Greece and Turkey – Scenic Beauty and Excellent Food

The next four stops on our cruise were in Greece and Turkey.  These were new countries for us and places we looked forward to visiting.  These stops were four days in a row, so it was busy but (mostly) enjoyable.

Stop 1 – Piraeus, Greece

Piraeus is a port city on the Greek mainland and is considered a suburb of Athens.  With a population of around 160,000, it is the second largest city in the Athens area (after Athens, of course).  It was founded in the early 5^th century BC and played an important role in ancient Greece.  Today it is a large commercial and passenger port and hosts a large University.

Based on information provided by the cruise line, we had a plan to take a “hop on hop off” bus to tour Piraeus with no plans to visit Athens; in our view one day would not be enough time to do justice to the many sights in that city.  However, when we went to buy our ticket, we learned that the bus that was running from where our ship was docked was only a direct bus to the “hop on hop off” bus for Athens, not the Piraeus line.  This was frustrating to me because I spent a lot of time researching the various stops and planning our day.  But, on to “plan b;” we decided to walk and see what we could see on foot.

We started our day by walking in one direction along the waterfront from the ship.  There were many passenger ferries to Greek islands, and another cruise ship in the port.  We enjoyed the waterfront walk and the buildings and scenery along the way.  We also observed that it is a large city with a lot of traffic.   We found a replacement battery for Kevin’s clock in a store, and then decided to eat lunch at a restaurant called “Street Souvlaki.”  It is a chain, but was frequented by many locals, so we decided to try it.  Also, they had a menu in English; normally that isn’t always a good sign (indicating a tourist restaurant), but we had absolutely no hope of understanding a menu in Greek.  The food was reasonably priced and enjoyable, and we had a view of the waterfront while we ate.  I would eat there again.

After lunch we returned to the ship for a nap, and then headed back out later for more exploring and for dinner.  We took a walk in the opposite direction toward the area we had planned to explore on the hop on hop off bus.  There were a lot of busy restaurants filled with locals, many waterfront condos, and a small fishing fleet.  This area was much more tranquil than the area of our morning walk. 

Due to the language barrier, we decided to eat at the sister restaurant to “Street Souvlaki,” “Street Taverna.”  This was a sit-down restaurant where you were waited on rather than fast food ordered at the counter.  We ordered and enjoyed too much food because the portions were huge.  Everything was enjoyable and very inexpensive.  And they gave us a free desert, yogurt with sour cherries, which was probably the best thing I ate in Greece, which says a lot because I loved the great majority of the food I had there on this trip!

Stop 2 – Mykonos, Greece

Mykonos is a Greek Island of approximately 10,000 people.  It is a very popular tourist destination; fortunately, we were not there during peak tourist season.  As I understand it, Mykonos town has literally wall-to-wall people walking the streets in the summer.  It was relatively quiet when we were there.

There was a “sea bus” that took us from the portion of the island where our ship was docked to Mykonos town.

We spent some time wandering the many narrow winding alleys and admiring the stunning scenery; the scenery is definitely what I picture as Greece from watching many travel shows on TV. 

After our wanderings, we had lunch at a restaurant I had read about called “Captain’s,” that specialized in sharable plates.  The food was excellent, but unlike Piraeus, because Mykonos is such a popular tourist destination, it was at US prices.  Because the food was good, enjoyed with a waterfront view, it didn’t bother us that it was one of the more expensive meals we had in Europe.

After lunch we did a little more wandering before heading back to the ship on the sea bus.

Later, we headed back out to find dinner in the village nearest to the ship.  The first part of the walk was on a somewhat narrow and busy road, but we found our way to a local taverna (I am unsure of how to spell the name of it in it’s English equivalent, if there is one).  We enjoyed part of our dinner but not all of it; the waitress convinced us to order some type of deep-fried item (maybe zucchini, I don’t remember for sure), and we didn’t like it or finish it.  But the first part of the meal, stuffed grape leaves, is one of my favorite foods and was great.  And this meal was reasonably priced.

After dinner, we made our way down to the local small beach before returning to the ship. 

Stop 3 – Kusadasi, Turkey

Kusadasi is a tourist town of approximately 130,000 people on the Aegean coast.  The city was founded in approximately 3000 BC by a local indigenous people, before the Greeks arrived.

I was very excited about visiting Turkey and looked forward to our visit.  However, this port was the most disappointing of the cruise for me.

I try to respect and learn about different cultures, but I do have trouble with aggressive salespeople (everywhere in the world, including in the United States).  Unfortunately, to go ashore, the cruise terminal forces everyone to walk through what felt to me like a tortuous gauntlet maze of aggressive shop owners, trying to get us into their stores filled with mostly carpets and jewelry.  I wear very little jewelry.  I would have loved to look at the carpets, they are works of art!  But I did not intend on buying, and just couldn’t tolerate the aggressive sales pitches.  It made me feel like running and screaming, so we made our way through and past as quickly as we could, which was difficult.

Once safely outside the cruise terminal, we walked somewhat quickly to escape additional salespeople to reach a waterfront walkway.  This was scenic and pleasant.

We had planned on buying tea, so we went to look for a shop recommended by one of the cruise ship staff, but it turned out to be in yet another market of aggressive salespeople, so I insisted that we leave.  We then found a way to walk the waterfront in the other direction before returning toward the ship to a lunch restaurant with an English menu available, Oksa.  It was a good but expensive meal, enjoyed in a quiet environment away from the chaos.  And we did have Turkish tea with baklava for desert. I didn’t mind the expense given the peace and quiet and good food, and it also happened to be our 35^th wedding anniversary, so a splurge was, after all, in order.

After lunch we braved the gauntlet once again to return to the ship.

Stop 4 – Heraklion, Crete, Greece

Heraklion is the largest city on the island of Crete, with a population of approximately 180,000.  It is the second most popular tourist destination in Greece, after Athens.  The city was founded by Arab traders in the 9^th century AD.

We were able to walk off the ship up the waterfront to the city center, a winding maze of streets with many tourists.  After covering much of the historic part of the city on our walk, we found lunch at the Veranda All Day Cafe and Restaurant near the historic Morozini fountain in Lion’s Square.  The restaurant was on the second floor, which often is nice in a busy area because you can enjoy watching the chaos below without being part of the chaos.

We had an enjoyable last meal in Greece, including one last free desert, before returning to the ship for our crossing back to the other side of the Mediterranean and our remaining European ports.