This morning when we woke up the cruise ship was docked in Turkey. We met our group in the Can Can Lounge before leaving the ship. Every time you disembark your card is scanned and again when you arrive back on board. Ross walked us to one of the main streets and have us a brief outline of what we might want to go and look at. On our right hand side was one of the main bazaars so we decided to go and have a look there. All I really wanted to buy was a postcard and a magnet. The Turkish people all try to get you to come into their shop. A leather shop we went into still really stands out to me. We walked in because one of the girls we were with wanted to have a look. While we walked around the shop one of the salesmen followed us the whole time. It made us all feel uncomfortable and we left pretty quickly. They all ask you where you're from to try to make conversation. When one guy asked me I told him we were from NZ. He continued on to try and tell me that he lived there for ten years. I knew he wouldn't have so tried to pull his bluff by asking what city. He said Chicago and walked away laughing. Some of them have a good sense of humour and were asking us how they can rip us off today or help us to spend our money. It's frustrating, but they all seemed pretty harmless and are constantly looking for a sale. A lot of things are cheap to buy in Turkey e.g. Leather, bags, shoes, jewellery. Throughout Greece and Turkey a blue, circular symbol with another circle inside is evident everywhere you go. It's on a lot of the souvineers. We also saw stones painted like this in the pavement. I asked someone in store what it symbolises and apparently it's a good luck symbol. I ended up buying each child in my class something with the good luck symbol. I bought each of the girls a bracelet and the boys one of the stones. It didn't cost me much as you could purchase three of the bracelets for €1 and two of the good luck stones for the same price. I'm going to try to find some little bags at Spotlight to put them in individually when I get home. We were told that apple tea was another thing that was really popular to buy in Turkey. We had a look at the different boxes of apple tea and the boxed sets that included tea cups. I didn't buy any though. A lot of the main streets are lined with colourful lanterns that are covered in intricate patterns. They were really beautiful. We saw the odd stray cat, but not nearly as many as there were in Mykonos. Paul found his McDonalds in Turkey and ordered McDonalds for breakfast. They only gave Turkish currency as change so Paul had to run a couple of shops down and buy another magnet to get some change. We were told not to accept the Turkish currency as change, as they use euros too and the Turkish currency is near to worthless. I tried a kiwifruit smoothie from McDonalds. It was okay, but was sickly sweet. We continued walking through the streets and then went for a walk along the waterfront. Before heading back to the ship we visited a small shop that sold hand made Turkish Delights. They were so yummy! We sampled different flavours. There were lots of fruity flavors as well as a few others. The Turkish Delights were so much softer than what we get in NZ. I would have liked to of taken some home, but I just can't fit everything in my bags. It was while we were at the Turkish Delight shop that I had the idea to go back to purchase the bracelets and good luck stones. Amy, Josh, Leish and Winnie were keen to go back to the ship so Paul and I quickly went back to the shop.

In the afternoon we stopped off at Patmos. There was no large port there so the ship stopped out a way from shore and we caught the tender boats into shore. They were a lot larger than I had expected and would have easily held twenty people. Ross had talked us into pay €12 each for a bus transfer to a beach. I thought there must have been something special about it for it to cost so much. Let's just say I was a bit disappointed when we arrived. I expected it to be a pebble beach, but it was so dusty and rocky. We had to walk down a driveway to the beach. The beach was really barren. Nothing grows in Greece. I took a photo without the water in it and I'm positive if I showed it to someone they wouldn't pick it was a beach. He also failed to tell us that there was only one transfer back to catch the tender boats and that wasn't for another two hours. The water was really salty. You could actually see the salt on people's bodies once they got out of the water. There was a bar and a cafe beside the beach. This seems to be quite common in Greece and throughout Europe in general. The Greeks all play with patter tennis bats and balls on the beach, swim or sunbathe. I didn't overally enjoy my afternoon here and was happy to leave when the bus arrived at 7pm. We picked up a postcard and a magnet from a small shop before getting back on the tender boats. We caught the boat with Amy and Josh so decided we would go upstairs to deck 9 together to the buffet for dinner. After dinner we went downstairs to have a cocktail with the rest of our group. There were free cocktails from 9.00-9.30pm. I ordered the Summer Breeze. It was a fruity cocktail and tasted really nice. After two cocktails I decided to call it a night and went downstairs to my cabin to go to sleep.