Tueday april 6- Kusadasi and Paros

Great day today. Had a tour of Kusadasi, Turkey at 7 am. Getting up was not so fun at 6 am but we did it. Our tour was a really popular touri- there were like 5 different busses waiting at the peer for us when we got off the boat. We jumped on the last bus which happened to be the least full so we had a good size group. Our tour guide was this turkish man named John. He was very modest and full of himself but very entertainting. He kept asking himself questions over the loud speaker about turkey and answering them. He was very good he gave us a lot of info and he was very funny. So when we got on the bus we drove about 20 minutes away to Ephasis, don't know how to spell it. The drive was beatiful. This part of turkey was gorgeous. Its a beautiful city on the water but there's tons and tons of green land and wilderness too. John explained everythibg we were passing. When we got to the site we started walking down. Ephasis is the main attraction in this down. Its very similiar to petra. Its this super old city that's been buried under ground for like millions of years and now they are slowly digging it up and its taking forever. It was beautifulllll we saw all these old buildings that were thought to be shops, a library and a stadium. The library is considered one of the 7 wonders of the world (everyone keeps telling us that everythibg is a wonder of the world by the way- petra, acropolis, ephasis). John explained everything and it was really really interesting and beautiful. All these is located in a beautiful forest life place with tons of flowers and trees, different kind of setting then Petra. After Ephasis we got back on the bus and drove to this carpet factory. Apparently this part of turkey is known in the entire world for their carpets and rugs. The place held a special presentatrion for us where they had a speaker tell us all about the rugs- how they are made, what's so special about then and they kept brining out rug after rug. They unrolled over 100 rugs for us. They were beautiful. They served us their delicacuy during the presentation- apple tea. It was sooooooo gooood. Its knownn in turkey. After the presentation the tour ended and we had some time tbo go shopping in the turkish markets. They had really really coool things- bags tapestries jewelerty dishes lamps hookahs. Really pretty things. The people working there were soooo annoying they were alll over us and chasing us in and out of stores. The good news is we did a lot of bargaining with them. Jodi went to Istanbul back in feburary, which is where I'm going next week, so she compared the things and prices. She saids istanbul had the exact same things for sooooooo much cheaper, so I'm waiting to buy a lot of my things. But I still bought some stuff. I bought apple tea, turkish delight, a hookah andfsome other things. They people were alllllll over me because I was wearing the pandora bracelet that drew got me and they apparently sell pandora everywhereee there so they were chasing me in and out trying to get me to buy the charms. I really likes turkey a lottt- it was soooooo prettty. Jodi said istanbul is the complete opposite so don't get excited. Turkey is a very secular muslim country and is very different then Jordan, the other muslim country we went to last week. In turkey the people were white and you saw a lot of women working in the shops, none walking around on the streets but working. In jordan we didn't see one woman the whole time and the people are very dark. Hugeee difference between the 2 countries. We got back on the boat at 1130. Had lunch outside and I went to the gym. Then our boat docked in Patmos for the late afternoon. Patmos was very pretty. Its one of the smallest greek islands. Pretty but not a ton to do. We didn't have a tour booked or anything so we sort of winged it. We got off the boat, spoke to some people who told us the main attraction of the island was the Monastery on the top of the mountain. So we figured out how to get up there and we took a cab up with another couple. We had to climb up a ton of steps and there was a really great view. All it was was an old church, it was pretty. There was supposed to be some sort of cave up there but we didn't see it. We walked down the mountaon for about an hour then went into some of the shops. Bought a lot of souveniers. Again, beautiful island but not a ton to do- just monastery and shoPping. Dinner tonight was the first real dinner in the dining room. They assigned us tables when we got here. They seated us, for the next few nights, with these 2 REALLy old couples from australia. They don't know eachother but they just met. They are in their 60s or 70s I felt like I was sitting with my grandparents. Very sweet but quite an age difference between us. The boat is fillled with high school trips, I'd say its the majority. Tons of schools took their students on the trip and then there are a bunch of organized spring break trips too so I guess they didn't have much choice where to put us. We think its funny. Boat was very very very rocky at dinner, everyone was dropping things and walking into things. Sooo tired. Bought lots of presents todayyyyy. Rhodes tomorrow