Today’s stop is in Burgas, Bulgaria. Valerie decided we should visit the nearby UNESCO world heritage town of Nessebar. We declined the ship transfer and opted to take the public bus (#10). We were a bit worried that we would have trouble finding the bus station, but it happened to be right next to the cruise port and train station.

We walked around the old town for a while, taking pictures with its copious churches. We admired the appropriately named Sunny Beach across the bay. Finally, we ate lunch at a place we found on TripAdvisor before heading back to Burgas.

With some free time before all-aboard, we walked around downtown Burgas. We were surprised to find nice, well-trafficked pedestrian friendly walkways lined with restaurants and shops. Compared to Constanta, Burgas is quite nice. And Bulgaria seems less expensive than Romania as well. We stopped by a nice bakery for some cheap and delicious baked goods before heading back to the ship. Burgas is actually a nice town to walk around in and definitely a much nicer place to visit than Constanta.

Our stop today is Constanta (aka Constanza) in Romania. This was the cruise stop that Valerie and I are most concerned about for two reasons: 1) people on the Internet say the town is sketchy and 2) there is very little of touristic value.

The ship offered a 6 euro transfer into the town center. Since we dislike overspending on ship transfers, we looked at the town from the top of the ship to see if there was a public bus available or if we could walk to town instead. Sadly, the walk looked boring and treacherous, so we opted for the ship transfer.

We walked around town for a while, looking at the beach, parks, shops, restaurants and buildings. After about an hour, we gave up on trying to find anything interesting and headed to McDonalds to use their free WiFi. During our McMeal, it started raining, so we just stayed in the McD for a while before heading back to the ship.

Our second day in Istanbul was much less tiring than the first. After a late breakfast on the ship, we took the tram to the Grand Bazaar. Following a Rick Steves walking tour, we navigated around the mazelike building, stopping at some of the shops to pick up some gifts for the friends we will meet in Italy and family we will meet in Australia. After a quick coffee break, we continued our walk out of the bazaar, down the hill, through a mosque, and into the spice market. We ate a really good pastrami-like sandwich from a deli called Namli Sarkuteri outside of the spice market. (It was probably the best pastrami-like sandwich I’ve ever eaten. I wish we had bought two!) Finally, we headed back to the ship. We bought an hour of WiFi from a place outside the cruise port, but sadly didn’t have enough time to post these blog entries before all-aboard time.

Today, we walked over 14 miles during our whirlwind tour of Istanbul. We started the day by walking the length of the cruise port to the terminal building. There are four large cruise ships parked here today and walking past all of them takes quite a while. Once out of the port area, we followed a Rick Steves walking tour of the Golden Horn across the Galata Bridge. Our first tourist stop was the Topkapi Palace, home of sultans. It was similar to the Alhambra in Granada, but bigger. Its harem alone housed over 100 concubines and their eunuch attendants. Next, we walked to the Hagia Sophia, a church built by a Byzantine emperor that became a mosque and then a museum. It is remarkable for its enormous dome and surprisingly preserved mosaics. After a quick lunch of Turkish meatballs, Valerie donned her makeshift headscarf and we walked to the Blue Mosque, so called because it is a mosque that is blue. I haven’t visited many mosques, but it reminded me a lot of many large European cathedrals, except with carpeting and less art.
Finally, we rode the funicular up to Istiklal street and walked its length. The street is lined with western shops, restaurants, and souvenir shops. We stopped for some Turkish desserts before heading to Taksim Square where we picked up a pita sandwich with lamb. Finally, we headed down another funicular and back to the ship so we can be well rested for our trip to Istanbul’s grand bazaar tomorrow.

Today, our ship landed in Izmir. Somewhat nearby Izmir are the ruins of Ephesus. Since there is pretty much no way of reaching Ephesus from Izmir on our own without a taxi, we opted to take the ship tour.
The first stop on the tour was the “House of the Virgin Mary.” The house is almost completely reconstructed because only the foundation remained when it was rediscovered. The evidence that Mary lived here is quite flimsy, making this a questionable tourist destination. But we didn’t come for the house, we came for Ephesus.
Ephesus is a large Roman ruin that is remarkably well preserved (especially when compared to the Greek ruins at Olympia). However, it is still a ruin. Walking along its marble path, one can wonder about what it would have been like to live in this ancient city. The ancient amphitheater is enormous, capable of seating tens of thousands of people.
Our final “tourist” stop was the government school of Turkish carpet manufacturing. Basically an hour long sales pitch, the school did offer some insight into the enormous amount of effort required to create a Turkish carpet by hand. As our guide stated, Turkish carpets are a dying industry, mostly because machine-made carpets are substantially cheaper. (Interesting side-note: no male students have ever successfully graduated from the school.)

Today’s stop was the town of Mykonos. As far as I can tell, the area is most famous for its beaches. Since we aren’t beach people, Valerie and I wandered the town instead. Instead of opting for the overpriced ship transfer, we took a public bus from the new port to the old port. We considered taking a boat to the ruins of Delos, but after yesterday’s ruins and in anticipation of tomorrow’s ruins, we declined to. Instead, we got lost in the old town, ate some gyros, walked to a small beach outside town, and then walked to the old (nonfunctional) windmills on a hill in town. After a dinner of kabob and radler, we headed back to the ship as the sun set.

Valerie has wanted to visit Greece for years and we finally have a chance to on this cruise. Today, we docked in the port of Katakolo near the ruins of ancient Olympia. The past few days, we were worrying about how to get to Olympia from the town without paying for the exorbitantly priced ship tour. There is a cheap train connection, but it only runs 3 times a day, and our ship was arriving relatively late at 2pm. Luckily, our fears were unfounded. At the port, there were several bus companies advertising 10 euro round trips. We opted for a slightly more expensive transfer directly from the ship that was advertised at the last minute by Costa (presumably to maximize the people who sign up for their tour).
The ruins at Olympia were the site of the ancient Olympics. While some of the buildings have been partially excavated and reconstructed from the buried ruins, most of the site is still in ruins, with piles of ancient rubble placed along the side of the walking paths. We tried to follow Rick Steves walking tour, but ended up getting a bit lost and just wanted around the ruins for a while, lingering in spots of shade as we happened upon them.

Valerie is sick today. We spent most of the day in bed watching the Mediterranean Sea pass us by in the window. Tomorrow, we are docking at Katacolo near Olympia, Greece. If Valerie is feeling better, we may try to take a bus or train into Olympia to see the UNESCO world heritage site.

I fear I may be getting sick, so I spent most of the day sleeping in the cabin. At some point, we dragged ourselves onto shore to Savona. We walked around the old town, picking up some sorbet and looking at the local cathedral and local Sistene Chapel. On the way back to the ship, we stopped by an Internet hotspot near the ship and bought an hour of Internet for 1.5 euro.
I hope I don’t get Valerie sick.

Internet is sparse on a cruise ship, so updates may become quite sporadic for the next two weeks.

The check in process for this cruise was quite a bit less streamlined than American cruise lines, which worries me about what is to come. However, our oceanview cabin was quite a bit larger than what we are used to.

Our cruise tickets come with a “WATERUSA” package that entitles us to unlimited glasses of mineral water in the dining room. This is quite a relief as the crew in the boarding area strongly suggested that we shouldn’t drink the water from the tap in our cabin. (One even [jokingly?] suggested that it could cause ebola.) I guess Americans just expect free potable water with dinner.