From Istanbul to Athens and Beyond

This is one of those posts where it's impossible for me to take the time I need to adequately describe the last few days. Since visiting Asia, I've explored more of Istanbul by foot, flown to Athens, Greece, visited and hiked to the Parthenon and the Acropolis and all of the surrounding temples and monuments, sailed off to a nearby Greek island called Aegina, spoken with countless locals in little cafes, taken a very brisk swim in the Aegean Sea after jumping off nearby volcanic cliffs, had dinner at a restaurant on top of a tall hotel with the absolute best possible view of the Parthenon at night (most amazing dinner view I've ever had), danced in a couple of crazy Greek nightclubs in Athens until 2am (including one with a live techno "band"), and now, as of today, walked through thousands of Greeks loudly protesting the restrictions placed on the country by the IMF bailout terms. All that in really less than 72 hours.

Right now Athens is getting major international attention as parts of the city are supposedly on fire. Even a few protestors have died either in clashes with police or because of the fire. Riots have broken out and people are smahsing bank windows. Fortunately, life is relatively sane where I am right now. I'm in an internet cafe in the Plaka, a big, historic bazaar and market like area with endless picturesque cafes and little shops. We are all safe but the mass labor strikes have shut down the airport and ferry docks today. My friends were not able to fly out today so they were able to spend another day exploring the city, but the strike has not been quite so kind to me. I am unable to get out of the city today so my Mykonos plans are now on hold. If the ferries are running tomorrow, then I will be able to sail away to Mykonos tomorrow and have just one night to spend there (it is a 5 hour ferry each way from Port of Piraeus), which is fine with me as long as the docks are open tomorrow.

I have so many pictures from both incredible countries and I am really excited after getting a little look at some of them. Some of them came out really well! I can't wait to share them with everyone. There is so much to tell from these experiences over the last few days but I certainly don't have the time to expand on them now. So I will leave you all with a few choice pictures of mine. Many more are on Facebook, and a few thousand will be coming to Flickr when I get back.

OH, and how could I forget. The gyros are ridiculously delicious! I've had two so far for snacks, more to come for sure. Bye!

I Went to Asia for Lunch

A thousand and one sayings could have captured the last few days here in Turkey, but the level of excitement I've had to cross over the Bosphorus into my 5th continent, Asia, absolutely takes the cake. So much so that it's become a big running joke amongst the group. Well today my friends...my dream became a reality. I WENT TO ASIA! After a very eventful yet incredibly stressful and disappointing day yesterday, today more than made up for it.

Claire, Mary, Dana and I hired a driver to take us over to the Asia side of Turkey and up the coast of the Bosphorus to the mouth of the Black Sea. Because it sounds just so damn cool to say, I went to Asia for lunch. Lunch that was sitting just feet from the Bosphorus and consisted of Turbot fish that was brought off the ship earlier that morning. After lunch, we set off on foot up the steep hill to the castle in the town. The last few days I've walked probably 15 miles and biked a few more on top of that (all up hill) so today's hike left me in a little pain, but it was well, well worth it. The views as we approached the castle were comparable to some of the best I've ever seen around the world. And as we crested, we were treated to an amazing open view of the mout of the Black Sea. I can only hope the pictures (which were numerous) do it any justice at all. We all could not stop remarking on just how damn beautiful it was. I checked off a lot of boxes today...Asia, the Black Sea, fresh Turkish fish and a cruise on the Bosphorus - which came on the way back. Our journey back was a liesruely 90 minute boat trip on a ferry that was much improved over our transportation to the Princes' Islands yesterday.

Exhaustion would be an understatement to describe my state right now. I'm sitting in "net club", probably the largest internet cafe I've ever been to. It's hot as hell in here and there is Turkish music blaring. But all is right with the world...for I went to Asia.


(I leave you with a quick shot of a mosque in the sunset last night from the water)