We both had lost some blubber in Greece but being in Turkey has plumped us right back to butterball status. The food here has been too good. We cannot get enough of their grilled spicy meatballs and kebabs. Pide, Turkish pizza, is shaped like boat hull and has meat, veggies, and egg as toppings. The doners, gyro meat, are flavorful and seared just right before they slice it off the cone shaped spit. A Turkish pancake is essentially a thin tortilla/pita spread with smashed potatoes, spinach, meat and cheese then folded and toasted. Mine was without cheese and very good. They do amazing things with eggplants including stuffing them with meat then baking them to a tasty perfection. Also very popular with us is the salsa type side dishes they make by mixing various veggies together, typically eggplant, tomato, onions, and peppers. And boy do they like peppers. They’ve got them decorating the food and drying on their balconies. Mmm, good stuff. Meals are usually capped off by watermelon or apple tea.
-Mary

Our first experience of Turkey was a water park. To mark Steve’s 35th birthday we had to do something unique. Adaland is touted as the biggest aqua playground in Europe (Turkey isn’t part of Europe last time I checked, but they really want to be). They had a good mix of twisting tunnels, speed slides and various pools, all of which were made even more fun, and dangerous, by the apparent lax in safety regulations and enforcement. Steve got some major air on one ramp, so much that you could see sky between his back and the slide. I thought he might actually land on the foliage. Towards the end of our 9 hours we had accumulated a gamut of injuries including lumpy heads, scratched backs, bruised elbows, stubbed toes and sore everything. Luckily the park was closing before we did any serious damage. We even managed to squeeze ourselves into their sand volleyball mini tourney and left unscathed. That night we were exhausted and, after stuffing ourselves with a cornucopia of grilled meats, slept more soundly than either one of us could last remember.
-Mary

Now a little on our safari plans. The more we have learned about Africa the more concerned we are about traveling there, at least for the places we want to see. There are of course ALL the health issues, stories of unreliable public transportation leaving travelers stranded, and the fact that it’s HUGE. So for a plethora of reasons we decided to take an overland route using a tour company for parts of our journey to the southern tip of the continent. We would be stuck on a converted bus with 24 other people for 2x two month trips, camping every night, using shovels for toilets, and crossing through some questionable countries such as Ethiopia, Sudan and possibly Rwanda. We weighed the positives (yes, there are some) against the negatives until our brains were mush and both agreed this would be the best way. This is supposed to be an adventure, right? Now we just need to write our wills.
-Mary

editor’s note: Mary makes it sound so bad. We do get to stay in hotels every now and then. And they do provide the shovel to dig the latrine when we are camping. Here is the itinerary -

Oct 29 – Dec 24: A safari from Cairo south through Ethiopıa and Sudan to Kenya. To Uganda and possibly Rwanda to Nairobi (Kenya).
Dec 25 – Feb 8: On our own to explore the game parks and coast of Kenya and Tanzania in more detail. This is a good time to join us if you are intersted in Africa.
Feb 9 – Aprıl 3: Safari of Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Namibia and South Africa

As soon as we landed on Mykonos we had a sinking feeling. Rooms were scarce and 3x the price of the other islands so we got the first ferry out of there. It happened to be 4:30am to Samos the next morning so we made plans to stay up til the wee hours. We explored the island, which was a disappointment after Paros and Santorini, then went to the port at midnight. There were people already sacked out on the long row of covered benches. We joined them with four hours to go. Steve stayed up and worked on the pictures for the website, powered by his Coke and iced coffee. I was ready to get in as much shut eye as I could so I laid down and drowned out the world. I was surprised how well I was able to sleep given the ruckus that was going on, including some drunkards playing soccer and ferries coming and going. The boat arrived and we were aghast to see the spectacle onboard. All available floor space was sprawled with people. Many had come prepared with sleeping bags or blankets, those that didn’t just slept sitting up or on any flat surface they could squeeze onto. There was even a tent pitched out on the deck. We were directed outside where a similar scene was found except the harsh elements of wind and wetness on wooden plank benches made the indoor mess seem like hot cocoa in front of a roaring fireplace. We got lucky and found a bench that Steve could lay down to sleep, equipped with eyeshade and earplugs. I sat up read and listened to my mp3 bundled in my hooded sweatshirt and watched the sunrise as we pulled into port at Ikaria three hours later. Steve was surprisingly still asleep and my eyes couldn’t fight staying open any more. After people departed at Ikaria I claimed a bench to lie down and slept on top of our bags.

-Mary

After long days of looking at ruins and reading inscriptions of Greek mythology we typically go back to the hotel to vegetate. This gives us the opportunity to enjoy the three American shows the Greek have imported: Hercules, Zena, and Charmed. The commonalities are striking: myth, magic, heroes, and epic cheesiness. It comes full circle when you see you the 2,500 year old marble reliefs depicting the trials of Hercules and then later that night watch Kevin Sorbo do it for real.
-Mary

We’re hopping through the Greek Islands now on our way to Turkey. We’ve been through Paros and Santorini so far. We head to Mykonos tomorrow and probably Samos after that. Samos is then swimming distance to Turkey.

The islands really do look like every postcard you’ve ever seen. The whitewashed cubist houses cling to each other and the cliffs. Walkways and streets form a maze

apparently meant to confuse pirates before tourists. The only part that I don’t care for is that the popular islands we’ve been on are completely dedicated to tourism with maybe some agriculture in the back yard. It is a little sad to see villages made entirely of marble that have been whitewashed to fit into the postcard images tourists want to see. On the other hand, they do look pretty cool.

Here’s a bit of the rest of Santorini. These first two are from the tiny inner islands of the caldera, one of which is still volcanically active and last blew steam in the 1920s or so and have warm and sulfur springs.

Red Beach on the southeast

These cool shades were found on the beach at Kamala. They’re all the rage here.

Wine is everywhere in Greece. It make Italy look like an amateur. In Athens, there were wine supply stores and regular hardware stores selling equipment on the street.

And, of course, the monks in Meteora know what they are doing…

The best is still the fine wine sold in plastic water bottles. İ cannt wait until Trader Joes sees this

We learned very quickly that the Greeks take their statues very seriously. No flash photography, no touching, no posing near the statues and absolutely no putting your head on someone else’s body.

We got a good talking to for this one. The museum guard lady was so angry for the picture but flustered she couldn’t tell us to delete the picture in English that she finally just gave up yelling at us and stormed off.

This one is ok. In the outdoor parks, they just blow whistles at you when you’re doing something bad. Come to think of it, I don’t recall any signs that said no impersonating a statue.

You can’t help but run into a few museums flaunting the cradle of civilization when traveling in Greece. They are full of the usual statuary, pottery shards, words and all, but you can only look at so much of that before your eyes cross. Here’s some of the more interesting artifacts we found between Athens, Delphi and Olympia. Most of this stuff is from 2000-1000BC.

Gumby was ripped off from the ancient Mycenians.

They played ping pong (ok, it’s really a mirror, but that’s not interesting enough to take a picture of)

I don’t recall what the real purpose of these was, but Mary wanted a pair as earings.

Good thing for me the museum shop was closed.

One theater had comical faces on it before they were stolen for the Athens Archeological Museum. Could this one be the inspiration for Yosemite Sam?

Domo Arigato Mr. Roboto. It’s actually an infant burial garb.

I only have eyes for you…