Mykonos & Istanbul

I was really surprised by Mykonos. It is a very dry, baron, island mountain. Everything is built on rock. We visited the very opulent monastery of Panagia Tourliani. It is also a church. There are about 8,000 people on the island and over 1,300 churches but only 8 ministers. Every family owns a church which they are responsible for maintaining. When they die they are buried and about 2 ½ years later dug up and their bones are buried in the family church marked by a cement tile on the floor. The monastery is very wealthy – owning other islands, hotels, resorts, businesses etc. The reason the state is so poor and the reason that Greece is in trouble at the moment is that the church is tax free and everybody avoids tax.

We also visited the world renowned Kalafatis Beach. To us it is a pebbly beach much like Bargara near Bundaberg. However the sea is beautiful – clear blue green.

You can have any colour house in Mykonos as long as it is white. However you have a choice of door colours – but generally blue. We visited the main town which is famous for its windmills you often see on calendars. The seaside town is filled with boutique and stores and it has a plethora of waterside cafeterias and restaurants. It is pretty, but I was just surprised by how dry and rocky the island is.  Ian thought the scenery was pretty good. That's our ship in the background.

Istanbul was exhausting. With 14 million people and at least 5 cruise ships in port as well as bus tours, it meant there were thousands of people at every tourist destination. It is very hard to get around and at one time we sat for 20minutes and moved 3 bus lengths. It is very hard to keep a schedule. We visited the Blue Mosque one of the city’s most recognized landmarks. The outside is famous for its six minarets and inside is highlighted by more than 20,000 blue Iznik tiles. Next was St Sophia built by Emporer Justinian when Istanbul was Constantinople. It has a massive dome and is decorated with marble, precious stones and pillars from Ephesus.

We then had a lunch cruise down the Bosphorus where we could see large Ottoman palaces and castles. We heard the call to prayer which was very loud and echoed across the city. Unfortunately I am not a big fan of Greek food but we did try most of what was offered.

When we returned we visited the Topkapi Palace Treasury. There were thousands of people there but we did get to see the Topkapi Diamond which from memory was 76 carrots and the famous dagger. We then went to the Grand Bazaar. However with all the delays throughout the day we did not spend much time there. We were all hearded in to a carpet place (sanctioned by the cruise line) and received a very hard sell. We escaped but only had about 15 minutes shopping. We were glad to return to the ship.

I forgot to mention Ian ordered frogs legs at dinner on the ship. He got half a frog including the back legs. It looked disgusting but he said it tasted like chicken. I’ll take his word on that.

Today we are off to Kusadasi.