Greece & Turkey 2011
Given that we went to Greece and Turkey in June of 2011, this post is waaayyy overdue. But as they say… Better late than never, right?
Since our Euro trip in 2010 (see Europe 2010) was such a success, we decided to do round two in June 2011 by traveling to Greece and Turkey. Sunil & Jereena, two of our very close friends in New York, were originally scheduled to join us too, but had to cancel at the end unfortunately. Unlike our last trip which was pretty well organized, the theme of this trip was ‘The road less travelled’. With that theme in mind, we merely gathered information about some of the landmarks we wanted to hit and that was the extent of our planning.
In Greece, Athens was our base and we spent our first day checking out the Parthenon and adjacent ruins. The next day we traveled to Delphi to visit the famed temple of Apollo and the site of the Delphic oracle. For the next few days, we left the mainland and headed to the islands of Santorini and Mykonos before returning to tour the capital. We were a bit concerned about safety in and around Athens, but we got lucky and didn’t encounter any violent rioting during our time there. We heard that the riots in Athens turned violent during our stay at the islands. Suprisingly, the island folk… in typical island fashion… went about their lives as if the problem back at the mainland didn’t even exist! Santorini and Mykonos are both extremely beautiful islands, and if any of you are considering destinations in Europe, we give a big thumbs up to the Aegean archipelago. Neethu loved Mykonos so much that she wants to retire there someday! After roaming around the islands, we returned back to base to spend another full day in and around the capital to check out the Roman and Greek agoras and other ruins.
After our time in Greece was up, we hightailed it to Istanbul for the rest of our vacation. One thing that took us aback from the moment we landed was the cost of living/vacationing in Istanbul. Hotels are ridiculously expensive compared to other major cities. Istanbul is split by the Bosphorus river thereby making it part of both Europe and Asia. This unique geography has put Istanbul in the crossroads of trade, culture, dynasties, and mass movement of people since antiquity. Consequently, modern day Istanbul is quite eclectic and that only adds to its charm. We spent most of our time on the european side of town, which tends to have more of the historic landmarks in addition to well situated tea gardens where we spent the majority of our evenings during our stay there. As usual, before we knew it our vacation time was up, and it was time to bid adieu to Europe once again. Hope you guys enjoy the pictures!
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
  |
  |
  |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
awesome pictures Jeswin. i can’t believe we missed this awesome trip but thank you for enlightening with beautiful pictures 🙂
Thanks man… glad you like the pictures!
just wanted to let you know that these pictures look awesome, even after looking at it again, some of them look like pictures from post cards.
Thanks! I’m very flattered especially coming from you! South Africa pics should be up in the next week or two!
i am waiting, today is 3 weeks past the time you told you will post up south african pictures 🙂
ooh by the way, it is already 4 months into you telling me about the new pictures. Also this is 2013 which is 2 years after that last update of pictures you have online 🙂 how are you buddy