundings while our guide got our group organized for the trek up to the Acropolis. Word has it there are about 150 steps to reach the summit, but I can't say that I kept count. I do know that it was a good bit of hiking, but along the way the views increased in beauty.

One of the adjacent stadiums at the Acropolis.

We reached the Porpylea Entrance with about a thousand people from around the world and came upon the jewel of Greece's crown; the Parthenon. The Parthenon is under constant maintenance as you can see, with workers restoring it's remains on a daily basis. Looking back it was pretty surreal to see another school history book memory in person, and it never got old the entire trip. While walking around you could see the Temple of Wingless Victory and at an even higher point, a fort-like perch bearing a Greek national flag. This higher point was adjacent to a stone wall with hundreds of people scattered along its edge. We made our way over there to see the view of the day.

Porpylea Entrance.

On to the main event.

Under construction.

Our guide let us wander for about 20 minutes to see everything in the Acropolis. Beth and I took a rare picture, with both of us in it, after I took a few of her for her online profiles. We then worked our way down the 150 odd steps to rejoin our group, and bus, then head to Plaka for the second half of the days excursion. It was almost noon at this point and my stomach was grumblin'. Once at the base of the Acropolis again I shot a bit more on a local side street. Soon afterwards we got onto the bus and headed to Plaka.

The part of Plaka we got dropped off in was as tourist catered as you can imagine; a row of restaurants, gelatarias (yes they have those here too), souvenir shops and a museum further up the hill. Our guide bid us farewell, we got the meeting time for the bus' return trip to the ship, then Beth and I made a b-line for the first restaurant we saw. It was called Eetiatopio and was run very similarly to the Italian ristorantes we had visited previously. A veteran server took our orders and brought back my Greek beer, Beth's bottled water and our salad and some fresh bread. We had a Greek salad (surprise) and it was topped with the best feta I've ever tasted. Might I add that I don't seek feta cheese out. It was a seemingly aged brick of feta, brand stamped via depression, broken into a couple large chunks over our greens like a chocolate bar. They had high quality olive oil and vinegar on the table along with a napkin tin much like Sicily's Dolce Vita. The salad ingredients were fresh and the flavors were strong. Then our main dishes arrived...what a treat. I got fish and Beth got a gyro. The fish was cooked whole on the bone with local herbs, olive oil and lemon then deboned by our server at the table. Much like other dining experiences I had while overseas, early in our trip, I lunged towards my plate prior to my server finishing the presentation because, I'm not used to ceremonial presentations and courtesies of this nature. Being hungry didn't help. Once green lit, I dug in...so succulent, so delicate in flavor, so good.

Satisfied, we got up then wandered around the block we were on. Further up from the bus drop off, past all the restaurants and shops there was a archaeological museum. On the buildings surrounding the museum you could see more graffiti from the frustrated locals. If you haven't been keeping up with world events, economic problems are widespread and Greece has been hit worse than most. There are multiple causes, the most infuriating of which to the people being current leadership burning through the countries funds through personal usage. During our trip through Athens earlier that morning we saw evidence of all the protests that are currently ongoing in Greece. Things had calmed down quite a bit by the time we arrived, and since we were taking a tour bus everywhere we didn't run into one of the bigger local problems this summer which was the taxi driver strike. Some friends of our were lucky enough to experience this first hand on their honeymoon in Greece a week or so later. Banners and signs of the peoples' thoughts were outside major government buildings, presumably waiting for protesters to return to them on a daily basis. Our guide shared her feelings on the situation, in a very politically correct way, but it was obvious that the people want major change in the state of affairs and look forward to building things back up to where they used to be. In the meantime though, tourism dollars like ours were a major source of relief for many, albeit on a micro-level.

On the road again.

Heading back to the meeting point, we checked out local shops for schwag to bring home as gifts. We found a few small store fronts with a variety of goods, including Greek honey which was packed with various nuts and available in plenty of sizes. There were also quite a few liquor varieties with some rather interesting packaging. The worst part about our lunch and the majority of the pictures from this side-trip (including our picture together) was that I had a memorycard downloading problem that lead to me loosing 700 shots from the days' adventures. Due to the cost to attempt recovery of these pictures, I'm not sure I'll be going after them. It's really disappointing, because I don't shoot anything I don't want to keep and this was a pretty important set. No worries though, we'll just have to visit Athens again to rectify the matter.