Greece to Turkey

8.17 Arrived at customs office. Told we'd have to get the customs stamp at the dock.

8.21Boarded the Maria Star. Filled in health survey. Checked NO for swine flu.

9.15 Boatsailed from dock to passport control at end of port. Got off boat. Stood in line. Almost didn't get stamped out of Greece. Spent 5-10 minutes trying to convince passport guy when I arrived in Europe. Was seriously afraid I was going to be rejected. Greg was already on the boat and I was the last person in the passport office.

10.30 Disembarked. Paid USD 20 for a Turkish visa. It's pretty.

11.00 Realized we weren't in Bodrum, but 20 km away and the boat and all daytrippers had gone.

11.30 Found an atm, the minibus station, and the minibus bound for Bodrum, in that order.

12.30 Arrived at Bodrum bus station.

1.00 Found hotel. Told that the room wouldn't be ready until later.

1.30 Ordered a plain omelette at ta Turkish fast food place. Total bill: 10 lira or 5 Euro or USD 7.50 for 2 people.

5.00 Spent afternoon wandering around city trying to find mausoleum, odeon (theater), windmills, tower, and good view of the castle.

8.00 Internet time.

9.00 Dinner time. This was a different experience. There was no menu and no prices. There was a display case filled with cold food. There were probably 20 choices. The hostess explained what the food items were. Then, you chose 3 or 4 starters and 2 or 3 middles (I can't remember her term for the items on the middle shelf intended to be eaten after the starters and before the mains). She said most people fill up before they even get to the mains. Once you chose your items you sat down at a nice candle lit table with fancy glasses and silverware. Unfortunately, the starters and middles did not fill us up, but we didn't want to spend anymore money there, so we left and sought out dessert, which we found at a little sweets shop on the ultra touristy shopping street.

11.00 Bed time.

Kos

15 May 2009

We’ve been in Kos for a couple of days now and are planning on taking the ferry to Bodrum, Turkey tomorrow. Apparently, few people go one-way. We encountered only tour boats. One gave us a “deal” of 15 Euro. Funny, round trip is 20 Euro including a city tour. How does that work?

Yesterday we rented bikes and rode to the Asclepion, a place of healing. The day before, we relaxed in the morning (the midnight ferry from Santorini to Kos rendered us useless as tourists. In the afternoon, we explored ancient ruins. Kos is full of them. I actually liked the ruins here in Kos better than the Acropolis and Agora in Athens. Despite being overgrown with pokey things and obviously not well cared for, there seems to be more remaining. You are allowed to crawl all over the ruins (there are no whistle blowers here as in Athens).

At the Acropolis in Athens, a whistle blower (aka a ruins guard) came over to us and asked to view our last photo. We complied, but didn’t understand (the last photo was me with the Parthenon in the background). She said it was okay, but wouldn’t explain what she thought we were photographing. We couldn’t figure out what it could be that she wouldn’t want us to photograph.

At the ruins here in Kos, we found baths and partially hidden (by sand and rocks) mosaics and wall paintings and all sorts of interesting finds. The ruins seemed to be slightly less ruinous. I could see the boundaries of the buildings and the lines of the walls. In the Forum (in Rome) and the Agora (in Athens), you see piles of rocks. I have a good imagination, but it’s not good enough to imagine structures from piles of rocks with any sort of realism.

Kos is definitely a different place than Naxos, Iraklia, and Santorini. Those three are in the Cyclades (group of islands). Kos is in the Dodecadese and is very close to Turkey. I’m talking swimming distance. How crazy is that? I could swim to Turkey! Except I’m not positive I wouldn’t be harpooned down for trying to enter the country illegally.

Time to start another day. On the agenda today: thermal springs and some beach time.

The fortress and inner castle:

If you look carefully, you can see a couple of helmets stacked up on top of the pile of canon balls.

The pillar graveyard.



The following were taken at the Odeon:

The following were taken at the West Archeological Site:

Taking a bath, Roman style. Am I clean yet?

Check out the mosaic I'm standing on. They are just letting this thing deteriorate underneath a bunch of rocks and dirt.

I loved that we were allowed to crawl all over everything. There were no whistle blowers, no "danger" signs, and no one there to watch us. There was also no one taking care of the site. The place obviously is not tended to.

How to Take Three Ferries in One Day

12 May 2009

As the post name implies, we rode three ferries today. First, we took the 9.14 am Skopelitis Express from Iraklia to Naxos. We spent a couple of hours in Naxos buying groceries, finding free internet, and arranging our ferry tickets.

As close as the Cyclades are to the Dodecadese, it is not exactly easy to ferry between the two groups of islands. From Naxos, we had to take a ferry to Santorini and then from Santorini to Kos. This Santorini-Kos ferry only operates once a week and leaves Santorini at midnight.

Although Santorini is the island that gets all the hype, we weren't exactly impressed. Yes, the view is nice and yes, the cobblestone roads are fine (but you can find those all over Europe, so they aren't exactly unique). That's it. I didn't really understand what was so special about the island. To be fair, we were only there a few hours, but I was expecting something more.
From Santorini, we took the ferry to Kos, the last stop before Turkey. We are planning on heading to Turkey after Kos and bus through Turkey to Bulgaria and Romania.

And ta-dah! That's how you take 3 ferries in one day.