Greece/Turkey

My family stayed right in the downtown area of the city on the river in Uppsala.  They had a nice balcony so they enjoyed staying out on that.  The first few days they were here the weather was pretty ugly with thunderstorms and wind but we still toured the city and I saw a lot of things I hadn't seen before being a tourist in the city.  My sister came out with my friends for my 21st birthday at Stockholms nation.  It was a great night!

Stockholms nation for my 21st birthday

Family in Uppsala

Parents on the balcony of the Hornan

 My family and I headed down to Stockholm to tour Stockholm.  It is probably the most scenic city I have been to in Europe.  There are dozens of islands in the city that are all connected by about 50 bridges.  The city is very well maintained and extremely clean also.  The one problem is that it is extremely expensive for just about everything.  1 ride on the metro is 5 dollars compared to $1.50 in Barcelona.

Gamla Stan, Stockholm

We went to the Vasa Museum and saw the huge ship that sank on its first voyage about 300 years ago.  A researcher was determined to find it about 50 years ago and found it by basically fishing for the mast in the Stockholm harbor.  They dug the boat up and floated it into the museum and then drained all of the water out of the building.  The woodwork was amazing on the ship and it looked as though it could still be used today.

View from the old city hall

Old town or Gamla Stan on the right side

Greece Trip
We head down to Stockholm Skavstas airport in Nykoping which is in middle of no where so we head down the night before since we had an early flight.  We took Ryanair which is the cheap airline.  We got to Rhodes, Greece at about noon and it was already very warm.  The taxi ride from the airport to the resort area of the island looked more like a third world country than Greece.  Greece is really in rough shape.  I have met a couple good friends from Athens and they have all said that Athens is in rough shape and the areas where the hostels are in are pretty dangerous so unfortunately I didn't ever make it there.  We stayed in an apartment that overlooked the harbor.

In the Afternoon we headed down to the main beach in Rodos City which was packed with people.  It was a little windy so getting into the water was kind of tough but it had to be done.  That night we walked around the Old Town of the city and got gelato at one of the many gelato stands.  On the island there are thousands of stray cats which was pretty cool to see.  They acted more like dogs though as they were always bugging us for food just like Raven does.

one of many cats

The second day we did an all day tour on a boat that went to 5 different beaches or coves along the coast.  The tourboat was a french boat which they didn't tell us when we boarded so we didn't really understand what the guide was saying but the scenic coast didn't really need an explanation.  The first stop in Antony Quinn bay was probably my favorite.  The water was crystal clear and a very bright blue.  The guide dropped food into the water and hundreds of pretty good sized fish came swimming towards us.  The water was pretty warm at about 77 degrees.

swimming

dad swimming

We stopped for lunch in a town that I couldn't find the name for but it was near Lindos.  We went to a local restaurant and probably had our best meal in Greece at it.  It was an authentic place and it tasted like it.  The town was completely deserted unfortunately and I think our boat brought the only tourists for the day.  Hopefully their tourist season picks up later in the summer.

about to jump in

We all got completely sunburned on the boat but now it is a nice tan so it worked out.

The next day we headed to Turkey for the day.  We went to Marmaris, Turkey which was about an hour ferry ride from Rhodes.  We got the the downtown area at about 10 and it was pretty empty.  We walked through the Bazaar and were constantly stopped by people selling you stuff.  They wouldnt even give you the option of walking past them as they would basically stop you.  This became pretty obnoxious pretty fast and we were pretty annoyed by it.  I really think they'd have more tourists and better business if they weren't so rude and annoying.

Marmaris

the waterfront

downtown

It was extremely warm probably about 85 degrees so we headed to the beach.  The beach wasn't nearly as nice as the Greek ones with trash around it but we all took naps on the beach in the afternoon and ate a pretty good meal at one of the stands on the beach.  Later in the afternoon we head back to the ferry and went back to Rhodes.  That night we went to another pretty local restaurant name Georges place or something but it was really good.

eating at the beach

All in all Greece was much nicer than Turkey and I would really like to go to more Greek islands in the future!    

headed back to Greece