Tried to figure out how many weeks this blog covered, and I am SHOCKED that it has been three weeks since the last blog. We have done so much in that time, but somehow it has just flown by. When we planned the timing of this stretch, we were hoping to get beautiful summery weather, without all the crowds.
You can’t always get what you want, but this time, we have. The weather has gotten distinctly warmer. We’re spending our days in the mid-to-high-twenties, with our jumpers and jackets squashed into the bottoms of our bags.
Our journey back into Europe has come with an increased number of spots where we’ve opted for apartments. This has allowed us more of some of our home-life comforts. Jerry and I are both sporting new haircuts, thanks to the hairdressers in Bodrum. We’ve enjoyed shopping at local markets and bakeries, and making meals from the fresh produce. Jerry’s European goal seems to be to find the best bakery in every spot we visit. He is a pastry fiend. I, meanwhile, have eaten my body weight in tomatoes, olives, and cheese. Shout out to the man stocking shelves in the dairy section of the supermarket in Athens, who gave us a full rundown of all of the feta options, and which ones we should and shouldn’t consider. What an MVP.
Our last three weeks have been filled with ancient archaeological sites and museums. Having started in Pamukkale with Hierapolis, we continued through the ancient Greek and Roman world, with a day at the ancient city of Ephesus. It was epic; probably the most immersive ancient site we’ve ever visited. It was also SO HOT. We’re still in May here, so I don’t know how people do it in the heat of summer. By arriving at 8am, right on opening, we got to have the place mostly to ourselves for an hour, and marvel our way up Curetes Way. I also insisted on a visit to the site that made Ephesus famous - the Temple of Artemis, one of the seven ancient wonders. Nowadays, all that remains of the temple is one lonely column, which had a stork poetically making its nest on top. There is a new virtual reality experience on the grounds of Ephesus, that really brought it to life. It's included in the entrance ticket, and was such an immersive way to understand the rise and fall of the city. There were fewer than 10 of us there, and I truly felt that people don’t understand how good it is and choose to skip it. If you go to Ephesus, do the experience!
Selçuk, the closest town to Ephesus, was yet another Turkish town where we fell in love with everyday life, thanks to its beautiful stone buildings, friendly locals, and delicious food. The streets were lined with jasmine trellises, and so it even smelled incredible. We discovered that ‘pension’ is another name for bed and breakfast, so we were served a delicious breakfast every morning, and spent the evenings watching the sunset from the rooftop terrace. It felt like we had stepped into a painting, and then time had frozen us into that moment.
We wound our way down the coast from Selçuk to Bodrum, Turkey’s luxurious beach resort town. Bodrum was our first introduction to the postcard view of white and blue buildings, with bougainvillaea winding its way up the sides. In truth, Bodrum was probably most similar to the visions of Santorini that most people have when they picture the Greek Islands, mixed in with a humming marina and bustling restaurants along the waterfront.
Bodrum was once known as Halicarnassus, and is home to another one of the seven ancient wonders. The Mausoleum at Halicarnassus has a little bit more left than the Temple of Artemis, but not much more. Still, I jumped around excited while Jerry went to find some shade. We also visited the castle, with its shipwreck from the 14th century BC, and the Glass shipwreck from 1026. There was shiny glass under the wreck that I thought was plastic, so I touched a piece, only for the speakers to request that visitors step back from the exhibitions. That was embarrassing…
Our first Greek island, Kos, was still sleepy at this time of year, and we enjoyed our days with our hired bikes, riding along the (very well established 10/10) bike path, as we searched for different beaches to visit and tavernas to stop at. We had our first Grecian meal at the taverna near our apartment, where we started with crunchy feta with honey. Probably invented for the Greek gods, since us mere mortals could only gape at its divinity.
We also spent a full day out on a boat, visiting some of the other local islands. Every beachy place we’ve visited, from Bodrum to Saranda, have all had a similar set up, with boats set up to take you to three different islands or beaches. We picked Kos, because of its location in the Aegean sea, with the other big hitting Greek Islands. We don’t know if it was timing (the boats had only started up the week prior for the summer season) or if we just undersold the trip, but it was one of the big surprise highlights of our year so far. We loved the spots we visited, had them mostly just with the others on our boat, and could not believe how beautiful the inlets, coves, and beaches we visited actually were.
Jerry had his own Donna Sheridan moment, when he turned to me in Vathy Port on Kalymnos, and asked “should we just not get back on the boat and stay here?” Here’s a video for all of you to celebrate this quintessential Mamma Mia moment.
Athens mixed in the golden hue of Pentelic marble with the grungier greys of a big European city. The central city was surprisingly walkable, and we made use of the metro to go further afield. We had a wonderful apartment in Athens, that was way nicer than we can afford. The secret? We booked it when it only had three reviews, and then kept an eye on the reviews to see if it was legit.
In Athens, we had endless ancient options to explore. Of course, we visited the Acropolis - and nearly didn’t get in. We had booked the combined Athena ticket, which gets you into the Acropolis and the majority of other ancient ruins in Athens, over a 5 day stretch. We made sure to enter our first site, the Ancient Agora, at 3pm on the dot. However, it turns out, that time slot is specifically for the Acropolis entry (no it does not say it anywhere on the website, we triple checked), as we found out from the unyielding ticket scanner down at the Southern entrance. Thanks to the woman at the main entrance, who looked the other way and ushered us in.
We then experienced “created happiness”, since we spent the previous 15 minutes thinking we were going to be in Athens and either not see the Parthenon, or pay another 20 euro each on top of our pre-existing ticket. So we sat up at the top there for a couple of hours, just to extra-appreciate it in the late afternoon sun.
Just to top it all off, we took a day trip out to Delphi, to visit the ancient site that was once home to the Oracle. Delphi is worth a visit for the scenery alone. Built into the mountains, the ruins felt extra majestic. At the museum there, Jerry and I finally settled our debate about whether Sphinxes are men or women. Apparently, they are depicted as men in Egyption mythology, whereas they are depicted as women in Greek mythology. You learn something new every day. I have been reading Circe, by Madeline Miller, as I’ve picked a list of themed reads this year as a way to link my current read to our travels. In tandem with my extensive childhood learnings from Percy Jackson (those who get it GET IT), I have been using Circe as a way to update Jerry on Greek mythology as we go, including which God is which, and how they link in with the Olympian family tree. Jerry did not believe me that Athena came out of Zeus’s skull until it was confirmed at the Acropolis museum, so that goes to show how much he trusts me. While I was confident in my Percy Jackson-based knowledge, we’ve had some help with learning as we go. Shoutout, yet again, to Rick Steves, for his audioguide app, which we have put through its paces in the last few weeks (he has walking tours of Ephesus, the Acropolis, the Ancient Agora in Athens, and the National Archaeological Museum). We also had an amazing walking tour guide in Athens, Walter, whose background in Classics and Archaeology made for one of the most informative walking tours we’ve ever done.
Corfu was different again, with the white buildings being substituted for Venetian style homes in rosy pinks and buttery yellows. This was also our first time hiring a car. Jerry took to driving on the right hand side of the road like a natural, and despite our windy coastal drives and switch backs over the mountainous region in the middle, not once did I have to scream and press on my imaginary passenger-side brake. If he were an Uber, I’d give him 5 stars. Since he’s my husband, the reward of me not screaming as we went around the hairpin bends will have to be enough. I took every possible opportunity to open our retractable roof (who knew there were Toyotas with retractable roofs?? Not I), and keyed in the closest olive oil mill into the GPS. We toured the mill, tasted olive oils, and then proceeded to eat inordinate amounts of olive-oil drenched bread over the following days.
We also beach hopped our way around Corfu, stopping whenever the water seemed extra vibrant. The water was enticing enough that we stopped to swim twice across the day, and braved putting our GoPro underwater as well.
We are now in Saranda, Albania. So close to Corfu that it feels like we can reach out and touch it, which made for a very relaxed and straightforward border crossing…Except the fact that the stamp was running out of ink in Kos, and the stamp on my passport for entering the EU has zero readable information. How unhelpful. After showing the customs officer Jerry’s passport and pointing to the faint outline of my entry stamp, we were off on the ferry, and cruising our way into Albania.
After all this exploration and history, Jerry and I were ready for something completely new to us…lying on the beach. Not usually our thing, but we are on day three in Saranda, eating fresh pastries from Jerry’s local bakery, then wandering down to the beach in our towels, for a swim, a read, and…not much else. There are epic beaches to explore and UNESCO ruins to visit, but we’ve decided that instead we’ll appreciate our wonderful sea-view apartment, sleep in, and lie out for this stretch. We have 5 more stops in Albania, so there will be plenty more time for intrepid exploring and maximising our time. For now, I’ll settle for another swim, or maybe an afternoon nap…
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