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18 FOUR SEASONS BREEZE | DECEMBER 2024 By Kirk Freyermuth Have you dreamed for years of visiting somewhere in the world? Suppose there were two places that appealed to you and you had the chance to visit both in one trip. Well, this was my opportunity. For years, I've read about the walled town of Dubrovnik and the ruins of Ephesus. Dubrovnik is a town that started as the Roman village of Ragusa. It's located in Croatia very near to Bosnia- Herzegovina. Both countries were part of Yugoslavia, a Serbian- dominated country. Ephesus was famous in its day for the nearby Temple of Artemis (completed around 550 BC), which has been designated one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. A f light from LAX to Istanbul, the largest city in Turkiye, takes over 14 hours — a day of travel coming and going. I decided that I'd spend more time in Europe than just my two cities of interest. Fortunately, a good friend from Canada was also interested in traveling to Europe. Together, we agreed to take a cruise from Istanbul and Venice, Italy on Norwegian Cruise Lines ocean liner Gem. He'd never been to Italy so we planned to explore cities in that country. To round out my trip, I planned to spend time in London. Traveling to Europe is not for the fainthearted. Many airlines f ly from LAX. There are even non-stop f lights to Istanbul. I found what I thought was a good deal f lying from LAX to Heathrow, London, on United and returning on United's partner, Air Canada. I found a good deal on the website but could not complete the purchase. A chat with a United agent confirmed that the deal offered was not valid. I decided to upgrade from basic economy to economy to get free bags going and coming but then United said that because my return f light was on a partner airline, I'd still have to pay for bags. Last time f lying United! I spent four days in London, doing some of the usual tourist things: a relaxing time in Hyde Park and an all-day visit to the Tower of London. The Tower of London was built in the 11th century by William the Conquerer and was expanded over centuries to be England's largest and strongest 'concentric' castle (with one ring of defenses inside another). London has a large and diversified food scene. So, my traveling companion and I were able to dine on Thai, Indian, and British food, including the infamous English breakfast — eggs, bacon, toast, tomatoes, baked beans, sausages, and black pudding. The next part of my journey was five days in Istanbul, Turkiye. Istanbul is the largest city in Turkiye, straddling the Bosporus Strait, the boundary between Europe and Asia. It is considered the country's economic, cultural, and historic capital. The city has a population of over 15 million residents, comprising 19 percent of the population of the country, and is the most populous city in Europe. I met my second traveling partner at the airport and we spent the rest of our trip together. We found a nice boutique hotel in the Sultanahmet region, which was near the major tourist sites on the European portion of the city. We were able to visit the major mosques in the city, including the Blue Mosque and the big one, the Hagia Sophia. We also spent most of the day on a Bosphorus Straits cruise. The contrast beside the European side and the Asian side was remarkable — so much more development on the west side. The 10-day cruise to towns in Turkiye, Greece, and Croatia departed from Istanbul. The first disappointment came on the second day. The ship docked in Kusadasi, a port on the Icarian Sea. Ephesus is about a half hour inland and my companion persuaded me to take a taxi rather than an organized tour. We got within a short distance only to be refused the final mile due to a bicycle race. Our next two stops were the Greek Islands of Santorini and Mykonos. Both of these islands are popular tourist sites and were totally overrun with tourists. The capital of Santorini is Fira and you need to either walk up a steep hill or, like we did, take a ride on the funicular. It was easy to get up the cliff but there was a three hour [!] wait to get back down. Last time for me to visit the Greek Islands. The next Greek port we visited was Piraeus, the gateway to Athens. Of course, we had to visit the Acropolis, the center of early Greek democracy. Just as in the islands, the place was overrun with tourists. You have to walk up a slope to get from the bus drop-off site to the temple. It took an hour to get there and there was an hour wait for the bus to get back to the ship. Fortunately, the last two stops in Greece were much less crowded. Katakolon is the gateway to Olympia. Corfu is a beautiful island very near to the border of Albania. This was my favorite stop on A MONTH ABROAD Continued on the following page

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