9 Eastern Mediterranean Essentials

It seems that when Americans get out of the country at all, we tend to gravitate towards a few more comfortable destinations: London, Paris, Western Europe, maybe Australia. So when we decided to take a vacation with some friends, we thought we’d try to get a little closer to the edge of the comfort zone, without going over.

While planning, we came to the conclusion that a cruise is a really convenient way to see a good number of countries and destinations on a trip; you can “check off a lot of boxes” without much trouble. You only need to unpack and repack once, you don’t have to bother with passports or visas at most destinations, you don’t need to worry about learning a bunch of languages (beyond at least the polite “hello” and “do you speak English?”), and you’ve got a number of ready-made excursions ripe for the choosing.

Of course, you’re never going to get the sort of in-depth exposure that you would if you stayed in a place for longer than 8 hours, but you’re also never stuck for a week in a place where there’s really only about 2 days worth of stuff to see. It’s a sampler plate, and if you really like something, you can always come back another time for a full meal.

We decided to book an Eastern Mediterranean voyage, which would take us to Croatia, Turkey, Greece, and back to Venice. Not as exotic as a Kenyan safari or a beach in Thailand, but a little more unusual than the standard holiday in Dublin or the Bahamas. We found at least 9 sights, tastes and experiences definitely worth writing home about.

1. Old City of Dubrovnik

Croatia is one of those countries you definitely need to look up on a map. Most people will remember it as a part of former Yugoslavia which broke away during the war there in the 90s; most Croatians, however, will point out that it was an independent state long before the communist regime assimilated it into part of a larger country.

Dubrovnik is a coastal city in the southwest of the horseshoe-shaped country, and it boasts an impressive, walled Old City which was the first stop on our tour. Winding stone streets–where cars wouldn’t fit even if they were allowed–flank cafes, restaurants, museums and churches. The city could be a movie set. There is no shortage of tourists, although they are certainly less thick than in some places, and the dollar seems to retain some value against the Croatian kuna.

The big draw here is the setting of an ancient, labyrinthine city which still feels relatively undiscovered, at least by Americans. Definitely worth a visit.

2. Temple of Apollo

Ruins are ruins because they were put up by somebody, then fell down. The Temple of Apollo, outside of Kusadasi, Turkey, however, was never entirely finished in the first place. So you get the unusual experience of seeing a place where the reconstruction can only go so far; the site, in its heyday, might not have looked all that different from the scattered pillars and masonry of today.

That’s really the secondary impression, however. The first impression is one of wonderment and awe as you stand amongst tall pillars and marble walls, a work of architecture that would be impressive even today, built with modern tools. Pictures cannot really do justice to the feeling of putting your hand on a fluted column, tracing its form up to the sky, of seeing where masons carved designs into the rock, and where they stopped working, never to begin again. It’s big and old and a little overwhelming, like a cathedral open to the sky, but built long, long before the birth of Christ, to a totally different sort of god.

3. Ancient Ephesus

If you can be overwhelmed by standing inside what is essentially a particularly old cathedral, there are no words to describe the feeling of walking down an ancient city street, flanked by the walls of what were once shops, pillars that once supported stonework to keep pedestrians out of the rain, and grooves cut into the slick marble like grip tape on a primitive wheelchair ramp.

Ephesus, also in Turkey, was built and abandoned four times. It was once a port city, and was abandoned only after the sea actually silted up to the point where it is now miles from the ocean. Imagine the nearest hill to where you are now, and imagine that you could row a boat right up to the base of it, and the effect is the same. Only a very small percentage of the ruin has been excavated, but you can still walk into the shells of old stores and apartments, see modern-looking clay pipes that made up the sewer lines, and even see an advertisement (for a brothel, natch) carved into the old marble.

Legend has it that the Virgin Mary spent the last days of her life in Ephesus; the “Ephesians” mentioned in the New Testament are the people who lived here.

4. Turkish Rugs

These rugs have a reputation for price that probably exceeds their reputation for quality, but the reverse should be true. Yes, they are pricey, but how much would you pay for something that can take a single person a month–two months, even years–to weave by hand?

We saw rugs woven of wool, of wool and cotton, and of silk. One was designed in such a fashion that it changed color depending on the viewing angle. All can be put on the floor, but the more expensive might be better hung on a wall. The weaving process is just as mind-numbingly arduous as it would be to paint the Mona Lisa by filling in tiny squares of graph paper.

And yes, we did buy a small rug. It’s made of undyed wool, and is in shades of white, black, gray and brown. As our Turkish friends put it, the white comes from white sheep, the black from old sheep, the brown from dirty sheep, and the gray from old sheep.

5. Cliffside Village of Oia

The trip up the cliffs of the Greek island of Santorini is accomplished either by taking a tour bus up an impossibly winding road, or by taking a donkey up a different–but still impossibly winding–road. Fortunately or unfortunately, our tour chose the former method.

Our first stop on the island was the village of Oia, pronounced “ee-yah,” which perches on pumice cliffs, overlooking the caldera where the volcano that formed the island blew itself apart. The walls are impossibly whitewashed; many roofs are painted a shade of blue. There are no cars in the older parts of the village, and the streets wind pleasantly here and there, occasionally opening up to spectacular views of the Aegean Sea.

6. Gyros in Greece

With all due respect to the Arlington, Massachusetts Greek Festival, their lamb sandwiches don’t hold a candle to the real thing.

We probably spent too much money on our lunch in Santorini, being as it was in the touristy section of the main town, and literally just above the cable car that provided an alternative to either foot or donkey travel back to the ship. But it was very, very good food. Greasy, yes, probably laden with fat and calories; the pita had more in common with fried chicken than with a healthy wrap as served back home.

But so worthwhile. There’s a reason why the gyro is to Greece as spaghetti is to Italy, and I’d take another gyro over a plate of pasta any day of the week.

7. Old Town Corfu

The island of Corfu has some nice beaches, a few historic sites, and a pleasant Old Town district which feels like a blend of Paris and Venice, sans canals. If there were one island to skip on this itinerary, this would be it, but if you happen to get there, the relatively wide streets and plentiful vendors make it a nice shopping destination.

We visited a leather goods shop where you can buy handmade leather coats or handbags at a relative bargain, even given the weakness of the dollar. In a lucky find, we happened down an alley where we met Tom, a woodworker who machines ladles, jewelry, bowls, canes, wine bottle stands and even miniature globes on a positively ancient lathe. All are made from olive wood, which grows everywhere on the island.

Corfu is a good place to buy olive oil and other olive products, which are made there, as well as a kumquat liquor, made from kumquat plants long ago imported from Australia.

8. Glassblowing in Murano

Murano is a small island in the Venetian Lagoon, on the same vaporetto (the “water bus”) as the “main” island of Venice. It’s known far and wide for its glassblowers, who make everything from simple trinkets to chandeliers to impossibly expansive (and expensive) sculptures out of nothing but molten sand.

We watched a glassblowing demonstration at one of the many glass shops that lined the canal; there was initially a fee, which as waived after we made a few small purchases. The glassblower began by making a small pitcher, first blowing out the bowl, then wrapping a strand of glass around the neck, then attaching a handle.

You can see plenty of videos of the process on Youtube, but several things stood out: first, glass is hot, much hotter than it looks. At one point, one of the glassblowers reached out to grab a gossamer strand of glass that looked like a bit of hot glue or a spiderweb blowing in the wind; a second later, there was a visible puff of smoke rising from his hand, followed by the smell of seared flesh. He plunged his burnt hand into one of many cooling buckets near the furnace. Second, that hot glass stays hot, hotter than you think, and longer than you think: once the pitcher was finished, the singed glassblower put a small rolled-up bit of newspaper into the neck. Within seconds, it was smoldering; it then burst into flames, and the pitcher shattered. Third, these guys are so good that they made a beautiful pitcher, and then destroyed it. To us, it seemed like destroying a work of art. To them, it was just so much broken glass.

9. Venice Streets and Canals

There are a few things you need to do in Venice: eat a meal somewhere by a plaza or a canal, see St. Mark’s Square, ride a gondola if your wallet can handle it.

But far and away my favorite activity is simply walking up and down the twisting streets, letting your feet take you where they will. We spent the better part of a day doing just this; on one occasion, it took us by an interesting modern art exhibit featuring a long “tunnel” made of strands of videotape and a “wave” made of great sheets of aluminum that looked as if they were breaking upon stone columns. On another, we ended up dead-ending at a canal, where gondolas streamed by as if they were cars on a train. On still others, we found hidden plazas, bridges, tiny shops, an Italian grocery store, unintentionally funny direction signs (one that pointed both left and right to get to the same destination), and, perhaps most pleasant of all, tiny snatches of pure silence in the hustle and bustle of Disneyland Italy.

We did break down and take a gondola ride; it was pleasant, a fun way to see a few places you couldn’t see on foot. But my favorite activity in the city of canals is still a directionless stroll.

What are your favorite lesser-known travel destinations? Comment below!