The Sites

Our ship pulled into port in five different Mediterranean cities- two in Italy, two in Greece and one in Turkey.
Since we had already been to Rome and Sicily in Italy we originally planned to just enjoy the ship on those days but I got antsy so when the ship docked in Sicily I got off to explore the town and do a little shopping. Unfortunately, I didn't realize until I was off the ship and poised to take my first sightseeing picture, that I had forgotten to replace my camera's memory card before leaving home. So while I did get to see a few things, I spent most of my time looking for a place to buy a new one. When I got back on the ship I bought a new memory card from the ships photo shop and went to the top deck to take this picture. Isn't it lovely! I love Italy from a distance like this. It is just so... quaint and romantic looking.

Our second port of call, in Turkey. was by far my favorite. I am not sure what I was expecting Turkey to be like but what we saw certainly wasn't it. Turkey was so clean and so organized and so western- it really was surprising. Here are a few pictures of the port town Kusidasi.

We went on a cruise sponsored tour in Turkey and it was awesome. We visited Ancient Ephesus, where the Apostle Paul preached to the Ephesians for more than 2 years. We saw the amphitheater where he taught and where it was decided by the people that he would have to leave Ephesus or be put to death. Here are a fwe pictures from portion of the tour.On the bus.

Temple of Hadrian

Ancient Library of Ephesus

Our Turkish Tour Guide.
Oz really made this tour special for us. He was very knowledgeable and considerate of each of his guests. He really loved his job and his country and it was a delight to be around him.


After our tour in Ancient Ephesus we headed to into town for a Turkish carpet demonstration. I had heard horror stories about people going to these kinds of things with out the least intention of buying a carpet and leaving with a beautiful Turkish rug and $15,000 of debt. I was a pretty sure I was not going to be one of those people but that is what they all said too. Anyway, it ended up being a amazing experience. I learned that Turkish carpets are all 100% handmade. I learned that it takes 1 woman, 1 year to weave a 1' x 1' square of carpet. I learned that all of the colors in the carpest come from natural vegetable dies. I learned that many Turkish carpet making families only sell 1 carpet a year. It was a very humbling and impressive experience.

One of the weavers.

The carpets.
I fell in love with the red and yellow one in the top right hand corner of this picture. It was a love affair that began and ended in Turkey because as much as i wanted to I didn't bring it home!