Destination #30 - Rhodes, Greece

Saturday morning, and I was stepping off one boat and onto another. Only this time it was a ferry over to the Greek Island Rhodes. I feel like this is an island that I've never really heard anyone speak about but it was the closest and easiest to get to from Fethiye so it was here I decided to end my trip.

When I reached land, it was hot and sunny and my hostel was about a 20 minute walk away. Only a few more times I would have to carry this heavy bag! I was welcomed at the hostel with a refreshing glass of lemonade before I headed down to the beach. Just walking around, I very much felt like I was in Greece with white buildings and flowers hanging out from balconies. The beach was pebbles but beggars can't be choosers so I relaxed for a bit before heading back to the hostel and checking in. I got lucky at this hostel it seemed as I was in a 6 bed dorm but the dorm was split into 3 rooms; 1 with 3 beds, 1 with 2 beds, and the other with the 1 bed. I got the 1 bed room which was sweet but it was also the entrance room so the others had to pass by me before reaching their rooms. How is that different from any other hostel though...I thought it was a sweet deal!

Afterwards, I went over to the old town (another one!) and I have to say, this one took the cake. The old town was surrounded by castle walls which used to be a massive medieval fortress. Most things like this, you have to pay to get in but because the old town was located inside the walls, entry was free and unguarded. I first walked around the entire walls, or technically the moat, which took up some time. There were so many entrances leading to underground areas of the fortress, pitch black and spooky. I was really curious to see what was down in these areas but I was too much of a pansy to go and see.

I couldn't get over how cool this old town was. It sometimes felt like I was back in the medieval days going for a stroll within the castle walls.  Lots of shops, restaurants, and even hotels filled the streets.

Next, I made my way back to the beach to watch the sunset as the beach faced west. I decided I would make this a daily occasion.

On my second day, my friend Caitlin (from the boat) was stopping in Rhodes before heading back to London that evening. We only had a few hours but we went and saw the Colossus of Rhodes where supposedly a massive statue once stood. The Colossus of Rhodes is one of the 7 ancient wonders of the world. There wasn't a whole lot to see inside the fortress but hey, it was free entry. We also went and saw the Acropolis which had both and an ancient stadium and amphitheater in the vicinity. Now this was Greece in my mind. So cool to see, I can't wait to see more of this type of stuff in other parts of Greece.

After that, it was time for Caitlin to leave and time for me to head to the beach. I tanned and I tanned and then once again, caught the sunset. I had read somewhere that this weekend was celebrating tourism or something and there was a free concert at 8pm at the gate of the medieval fortress. I didn't know which gate however but I ventured over anyway to go find it. I made my way over to the other side of town and was stunned by the beauty of the moon rising just above the Colossus. This was the night that was going to be the 'bloodmoon' or lunar eclipse rather. That wouldn't be happening until 3am though, but still the moon was full and bright.

I soon heard some sound coming around the corner and followed it to find some dancers on a stage in front of a big parliamentary building. I thought that this was the concert and it was mediocre so I pressed onto the old town to find something to eat. As I walked through the the old town, I again struggled with settling down on a place to eat but as I was walking toward one of the gates, I saw a bunch of people pouring into another area. Curious, I went after them and found the real concert, where it was just about to start. There was a lot more people here and what a cool setting it was with the moon shining bright and a concert within the castle walls. The music was exactly what you would expect Greek music to be, performed by local musicians. I stayed for a few songs before heading back out and finally settling on a place to eat. I dined by myself with some chicken souvlaki and a tall beer. Yum yum!

I won't say much about the next day as I spent the majority of it on the beach. I watched one last sunset before I made the same journey across town from the previous night. As I came upon the Colossus, I had expected the moon to be up as it had the night before but I know the moon doesn't work like the sun. It wasn't there so I had wondered if it would be rising soon. Sure enough, a few minutes later, I watched the moon rise for the second time in my life. Such an amazing thing to watch as it creeps over the horizon, bright orange. After staring in awe, I grabbed some ice cream which unfortunately had a long curly black hair in it :(

Before flying off to London the next day, I checked out a bit more of the old town and more of the fortress walls.

I think Rhodes doesn't get talked about enough compared to the other islands. I haven't been to the other ones so I can't make the comparison but there was lots to do here, it was beautiful, and the people were nice and all spoke English.

Thus ends my 29 day journey around Europe and back to London it is. I saw so many amazing things and so many places. I had some great some experiences and met some great people along the way, while reconnecting with some familiar faces. Not sure if I would do a journey as long as this again, especially by myself for half of it. My favourite places were Barcelona, Seville, and Porto!

Next:
TBD

Destination #29 - Turkey

The 18th was pretty much a transit day as I spent most of it either on a bus, in an airport, on a plane, or in a taxi. I arrived in a city called Dalaman in Turkey at around 8pm and realized I had done little research of the place before getting there. Without having internet, I was able to ask a couple of people who knew English where to go to catch the bus. The second person I spoke to told me that the bus only comes if a domestic flight has arrived. I had actually connected in Istanbul so I had technically arrived on a domestic flight but the airport staff had dropped me off at the international terminal to pick up my bag.

Side story: When we had landed, there was a person at the bottom of the escalator with a sign that had my name and somebody else's name on it. I was super confused but my initial thought was "Hey! The hostel is picking me up from the airport! How nice!" Nope. It was just to transport me to the international terminal to pick up my bag...

I waited and I waited for this bus but it seemed unlikely that it was coming. Fortunately, I had 4 people beside me who were waiting for the same bus and not having any luck. We all agreed to share a cab and head into Fethiye as this was the destination for all of us. After an hour with a cab driver who spoke next to no English, we thankfully reached our hostel where I checked in and met up with my friend Caitlin. Later on, we grabbed some dinner at a Turkish restaurant that ended up being super cheap and we ate like kings.

The next day, we departed on a week long sailing journey around the coast of Turkey. The boat could fit 15 of us plus the 3 crew members (who didn't speak a whole lot of English but were still awesome). Along with Caitlin, I had my friends Cate, Robert, and Stephen with me.

Because it was a week long, I'll try and keep this as short as possible. The weather we had was definitely not great. We had maybe 3 days that were hot and sunny. The other 4 was rain and thunderstorms. The lightning was in full force sometimes. Sometimes, it would be flash after flash in the sky without any sound following. Other times, we got an earful. It was particularly unsettling one night when at around 2am, when everyone was in bed, the flash was blinding and the thunder that followed was insane. I had my big headphones in that normally cancel any outside noise but the thunder bled right through them. I thought for a second that the bolt had hit the boat but we came to the conclusion that it was on the island right beside us.

The food we had every day was of Turkish cuisine and the chef on-board did an awesome job. We honestly had so much to eat for breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day. Plus there was afternoon tea every day that came with biscuits. Good luck to anyone trying to lose weight on this trip.

The best days were of course when I could jump off the boat into warm, clear, blue ocean water. On a couple of occasions, the rain didn't stop us from doing it anyway. For me, it was the life to be able to do that, dry off in the hot sun (if applicable), read my book, play some cards, listen to music, and chat with my fellow sailors. For a few others, I think they were starting to get cabin fever and wanted desperately to touch land. We got to touch land a few times. Our first was on the 2nd day where we were at St. Nicholas Island and got to explore some ruins. This was really cool and the view from the top was stunning as the sun was setting behind stormy clouds. Because I swam there, I was unable to take my camera. On the 4th day, we reached land again where there was a small little village. Our first taste of wifi after 4 days ;). On the 5th day, we had reached a small city called Kas that had plenty of shops, café's, and restaurants. When it was night, it was amazing to see how much the city came alive. It seemed more people were out on the streets than in the day. It was beautiful to walk around and unfortunately, I don't have any photos to do it justice.

While in Kas, a few of us went and did some scuba diving. This was my first time so it took me a few tries to get the breathing down right. The only true thing I had wanted to see was a turtle but I only got to see fish, although plenty of it. That's also not to say I didn't get to see a couple of turtles during the course of the trip. We also caught a glimpse of a few dolphins as well along the way.

On the final day, we arrived back in Fethiye, where we had started. These Turkish cities did not seem to have a shortage of Turkish flags hanging around, let me tell you. I thought I had seen patriotism in America, but I don't think you could look anywhere and not spot a Turkish flag. The cities also didn't fall short of the stray dogs and cats you see everywhere which made me sad at first. Then, I realized that the animals seemed quite content and the city folk seemed to take care of them.

Our group was...let's say "tame". We had only one night of everyone drinking, the rest were quiet nights. The captain pretty much told us we were lame. I think for most of us, we were at the end of our big trips and were tired and wanted to take it easy.

I certainly liked the idea of sailing along the coast and docking in places far from civilization with still, blue waters but with the weather, I don't think we got to fully enjoy this type of trip for what it should have been. Some of the girls on the boat had done Sail Croatia, where each night the boat would actually dock at a different city. I would definitely recommend Sail Turkey, but maybe not go in the storm season. Turkey actually also exceeded my expectations, if I had any. The people were friendly, most spoke English, and I never felt threatened. Again, I'm not even sure what my expectations were but I was pleasantly surprised by Turkey.

Next:
Rhodes

Kas

Destination #27 & #28 - Nice & Monaco

It was the 16th day into my trip and the mediocre weather has followed me around everywhere. It has always seemed that the majority of days I'm in a city will have a forecast of rain or clouds and then the day I leave will be perfect weather. I shouldn't complain though, many of the days have turned out to be better than expected. However, the only absolutely clear days I have had so far was in Faro. I had hoped that my sailing trip in Turkey coming up would be perfect weather but it's looking like it is going to be stormy the majority of time. *Insert nervous laugh*.

I took a train from Marseille and ended up in Nice mid afternoon. This had to be the worst hostel so far on this trip. It wasn't horrible, but the room was musty and small. There was also barely any power outlets and the wifi was non existent. At least it was only 2 nights.

I first ventured over to the waterfront where you can walk along the Promenade des Anglais. It was a gorgeous view of the ocean from here and made for a NICE walk.

I then decided to do a little hike up the hill to where a castle once stood. From here, I got a great view of the city and the waterfront.

I climbed back down and ended up in the old town of Nice. Seems that the majority of the cities I've been to have an old town! Either way, it was charming and was cool to walk through. Lots of shops and restaurants in this area.

Afterwards I walked back down the other way on the Promenade des Anglais before sitting by the water and taking it all in. The beach is all pebbles and was frequently split up into little areas as I guess a lot of them were reserved for specific hotel guests only or I'm pretty sure you could pay to enter these areas if you didn't want to lay down on the pebbles. I went to go take a look at the St Nicholas Russian Orthodox Cathedral afterwards but actually realized when I got there that it was private property and I couldn't even really take a picture. Afterwards, I headed back to the hostel for a quiet night in where I met a friendly Aussie in my room. They're everywhere!

The next day, the Aussie (Louis) and I took a quick 20 minute train ride over to Monaco. Interesting fact about Monaco: despite being an independent country, the language is French and their currency is the Euro...and they`re not even part of the European union!

Walking around Monaco, I couldn't help but notice that it just felt so out of place compared to the rest of Europe, even though it's not a part of Europe. There was no sign of poverty anywhere, everything was clean and taken care of, and you could tell the locals had status. That all being said, it was beautiful and breathtaking. Such an interesting city to be in. Louis and I couldn't help but say "What is this place?"

After walking around a bit, we went and saw the famous Monte Carlo casino. I really wanted to take a look inside but it seemed quite intimidating to try and go in, so we didn't try! By the way, so many nice cars everywhere in this city, particularly at the casino.

Next, we headed down the hill and up another hill to the Musee Oceanographique. The museum is in 2 parts: the Museum and the Aquarium. We spent most of our time at the Aquarium.

Before heading back to Nice, we went over to the Palais du Prince where it looked like the royal family was in residence and we also got a stunning view of the city.

Once back in Nice, we went and got some Pho (mmmmmm...) and then ventured over to the old town where they have a gelato place with a tonne of flavours. They had some odd ones as well, like avocado. Gross. I settled on Bailey's! We then just sat on the oceanfront for a time, as I enjoyed my last night in Nice.

Nice was (can't help it) nice. There wasn't a whole lot to do though I found. It was cool to take a day trip over to Monaco but I think Nice, like San Sebastián, I found to be more of a couples destination visit.

Next:
Turkey
Rhodes

Destination #26 - Marseille, France

When I had initially planned this trip, I had heard of Marseille but I actually had no idea of what it was like. In the lead up to my departure for this trip, I had a told a few people that Marseille was one of my stops. Instead of getting excited, their reactions were a little held back. I ended up actually educating myself on the city and supposedly, it has always been depicted as grungy, poor, and dirty. However, the city is supposedly "fighting back", not only improving its tourism with an abundance of museums, but it also was European Capital of Culture for 2013.

It was a 2 hour flight from Porto but I was jumping ahead an hour as well so the plane didn't touch down until 10:45pm. I don't give myself enough credit for the little French I do know because unlike Spain and Portugal, I was able to understand signage a bit better already. From the airport to the central station was a shuttle bus and once arrived, it was getting closer to midnight. I'll admit, I was a little on edge walking through the streets of Marseille to my hostel. I did want to give this city a chance despite the bad rep it was getting. I finally arrived at my hostel after walking at a slightly faster pace and went straight to bed.

When I had breakfast the next morning, I was surprised at the amount of people at this hostel that were French, and I'm talking about the majority of them. Even my roommates were French. I guess France is a big country but I don't think I met a Spanish person at any of the Spain hostels and same for Portugal.

Anyway, first stop of the day was another climb up a massive hill to see the Basilique Notre-Dame de la Garde, probably the most famous landmark of Marseille. At the top, I got a great panoramic view of Marseille and even better, it was free entry to the Basilique. It was stunning on the inside.

Once climbed down the hill, I took a peak inside the Abbaye Saint-Victor and walked around the South side of Vieux Port (Old Port) of Marseille. So many boats!

From there, I walked up to Cours Julien, an area of Marseille known for its graffiti art, restaurants, and small shops. I didn't take too many photos here because I felt like as a tourist, I was sticking out like a sore thumb with my big camera. It felt like this was the place to be for locals.

Afterwards, I went along the east and north side of the Vieux Port before seeing the Marseille Cathedral and Le Panier, Marseilles old town. Although it was quiet, this area had a funky vibe to it with lots of street art around on the walls.

I then went to go over to MuCEM (Museum of Civilizations of Europe and the Mediterranean), Marseilles main museum, to find that they are closed on Tuesdays...

Today was Tuesday.

My last stop of the day was the Parc Longchamp where it had an amazing structure and fountain.

It wasn't a very eventful day in Marseille but I felt like I saw enough of the city. It was grungy, yes, but I could see how one might perceive it as "cultural". It had some really pretty sights to it and I don't regret going.

Next:
Nice
Turkey
Rhodes

Destination #25 - Porto, Portugal

The last night in Lisbon only provided a few hours of sleep for us (no rest for the wicked) and we headed out to Porto on a late morning train. We had booked 3 bed dorms for our hostel in Porto but once we checked in, we were put into 2 separate 3 bed dorms unfortunately.

After doing a bit of research and lounging, we took to the city of Porto. As we walked to the city centre, we were feeling a little peckish so we stopped at a cafe along the way. We did our best to communicate as the staff didn't speak great English but Kalina and Jeff got a couple of ham and cheese pastry things. Me? I got a couple of pastel de nata's (refer to my previous blog entry for explanation). We walked out probably looking like a bunch of weirdos because we don't think it's common culture to get something "to-go" as it was a little difficult to get this across to the staff. They were super nice about it though and we planned to visit once more before we left Porto.

We first stopped by the Porto Cathedral (Sé do Porto) which once we got there, were immediately stunned by the beauty of Porto. From the Cathedral, you get a great view of the Clérigos Tower (Torre dos Clérigos) and surrounding buildings.

Porto is just as hilly as Lisbon was so next we crossed the Luis I Bridge (Pont Luis) on the upper part which offered an amazing view of the city again.

Once on the other side, we had no idea how to get down to the bottom of the massive hill we were on. An old man, noticing how lost we looked voluntarily told us in Portuguese where to go. "Obregado" we said for "Thank you" and I couldn't help but notice how much nicer people are in the less well known cities than the big ones.

Once at the bottom of the hill, we went to find the Croft house for Port. The area we were in had all the Port houses condensed together so our choices were endless on who to visit. We had decided on Croft because we read that it's 5€ for a tour and tastings of 3 ports. We walked to where I thought it was but we couldn't seem to find it so we went back to retrace our steps when we stumbled upon a sign that told us what direction "Croft" and "Offley" were. Offley was to the right while it said to go straight ahead for Croft. We did just that and basically ended up doing one massive circle trying to find this place. Once back at the sign, we took the "right" and ended up finding Croft. Why didn't the sign say both Croft and Offley were to the right!?!? It was a laugh as well because by the time we got to Croft, there were no more tours for the day so we decided we would come back the next day. However, we did end up going to this little house that seemed to share some art gallery with its space. What intrigued us was the "free tasting" advertised on a sign outside. We went up to their small bar they had and not only had the free tasting, but about 5 other tastings between the 3 of us. I was in love with Port.

Afterwards, we made our way across the river, this time on the lower part of the Luis I Bridge, to find a restaurant that Jeff had heard about. To get there, we had to make a steep climb up to the top of the hill, in which we deemed "DA CLIMB". Breathless and out of shape, we made our way to the top and found the restaurant wouldn't open until 7:30pm so in the meantime, we went and had a look at the Clérigos Tower. As we made our way back to the restaurant, it started down pouring rain so we had to seek some shelter before ending up at the restaurant.

There was one dish that we all NEEDED to have that we had heard Northern Portugal was known for: the Francesinha. It is steak, sausage, and ham all wrapped in pizza dough, covered in cheese with a tomato gravy poured on top. It was like a calzone. But in essence it was a heart attack.

It was amazing.

The next day, we headed out on a free walking tour that was pretty lengthy but very informative and the guy was funny. When we were done, we thought it would be a good idea to try the Croft house again. We remembered the way there luckily but of course, the next tour wasn't for another 1h 15min. It wasn't meant to be but I think we're glad it didn't work out because just down the road was Offley which was doing a tour and 3 tastings for 1€ cheaper. It was about a half hour tour inside their cellars and the tastings we had after were delicious. Tawny, Ruby, and White were the three we tasted.

We had time a quick coffee afterwards at the cafe we discovered and I, of course, had to get a pastel de nata one more time. We got it right this time by sitting in instead of doing to go and the old man that probably owns the place gave us a little wave, recognizing us.

The three of us went to the airport together as Kalina and Jeff were flying to Madrid around the same time. It was really sad to part ways as we had just spent an amazing 6 days together.

I am so glad I got the chance to meet up with those two and experience Portugal together. If I had been by myself up until this point, I think I would have driven myself mad. Solo traveling might have some advantages but you can't beat sharing experiences with friends or family. Who knows if I would have done the port tastings, ate francesinha, or even gone out in Lisbon if I wasn't with Kalina and Jeff. It's also great to put ideas together when you're with other people. I'm not even sure if I would have known about the francesinha if it weren't for Jeff and Kalina.

I will miss these two!

P.S. I love Port and I love Porto. Awesome city I would love to go back to.

Next:
Marseille
Nice
Turkey
Rhodes

Destination #24 - Lisbon, Portugal

We departed early Friday morning (I'm starting to lose track of what day of the week it is now) from Faro and took a 3 hour train up to Lisbon.

None of us had really done our research of the city so after checking into the hostel, we decided to just walk around the city and see what we could find. Right outside our hostel was a big plaza which I'm unsure of the name and significance of. We were immediately greeted by men trying to sell us drugs. "Hashish, Marijuana, Cocaine?" Unfortunately, this happened many times during our stay. We found out later that the drugs are decriminalized there so probably a good tourist trap for those that want that kind of holiday.

After that, we walked down Augusta street which seemed to be the main touristy street. Walking down it, you get this great view of Arco da Rua Augusta so we walked straight toward it to check it out.

After we passed the archway, everything opened up to this massive plaza, Praça Do Comercio, and it had a statue at the centre of it.

Hunger was setting in at this point, so we scrambled to find somewhere quick and cheap. Once scarving down some sandwiches, we climbed up a hill (Lisbon is very hilly) to see if we could take a look at Castelo de S. Jorge. To our disappointment, it was a tad pricey to get in and see the castle and the grounds and since we are all on a budget, we decided to pass. We climbed back down the hill to only climb up another hill to see Largo de Camões. Along the way, we also the Santa Justa Lift, which had scaffolding on it grrrrr. We then headed back to the hostel after to actually do some research and chill for a bit.

We found a free walking tour in the late afternoon which took us around a certain area in Lisbon called Chiado. Thanks to our posh English socially awkward tour guide, we found a cool area of bars that would eventually be the destination of the night.

After finishing up the tour, we headed over to Mercado de Ribeira (I discovered this while researching earlier) and our jaws dropped when we entered this place.

Food.
And lots of it.
Too many choices.

35 kiosks are open, all Portuguese cuisine, a tad pricey but it all looked so worth it. I found out later that each kiosk actually has a bigger version of restaurant somewhere in Portugal but all 35 of these companies got invited to be part of the market. A company cannot simply join. My choices were a peri-peri half chicken and some salt and oregano potato wedges. Jeff and Kalina got a pork belly dish and an octopus dish. We also shared some fried chicken wings. Yes, it was all amazing.

To end the night, we headed to the bar area as mentioned earlier. The area had a really cool vibe to it and we took advantage of the cheap drinks, ie. 1€ sangria.

Breakfast the next morning was perfect as this hostel does things a little differently! Instead of your usual choice of toast or cereal, the choices were scrambled eggs and toast or nutella crepes. And it was free. They make it to order and also do your dishes for you. This is something you rarely find in a hostel.

After getting ready, we headed out to an area after called Belém which was a 40 minute tram ride away. It probably could've taken half the time but this thing was super slow. Our first stop was the Belém Tower which is probably the main sight in Lisbon.

We then went and saw Padrão dos Descobrimentos and Jerónimos Monastery.

Afterwards, we stopped at this bakery called Pastéis de Belém as we needed to try this famous Portuguese pastry called Pastel de nata. It's basically a baked custard tart and you can put icing sugar and cinnamon on top. It was pretty awesome I must say.

After enjoying our pastries in the park, we headed back to the hostel before grabbing some dinner. Honestly, every restaurant we were passing was kind of expensive, at least for our budgets. It was not that much different in Faro either and I have a feeling things will be the same in Porto. Spain on the other hand, you could a find a cheap place to eat easily. The ones here in Lisbon, they're just all typical tourist traps with the people outside the doors trying to show you the menu or shoo you inside. We really had no idea where to go though and the receptionist at the hostel was not much help, so we settled down on a place that at the end of the day, was mediocre and overpriced. Our spirits brightened up after, especially Kalina's, when we got some gelato.

We had another night out on the town as it was Saturday, but this time, a guy who works at the hostel took a few of us to some bars.

Lisbon is a cool and vibe-y city but the tourist traps are huge here. Portugal has been easy so far though in terms of communicating. It seems to be that everyone speaks some English and they're very good at it. All signs usually have some English on it as well.

Next:
Porto
Marseille
Nice
Turkey
Rhodes