Istanbul (Not Constantinople) Pt. 2

Every morning we would climb the stairs to the rooftop cafe of the hostel and eat our free breakfast while looking out onto the Bosphorous, where apparently, if you looked hard enough, you could see dolphins swimming around. Guess we didn't look hard enough. Though the food was nothing extravagant, we were pretty excited about it because neither of us had experienced a free breakfast while staying at a hostel before. One morning we were so excited that we ate 10 rolls between us with jam and butter.

We spent most of our time wandering around and shopping. Or should I say haggling. To be quite honest, by the time our stay in Istanbul was nearing its end, we were both ecstatic never to have to haggle again. For the near future anyhow. Fixed prices - what luxury!

Here we are descending into the depths of the Spice Bazaar, where if you pause, hesitate for just a moment or happen to make the briefest eye contact with one of the merchants, you will be sorry.

Pausing long enough to take photographs in the Spice Bazaar is a daring feat in and of itself.

Later, while eating baklava, we came across a concert of sorts. There was a healthy amount of belly-dancing and Turkish-flag-waving by a tiny, adorable old man.

While wandering, we came across what we thought - mistakenly - to be the Blue Mosque, so we put on headscarves, took off our shoes and went inside. It was virtually empty and we realized that the Blue Mosque is most definitely never empty. And also that almost every mosque in Istanbul is modeled after the Blue Mosque. Nevertheless, being the only ones inside was a beautiful, breathtaking experience. The carpet was soft and cool to our bare feet.

Sometimes at night we would hang out in the rooftop cafe and check our emails or order apple tea. The whole place reminded me of a treehouse, which made spending time up there even more worthwhile.

Emily doesn't like this photo, but I think its cute. My tan complexion, perpetual lack of shoes and relaxed plaid button-down shirt all made me look Australian apparently. I lost track of how many people inquired as to whether I was Australian or not.

Night-time Bosphorous.

Istanbul (Not Constantinople) Pt. 1

Our hostel in Istanbul was located directly behind the Hagia Sophia, but knowing me, I looked at the map incorrectly and confused the Hagia Sophia with the Blue Mosque, which is directly across the way. Can't believe I'm even admitting that. I felt like throwing the rolly-suitcase I've had since I was 10 years old into the Bosphorous after 45 minutes of stumbling and clattering around the surprisingly steep cobble stone streets. After I had correctly oriented myself and as I was clattering past the open square in front of the Hagia Sophia, I heard someone call my name. Startled, I swung around to see who it could possibly be calling my name in such a new and foreign city. My eyes slowly focused on two smiling faces and lo and behold it was my anarchist friends from Budapest! Blew my mind to a million bits. I knew that they were traveling to Turkey, but I didn't know when, and I definitely never expected to see them again in this lifetime. We chatted for a bit before I clattered on to find my hostel (for real this time) and they got back in line for the Hagia Sophia.

Since I still had a few hours before Emily's arrival in Istanbul (separate flights again, sans drama!) I decided to walk around and look for food. There were food vendors selling roasted corn and chestnuts and a million people everywhere. As I wandered I started to notice that Istanbul was probably the "coolest" place I had chosen to travel to on my break. There were a fair number of tourists, but they were different from the tourists I'd encountered in Rome or Athens or even Prague. Lots of alternative and weathered backpackers (not your bland and cliche, fresh-out-of-college "I'm gonna backpack through Europe! Yeah" kind of backpacker,) artist-types and people who looked like they had an interesting story to share or who you could tell had done an extensive amount of traveling in their lifetime. And you know I'm always interested in that.

Istanbul just had a completely different vibe from anywhere else I'd been and I loved it. But I suppose you really just need to experience it to fully understand what I'm talking about.

After walking past window-display after window-display of elaborate baklava and lokum (Turkish Delight) that glistened in the sun like a beam of light from the heavens was shining right on it, I caved.

15 lira ($10 USD) later...

Then Emily arrived and we went on an evening walk.

The call to prayer is beautiful.

Last Days in Greece

In Greece your wine glass is never allowed to be empty. I learned this at our farewell/birthday dinner for our host-dad, and boy did I do and say some embarrassing things! Almost fell into the sea. Twice. Woke up close to tears from a particularly nasty bruise on my knee and surmised that its presence must've been due to me tripping from the dock onto the boat and almost into the water the night before. Its not my fault - the Greeks know how to get a person drunk!

Here are some miscellaneous photos from our time on Kefalonia:

Ready to scrub some mildew.

We would spend our evenings sitting outside with either tea or wine, while listening to music and writing in our journals. We crafted these candle holders out of lemon rinds to protect the delicate flames from the wind.

Speaking of wind, there was a wind farm on the island!

The boat:

There are a lot of fun memories associated with this bathroom and its hand-pump toilet, none of which I will go into here.

Our host-family sent us off with bottles of their homemade olive oil and we took the 8am ferry back to the mainland.

Watching trucks load from the top of the ferry. Kinda of like a wolf shirt... but a wolf truck! Love it.

That rope was HUGE. Must've taken absolutely forever to splice like that.

Bye, Kefalonia!

We explored some crazy-looking baklava on the ferry. SUCH a mess.

This time we booked a different, more centrally located hostel in Athens. We had three nights in Athens before moving on to Istanbul. Our hostel this time around was much nicer, but it was jam-packed with obnoxious Americans, also on Spring Break ("Duuuude! No more ouzo for you!" and the like at 3am or thereabouts.)

Athens is really dirty and decrepit and our hostel was not in the best part of town, to say the least (this isn't a picture of our hostel, just a really worn-down building.) The first day we saw these creepy little gypsy kids running about with no adults in sight. Walking around we came across a little diner called "Joy's" where you could buy a deliciously greasy gyro for 1.50 euros. One day we went there for lunch then came back for dinner (our record was three times in one day!) Looking out the window we noticed that a lot of the women walking around outside in their trashy heels and makeup looked familiar and that they had been there while we were eating lunch. Upon closer examination, we realized that they were prostitutes. Oh.

Walked up to the Parthenon and whatnot because as students, we didn't have to pay. All that stuff is cool if you're into your classic Greek and Roman history, but since neither of us were, it was more just like something to do. Also, there were way too many tourists.

The beginning of what would become a Baklava Feast in Istanbul.

We met up with a friend from Sussex and went on a hike to the top of one of the hills/mountains.

Goofy-looking trees.

Did not realize there would be cactus!

On our last night in Athens some jerk followed us for a long time on our way back to the hostel. When he got close enough to say something to us (in Greek) Emily turned to him and said "No, fuck off." We sped up and crossed the street. Although nothing happened it shook us up a little and further cemented our view of Athens as nowhere anyone needs to spend three nights in.

Then it was on to Istanbul.

Three Sheets to the Wind

Finally it was time to sail up to Preveza. With the brother and girlfriend sailing the un-broken catamaran, host-dad and I remained on the broken one, which needed to be towed by her sister. It wasn't long before the constant and heavy rocking had me flat on my back in the throes of sea-sicknesses. I never experienced the urge to vomit, thankfully, though doing anything more involved than lying motionless did bring me close.

We left Kefalonia at about noon, sailed all day and finally dropped anchor at around 11:30pm. I had mint tea and biscuits for dinner. The Big Dipper was upside-down and the moon was our guiding light.

The next day we only had a few hours of sailing until we reached the marina at Preveza, where we watched in awe as Panther (the broken-down catamaran) got pulled out of the water by this massive lift.

I loved the marina and being around boats and the sailing life. Such a photo op!

For example.

I found some Treasures.

The night before we were due to sail back to Kefalonia (leaving Panther at the marina,) we decided to just sail through the night and get to the island early in the morning. My shift was from approximately 1am to 4am. The only sound was the quiet lapping of black, milky moon-lit waves against the boat.