May 5 - Santorini
We awoke to a beautiful morning. With the cool breeze blowing through the window and the sunshine creeping in, I felt like I was in paradise. Ryan and I were both totally in love with Santorini from the very beginning of our stay there.

We kicked off the day with breakfast on Espera's fabulous pool deck. The breakfast buffet included some delicious Greek yogurt and honey from Crete. Other than that, we weren't that impressed with the breakfast selection. It was OK, but we would have much better breakfasts later in the trip. Aside from the yogurt and honey, the buffet included hard-boiled eggs, cereal, dried fruits, a couple varieties of croissants, coffee, and fresh-squeezed juices. (Gotta say, the juice was also pretty wonderful.) Even though we thought the breakfast was just OK, the view simply could not be beat. Loved it.

We were set to do the hike between Oia and Fira, and Yvonne (the morning receptionist/manager) told us it's a little easier to start in Fira and walk back to Oia. Yvonne also provided us with a bus schedule, so we headed toward the Oia bus stop and caught a ride to Fira, which cost €1,20 each.

Someone here on Fodor's posted a great website about hiking in the Greek islands (http://www.cycladen.be/SantoriniEng.htm ), from which I printed out a detailed description of the hike. This site has details about other Santorini hikes, as well as hikes on other islands. So if you are planning on hiking, check it out.

Arriving in Fira, we were met with crowds and crowds of people, who presumably had come off one of the three huge cruise ships docked in the harbor. We walked around Fira a bit, but we were pretty anxious to escape all the crowds. We grabbed a quick souvlaki at some small place in town and then began the hike to Oia! The website I posted above said the hike would take 2 1/2 hours - we must have stopped for a LOT of pictures, because it took us more like 3 1/2. It was a hot and sunny day, and the hike was just stunning. The path is sometimes paved, sometimes gravel, sometimes crumbly lava rock. It takes you by several charming, small, blue and white churches - one church in particular had an interesting makeshift memorial in front of it. Someone had taken a gas pump, laid it on its side, wrapped it in white tulle (like wedding veil material), and anchored some wildflowers on top of it with rocks. We were very curious about the significance of the gas pump, but I guess we'll never know.

I am SO glad we did this hike. I loved every second of it, and I have to admit that parts of it were not easy. The first two-thirds of the hike aren't bad at all, but the last third (excepting the part just outside Oia) has you climbing uphill on black lava rock. We were tired and sunburned by the time we got back to Oia!

We were also hungry (nothing unusual there), so we stopped in a few small bakeries and got some baklava and one of those sesame breadsticks. We spent the rest of the afternoon "recovering" from our hike by lounging at the pool and sipping on some drinks from the poolside bar. Ah, bliss...

After a couple of hours at the pool, Ryan decided to head into town to replenish our cash supply and buy a few snacks. Unfortunately, he couldn't get any cash - he tried three different ATMs in town, and none of them worked. This had us a little worried, because we had very little cash left - but luckily, they were working again the next morning. Despite not being able to get cash, Ryan did come back with a big hunk of feta cheese, some Greek olives, and a bag of potato chips. (He had intended to buy pita or fresh bread, but all of the bakeries were sold out this late in the day. But I have to admit, salty chips are pretty tasty with feta and olives!) We got some plates and glasses from our kitchen, laid out our snacks, poured some wine (I forgot to mention we got a complimentary bottle of local wine from Esperas) and enjoyed our food and drink on our patio. I'll say it again: ah, bliss...

As sunset approached, we took the rest of our wine to the pool deck and chatted with some other couples staying at the hotel. It was funny to look up at the ruins of the Venetian castle above us and see hordes of people waiting for the sunset. I'd like to think they were all totally envious of our pool deck. :) Unfortunately, none of us actually saw the sun set that night. The sun slipped behind a layer of clouds along the horizon about 10 minutes before sunset and never reappeared.

Santorini has a ton of tempting restaurants to choose from, and tonight we decided on Candouni, thanks to beanweb24's review. This was one of our favorite meals of the whole trip! Candouni is located on an alley sort of adjacent to Oia's main square. We were surprised that it was virtually empty - the whole time we were there, only two other tables were taken. As soon as we walked in, the owner greeted us with a huge smile, and it was such a pleasure to talk with him throughout our meal. (Beanweb24, I don't know if you are reading this, but I have a funny story for you - I had printed out your restaurant reviews, and I actually had my copy in my hand as we walked into Candouni. The owner mentioned that he had lived in Canada, and I said, "I know - I read that on the Internet. See?" I showed him your report, and we had a laugh.) :)

For dinner tonight, we had a bottle of red Sigalas wine, Cretan dakos (a chunk of bread covered with feta cheese, olives, olive oil, and vegetables), Santorini salad (with THE BEST tomatoes I've ever had), baked lamb for me, grilled fish of the day (dorado) for Ryan, walnut cake with ice cream for me, and kataifia for Ryan. The total was €108. Everything was delicious, and the owner kept returning to our table to chat. By the end of the night, he was showing us pictures of his sons and of himself and his wife with celebrities who have visited his restaurant (Angelina Jolie and Matt Damon). And he also proudly told us how a scene from the movie "Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants" was filmed in the restaurant and showed us photos from the film shoot. He was so much fun! I wish I knew his name - I can't believe I didn't ask it!

Tomorrow: another beautiful day in Santorini

Meredith,
I stayed in the same room at Esperas in 2002 and it is amazing, I kept thinking how I would be happy to stay there for the rest of my life. I'll probably end up back in Santorini this summer but I don't think I'll stay at Esperas it's gotten too expensive. Looking forward to the rest of your report. T

Meredith,

We're off to Athens next week. We have one day in the city. We have to be back at the boat by 5. I want to make sure we do the Acropolis. We are planning to be up and out early.Should we climb the hill to the Acropolis first and then do the Odeon and Theater of Dionyssos ? Is that doable? Would it help with the crowds?

I understand it opens at 8:30 ...I also understand it closes sometime during the day. I have not been able to find out that info online.
Thanks

Trish, Esperas was definitely a splurge for us, and it was by far the most expensive hotel we stayed in (well, with the possible exception of the Athens Hilton, but that was a freebie for us). I have to say, the splurge was worth it!

Teach905, I think it would be a good idea for you to start your day atop the Acropolis - obviously, that is the part that gets the biggest crowds! From there, you would make your way back down the hill by stopping first at the Odeon of Herodes Atticus and then the Theater of Dyionyssos. After that, it you have time, you should walk back around the base of the Acropolis to the Ancient Agora. The Agora is very large and spread out, so I would think crowds would not be a problem there. Have fun on your trip!

Oh, Teach905, one more thing - according to my guidebook (Fodor's), the Acropolis is open from 8 a.m. to sunset from April to October, and from 8 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. November through March. Can anyone else verify that?

May 6 - Santorini
We awoke to another perfect day. Ryan got up about a half hour before me to go sit on the balcony and stare out at the sea, while I took my time relishing the perfect cocoon of our bed. Once I managed to pull myself out of bed, we had breakfast on the pool patio again.

We had originally thought we would do a half-day boat trip to the crater of the volcano today, but since it was our last full day on Santorini, we decided to skip anything that involved a reservation or a firm start time, and instead just go with the flow. We loved lounging by the pool the day before and knew we wanted to do more of that today. This is so unlike us - we are not the type to spend our vacation lounging in a chair, but something about that view from the pool deck just hypnotized us!

After breakfast, we decided to go check out Ammoudi Harbor, below Oia. From Esperas, there's a shortcut - you walk all the way to the bottom of the hotel, passing by several rooms and private patios, and then you leave the hotel property and take a scrubby little path that winds its way down to the big staircase to Ammoudi. We walked along the harbor and watched many fishermen bringing in the morning's catch. We also followed the path that heads south along the edge of the island. The path doesn't go very far, but it offers wonderful views looking up to Oia and the rest of Santorini.

We purposely spent a couple of hours wandering around Ammoudi Harbor because we knew we wanted to have lunch there. We had heard good things about all the restaurants there (I think there are three total?), and they all were pretty similar in menu and price.

We decided on Sunset Taverna. Our meal was very leisurely - we had a beer for Ryan, a glass of local white wine for me, eggplant salad (I was expecting a more traditional salad, but it was actually a delicious pureed eggplant spread), grilled calamari for me, and grilled fish for Ryan. (We can't remember what kind of fish he had - something that starts with "b".) The total was €41. We liked our meal, but I wouldn't say we loved it. The eggplant was fabulous, and both of our entrees were really good - but I guess we didn't absolutely love them like we thought we would. My calamari wasn't expensive, but Ryan's fish was. I can't recall the exact price, but I think the fish made up about half of the bill. This surprised us - since there is no middle man and all that, we thought it would be a better deal. All of the fish is priced by weight, and Ryan's serving was pretty small. At least it was amazingly fresh - you can be sure that all of the fish at the restaurants in Ammoudi Harbor came out of the water only hours earlier.

Feeling very full and just a little bit tipsy, we trudged back up the hill to Oia. We had not yet really explored the town, so we walked all through Oia and checked out the ruins of the Venetian castle. We also needed something sweet, so we stopped in a few different bakeries to get a variety of Greek goodies for later in the day. There was one bakery in particular on the back side of Oia, sort of near the bus station, where we had an odd experience. Unfortunately, I didn't record the name of this bakery, but the man behind the counter was so unfriendly. He just stared at us with a frown on his face while we checked out the selection. We ordered two pieces of baklava, and this guy seemed almost angry that he had actually had to serve us. An older woman - probably his mother - was standing next to him with her arms crossed, also frowning the whole time. After we paid, we high-tailed outta there - we were very uncomfortable, and this is the only time that we actually felt unwelcome.

By now, we had done enough exploring, and the pool deck was calling our name. We spent a few hours just relaxing, soaking up the sun and the view, and eating our yummy sweets. It was so nice! As sunset approached, we pulled out the rest of our olives and feta from the night before, as well as a bottle of white wine we had bought while strolling through Oia. We hung out on the pool deck with the other hotel guests, and unfortunately we were deprived of a proper sunset once again. Just like the night before, the sun slipped behind a cloud cover shortly before it got to the horizon. So, we never did see a real Oia sunset!

Tonight for dinner, we went to a little taverna called Roca that was recommended by Amy from the hotel. It was pretty good, but not great. We had a Mediterranean salad (with lentils, feta, tomato, onions) and grilled Hamouli cheese for appetizers - both were very tasty. We were both a little disappointed in our entrees, mostly because neither were what we thought they would be. Ryan got Greek meatballs - he thought they'd be in some sort of sauce, but they were served dry. They were OK, but not the most memorable thing we ate. I ordered the special - the waiter said it was a traditional Greek dish of minced meat with spices and with a hard-boiled egg in the middle. I was expecting some sort of exotic dish, but it was just meatloaf! My bad for misinterpreting the waiter's description - he described it completely accurately, but I just did not envision meatloaf. So, as meatloaf goes, it was decent, but it just wasn't what I was in the mood for. With a liter of house white wine, our total was about €40.

Tomorrow: we leave Santorini (boo hoo!) and travel to Istanbul!

bookmarking

May 7 - Santorini to Istanbul
Today was pretty much a travel day, so we didn't do anything too exciting. We spent a leisurely morning at the hotel - we had to leave for the airport by about 11:30, so there wasn't time to do much else but have a slow breakfast and pack up our stuff. Amy from Esperas arranged a taxi to pick us up, and a porter from the hotel carried both of our bags all the way up to the parking lot to meet our cab. Huge kudos to the porters at the hotel - I was panting and sweating just from carrying myself up those stairs. This guy did it with a fully packed suitcase balanced on each shoulder!

The cab ride cost €25, and our driver picked up and dropped off another passenger (a local woman) along the way. The Santorini airport is tiny - if you want food, be sure to buy it at the little cafe outside security. On the other side of security, I think there is a stand where you can buy potato chips and stuff like that. But we wanted a sandwich and were very glad we bought one for ourselves before going through security.

Oh, I have a good tip for the Santorini airport: instead of sitting in the little waiting area with everyone else, go upstairs to the smokers' lounge, where there is a huge covered patio that looks right out onto the runway and the sea. We must have been some of the last people to check in for our flight, because by the time we got there, the downstairs waiting area was full - I don't think there was a single empty seat. We are not smokers, but we thought we'd check out the smokers' lounge upstairs just to see if we could find a place to sit. It was totally empty, so we had that whole upstairs patio to ourselves. We enjoyed our sandwich, got lots of fresh air, and had a perfect view of the runway. We watched as a military plane took off, landed, and then took off again. And we also got to watch our plane land.

Our flight to Athens was quick, and it was so cool seeing Santorini and other islands from above. Once we landed in Athens, we had a four-hour layover before our flight to Istanbul. We were happy to find a great World Press photography exhibit on the bottom floor. The exhibit displayed some amazing photos from the last year or so, some very violent and disturbing, others full of beauty. I believe the exhibit was only running through late May, so I'm sure it's gone by now - but if you have time to kill in the Athens airport, check out the bottom floor. Maybe they'll have something else cool on display.

I think we covered just about every inch of the Athens airport during our layover - it's not a very large place. We ate at Food Village again, this time trying the yummy salad bar for €8.50 each.

Our flight to Istanbul on Olympic was uneventful. I can't remember how long the flight was - under two hours, I think. I was pretty impressed that we were served a meal. Unfortunately, it was not very good - we got a chicken salad sandwich, and we laughed as we glanced around at the people around us and saw almost everyone scraping off the chicken salad and just eating the bread! Still, even though the food wasn't great, I was pleasantly surprised to get anything at all. Here in the states, you can barely get a bag of peanuts anymore on flights much longer than two hours. Oh, we also got a piece of kataifia with our meal - nice!!

Landing in Istanbul, I was immediately in awe. I had wanted to come to Turkey for so long, and we were finally here!! Coming off the plane, I have to admit I was at first a little bit intimidated - the first thing we saw was groups of women dressed very traditionally, completely covered up with only their eyes showing. I think there must have been a flight departing at a nearby gate to a more traditional Muslim nation, because that is not how the vast majority of women in Istanbul dress. I felt self-conscious as we made our way out of the terminal, passing group after group of women all covered up. It wasn't until we reached the visa line that I saw other women dressed less conservatively, and then I felt much more comfortable with my own cropped pants and jean jacket.

The visa line was a snap. We were the first in line from our plane, and we were in and out in about two seconds. The cost is $20 or €15. We happened to have a bunch of euros left over from Greece, so we paid in euros. The Istanbul airport is very clean and modern - it's far nicer than several airports we've been to in western Europe.

Our hotel provided us with complimentary pick-up service from the airport, so once we left the baggage claim area, we began to look for a sign with my name on it. Luckily, I spotted our driver immediately - I don't even know how I saw him, because there was a huge crowd of people waiting just outside baggage claim, waving signs with customers' names in the air. Our driver was so pleasant, and he chatted with us about basic Turkish words as we made our way to our hotel - the Dersaadet in Sultanahmet.

The Dersaadet is a great little hotel, with an incredibly helpful staff and charming decor. We booked a double sea view room for €105. (We actually paid in Turkish lira, even though the price quoted was in euros. We found this to be true all over Turkey - for hotels, rental cars, and our balloon ride in Cappadocia, they'd quote a price in euros but charge in liras. Why do they do this? We couldn't help but wonder if we were getting an inflated exchange rate every time.)

Anyway, back to the hotel - my only disappointment was that we had a room with two twin beds instead of a queen bed. It never crossed my mind that I should request a queen, so we were pretty disappointed with twin beds. The hotel could not switch us to another room, so instead they pushed the beds together. This wasn't ideal, either, because the nightstand between the beds could not be moved, so the beds had to be pulled away from the wall in order to put the two together. And this meant the beds were now in the middle of the room, taking up most of our space to move around. We were there four nights and left it that way the whole time - our lack of space was a bummer, but otherwise, the room was pretty nice, with a good view of the Sea of Marmara. So, note to self: next time, remember to request one bed!

After dropping off our bags, we headed upstairs to the Dersaadet's rooftop bar, which we really enjoyed. We had a couple of beers and marvelled over the excellent view of the Blue Mosque, all lit up at night. While sipping on our Efes beers, we pulled out our guidebooks to figure out where to go for some dinner. By now, it was about 9:30, and we were looking for a quick bite to eat, as we were worn out from our day of travel. We decided to just head towards the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia and just pick a place to eat at along the way.

I was totally in awe of my first look at the Blue Mosque (from the front, anyway) and the Hagia Sophia, but hunger pushed us on up Divanyolu Caddesi, where there seemed to be more activity and more restaurants. We ended up allowing ourselves to be suckered in by one of those aggressive guys standing outside his restaurant imploring people to come in. We were too hungry and too unfamiliar with our surroundings to resist, and no surprise this was our worst meal in Istanbul. This place is called Cara, and we realized too late that it's adjacent to a Mexican place called El Torito - the two are basically the same restaurant. Our waiter (the guy who beckoned us in) was totally cheesy - he kept cracking one-liners to us the whole time we were there, and although he was a little funny, there's no doubt he does this same schtick with every customer. There was only one other couple in the restaurant, and they looked as trapped by this guy as we felt. We didn't order much - we just split a lamb kebab dish, and it was served with a side of Mexican rice. The lamb wasn't horrible, but the whole pushy experience of this restaurant is not something I would recommend. At the end of the meal, our waiter told us slyly that he had waived the cover charge especially for us (*rolling my eyes*), and that he hoped we would make it up to him in our tip. With a bottle of water, our bill was 21 lira (YTL).

Tomorrow: our first full day in Istanbul!

Thanks Meredith! We leave in a week for London and then on to in Istanbul in 2 1/2 weeks after that. We'll be spending a few hours in the airport so I'm glad to hear that it's nice!!

Can't wait to hear more--

Meredith -

Great report! I'm bookmarking for our trip to Greece in September. We're staying at Esperas as well. I was in Turkey in the spring of this year and reading your report is rekindling some wonderful memories!

I'm interested on your thoughts regarding independent travel in Turkey. I ended up on a tour put together for travel agents - my mom and I were "guests". First tour I've ever been on and I didn't care much for it however, it afforded me with an opportunity to see ALOT of Turkey within a short period of time.

May 8 - Istanbul
We started off the day with breakfast in the Dersaadet's rooftop cafe. Breakfast included a choice of breads, a variety of jams, hard-boiled eggs, olives, and some other stuff that truthfully I can't remember right now. Dersaadet's breakfast was OK - still not the best of the trip, but certainly tolerable.

We started off our day of touring with a stop in the Hippodrome. I had my Frommer's Turkey book with me, and so we sat on a bench as I read aloud to Ryan all about the history of the Hippodrome.

Oh, before I continue on, let me say something about the Frommer's book. We were extremely disappointed in it and would not recommend it. The price range of all the restaurants we visited from the book were very wrong. We had the most recent edition, published in 2006 - so I guess the information was probably compiled in 2005. I realize they can't guarantee the prices won't change, but in our experience, the prices were always at least double (if not more) than what the book said. For example, for one particular restaurant, the book said main dishes were from 4YTL to 11YTL - in reality, the cheapest main dish on the entire menu was 15YTL. I mean, c'mon - that's really really way off. Can the prices really have increased that much? Also, the author of this book sometimes contradicted herself - in one paragraph, she says Sariyer is the last stop on the public Bosphorus ferry, and two paragraphs later, she says it's Anadolu Kavagi. (It is, in fact, Anadolu Kavagi.) And whoever edited the maps should have their eyes checked - many of the accent marks and other unique Turkish letters defaulted to computer characters. So the map actually says things like "Nev@=sir" instead of Nevşehir - totally careless. I have a background in editing, and this drives me nuts!!

OK, that's way more ranting than anyone cares to hear, so back to the fun stuff! I wasn't really sure what the Hippodrome was before we visited it - originally, it was a large track for royal chariot races and things like that. Nothing remains of the actual structure, but the area is now a big, pretty public square, with some amazing statues/monuments, including a very cool obelisk that was originally three times the size of what remains. From the Hippodrome, we crossed the street to go inside the Blue Mosque!

I had brought a scarf with me from home, so I wrapped this around my head to be respectful, and also because it's required for women to cover their heads. You also need to take off your shoes to enter - we both made sure we were wearing socks that day. Before entering, a couple of guys check to make sure all shoes are removed and all heads are properly covered. The one guy made a little bit of a fuss about making sure my scarf completely covered my neck, but I think he was just doing it as a formality. He thought I was from Spain, so I was pleased. :) (Later on, people also thought we were French and Italian - I take it as a complement!)

Once inside the mosque, I was annoyed to see almost every woman remove their scarves as soon as they were out of sight of the scarf-checkers. But I was quickly distracted by the stunning tile work throughout the entire mosque - WOW. It is so beautiful and massive in there! We spent a few minutes gawking, and then made our way out the door and towards the Hagia Sophia, another awe-inspiring building. Don't miss out on going up to the second floor, where you can get a close-up view of the gorgeous Byzantine mosaics.

Now it's lunchtime, so we wandered down through the Sultanahmet neighborhood. We had a couple specific restaurants in mind from our guidebooks, but we ended up choosing a small, random little corner cafe, which turned out to be excellent. This place is called Hayat Cafe - it has maybe six tables (full of locals) and a tiny little kitchen. I don't have the street name, but it was just down the street from the Blue Mosque, perhaps on Mimar Mehmet Aga Caddesi. If you happen to pass by it, I would highly recommend this little place. We had lentil soup for me, white bean stew for Ryan, an order of dolmas for the both of us, and also an order of sliced beef served with rice and french fries for the both of us. With a bottle of water, the total was 21.50YTL. It was all home-cooked and delicious!

Satisfied with a great lunch, we then visited the Bascilica Cistern and had another "WOW" moment. This dark, dank place was so cool - don't miss it! Make sure to walk all the way to the back to see the Medusa heads. This is a quick stop - we were in and out in about 15 minutes.

Now we were ready to hit up the Grand Bazaar, and we are clearly idiots because we could NOT find it for the longest time! We are so dumb. We walked down Divan Yolu Caddesi and totally missed all of the signs. We walked that way the next day and realized we had missed at least two obvious signs - sheesh! We eventually realized that we must have missed something, so we turned off Divan Yolu near the Istanbul University and wandered around looking for the bazaar. We were so frustrated - you know when you just know without a doubt that you MUST be within a block of your destination but you just can't find us? That was us. We tried to ask several people, but it took several times before we found someone who understood us. Oh, you know one thing I love about the Turkish people? Whenever you ask someone for directions, at least three passers-by will jump into the conversation and try to help, so that you have a group of people debating the best way to go. :)

So, finally, we found a back entrance to the Grand Bazaar. We wandered around a bit, but honestly we were so annoyed (with ourselves) at this point that we didn't have any patience left for the aggressive shopkeepers. Today, I really didn't enjoy the Grand Bazaar. (We ended up going back the next day for a better experience.) Walking through the bazaar was like a game - you want to check out the merchandise, but you don't want to be caught doing it, so you challenge yourself to observe as much as possible out of the corner of your eye. We never did buy anything from the bazaar - we are not big shoppers, and even though I would have liked a souvenir, the thought of dealing with the hard sell was too much of a turn-off for me.

We did take a little break at the Fez Cafe within the Grand Bazaar. We had tea and apple pie, for 13YTL. From there, we left the bazaar and made our way through some VERY crowded shopping streets up to the Spice Market. Now this, I loved! We didn't buy anything here either, and the shopkeepers are just as aggressive, but I was mesmerized by the huge piles of colorful spices. No wonder Turkish food is so tasty. The shopkeepers are eager to give out samples - we tried a bit of Turkish delight, but we really didn't care for it. It's a sweet, gummy kind of candy, and I'm more of a fine Belgian chocolate kind of girl.

From the Spice Market, we hopped on the tram back towards our hotel and collapsed into bed for a nap.

I gotta run right now, but I'll tell you about this day's dinner later. We had a meal that should have been awesome, and we learned a lesson the hard way. Details later!

May 8 continued
So for dinner tonight, we decided on a place recommended by Frommer's called Doga Balik, located in the Cihangir area atop the Zurich Hotel. Even though I'm mad at Frommer's for misleading us on prices, we did like the restaurants that it recommended. (Oh, another thing I don't like about Frommer's - they review several restaurants that they do not recommend. Why bother writing several paragraphs about restaurants I should not go to? Seems like a waste of space.)

So, Doga Balik is primarily known for its mezes selection, and boy do they have a great selection! The problem is that we didn't understand how we were supposed to order (totally our own fault - and Frommer's for not explaining), and we ended up getting screwed. When you walk in, all of the mezes are on display in an open case. Other people were helping themselves to the wonderful selection, which included lots of stuff with seafood and lots of stuff with leafy greens. We ordered a bottle of wine, headed to the food, and each took a small helping of one or two mezes. We thought we'd take our time and have a leisurely dinner. I tried one of the greens dishes and a little bit of seafood - it was all fabulous.

Somewhere after that first helping, we realized we had messed up. What we were supposed to do (I think) was fill up our plate for a flat price of 20YTL. But it was too late - and we were charged 40YTL total for having a bite of one or two mezes. Our waiter had explained the process to us, but clearly we misunderstood. So now, we were still starving, but we didn't want to drop another 20YTL each on more mezes - so we asked the waiter for an order of fried calamari. It was quite good, but the serving was small and cost 16YTL (which seemed very high for what we got). Long story short, we paid 108YTL for a couple of small bites of delicious mezes, a small order of calamari, and a bottle of wine. We feel we got totally screwed - and it was completely our own fault. :(

Leaving the restaurant, we strolled over to Taksim Square, which was jumping with people. We were not satisfied from our small meal, so we got a couple desserts from a place right near the square. Then, we hailed a cab and headed back home.

Tomorrow: Bosphorus cruise!

Wow - what a coincidence. We are going to Greece for our honeymoon next month and also staying at the Hilton Athens (because of points) and Esperas. Glad to hear that you enjoyed!!!

One more thing about the restaurant Doga Balik, for anyone who might plan on going there - for all the yummy mezes on display, I think you can also order through the waiter (i.e. you don't have to do the 20YTL deal). We saw other people do this, and the waiter brings a normal-sized serving of the mezes to the table. I can't say how much this costs, as we never saw a menu, but it would probably be a better option for anyone wanting to try just one or two mezes. We saw lots of people doing this and then ordering entrees (mostly seafood entrees).

Jdgator, congratulations on your wedding! I'm sure you will have a fabulous Greek honeymoon!

I am super enjoying your account in Turkey. More please.

Definitely more please!

Loving your report. This sounds like a trip I would love, LOVE, to do.

Can't wait to read more.

Let me join the chorus of travelers who love your report. I'm traveling June 14 to Athens arriving at 9:10am Friday morning, so I think I'll be at the Grand Bretagne by 11am, jet-lagged. What would you do starting about noon that day? I'll have essentially two days in the Athesn area before leaving for Mykonos early Sunday. Should we hold off doing the Acropolis until the following morning, when we have the whole day Saturday to tour Athens? Or cram Athens into a short day, and go to Mount Sounion all day Saturday.

Wow, thanks, everyone - I was beginning to wonder if anyone was still reading!

Danalou, if I were you, I'd hold off on the Acropolis until the next morning. If you go right away, not only will you be tired from just having arrived, but you'll also be there at peak tourist time. Speaking from personal experience, I prefer to stroll around and get my bearings on that first day rather than hit the streets running.

However, I know nothing about Mount Sounion - if that's something you really want to see, then I think you could see the highlights of Athens that first day (although I think it would be a tiring day). Maybe you could start with the Temple of Olympian Zeus and then work your way back towards the Acropolis and Agora. If you plan on getting to the Acropolis an hour or two before it closes, I bet most of the crowds would be gone by then.

Whatever you choose, have fun!

I'm looking forward to your post on the Bosphorus Cruise. We're doing that without a guide. Did you go to Anadolu Kavagi and if so, was it worth it?

FYI - My niece lives in Cappadoccia (spelling?) She has renovated a house in a mountain there. If anyone needs info, let me know and I'll forward the questions to her.

Mo