Contiki - Turkish & Greek Island Odyssey

We flew from Vienna to Istanbul, where our next Contiki kicked off. We had two nights in Istanbul prior to the start of the tour, but we deliberately didnt want to hit up the touristy attractions during this time as we knew we would cover them while on tour. So we spent our time wandering the streets, eating Turkish delight and meeting up with other Contiki-goers who had arrived early in Istanbul like us. One early meet up turned into a late night rooftop bar and shisha session (a long pipe with herbal apple tobacco in it - but tobacco free, don't worry parents!) 

We met our tour guide Ausgard (A local Turk) and the 30 other travellers. Half our group is Australian, 40% are Canadian and then there is an American, a Brazilian and 2 Mexicans. All are about our age and really easy to get along with. We even have two doctors, which was really handy considering I fell down some steps on the third night and got a giant purple kankle. Not broken though, according to the docs! 

Things we've loved about Turkey:

• The beautiful mosques everywhere. 98% of the population are Muslim, and when you are supposed to pray in a group 5 times per day, there's a pretty big requirement for mosques. Two of the larger mosques in the centre of Sultanahmet play the Call to Prayer several times each day and night, which is this chant that's projected all over the city. It's almost hypnotic and when you're walking through the spice markets it makes the experience feel even more Turkish! The Blue Mosque and the Hagia Sofya were the most beautiful. The Blue Mosque is tiled in over 35,000 blue ceramic tiles and was awesome. 
• The archaeological museum because they had mummies! 
• Visiting the ancient ruins of Troy, and seeing remnants of the fortification walls, wells and the stone they would lay sacrifices for the gods.
• The traditional Turkish dinner and show we saw in Istanbul. The belly dancing was amazing and so were their costumes. 
• One of the highlights of the trip has definitely been visiting Gallipoli. While we were really looking forward to it, we didn't realise how emotional it would be. We stood on the beach at Anzac Cove in the exact spot the diggers landed, and saw the trenches they had dug to get out of the machine gun fire. We saw rows and rows of headstones with too many men younger than we are now. We saw Lone Pine and the whole peninsula from the Australian War Memorial. We saw the hills where the Turks were hiding and waiting for the Anzacs. It was surreal being there, especially because as we were exploring a huge thunderstorm rolled in from the ocean and the thunder sounded like gunfire. It's hard to believe so many bad things have happened there when its just so pretty. The Turkish made a really beautiful memorial for the Australian and New Zealand soldiers  in Anzac Cove, everyone was pretty moved by it. The whole afternoon was incredible. 
• Sitting around on the rooftop terrace in Izmir with the group just chatting for hours. One new fact that outraged me - in Canada their sunscreen is SPF 110, and SPF 30 is their lowest coverage. Considering I'm from the country with the highest rates of melanoma, I think I speak for all Australians when I say 'what the hell?!' 
• Visiting the ancient city of Ephesus in Kusadasi, where whole sections of the library, palaces and city are still standing in various stages of ruin. Anthony and Cleopatra even visited there during its glory years.
• Going to a property out of town and learning how Turkish rugs are made. It's sounds boring but was really cool. The owner of the business is Turkish but spent 15 years in Sydney so he loved hanging out with us Aussies. He showed us the whole process, including how to get the silk from the cocoons of silkworms, which bought back a lot of memories for me as we had silkworms as kids. The only thing about Turkish rugs is they are really labour intensive, and therefore expensive. We asked for a price on a silk rug that was the size of a doormat and it was $4,500. But the owner knew we were Contiki and didn't expect us to buy anything which was good. It was just fun seeing how it was made. And watching the ninja squirrels, sleeping owl and noisy rooster that lived on the grounds.
• And finally having a bit of free time to relax by the pool. This doesn't sound like much, but on Contiki any relaxation time is a bonus

So that was Turkey. It was insanely busy, always smelled like spices and baklava, and was a lot of fun. But the Greek part of the trip blew our minds!

After leaving Kusadasi we lined up to board the Louis Olympia cruise ship that we would be living on as we sailed to Patmos, Rhodes, Crete and Santorini though to Athens. Neither of us have even been on a cruise ship before and had no idea what to expect. Our cruise ship was the smallest of three docked in Kusadasi, and it had 2 pools, a casino, a disco, dozens of lounges, bars and restaurants everywhere, and really cute little cabins that surprisingly aren't too cramped. The bigger ships must have been incredible!  The best part is that all your meals are included in the price, so you can eat buffet style every meal and you don't need to pay extra. They also do a drinks package which the whole group took full advantage of - €20 per day for all you can drink, which includes water, juice, coffee, soft drinks, beer, wine, spirits and cocktails. Oh my God. Considering a cocktail at home is almost €20 by itself, we have all been sampling the whole menu. It's also handy because you can't drink any of the water in Greece, and a lot of us were spending quite a bit on bottled water in Turkey each day too. So €20 was amazing value. The ship doctor wasn't a fan of the package however, he whinged about it while treating one girl on our tour for sunstroke and alcohol poisoning. 

Things we've loved about Greece:

• Sitting around the pool with our tour group ordering cocktails and feeling like celebrities.
• The toga party our tour manager organised for the first night. We literally borrowed bed sheets from housekeeping and busted out the best dance floor ever.
• Walking around the tiny but beautiful Patmos. You can basically walk the island in 15 minutes, but you take 30 because everyone is too chilled out there to do anything on time.
• Docking in Rhodes for the day. We visited all the little shops, and hit the beach with our group. The beach is rocks, not sand, but the water was crystal blue (and super salty so I floated well!) There is a 4m diving block out about 20m which we all swam out to and even I jumped off. Trying to stick to my new years resolution to 'try new things'. And the list is getting longer. You know the saying YOLO? (You only live once?) our group has started saying YOIGO (You're only in Greece once) so being at the top of that diving board and looking down was definitely a YOIGO moment. 
• Climbing the active volcano in Santorini. There are little holes in the rocks where boiling steam blows out of the earth, and you can actually smell the sulphur. We made it to the top and built a little rock pile out of volcanic rock to mark making it. After the volcano climb you could jump off the little pirate ship we were sailing on into the thermal waters that are heated by the volcano. Brian did it but I didn't as the sulphur turns the water red and stains your bathers and I didn't have anything black to wear in. 
• Catching the cable car from the top cliffs of Santorini down to the port. The postcards don't lie, this really is the most incredible cliff top town you've ever seen. The only downside was it was really really windy, so the donkeys weren't out taking people up and down the stairs. But that's okay, it means they're looking after their donkeys. 

The only bad moment of the whole trip? On the last night of the cruise we had really bad weather and a lot of us got seasick. I should be grateful though, our tour guide said on the last tour he was on, the swell was so bad a grand piano flipped over. It was kind of funny though - we had a cult of 800 people on board who believed that the goddess of the lost island of Atlantis was going to appear from the seas in Santorini. So when the bad weather  in Santorini struck they all got really excited that she was coming. No such luck though, no goddess, just a lot of people unable to walk in a straight line from the ship lurching around. 

So now contiki is over and I'm writing this from the ferry we're taking back to the Greek islands for a week of relaxing. We made some amazing friends and had one last dinner with them in Athens last night before we all went our separate ways. From that first day on contiki where we all stood around awkwardly, to crying in the street in Athens saying our goodbyes, contiki has been the best experience for Brian and I. Our group are already planning a reunion in 2014 (looks like it will be in Calgary, Canada for stampede week haha).

 

Lots of love,

Kobi and Brian

Xxx

Spice Markets, Istanbul. The smell is amazing!

At the Blue Mosque, Istanbul.

 

Being a good Muslim so I can see inside the mosque.

 

Sultanahmet, Istanbul

Bird lady, Istanbul

 

Australian cemetery, Gallipoli

 

Anzac Cove, Gallipoli

Lone Pine and the Australian War Memorial

View of the Gallipoli peninsula from Lone Pine

The beautiful memorial to Australians by the Turkish

Contiki girls in Canakkale

Canakkale ankle injury (pics taken a week apart)

Contiki toga party

Toga antics

 

Walking the ruins of the ancient city of Troy

A replica of the Trojan Horse. And yes that is Brian's butt in the photo. The other two are contiki people but the poor unsuspecting tourist on the end will get a shock when he looks at his photos. 

The Turkish rug demonstration. The little white things floating are silkworm cocoons. 

The ancient ruins of Ephesus, Kusadasi

The ancient ruins of Ephesus, Kusadasi

Our cruise ship, home for 3 days

Disembarking via tender boat to head to Rhodes.

The diving board in the sea at Rhodes that we all jumped off. That's Brian sitting down the bottom having just jumped. 

Testing out the GoPro in Rhodes

 

GoPro shot

Contiki crew in Rhodes. 

 

Making it to the top of the active volcano in Santorini. Behind us is the postcard scene that Santorini is famous for. It looks like snow but it's just lots of white houses on a cliff top. 

Building our rock pile on the volcano. There were hundreds of these built by others who hiked it.

The view of Santorini from the volcano

Santorini 

 

Brian jumping off our pirate-style sail boat into the thermal volcanic water. You can see how the sulphur has stained the rock red behind him. 

 

Being pirates on the boat. Arrr.

 

Shenanigans on board the ship

Brian patting the tiniest kitten in Patmos. 

Saying our goodbyes in Athens. And yes I was a mess.