More Mykonos

Mykonos

Mykonos is one of those places that I have dreamt about going to for so many years...so many years of watching the travel channel :) ! We arrived at 7pm and started walking around right away. Despite the darkness and despite the blowing rain I was so annoyingly excited to be there!

We went for a small dinner along the harbor realizing Mykonos isn't cheap and maybe it's just fine to only stay one night :) We then walked to 'Little Venice'--a quaint area, white washed as the rest of Mykonos, but right on the waters edge. We sat overlooking the water and watched the rain fall. Just perfect.

The hotel we stayed at was owned by the same family for many years. The man who showed us around to our room was the 80 year old father of the man who picked us up at the ship. The family was just so friendly and helpful. We made an early night and the next morning I was so excited that I couldn't sleep anymore. Knowing that we only had the one morning there (our next ship to Athens left at 2:15pm) I couldnt wait to get going!

Woke up at 6am..we ran down to the harbor because for that moment the rain had stopped and sun shone all over the hillside of the white washed buildings. We tried to take some self portrait pics here :) We had breakfast overlooking the sea, and spent the rest of the day wandering in and out of cute little shops. It. Was. Perfect. Now I can cross another one off my bucket list ;)

Here's a bunch of pictures... Love you and miss you all!

Turkey to Chios, Greek Island

March 22, 2009

Chios to Mykonos

We are now on the boat from Chios to Mykonos. The boat is HUGE! I have never been on a cruise ship so this is so exciting! Emre and I have decided to take a boat whenever possible instead of flying—so much cheaper, tons of room, and what a view!! I’ll post some pics of the boat here.

Our night in Chios was spent drinking some bad village wine, asking for a manhattan drink and getting whiskey mixed with dry martini mix??? Never ceases to make me laugh what happens when you order a seemingly well known cocktail when in Europe—you never know what you are going to get :)

This morning I woke up just after sunrise because when I opened my eyes I saw the sun shining on the water outside our window. It had rained the entire day before so it was so beautiful to see the sun shining on the deep blue Mediterranean. And there was even a rainbow! We spent the day walking around. Saw the biggest fish for sale I’ve ever seen (see pic), and the sun actually came out through the rain for awhile. We were so happy we took a picture of us squinting. The village reminded us a bit of mountain villages in Cyprus. Once you got away from the main harbor where it looks all nice, the buildings were much older. See the picture here with Emre and the doorway that would barely fit him. Another island of short people!

Right now the boat is bouncing a bit on the waves, it is cloudy but I can see the sun breaking through in some spots. I hope some of it lasts until Mykonos. I cannot wait to see what memories we make there!

history

A few facts on Chios, where we go tomorrow, that I just learned:

Chios claims to be the birthplace of Homer the poet
Birthplace of the ancient mathematician Hippocrates
Birthplace of Oenopides, ancient mathematician.
Oenopion, a legendary king, is said to have brought winemaking to the island.
Archermus (6th century BC) sculptor
Athenis (6th century BC) sculptor
Bupalus (6th century BC) sculptor
Glaucus (7th-6th century BC) prominent early welder; credited by Herodotus with inventing "the art of welding" (Histories, 1.25)
Ion of Chios (c.490-c.420 BC) learned writer of prose and poetry, historian and philosopher.
Theopompus of Chios (378-ca.320) rhetorical historian

moving on...

Hello! Emre and I are just about to sit down to dinner with his family but I wanted to write a quick note. We are leaving tomorrow (saturday) morning to take a ferry to the greek island of Chios. It is just a short 45 min. away. We will spend the night there and on Sunday afternoon we will take another boatride to Mykonos. We arrive there around 7pm and will spend the night, leaving the next day at 2:15 on a boat to Athens. We will spend two days in Athens getting Emre his Cyprus visa then it's finally on to Cyprus.

phew!

And all of that going around is CHEAPER than flying from Izmir, Turkey to Athens. Neither one of us likes to fly so this worked out great! :) and we get to see two greek islands on the way..I remember so well during college I lived in one bedroom in a house to save money and shared the kitchen and the bathroom. I would lay in my bed at nights watching the travel channel until the morning hours. One time there was a show all about Mykonos and oh how I dreamnt that some day I would go there. It seemed like such a far away dream at the time in my one room in Lincoln, Nebraska. Now, it's hear and I am ecstatic and so thankful :)

I will take plenty of pictures to share on our journey. Let's just hope there's no 'perfect storm' brewing anywhere heehee

Love you all!!!!

Finally a Visa!

Me and Emre's second cousin-sweetest girl!

Emre and his sister Ebru

A view of the sea and mountains in Izmir

Men praying outside a mosque

Mystery meats at the grocery store. I miss tofu :)

This morning we went to the Greek Embassy to apply for Emre's visa for Greece so that we can apply for the Cyprus visa from there, and he was approved! So, we leave for Athens on Monday and will stay there for two nights as we were able to find a budget hotel that has non life threatening reveiws on tripadvisor ;) This will give us time to get his visa and also have a day to go around Athens and see some of the sights. yaaaaay!


Here to entertain you are a couple more random pictures. One is the meat section of a local grocery store we went into yesterday. I'm told it contains intestines, lung, liver, hearts, and some other mystery stuff. yum yum.

March 14, 2009

Last night Emre and I took his parents out to dinner at a restaurant owned by the parents of a former student of Emre’s mom (who used to be a teacher). The dinner began at 8pm and didn’t end until 12am. This is one of the things I absolutely LOVE about European culture and I dearly miss when in the U.S. When it comes to dining here there is no such thing as turnover and rushing to get as many tables in and out of a restaurant as possible on a given night. Instead, you sit, you talk to the owners, you are often served extras and surprises and always encouraged to drink the local fire water. Here it is called Raki, an aniseed flavored refreshing liqueur that you drink with ice and usually with seafood. The meal last night began with a large bottle to share for our table and then all of the amazing Mediterranean meze followed. It’s basically like a Spanish tapas..a lot of little sample dishes that you eat with bread. Then the live music started and as the Raki flowed easily at each of the 10 or so tables in the cozy place, everyone began singing at their dinner tables! I sat back and reveled in one of those moments where I think 'how did this small town South Dakota girl get so lucky to end up here at this very moment?’ In a room full of people truly enjoying life at that precise minute…no rushing, just eating, drinking, singing and loving those around them. Emre’s dad even got up and danced at one point, ah great life!

I must also go back to Wednesday night. Emre and I met up with some of his friends from high school here. We went for drinks and ended up at a Turkish Karaoke bar. Quite and experience. Please see pictures :)

We found out on Friday that Emre has been pre approved for his Cyprus visa. This means in about a week we will fly to Athens to get his Cyprus visa, then on to Cyprus to apply for Spain visas. It’s looking like the adventure has just begun..keep you posted :) In the meantime, I will add some other random photos here of these past two weeks in Izmir, Turkey.

I have been meaning to get this blog going since the day we landed here in Turkey. I even wrote a post the first morning here and thought I'd be writing each day...well, that didn't happen but here I will paste the first entry, then hope to keep you all updated as much as possible! Love and miss you all dearly!

February 28, 2009

As I woke up to the sound of the call to prayer this morning, I got reminded of where I was. The gentle and soothing, yet almost eerie sound of the voice brought back memories of the first time I ever heard it during my first visit to Turkey in 2003. Emre and I were walking through a small Turkish village in the evening with cobblestone streets when suddenly the call filled the skies and I felt as though I had been transported to some other space in time. It is truly a unique experience.

Thanks to the jet lag we were able to rise early, around 5.30 am, not long after the prayer call. There is something different about the streets of the world when you are able to view them on an early Saturday morning before most everyone has ventured out of their cozy homes of their lay in weekend morning. We walked the empty streets slowly, with a slight chill in the air, yet with the seagulls squawking above I knew the sea and the warmth of the Mediterranean sun would soon be near. The sun does shine in Boston during the winter, but it’s never as intense as the sun here, the warmth, even in the winter, is amazing!

The one thing that never ceases to grab at my heart when I visit here is the unimaginable numbers of stray cats and dogs that roam the streets. And how they all crave so much for your attention and love…I just want to take them all home with me. Or second best, stay here long enough to try to implement a funded program to spade and neuter them. Although, I know these kinds of ideas don’t go very far in a culture that, overall, does not respect animals..but you just have to start somewhere..

We sat on a bench overlooking the sea and ate a pepper, tomato and cheese sandwich. So fresh and tasty! The food in this area of the world is so simple and because of this is so perfect. A cucumber tastes like a cucumber. Tomatoes here are out of this world. If you have never had a tomato straight from a garden, straight from the fields, ripened on the vine, then you have never had a tomato!

One of my greatest interests is in making beautiful jewelry, or I guess I should say in looking for beautiful beads and wishing I was living in one place long enough to get all of the jewelry making materials. There are amazing Turkish beads here and so inexpensive! I think it’s time to invest and maybe start up my own ebay store and share these unique beads. Look out for it…I’ll name it something like gifts from the Mediterranean J.

The rest of the day today will be spent with the family. I think we will be going to a grocery store in the hopes of finding some western style yuppie food like sushi and tofu so that we can make them some dishes that we usually make for dinner.

I’ll keep you posted on the Turkish reaction to tofu lasagna!