Part Two: The Islands

After we left Istanbul, we cruised through the Greek islands (and one Turkish port). Here is a recap of the week, which did not include getting sick even once.

Picture 1: Jason and Chelsey at Mykonos
Picture 2: The marketplace and library at Ephesos
Picture 3: Jason pretending to be the Colossus of Rhodes
Picture 4: Santorini

Mykonos: Our first stop was Mykonos. The information from the ship said it was "historically unimportant" until the 1950s...so we didn't go museum shopping. Instead we spent a nice day on a Mediterranean beach. I didn't think the beach was quite as good as in California or Hawaii - the sand wasn't as nice and there were umbrellas covering the whole beach - permanent ones that you had to pay to sit under. The water, on the other hand, was really, really clear - much different from the California beaches I'm used to. It was also a really warm day, so going out into the water felt very nice, and then we could look down and see where we were walking. Naturally, that prompted me to try to catch the little fish swimming around our feet, though.

Patmos: A small island, the main attraction on Patmos is a monastery at the site where John wrote the Book of Revelations. Unfortunately, our ship didn't stop long here, and we didn't have time to go up to the monastery. We did walk around the harbour in the peaceful little town, though.

Kusadasi: That's the name of this Turkish port, but really the highlight is the ancient city of Ephesus. One of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, the Temple of Artemis, stood here, though now it's reduced to a single column from a reconstruction of the earlier temple. There is an amazing archaelogical site at the old city of Ephesus, however, which we walked through. They've discovered a lot of old buildings. The two most interesting, I thought, were the library of Celsius, which has a three-story facade that has been preserved/restored; and the great Odeon, or theatre, which is one of the biggest extant theatres in the world from that time period. It's even mentioned in the Bible; the theatre in the story in Acts 19:20-41 is the theatre we were standing in.

Rhodes: We had almost a full day on Rhodes, more than any other island, and it was a pretty full day - even though the Colossus isn't there anymore. The old city is well preserved and gives a pretty good idea of medieval life under the rule of knights. The Palace of the Grand Master is now a museum that featured a series of stunning mosaics from either Rhodes or nearby Kos. We also hit the decorative arts museum and the archaelogical museum, before walking around the harbour and pretending to be the Colossus reborn. Well, maybe that was just me.

Crete: If there was a letdown on the trip, it was here, as we arrived to discover the Palace of Knossos - seat of the legendary King Minos, site of his labrynth and the center of Minoan culture - was closed due to a strike. Nonetheless, we found the Cretan archaelogical museum, which was quite impressive. It was one of the best-organized museums I've ever been in - I felt like I learned a lot about the development of life on Crete.

Santorini: Our final stop was this island, formed from the edge of a volcano that blew itself to smithereens a few thousand years ago. The ships dock at the bottom of a cliff, but the city is at the top. There are three ways up: walking 500+ stairs, taking a cable car or riding a donkey. We chose the cable car. Like Patmos, we really just had time to wander around the city a little bit, but I thought Santorini was maybe the most charming of the islands. We walked left from the cable car depot and, despite the presence of at least four cruise ships in the harbour, found ourselves wandering some very quite Santorini streets with great views of the sea. We stopped and had a drink at a quiet little restaurant before heading back down. We walked down, trying to avoid the donkey droppings. And the donkeys themselves, as they weren't keen on sharing the path. One of them ran Chelsey right into the wall.

After that, it was on to Athens, which you can read about it part III.