Boats

We were on boats for a good bit of our trip - at least 25% of the time if not 30%. Let's recount:

Boat Trip #1 - a 4 hour trip down the Bosphorus. The Boshporus is a straight between the European and Asian sides of Turkey.



Boat Trip #2 - a week long blue cruise on a Turkish gulet. So many stories from the boat.










Boat Trip #3 - a 2 hour hydrofoil ride from Fethiye to Rhodes. No pictures here. It was REALLY early in the morning, so we just slept.

Boat Trip #4 - an overnight ferry from Rhodes to Santorini (7 hours). We stayed up late at the bar. We managed to meet someone who talked more than Hallie.



Boat Trip #5 - a ferry from Santorini to Athens (4 hours). No pictures. There may have been a few hangovers and it was a rough ride. Here is a shot of us crammed into the car on the way to the ferry.



Boat Trip #6 - a soothing sailboat ride in Barcelona (2 hours)

Round Two

So these are reverse order - I should remember that when uploading - but oh well. Here was a great night out at the Irish Pub in Barcelona... I find it interesting no matter what country you are in - they always have Irish Pubs. I believe we managed to get a free round of shots ever 45 minutes to hour and a free round of the good stuff when we went to leave. Because - our barman was Simon- and he liked to do drarwings... This started the night - with the green yummy shots..

Our last night in Athens - we were supposed to be taking a nap and resting. However Ms. J was stir crazy and so was I so a drink sounded good. After Loud got her Excel and budgeting/number crunching fix, she joined us. We got free shots that night too. :-)

Meeting up before our stroll around Athens for dinner. The cute sisters!

Beer stop - good.

In keeping with the tasty beverage theme

Our wine tasting event - to which I learned a life lesson. Their is a reason the wine in Santorini is not well known... though the cheese is very nice - not the bread. I've gotten better bread at the zoo. We did drink things other than beer and wine... This was the morning we first got in Santorini and the waiter hid us because he had a big party of all the locals - he even closed the curtains. Food was good though!

YAY - Beer and scrabble before the ferry to Santorini.

Our big beers in Rhodes atop the roof top cafe.

My first drink in Greece - much needed after the long flight!

Miller Lite and I will have a joyous reunion

Six people from the MidWest on vacation in Europe for 29 days drink a lot of beer. How much I miss my daily half liter...

Efes is the beer in Turkey. Apparently the only beer. We managed to find Efes light one day, but never again. Not only is Efes the only beer in Turkey, but it seems to be in short supply everywhere...but that's another story.


It did seem to taste better poured from our own personal tower of beer.


In Greece, there was a little more of a selection. Not only Mythos and Alfa, but we were also able to partake of other European varieties like Heinekin and Amstel. It was always served at least chilled - but it's best served ice cold in a liter mug on a balcony overlooking the city.


In Barcelona, it was Estrella. Damm! To be honest, by now they all taste the same and I can't really tell the difference. I could really use a Spotted Cow.


We wouldn't have actually known what we were drinking most of the time had it not been for the labeled glasses that seem to accompany all drinks in Europe. Most of the time we just said "beer" and got liters or half liters of whatever they chose to bring us. Cheers!

When we weren't drinking beer, we were drinking Raki, the Turkish version of Ouzo. When we weren't drinking Raki, we were drinking Ouzo, the Greek version of Raki.


In Barcelona, it was Cava, a Catalan sparkling wine. YUMMY! I could drink it all day long. Move over half liter of beer, bring on the Cava!

Retelling of the stories

Sorry we didn't blog much while we were away...it's much more difficult than you think it will be. Stayed tuned...I'll be sure to retell the tales right here over the next few weeks.

Let's start with a recap of fabulous self portraits, mostly because you know you love looking at me wearing large sunglasses (on a boat, Rhodes, Santorini, Santorini, Athens, Barcelona, Barcelona, Barcelona, Barcelona, Barcelona):

Dining Out

They may be slow to seat you, slow to take your order, slow to serve your food, and PAINFULLY slow to bring you the check, but they do have some darn good food here in Barcelona.

No more boats

We are in Athens, having departed our last scheduled boat ride (we may try to sneak another one in during our stay in Barcelona). The islands were great - some of us drove ATVs around Santorini yesterday - it's the only way to travel (you had to have a motorcycle license to rent a scooter - maybe next time). Does get your crotch really warm though.

Santorini was amazing, Rhodes was amazing...I think I'm going to greatly miss the islandness of these past two weeks. Being back in the city is another adventure, I guess.

Safe in Rhodes

This is short b/c we are posting from my iPhone, but we wanted
everyone to know we made it through the week on the boat and we are
now in Rhodes waiting for Hallie to join us.
We also received bad news abt the apartment we rented in Barcelona and
I think we are going to end up scrambling to find something else! Very
frustrating to try to do from Greece, gnnnrrr

We`re off to a boat!

Today we leave for our boat trip in southern Turkey, so this might be the last blog for a week. Istanbul has been great. I think the motto of this country ıs "why not?" That´s what we hear everywhere. People are very friendly and ıt´s very comfortable here, just like any other European city.

There are many more taıls to share (Turkısh bath, old men yelling at our drunk group on the street, carpet shopping, tour guides, etc), but days are so full ıt ıs really hard to keep up. We´ll try to do better.

I dont know where to start

Lucıa:
well, I probably do know, but wıthout b or n keys thıs ıs goıng to be very slow. Consıderıng I have a hangover from challengıng three Canadıans to try to outdrınk me last nıght thıs may not e the est day to try to type ıt all out.

some small sıppets wıthout n or b:
Rakı ıs good, ut seaky
the Grad aazar was overwhelmıg
I am a ad haggler
eer that comes ı a huge cylıder seems allurıg, however, you dot have to drık ıt all
Topkapı palace would ot have ee a ad place to lıve
they have ar-e-que ı turkey, ad ıt ıs delıcıous. partıcularly ıf the lam was super youg

thıs post was oycotted y the uıo of b and n

RAKI

You guessed it, we have already gotten drunk. First night too - we are hard core. Raki is a Turkish liquor that tastes like liquorice. You do filter it down with water, so its not as strong Ouzo, and quite delicious.

You only need two.

They come in special glasses and I managed to charm my way to a free one.

We've Arrived

Some of us took naps and some of us got burnt already walking around town.

FYI, a turkish keyboard is hard to use.

A great start

Tomorrow, we will be able to begin leg two of our travels with some glorious Chick-fil-A at Cinncinatti's concourse B.

What a great start to any vacation.

the trip theme song

I'm going to be in paradise!

I'm going to be on a boat!