Jun 14, 2005 - Hi, from Thessaloniki, Greece

Reported by JoMar© All rights reserved.

We know that we touched on Athens a bit in the last entry. However, that was before we visited the Acropolis!!!

The ruins at the Acropolis were amazing and so cool!!! The view from atop, just meters from the Acropolis, made Athens sparkle like a jewel. The Parthenon, Stadium, Temple of Zeus, Temple of Athena, and the Acropolis itself and museum were magnificent. Athena is the goddess, of wisdom, if I remember correctly who, legend has it was born from the forehead of Zeus, God of the Gods, and it is she that Athens name comes from. The museum had some amazing pieces that were discovered among the ruins. These were amazing archeological finds that experts believe are between 500 and 6400 years before Christ!!! are you ready for that!!!!!

John went for a jog the other day and came across an ancient bath below sidewalk level, complete with large ancient pottery. Apparently when they started to dig to incorporate a Metro (that's subway to you folks at home) workers found ruins from an ancient roman bath.... so of course is now preserved and on show... how cool is that!

Athens itself was a pretty cool city and had the cleanest and most efficient subway transport of any city thus far that we have visited, not to mention the great people and tasty food.

Ok, here we are in Thessaloniki, Greece, a pit-stop on our way to Turkey. It is the 2nd largest city in Greece, Athens of course, being the biggest as well as their capital.

It is a pretty non-descript large city, but the train ride from Athens to Istanbul would have been brutally long...

Speaking of train journey's, this last one between Athens and Thessaloniki was the most remarkable landscape yet, mountains, waterfalls, valleys, orchards and some ruins. . .  all taking about 6 hours.

We are just here for 2 days, then tomorrow another 9 hours to Istanbul and the Turquoise Coast!

We took a 4 day cruise from Athens that took us to 5 ports in the Greek Islands. The islands and the waters in between were spectacular, but the cruise itself was not worth the money spent. The ship was older, the food was "pretty-good", the staff sucked big time, we even had to ask for towels everyday!

OMG, but MYKONOS and Santorini were magical, honest ...  you know how postcards boasts and makes things look incredible cuz they are professionally taken? Then you get there and it is just not the same...  WELL, these two islands were just as you see them on postcards!

Perfect, picture perfect. Hated to leave Mykonos.

Markie and Johnny