I have pictures of Istanbul, but unfortunately, I don’t know what most of the things are. Josh and I had a nice drive though Istanbul from the port to the airport, so my tour guide was my taxi driver, who couldn’t always understand what I was asking, although he was very nice. On a side note, I always feel a little awkward in Muslim countries talking to men because I don’t know if I am supposed to, and I don’t know how to act so that I don’t offend them more than I already do by being a woman and a westerner and a Christian. Turkey was a lot nicer than Egypt though, and I would love to visit there again. It looked like a beautiful and interesting country, with forests and impressive cities and good roads where people follow traffic laws. It’s on my list of places to go again.

Minarets from the many mosques, as seen from our balcony. Our taxi driver explained that there were several famous mosques, I believe that one of the left is - since it has six minarets.

Either this is part of the wall that used to be the edge of the city of Istanbul, or this is an aquaduct. Either way, it’s impressive.

This is part of the wall of the old Istanbul.

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Josh and I woke up to drumming outside of our window, I staggered over to pull back the blind to find this group of musicians making some noise to welcome us to their country. Welcome to Turkey.

Josh and I got going and headed out to find a taxi to take us to Ephesus. All the cab drivers had a set rate to go see the church built where Mary the mother of Jesus lived at the end of her life and died, and to Ephesus. So we got acab to take us out there. The countryside of Turkey was very beautiful, the mountains were amazing, but I don’t have a lot of good pictures because our driver decided that he could drive 120 mph up a very twisty mountain road. It was crazy. The other cars all followed the speed limit… not him.

This is the church built where Mary lived. It’s a really beautiful place, in the woods, very peaceful and soothing. One of my favorite places we visited on our trip.

We arrived in Ephesus. If you want to see good ancient ruins, I would highly recommend this site. It is basically a city, the streets, the shops, the amphitheatre, all still there for the most part. There are arches and the plumbing and sculptures.

This is the little amphitheatre. Basically, town hall. It’s interesting because they followed the same principles that we still follow, to have nice seats in the front, and as you go up, you get the crappy seats.

Behold - the arch!

The city street.

This was a fountain, I believe.

This is the huge amphitheater that the Ephesians dragged the Apostle Paul, shouting, “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!” It’s HUGE. It’s so incredible to walk on the same roads that Paul did, stand in the same buildings. It seems so remote, yet they are still there.

A larger view of the size of that amphitheater.

The best sign… found just outside the Ephesus ruins.

At the end of the day, a peacock awaits us in our room.

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We sailed into Iraklion, which is on the island of Crete. It was a beautiful, but very windy day. The Mediterranean Sea is always so beautiful - it’s the color of aquamarine that you always imagine when you go to the ocean, and then the water is usually a gray or blue instead.

Very close to the port was a long walkway that jutted out into the water, and had an old fort attached to it. Josh and I decided to walk down it and enjoy the beautiful day.

That’s my windy-day hairdo.

The fort - called Castello del Molo.

We went inside the fort, and it was pretty interesting. Very tall, with a lot of different rooms. I mean, it’s still an old fort, basically big stone walls and empty rooms that used to be used for soldiers quarters and supplies. But this one had a gorgeous view from the top of the city and the sea.

After exploring the fort we headed into the city to find some lunch and see what else there was to see. We found this old church, that had a very interesting chandelier… it had miniature stained-glass icons decorating it. You can see it closer if you decided to look at all the pictures.

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Today we went on an excursion in Jeeps around the island of Corfu. It was beautiful. I drove, since the jeeps were standards, and Josh took photos out the window. We drove up a mountain road that curved up and up, through little villages that were so small. The road at the villages and several other places was so narrow that you couldn’t fit more than one car on it at a time. Thankfully, we were in a big caravan, so we held up any other vehicles until we were all through. It would have been bad to have to back up out of the way on some of the winding roads.

There were so many beautiful trees, olive orchards for miles, with nets under the trees to catch the olives. Corfu is one of the top producers of olive oil in the world, and it’s a very small island.

Our tour guide took us up to a small village, where we stopped and he told us about Corfu. Then we drove on to a restaurant that overlooks the ocean, it was attached to a hotel, and it had the most gorgeous view! You could see all the beaches and resort areas, and the beautiful forests springing out of the ocean. We ate some Greek food, some excellent baklava, and eventually headed back down the mountain and back to the ship.

Mmm… baklava.

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In the morning after our wedding, Josh and I went to the airport and flew to Athens. We spent a day and a half there, looking at the sights, then we got on the Norwegian Jewel and sailed off to explore Greece and the Mediterranean. It’s been really fun on the ship. There’s a lot of restaurants, pools, a spa, fitness center, and shows. We have a balcony which is really nice.

This was the view from our room in the Hilton Athens.

The Olympic Stadium in Athens.

Charlotte in front of the Olympic Stadium.

Josh in front of the Temple of Zeus.

The Temple of Zeus.

Josh is amazed by Athens… or by Charlotte.

The Temple of Zeus.

The Temple of Hephaistos.

The Parthenon - there were so may people here! They are in constant reconstruction, but I guess it takes a long time for them to accurately rebuild the old temples. They have quarries filled with rock segments, labeled as to where they are supposed to go.

The Parthenon.

At the Acropolis. There were about three different temples here.

The Porch of the Caryatid, part of the Erechtheum, at the Acropolis.

The Temple of Hephaistos.

Beautiful sunset from our balcony on the Norwegian Jewel.

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