Corfu, Greece

After experiencing the beautiful Santorini, I was really looking forward to another breathtaking day of Greece. Here we are floating by the Island.

We had to wait our turn to be taken ashore, so I had time to get caught up on PostCards to loved ones. As you can tell I am deep in thought....I try to go out of the way and not write the awful "Wish you were Here" .

I had a wonderful experience on the Ship last night, I got my hair cut at the Salon!!! I know, that was very brave! But I must say IT was an awesome Hair Cut. And I am very picky when it comes to my Cut!! It figures...that I will NEVER see her again :-( The Salon was so relaxing, check out all the windows. As she was cutting my hair, she said "Oh, Look at that Island!" How many times are you getting your hair done and there is a quaint little Island going by in the window!! See the black pedestal in the middle? That was the 'rotating Sink' !!! I didn't have to even get out of my chair. I just leaned my head back and she pulls the sink over and adjusts it right behind my chair. Then she blew dry my hair with a round brush to perfection....now how many times do you leave the hairdressers 'Loving' how they styled your hair??? I am telling you I wanted to take her home !

This is the Adult Pool on our Ship, called the Solarium...It is air-conditioned in here?!? It was also saltwater. Not a fan of that, myself.

So after our water taxi to the Island, we take a taxi to the center of town.

It is another HOT day and we walk around the shopping area a little only to find the stores are either $$$ Jewelry or cheap Souvenirs.

I could NOT believe what was on the main street!!!

McDonalds ! And so since my daughter works for Mickey D's I had to do a little pose for her :)) This is probably the most affordable food you will find here, by the way! And so to use their restroom you have to have bought a food item and the receipt has a code on it and 'that' gets you into the potty area!!!! funny huh??

Here is a cute little Market.

Randy really wanted to see a Museum and so we tried and tried to find a particular Archaeological one that was on our map. We spent the better part of an hour traipsing around, covering certain areas 2 or 3 times (without asking for locals help) so this picture shows Randy studying the map, yet a 40th time......

Well in the End of our hunt, we did find it (after asking a local)(my idea)(BUT about 45 minutes ago) and the damn thing was Closed.

So Corfu was pretty UNeventful for us and we went back to the Ship early and crashed at the Pool with BOOZE.

GREECE...............

This was my Favorite Place.....Santorini, Greece.

We opted to adventure out on our own here, which worked out wonderfully. We were very relaxed and whether we were discovering an out of the way Souvenir Shop, the very hard to find Gas Station or a simple little beach...it was OUR discovery :))



See the famous curvy road up the mountain, you have 3 choices of getting to the top, Walking (slow), riding a donkey (slow and smelly), or a high tech Gondola (fast and scary). We chose the 21st century option!!!

This photo was taken from our Cruise Ship balcony, I am very happy to be here! I have always been taken with the beauty of this place and NOW I am here :))

We are in the Gondola looking down on the poor souls that took the donkeys up. Let me remind you that it is very hot again today and it is only around 10am......

The poor donkeys should at least be able to take the Gondola's 'down'.....just to save a little energy, jeez .

Now walking around the beautiful city we came across this Cafe that apparently has a pool !!! I guess for when those appetizers seem to take forever, why not just go for a dip!!!

Well what do you know!! I found Sunflowers in Greece!! So I had to have a picture of that. Randy and I had soooo much fun here taking pictures and are hoping that some of them will be our ART in our new house.

We stumbled across this abandoned boat and fought over the camera!!

Proof that Randy is indeed in Greece....and quite happy about it !!

The water was just gorgeous and clean and clear and felt sooooo good on this hot non breezy day.

I like pictures of feet in water, so here is randy and I.

I finally had found this type of dress that everyone was wearing. It is made of 3 large scarves sewn together! Do I look like a local now??? Ha

This photo was taken way up high on a roof top restaurant that we stopped in to cool off. The view was amazing....and we were closer to the Sun.....hahahahah.

Awww, the happy couple on a dream vacation !!!

I could not drink enough ice cold water... i had a small bucket of ice sitting in front of me and immensely enjoyed each and everyone of those precious little cubes.....whether in my class or down my shirt!!!!

Randy on the other hand enjoyed the local beer to stay cooled off and to put up with my belly-aching!!

Simply breathtaking views, huh?!!

Can you imagine waking up in the morning and walking out on your balcony......just to stare at the ocean and contemplate your day. It would be so awesome to buy a flat here and decorate it with all local items. I could do it......"It could happen" :))

You would just take a couple of stairs and 'bam' you are at a market and you chose some fresh fish for the day and a bottle of vino. Back to your happy abode. mmmmmmmnmmnnn

Oh here I am again in my fun dress posing for you again in GREECE !!

So Goodbye Santorini for now......we hope to see you again.

On to Turkey !!

On our excursion we visited two little villages.
The locals set up stands along side of walkways to sell their handmade wares. Mostly knitted and crochet items, lots of embroidered linens.

Now we come upon a local market that has everything!! This picture shows kitchen ware, toiletries and soaps.

Check out this guys array of fabric!!! I bought a pair of local made pants. They are made with lots of material in the legs and bottom area and are gathered at the waist with elastic. Made so you can squat in them and be very comfy!!

Oh my.... all the local grown grains and rice and spices....YUMMMM!

One of my favorite parts about Turkey is they only eat homegrown food and it is growing EVERYwhere!! Lemon trees were growing along alleyways and anyone could pick them. They were so beautiful and the size of our oranges!! so the picture below is a family at their stand for the day, we stopped and tasted their cucumbers, my my how fresh!

In this photo the elder women are sitting in the little bit of shade there was at their stand. Notice the scarves on their heads are crochet on the edges and some have beads, very feminine. You can sort of see how the pants wear here, that's what i bought!!!

We then were treated to a family owned outdoor cafe for lunch.

Here is my plate, everything is cooked in locally made Olive Oil. The upper right is seasoned rice rolled up in grape leaves, then of course local veggies; eggplant, squash and ripe tomatoes. Bread replacement is this very thin pan cooked on an open fire-rolled out flour and water batter. They cook two together with herbs in the middle. It is very crispy.

Then we stopped at a Rug Emporium!! We learned how they get the silk from the pods! awesome!! They dye the yarns with only natural vegetable dyes. Here sits a woman making a rug that will take months to finish. This was soooo fascinating, I could have spent the whole day there!!! :))

Then they whisked us down the hall and into one of the many rooms of unbelievable hand created rugs.

Yes, Turkey would be a wonderful place to come back and visit for longer period of time.

I'm on a Boat.....ok, itsa SHIP !

We boarded our ship and had such fun walking around checking out everything. My favorite was our Cabin, with our own balcony!!

After checking out the whole ship, we ''of course'' had to have some food!! In this picture, the entrance of the buffet, a beautiful display of fruit. Even the flowers are made of food!!

We are the leader of three ships leaving the dock, so this shows the followers, leaving Venice.

Our first stop was Dubrovnik, Croatia. Check out the steep steps!! These were little shops and cafes, even homes.

This is one of the beautiful views of the city from up high.

The water here is sooooo clear!! We wished we had opted for the snorkeling excursion. :(

I always have to take pictures looking up the trunk of a wonderful palm trees, they fascinate me!

We had to take a picture of our Croatian money = Kuna

Isn't it cool!

And this is where we spent most of our Kuna, a cute little outdoor restaurant. It was located down one of the tiny streets, they also had indoor seating but it wasn't air conditioned and there was a 'slight' breeze outside. Randy had delicious Sea Bass and I opted for Blackened Risotto (with bits of tender squid and colored with the squid ink!!)