Much to our disappointment, we were not able to stop in Mykonos, which meant we got to Turkey early. We got there the night before so we went into town to check it out. It was lively but just full of second-hand, knock-off shops, beggars, and SMOKE. The smoke is terrible everywhere in Europe but seemed especially bad in Turkey. Don't Europeans know that even second-hand smoke kills? Geesh!
Chase and Caden didn't want to get off the boat to go to Turkey and instead opted to stay and go to kids camp. I told them to go straight to our room once camp was over at 10:00. Kelli and I headed back to the ship at about 10:30 and we saw Caden dancing in his window while we were waiting in line to get back on the boat. I swear - that boy is a little crazy!
This is supposedly the house of the Virgin Mary after Christ was crucified. It has become somewhat of a shrine to her is quite a popular tourist attraction. I haven't decided yet is it really is her house but it does make sense that she could have lived here because John the Beloved and Mary Magdelene were both from Ephesus and Mary was very close with both of them.
Ephesus - the only cool part of Turkey. An ancient city with so much history. Parts of the city date back 6000 years but most of the building pictured are from a Greek Rival in about 600 BC. I was amazed at the size and detail of the buildings and you could really see how the whole city was laid out.
Marc Antony and Cleopatra rode in procession down this grand walkway.
Entrance to a temple. The temple of Artimis - one of the 7 wonders of Antiquity was close by as well but only one lone pole remains from that great temple.
The library - just amazing. Originally built as a tomb and later converted into a library. One of the 3 great libraries of its time. One of the other was was Alexandria and then I forgot the third.
It was so hot, so they gave us cold towel/hats to cool our heads.
This is the outdoor theater where Paul famously preached to the Ephesians.
Geoff and one of his stray cat friends. Ephesus was full of stray cats.
We couldn't pass up a photo opportunity with a camel!
The beaches in Kusadasi were nasty but we were hard up for some play time in the ocean so we went anyway! The country has such potential to be beautiful but noone takes care of it. There was trash everywhere!
Bon Voyage!
Kusadasi received a BEEN THERE / DONE THAT from us, which means that we're glad we went because Ephesus was really remarkable to see but we certainly don't need to go back!
Athens was by far our least favorite stop. It was filthy - trash, graffitti, smoke everywhere. The public transportation was next to impossible to use. There were stray dogs everywhere, including in Acropolis - and they were not nice. 
It also didn't help the Athens had horrible fires that day. There was even ash falling on us later on in the day when we went to Glyfada.
Athens receives a DON"T RECOMMEND from us. The city was disgusting and the Acropolis fell way short of our expectations.
