For those who just started following along, I recently re-discovered my old travel blog from my first trip to Europe in the summer of 2014. I wanted to share these entries with you, because it is amazing to look back and reminisce on that trip. [Side note - this was all before I was vegan, so if there is any confusion about that food I was eating, that's why.] Here was my eighth blog post from that trip.
August 6, 2014;
"Today we arrived in Kusadasi, Turkey at 7:00am. We didn’t have any plans for the day, so we slept until about 8:00, ate breakfast, and got off the ship around 9:00. Even from the ship, Kusadasi looked a lot better than Athens. When we got off the ship, there were a bunch of little shops. While we were looking around, my dad found us a taxi driver, and we asked him to take us to the best spots he could think of for tourists.
First, he took us to The House of Virgin Mary. The scenery on the way there was beautiful. It reminded me a lot of Maryland. Everything was so green, and the house is at the top of a mountain, so the view was beautiful. You could see everything, from mountains in the distance, to ruins, to the ocean. Along the way, we saw fig trees on the side of the road. My mom asked if we could stop and get some, so the driver stopped and was jumping up and climbing the trees to pick some for us. I don’t even think I had ever had a fig before, but these were amazing! My dad doesn’t even like figs and he loved them.
The House of Virgin Mary would have been better if I was religious. It was very small and we paid $15 each to get in. It was a good experience and I’m glad we went, but it didn’t mean as much to us as it probably did for others. There was a wall, though, where you could write a note or a prayer and tie it up. I thought it was amazing seeing all of the notes from everyone around the world who has visited. I just wrote my name on a piece of paper and tied it up there.
After that, we went to Ephesus, which was a walled city that is now all in ruins. It was amazing. I liked it a lot better than Athens. There were amphitheaters, and we saw the Library of Celsus. The stones in the ground are all marble and limestone, which makes the ground extremely slippery. The funniest part of the day was when my mom fell. Now I know that sounds mean, but she was laughing too. Picture her slipping on the rocks, with flip flops that have no traction, but every time she tried to get up she kept falling and rolling down the pathway and sliding all over the place. She was falling for about 15 seconds but it felt like it was never ending. When she got up, one of the tour guides said to her, “Relax! Just relax!” We all laughed for 5 minutes straight at how stupid that was, because my mom was like, “oh yeah, I’m so relaxed right now! I could just take a nap!”
There were also stray cats everywhere. I took a picture of every single one I saw, and at the end I had about 30 pictures. They were so cute, and the city takes care of them and fixes them to control the cat population. My dad kept laughing at how Rachel and I seemed to like the cats more than the ruins. Right before we left, we saw 4 stray puppies and we met a guy who takes care of them and feeds them every day. I’ve been having puppy withdrawals (even though it’s only been a week since I’ve seen my dogs), so it made my day.
We stayed at Ephesus for about an hour and a half, and then we went to a government owned building where they fed us, gave us drinks, and showed us how they weave rugs. It was one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen. The cocoons from silk worms only have one strand of silk, and they have to boil them in water and use a special brush to get the silk out of the water and weave it through a machine that takes all the fibers and rolls them into string. We saw the girls working on the rugs, and we learned that it takes them about 8 months to finish one rug.
The food was amazing. We had bread with 4 different dips, salad, meatballs, chicken, potatoes, rice, and beans. I don’t know if we were just extremely hungry, but it was one of the best meals I’ve ever had. Then we went into the rug showroom and they were showing us how the rugs were made out of different materials, and we were walking on the rugs with our bare feet. They all had such unique patterns, and it’s crazy that they’re all hand made.
Then we went to a few souvenir shops, and went back on the cruise ship, which set sail at 5:00pm. I loved Turkey so much. It was so much better than I thought it would be. When we got back on the ship, we hung out at the pool with our friends for a few hours, ate dinner, and then saw a singing show at 9:30 which was really entertaining. The lady who sang is also a comedian, so it was really funny and she is a great singer. She sang Beatles songs, Amy Whinehouse, Tina Turner, Adele, Robbie Williams, and more.
After the show, there was the “Norwegian White Hot Party” in the lounge, where everyone on the ship dressed in all white and we had a black light dance party with glow sticks. We stayed in there until about 3:00am, danced, and hung out with friends. Tomorrow we have another day at sea, which will be very relaxing."
