Melsea Adventures of First.. Part 4

[melsea]

Kusadasi, Turkey 22nd Oct
Wall to wall blue skies.

The gateway to visit Ephesus. Having done an intensive tour a few years ago in very hot weather I had no desire to this again but it is well worth doing it at least once. Bill didn't fancy getting off here so I ventured ashore, had no idea where I was going to go. I started towards the markets know as bizarres. If you have been to the ones in Istanbul then you will know that any others around Turkey do not even come close to the ones in Istanbul and that these ones are just a mess and not worth much of a visit but if you persevere you will find a bargain or two. I got fed up with the men that are standing outside these shops vying for your business and with me being blond they try that bit harder to attract my attention, I say a firm no with a smile. The trouble was, was that I was carrying a shoulder bag that Bill bought me in Canada, it has written on it several times the name of the province we went to 'Prince Edward Island'. This it seems was how they would attract my attention by asking where was it and had I been there. If I answer once it was more than I wanted to, I smile and say Canada and yes I have been bye bye..
I took myself away from here and started to walk along the stretch of the sea front where locals would up and down, mothers bring their children to play, many would enjoy a meal at the few places that were open on the front. Some were even fishing, not very well from what I had observed. Further along the way I came across what looked like a boat yard where various boats & yachts were being renovated or being serviced on. There was a very new walkway that was very impressive with plants forming an ecosystem type of landscape on this walkway, that was in a curve like structure. Below there was sails like canopy with seating for those buying food and drink from the few restaurants & cafes, there were also a number of shops. Even further on I came across a mini supermarket that seems to serve as an outlet for sailors/cruisers to buy supplies for their trip. I went and as I know you get more for your money here in Turkey I stocked up on a couple of bottles of coke cola for our cabin. It was quite a warm day and I started to get tired, I am not used to doing so many ports in such a short time span. Got back to the ship at just before 2pm. In time to have lunch. When I got back Bill did let's go to the pub that is on board here called the Golden Lion, apparently they do lunches. When we got there there were a few people having lunch. We ordered ours, fish & chips. It was delicious and at no extra charge. We had just got our order in as lunch is served between midday and 2.30, they do desserts as well. The menu is the same everyday but the choices are good.
As it was such a nice day I went up to the decks and sat outside for a while. The time seems to go by very quickly and it was soon for our departure. Cunard do not have a sail away as such. There is a band playing while waiting to sail off and then once we are away the band stop. Somewhat a different way to depart than it is with P&O.

Athens, Greece 23rd Oct.
Sunny and cooler than other places of late.

A little cooler but still a beautiful sunny & warm day.
We have been here before a few times now and Bill didn't want to get off this time. I decided I wanted to get off fairly early as I wanted to catch the hop on hop off bus. I must mention that just like P&O Cunard have started to sell these HOHO bus tickets now which you can then use on these buses and not worry about queuing up for them. This is the only time I have done this as on a previous cruise on Aurora I wanted do the HOHO tour in Canada but could not buy a ticket at source where they had set up a stand outside the terminal but had to sign for it and it came off your OBC. I ended up that time going with a different company for less money. I found P&O charged a good few pounds more whereas on Cunard where the currency is in dollars their prices were better although only very slightly more than shore side. So a little advice if you know you want to use the HOHO buses do it on line before you leave home, I did this for Barcelona and I got it at a very good discount they were offering on line. And did you know that if you keep your ticket you can get further discounts on future tours! No I didn't either. So off I got and made my way to the bus which was a few minutes walk away, must mention there were also 3 to four other ships in town as well, another good reason to book ahead something's. Anyway as I got to the bus it was pretty much full and so I had to sit downstairs, well not having any of that I got off and waited for the next bus which I was told would not leave for at least twenty minutes as it turn out is was not as long before we got going only I was the only one on the bus. It was making its way to the other dock where there were 3 ships and they would be able to fill up quickly which they did. There appears to be a great demand and it seems to be looking like they have more people than they have buses. I will come back to that later. Eventually got going and started to make our way towards Athens Central which is the direction everyone wants to go but not before we had a tour of Pireaus which wasn't very much but still some interesting points of interest. Sorry don't remember them. Finally we got to the Acropolis where you can either stay there and do the climb up to the top and view the ruins of the Acropolis. I have done that part before and unless you get there really early and there are not another ship in town you will be met by long queues. Onwards with my tour. Having arrived to the very small area where the buses drop you off and it is a very small area for the buses to try and manoeuvre, it is not designed for large numbers of buses or coaches, they need to expand the area as it greatly reduces your time here due to delays in these vehicles trying to get through. Taxis use this space also. The route to here is on the blue route you then transfer onto the red route, that's if you can get on the bus to begin with, the queues were horrendous, fortunately for me I ended up at the head of the it so when an empty bus turned up I would get a choice of seat upstairs. Eventually I was able to enjoy the bus tour, I did not get off as I would have liked but I needed to make sure I got back to the Acropolis to pick up the bus back to the ship because of the sheer numbers and the timetable was tight. There simply were not enough buses to accommodate everyone. As one very irate American was trying to convey to the Italian worker of the company at one of the bus stops and on this occasion I was in full agreement with him as I think everyone else was. ( I was on the bus listening to him, he was on the pavement), what he was saying was why were they see long tickets when they knew that there were not enough spaces for them all. On this occasion the staff were trying to reason with him but at the same time they were frantically trying to get more buses, where I know not. The frequency of the buses were not very often and most times the buses were full and you could not get on. This happened at most stops on my tour. When finally it was all finished and got back to get the bus back to the ship. They had there two queues, one for the trip I have just done and this is just before 1.30 I think it was and the other queue was the one I was to join to catch bus back. In the queue I was in I was at around number 10 and it was soon getting longer, the other queue was even longer about 3 times as long as ours. The peoples faces when they saw it, it was of horror. The tour takes an hour and they may not get on it for at least 30 to 40 minutes. We had to wait around 20 minutes and according to their schedule the last bus was at 3.30, it got back to the ship at around 3pm. So the maths do not quite add up. After all that I have not even mentioned anything about what I saw. Basically it did all the sights that are on the list of places to see and it wasn't too bad. Don't think I will do it again though, maybe I'll use their metro system next time! I guess it was a miracle they had any buses at all considering Athens and Greece in general is suppose to be broke and that many people have not been paid for months. But before joining the queue I had about fifteen minutes to take some photos at the bottom of where you make the journey up to the Acropolis.
When I got back to the ship I was going to get a small bite to eat but waited for when afternoon tea would be served. Then afterwards crashed out for a nap before we were to sail away into the sunset to our next port, Corfu. In the evening I did not go to the show which was and I quote ' The Piano, The Comedy, The Show' by Jon Courtenay. Alas I have not heard of him.

[Kenmo1]

Melsea - you do really super reports. I feel like I'm there with all the detail you put in - thank you very much.

[oldbluefox]

I really enjoyed your report Melsea and similarly enjoy the detail.

I was very much put off by the hard sell in Kusadasi. They didn't give you a chance to browse, immediately being on your shoulder to buy. Some people enjoy this but we found it a real pain in the neck and eventually gave up and returned to the ship. Fortunately we had been to Ephesus in the morning, which I found absolutely fascinating. but it was a pity we never managed to go around the bazaar.

We have never been to Athens. We were meant to dock there but had to abandon it due to high winds. However your reports of the HoHo buses were revealing. Essentially they are a good idea but it does get rather scary when they do turn up at a stop and nobody can get on because they are full, especially if you are running out of time.

I look forward to more reports................... please!!

[melsea]

Kenmo1 & oldbluefox

Thank you for your lovely comments on my reports. Pleased you liked them. I do try to make them interesting. The others part will follow soon.

[emjay45]

I enjoy them too melsea. I've just caught up with the last 2 parts. Very useful information regarding the HOHO buses.