Greek & Turkish Fun

Oh my goodness, it has been a while since I have posted. I have missed it! I got back from my adventures in Greece & Turkey about two and a half weeks ago and have been busy!! Busy babysitting and teaching and catching up with all the anglophones in Beauvais. Busy reading the Kite Runner (great). Busy enjoying the sunny weather, for once.

Greece and Turkey were mind boggling. The languages were refreshingly different, the food knocked my socks off, and I learned a lot. Cecilia and I (in my opinion) are sort of dorky travelers. We like to taste all the different foods, meet other cool backpackers in the hostel & go out occasionally but we are secretly in LOVE with museums, archaeological sites, etc. We had a splendid little time, although we were drenched in rain in Istanbul and got little sun in Greece. It's ok!

Here is a little recap for you.

On February 22nd, we arrived in Istanbul. We stayed at this funky place decked out in carpets on the walls with a cool guy named Volcano at the desk. We bought a really delicious kebab next door the night we arrived and tried to sleep in a room with our noisy Brazilian roommates. The next couple of days, we did Istanbul up. We learned things, we haggled, we got stared at for having blue eyes, we discovered awesome, cheesy foods, and bought cool stuff. We went to a bunch of really gorgeous places like the Hagia Sophia (part mosque, part church, officially a museum) the Blue Mosque, the Basilica Cisterns, the Suleymaniye Mosque, etc. But, oh my goodness. The best and most outrageous part of this city was the bazaars. We went to the Spice Bazaar first, where we ate pistachio candy and gazed at the heeping, perfectly placed piles of colorful herbs. We thought we were in heaven. UNTIL, we realized that that was the baby bazaar and that the Grand Bazaar would be a hundred times bigger and crazier. There was a general madness in the Grand Bazaar, but instead, I will tell you my personal madness that occurred. I bought an incredible tunic shirt dress after trying on around 15. I had someone take apart one bracelet so I could get the piece I wanted put onto a different bracelet, all the while talking about Wisconsin and the Great Lakes. The whole while I was being brought apple tea by the store owners. Cecilia was having an equally fun time - browsing, bargaining, and sipping. At one point, this carpet seller asked us to come into his shop. We said very honestly, that we won't waste his time because we could not even afford a thread of his carpets (this is not even a joke). He laughed and said "come on! Just let me show!" and we said "No, Really- they are beautiful but we are not the people for this!" In five minutes, I was sitting down on a comfy sofa, drinking an apple tea, and being shown carpets in five different color schemes in 20 different sizes- as this man hopped and kneeled and bent over and around to bring out the carpets that he had stacked up to the ceiling. Quite the time.


On February 26th, we took a plane to Athens. I thought Athens was so extremely awesome. The Acropolis was bigger and more majestic than I ever imagined (although the scaffolding sort of put a damper on things). On that Sunday, we checked out the Monastiraki Flea Market. A crazy mix of new and old- where I bought a delicious, crispy sesame bread to snack on. We checked out all the cool, hip areas like Exarhia and Psirri. We ate at Greek taverns. I ate a lot of feta cheese and loved every minute of it. The Acropolis Museum was amazing. The top floor was made to be the exact dimensions of the Parthenon, and it showed the statues that adorned each side depicting a scene from Greek Mythology. Cecilia got a little bit sick in Athens, so I spent some time with two of our roommates- Phil, an Australian living in London and Yves, a French-Canadian Engineer. We did a sweet walking tour and ventured around at night together. On our last day in Athens, I stopped at a cute place for lunch. I ate outside and enjoyed an awesome lunch of Souvlaki with a Greek "Mthos" beer. yum! :o)


In between our time in Athens, we actually squeezed in a visit to the island of Paros in the Cyclades. It was March, so it was quiet- and honestly, beautiful! We were in the main town of Parikia and we had fun wandering the white and blue lined cobblestone streets. I bought pretty leather sandals, starred at the Aegean Sea, continued to eat feta cheese and just relaxed. It was very peaceful. Plus, we found a few respectful nooks for coffee- which definitely doesn't hurt.


Honestly, we did a whole lot more than this- but if I went through it all I would not have stories to tell in person when I got back to the the States- and where is the fun in that?