day 10 . . .

i absolutely adore having my expectations surpassed.  i have no idea what i really thought venice would be like but wow.  my socks got blown off. i want to go back again. and again.

kidlet and i made a list of things we wanted to see and do.  hers was short and to the point.  she wanted to take a ride in a gondola.  i wanted to visit st. marks square and see the bridge of sighs and the rialto bridge.  i know it's not a lot but by this point we were wearing down and we thought that would be enough.  and it was.

the first place we headed after taking the vaporetto, aka water taxi,

from the port to center of town, was to find a gondolier.  the first place we checked, did not have an opening until much later in the afternoon.  our little hearts sank.  was this something that needed to be purchased before we left home?  then a nice venetian sent us to another site and we were off on our expedition.

meet our gondolier:

 

he didn't speak english but we didn't care.  look where he took us first!!!!!  the bridge of sighs.  color us both happy.

 and then around the block a couple of times while kidlet and i sat with our mouths open.

and did i tell you we walked through st. mark's square on the way to meet our gondolier?

yay!!! and then we hiked across town down the tiniest streets with massive crowds . . . yet still fun, until we found the rialto bridge:

having a few euro left jingling in our collective pockets, we decided to stop for some pizza in a tiny little establishment off the beaten track.  yummy, yummy pizza.  and to finish, a glass of amaretto with hazelnuts at the bottom of the shot glass.  let me just die in peace.

so that, other than the 24 straight hours it took us to find our way home, was our little summer vacation.  but never fear, you have not seen the last of it.  my little finger snapped the shutter approximately 862 times. happy.  happy.  happy.

day 9 . . .

croatia.  i had visions of peasant women in shawls.  war torn cities.  what we got was dubrovnik!  a city of beauty.  sixteen foot thick walls.  90º heat.  antiquity.  gelato.  naked bumpters.  cobblestone.  crooked stairs.  lamp lights. a farmers market. 

we came into port in the early morning.  i love the lighting.

then we hopped a bus and drove to the gate of the great wall that surrounds the city.  kidlet and i headed for the stairs that would let us walk said wall.  huff.  puff.  i am rapidly discovering how out of shape i am.

can you see the difference in the tile roofs?  the solid orange and obviously patched roofs are repairs from the war.

this shot shows some of the unfixed damage.  sigh.

meanwhile after my half trek around the city wall . . . kidlet did the entire walk.  we wandered down into the city to see and ogle.  like this shot of the cuppola on the church of saint blaise.

since part of the wall is against the sea, you get cliffs.  have i mentioned my love of cliffs?

and actually we were looking for a little bar tucked into the wall where you can watch the cliff divers.  we didn't find it but kidlet did find some divers . . . in the middle of changing their suits . . . in front of God and everyone.  made her day.

gorgeous.  gorgeous.  city.

days 7 and 8 . . .

we were supposed to stop in durres, albania but something about the tides . . . the ship size . . . lack of safety . . . on to kotor, montenegro.  so we spent two days in kotor.  they could have left me there and i would have been a happy camper.  o.m.g.  beautiful.  to give you some idea of the age, the chapel was built in 1572.  but better, the town was founded in 168 b.c.  can you get your brains wrapped around that????  want even more?  they call montenegro the fiords of the south.  seventeen miles of pass running through the mountains to get to the bay of kotor.  YES!!!!!  the old town is surrounded by a wall which goes all the way up into the mountain and down the other side.  we're talking 1350 steps to the top. i.m.a.g.i.n.e.

sorry, but i am again going to slop these shots all together starting as we left the bay of kotor.  there are two small islands further down the bay, one is a benedictine monastery and the nuns agreed to include the ship in one of their traditions.  the ships horn honked three times and the bells of the chapel replied three times:

 the square of arms in the center of kotor.  everything was cobblestone:

 a view from the half way up the steps:

 

the whimsical dragon in the moat.  where else would you expect to see a dragon?

 the church of our lady of health:

 leaving the bay at sunset:

 the bay again from half way up the stairs:

 these were all over montenegro and dubrovnik.  i want one:

 further down the bay as the sun was just starting down:

the cobblestone stairs and path.  you need to be part goat.  i made it part way before my part goat . . .  aka kidlet . . . took off with my camera for higher shots.

another shot from above.  couldn't you just look at it all day long?

 one of the switchbacks goat child navigated.

 more goat goodness:

and yes, i made it just so far and sat down and waited for kidlet to scamper to the top and return.  then i found a wine store in the village. the end.

day 6 . . .

corfu.

it was a sunday and we knew ahead of time that corfu would be shut down tighter than a tick and it was.  kidlet's germs got the best of her and she was exhausted from the exciting day in zakynthos so she stayed on board.

checking with the destination services manager, i asked if i could wander the city alone.  he nodded and said, "this is not istanbul, you are perfectly safe."  ack!

so off i wandered, up streets, down streets, around streets.  i did not wander over to the old city as i should have but honestly, i too needed a day of rest.  so in no particular order:

 adios, corfu.

day 5 . . .

zakynthos.  o.m.g.

i uploaded these shots in no particular order but you need to know that while i am prone to using photoshop, these colors are straight out of the camera. a.m.a.z.i.n.g.

 some of the caves and arches found on our trip by motorboat.

really hopping around here . . .  after cruising around the island looking at all the gorgeousness, we got on a bus and headed up into the hills.  we were actually in the clouds for a while.

back on earth, this is coming out of cave.  remember i said random.

 

this is kidlet in route to shipwreck beach from the boat.  look at that water!!!!

the zakynthos arches:

back up top again looking down on shipwreck beach:

the wreck itself.  now i fully admit that i removed a few bodies from this shot.  and by the way, kidlet risked life and limb to get this picture for me.  i was too scared to go down the goat path.  i much preferred the safety of the railing:

look at the water.  look at the cliffs.  look at jeanne swoon:

look at the clarity:

ok, so i may have had to play with TV setting on my camera to freeze the water:
another of the arches:

my mouth hung open the entire time.

two quick stories.

one:  remember seeing kidlet head for the beach?  when we arrived there, the boat was maybe 30 feet from shore but the water was so clear i asked how deep it was.  a little sad math to convert meters to feet and we came up with nine feet deep.  into the drink i went, paddling toward shore.  now it must be said that i am very used to beaches.  we live four miles from the ocean but this was remarkably different.  the deep water continued right up to the edge of the beach and then went from nine feet to three feet in two feet . . . think 45º angle.  i tried to walk up the smooth rocky beach (no sand, just smooth small rocks) but the tide would pull me back each time back into the nine feet depth.  i tried again.  and again. but was getting nowhere.  kidlet, who popped in the water after i did, had to literally drag me like a beached whale onto the rocks.  there i said it.  gah!!!

two:  at the blue caves, the water was so blue that when you looked at yourself and others in the water, we all looked like smurfs.  optical illusion but we couldn't stop laughing.

i love this island.  i love this island.  i love this island.

day 4 . . .

the greek isles.  santorini - how I love ya, how I love ya, my dear old santorini.  woot.  woot.  when the 9TS and i left santorini in '09 i put it right back on my bucket list.  love. love. this island.  but in june the island is pitch perfect.  in august, the heat and herds of people put it a little over the top.  kidlet was a tad disappointed based on the ravings of her lunatic parents.

so at this point i am going to shut up and share, you decide.

 see.  stunning right?!?!?

but i do have one story.  of course i do.  snort.  although we swung up the cliffs of fira via a gondola, the line for the ride down was over four blocks long.  we were hot, tired, blistered and grumpy so we decided to hoof it down the cliffs along the donkey path.  while i am very happy to say that i did it and survived, it was a little hairy when the donkeys passed on the run going the other way and tourists seemed like tilt buttons on a game machine.  gah.  kidlet and i decided we deserved a rest on the pool deck complete with bloody mary's and black russians.  slurp!

day 3 . . .

can i start by saying i was extremely happy to be leaving istanbul.  they don't think much of women.  being of that persuasion, i don't like them back. it was kind of creepy that way.

yes, we are still in turkey but a kinder, gentler turkey.  welcome to kusadasi.

oh.  oh.  oh.  did i mention that istanbul is in both europe and asia!  and that means kidlet and i rambled around three continents in one day!!!!  yes, we know.  it's the little things that make me happy.

back to kusadasi and our regular programming and a short geography lesson in case you are as clueless as i was.  where in the world are jeanne and kidlet:

now it must be admitted that most peeps go to kusadasi as the gateway to ephesus.  ephesus being the oldest, most intact ancient city in the world.  a cornucopia of ruins.  a delight of dust.  but i am a philistine.  90º of blazing sun with no shade and an overflow of touristos, and kidlet and i are wandering their smaller bazaar seeking air conditioning and apple tea.  what can i say.

off the boat and the two of us are off to pigeon island.

isn't it fabulous.  it dates back to the ottoman empire.  just think. wow.

and i had to hang out with mr. tambourine man:

who was perched on the back of the islands having a good time all by his lonesome.

we cannot not mention the mosques.  they are amazing and beautiful.

and just because i have friends that are always searching for their names:

what was i doing in a supermarket?  looking for wine of course.  silly question.

goodbye, kusadasi. we had a great day.

oh and since we were leaving turkish soil for the last time, we had to dump our remaining turkish lira.  oh, come to me sweet silk pashmina.  dear golden braclet. small fez for pippin.  yes, i did.

NEWS FLASH: how could i forget . . . kidlet got her first proposal of marriage.  of course it had nothing to do with wanting residency in the US.  of course it was love at first sight, albeit a little one sided.  his parting words as we kept walking . . . a plaintive . . .  have i no chance???