On the ship

B-I-N-G-O, Alex won twice with a total winnings of $94.50 USD and Grandma won $30 USD. Between the heat of the day and the running, we were so wiped out that we missed the show. We heard later that we didn't miss much. We talked about our favorites of the trip so far and it was Athens and Ephesus. Alex did love the shopping at Kusadasi because it was like one giant game show with a bunch of mathematics calculating exchange rates. Not the best photos taken with my phone, but you can get the idea of what we did eat. Alex's favorite nut free souffle made by pastry chef, Chef Lee who was diabetic. We never tasted such amazing sugar free desserts EVER. He also made gluten free and nut free. Alex was a big fan of the chocolate souffle with vanilla sauce.

Alex also managed to play his piano repertoire for us in the Mariner's lounge when everyone was either dining or resting. We enjoyed his playing and the bartenders gave him kudos too!

In one of the lounges...dancing?

The dessert!

Taking a walk around the ship as we leave...Dbrovnik, I think

Chef Lee Pastry Chef, Compass Rose Manager Catalin

Our dinner table!

Bread, can we say anything else?

Santorini, Greece: Oia and Fira

I think I enjoyed Santorini more than Jim and Alex. Santorini became independent from Ottoman rule in 1821 during the Greek War of Independence and was united with Greece in 1830. In 1956, there was a major earthquake there. Our bus tour guide told us that Oia was the capital of the island until end of WWII. There are 600 churches in Santorini.  The island is famous for their wines  (Vinsanto-30% exported) which we tasted in Athens (YUM!). They used to export pumice stone, but now it is banned due to ecological reasons. Our bus tour guide told us of Brad and Angelina's house on Santorini, but we never saw it! Jacque Cousteau explored the area to find that the deepest part of the caldera was 400 meters. There is no rest on this trip as we are back to the ship for showers and next meals!

Tender that we took to bus which drove us to Oia

Our ship from the tender boat

View from Oia which is about 9 miles from Fira. Oia was full of galleries and much quieter than Fira!

Church in Oia

Gallery in Oia

House in Oia

I tried to find fortress after a visit to the toilet, but Jim and Alex found it first.

On my way to the fortress, I found a very cool gallery with some fun jewelry!

Side tracked view when I took the wrong turn to the fortress!

Another view from Oia

Found the fortress

Fishing village in Oia

Only way to get down was cable car or donkey. Considering we could smell donkeys, we chose this route. Cable car was in Fira. Fira was so crowded and more tourist filled shops than Oia. Would have rather stayed in Oia, but time was ticking. This trip was all about non stop running, seeing the most in a short amount of time.

Oia

Oia

View from fortress

On way back with tender, zoom to Oia!

View from fortress on Oia

On our way down cable car, yes it was a big drop!

In Fira, walk to cable car is domed church in distance

On tender, looking up at Fira, Santorini

Cave dwellings

Celebrity ship also there making only 7,000 visitors. We were told by our waiter that one time last month there were 9 ships making visitors total 40,000 people. I cannot imagine!

Kusadasi, Turkey

We learned about the carpet making and Turkish rugs are double knotted. The rugs can be cotton, silk, or combination. The silk are most expensive and often take 5 years to complete. The government pays girls age 12 to be trained as weavers. After lunch, we went back to town to shop. Alex enjoyed the bargaining, but my chemo brain did not work so well. I appreciated his ability to convert Turkish Lira to Euros and back to USD. In one shop, a girl argued with Alex's calculations only to use the calculator to discover he was right. One shop, the man told me that I could not start at the lowest price, but I was too tired to do any back and forth. I walked out and he ended up taking my low offer. Since the only other ship that came to port that day was a Greek ship with many students, these shop keepers were in full gear to persuade anyone who walked by to shop. Let's just say, we made some fun purchases. Kusadasi, Turkey is home of the genuine fakes.Considering that summer time the population goes from 80,000 to 200,000 people, they are definitely relying on the ships.

On the ship, our room was "repaired" and since the ship was "oversold", there was only one room to switch if this didn't work out. Jim handled the entire situation while I enjoyed shopping with Alex and my mom. We usually dined at the Compass Rose in our corner table by the window and never ate at the buffet restaurant again since the first day. This would involve ordering an appetizer, soup, salad, entree, and dessert. Of course, wine and cocktails too. We also ate lunch at the pool deck where you could order fresh fish, burgers, or veggie options. They also had homemade ice cream and sorbet daily. That night was one of the few descent shows which Alex enjoyed since it was an overview of Broadway shows.

Our ship from our bus ride back to Kusadasi

silk worms

Silk threads

Turkish carpet

Turkish Carpet weaver

In carpet shop

Carpets were $400 to $50,000 USD

Getting ready to shop!

Ephesus,Turkey

First night aboard the ship, Alex tries his Pina Colada. We loved this Observation lounge! Too bad we never had a second to spare to hang out there!

Enjoying our aperitif  before dinner!

Ephesus was founded by the Leleges people in 3000 BC. Ephesus was the 2nd largest city during the Roman Empire times. This archaeological site has the largest collection of Roman ruins in the eastern Mediterranean.

Entering the village, 4th c BC, in 1st c AD, St Paul came to Ephesus

Only 20% has been excavated since 1890s

This Grand Theater overlooked the sea and held 24, 000 people.

This granite was imported from Egypt and came from an Egyptian Temple

There were doric, ionic, and corinthian columns here.

There was a 2 story medical center

To the left were the terrace houses

5th century mosaics in front of what was the market place

View of Celsius Library was built in 125 AD

Temple of Hadrian was located in front of baths

These toilets look a little to close for comfort!

12,000 scrolls were here, more market area in front of the library

Used to be a statue here!

This theater had concerts by U2 and Elton John, but then has been closed for further excavation ever since. This is where gladiator fights were held.

Our 2nd calamity happened with the vibrating of our suite. As Alex said, it was like being in a mini earthquake all day and all night. We did not sleep that great and went to the Reception to report the situation. It seemed as if they could do nothing. After much effort, we decided to go on our tour of Ancient Ephesus. We really enjoyed Ephesus. Then, we returned to Kusadasi where we saw carpet weavers!