One night in January, I had a dream. I dreamt I was on a bus, and the bus was flying over the water. The water was dark blue, and there were islands. Someone on the bus said, "Those are the Greek Islands. Aren't they beautiful?"
The islands were beautiful. The bus continued driving up the mountains. We got out of the bus and filed through a variety of shops and sights. I touched the mountain where the bus was driving because it looked like water. I couldn't understand how the bus could drive on water. But when I touched it, it was firm.
When I woke up from the dream, I remembered it. It was a very beautiful, very pleasant dream. But otherwise, my life went on as usual.
A friend of mine recommended the book, "Many Lives, Many Masters" to me. We communicate mostly by email these days. Back and forth we discuss spirituality and the search for meaning in life.
After I read "Many Lives, Many Masters" I read "Only Love is Real" and then "Through Time Into Healing." When I was reading the last book I started to wonder how I could find a seminar to attend. So I got on the internet and searched for the Weiss Institute. I found it.
As I was clicking around and looking for a schedule for Dr. Weiss, I found the "Voyage of Enlightenment." When the images came up on my screen I was overwhelmed by the feeling that I was back in my dream. It was kind of spooky.
After I got home from work, I told my husband, Mark, about the dream and the web page. "Isn't that wierd?" I asked.
"Well, you know," he said, "I've always wanted to go to the Greek Islands."
"You have?" I questioned, since to my knowledge, Mark has never wanted to go anywhere. He doesn't like to travel. Being self-employed for 25 years, he's never taken a vacation. "Maybe we should go," I said.
"I think we should," he said.
From there, we talked about it with friends and coworkers. It seemed so impulsive, so expensive. We contacted Ron for details. He sent us some information. Everything was falling into place. It scared me. Finally, I talked it over with some friends and decided we should do it.
In all honesty, I had not heard of James Van Praagh before that. One day I was shopping in BJ's Wholesale Club and there was a book, "Talking to Heaven," written by James Van Praagh. Again I was overwhelmed by a wierd feeling. "Maybe this is meant to be," I thought. I bought the book. After that I saw James on Good Morning America and some other shows.
I turned Good Morning America on for Mark to see. "I better break this to him," I thought. "This is the guy that is going to be on the cruise," I told him, "but I didn't know who he was when I signed us up." Mark took it in stride. We discussed who we might want to talk to or, alternatively, who might want to talk to us. "I don't know," I said, "my father didn't talk to me much when he was alive. He's been dead since 1983." So I didn't have any real expectatons of being contacted going into the trip.
As the time drew near for us to go, our excitement and anticipation increased. I packed for a week. We had never been on a cruise before. We received information that there would be two formal dinners. Would it be hot during the day and cool at night? We didn't know for sure. Everyone we know was excited for us.
Finally, June 6th arrived. We decided to park our car at a remote parking lot near the airport where they would shuttle you in and pick you up. Mark was nervous. The previous weekend we had flown to North Carolina from Washington, DC for my uncle's 80th birthday. We missed the plane. "I don't want to miss the plane again," he said to me over and over.
So, even though the flight wasn't until 3:00 p.m., we were at the airport a little after 1:00 p.m. We checked in. "Where are the other two people in your party?" they asked.
"We don't know," we told them. "Well, it seems two other people from Philadelphia must be going on this trip," I said to Mark.
After we went up and sat at the gate, we met Leslie and Ellen, the rest of our party. We introduced ourselves and started talking about who we are and how we ended up on this trip.
The plane from Philadelphia to New York was a little propeller commuter plane. The flight lasted 40 minutes. Still, I fell asleep before we took off and didn't wake up until we landed.
When we got to New York, Leslie met up with her friend, Barbara, who flew in from SFO and was also going on the trip. When I checked our boarding passes I realized Mark and I weren't seated together. So I asked if Mark and I could be seated together and was told, "No." They did manage to get us in the same row at least.
It was a long flight, over 8 hours, but I was one of the lucky ones who was able to sleep on the plane. They gave us drinks, they fed us, and put on a movie. I missed the first snack because I was asleep. I couldn't keep my eyes open.
The plane was full. A very nice woman from Texas sat next to me. She didn't want to switch seats with Mark because she recently had a knee operation. But she said she would switch for the meal. So Mark and I sat together for dinner. As it turned out, she never asked for her seat back. She told me later, standing in line at the lavatory, that she could tell Mark and I were in love, and she wanted us to be together. I thanked her and told her she could have the seat back whenever she wanted. But she never did ask for her seat. We bumped into her a couple of times on the ship.
We arrived safe and sound. The sky flying in was hazy but the water was clear and blue with patches of green. Lots of vessels creating white wake in the sea.
After arriving in Athens, we had to go through passport control and get our luggage. Then we got on a bus. The bus took us to the hotel. We stayed at the Grande Bretagne in Athens. It is across the street from the President's Palace, where they change the guard every hour.
It's hot here. We are in the room sweating, waiting for our bags. We will be meeting Ellen, Leslie and Barbara at 1:00 p.m. to go to the Plaka.
We walked down to the Plaka and the flea market. The sun was bright and hot. The air just slightly humid. Even though I had showered I was covered by a film of sweat. My feet were on fire.
The outside cafes overflowed into the streets where people sat eating a colorful array of meats. I noticed meat and french fries and rice. We kept walking. We needed to find a place to change some money.
The flea market was lined with vendors selling shoes and clothes -- dresses, camouflage pants-- scarves, jewelry, religious artifacts, plates, ceramics, statues, sculptures and even spiders that would hop along when you squeezed a bulb.
We walked, what seemed to us, a long way, turned a corner to the left twice and started walking back. Everyone was speaking a foreign language, but I couldn't tell if it was all Greek or not.
There were many dogs and cats sitting in shop doors or lying on the sidewalk, prostrate in the shade.
After we exchanged $40 US for 11,000+ drachmas (about 295 drachmas per dollar) we set about to find a place to eat. We sat outside. A musician was playing a Greek mandolin and a woman singing. All the waiters danced and smoked.
Mark ordered chicken scaloppini and I got veal and spaghetti. We split a salad. The salad was very little shredded lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, onions and feta cheese. They gave us oil and vinegar to put on ourselves. Mark ate the tomatoes. I ate the cucumbers and some cheese. We both ate lettuce. I ate the olives. The bread was ample and delicious, thick and crusty.
My veal was two hunks, cooked in a tomato base of some sort till very tender and falling apart. The spaghetti had no sauce, just the juice from the meat. It was delicious. Mark's was out of this world--chicken with mushrooms in a white cream sauce with french fries and rice. It was so delicious. Mark had 2 small bottles of coca-cola. I had a large bottle of mineral water. They gave us fruit for desert-watermelon, apples and melon. The meal cost 8,600 drachmas. We gave him 10,000.
After the meal, I could barely walk. The blisters covered my entire heel. I limped along. We got out to the main street and I hobbled up to the hotel. The guard was changing across the street. It was quite an elaborate production. We bought 2 cokes, 1 coke light, 2 bottles of water and a Cadbury bar for 1100 drachma. One coke at the hotel is 1300 drachma.
I had my shoes off in the hotel lobby.We came back to the room. I soaked my feet and laid against the cool sides of the tub.
Mark dozed a little. We watched some TV. The X-files was on, with Greek subtitles. We watched Indian MTV.
We got ready for dinner and went downstairs around 6:30 p.m. where we met up with Leslie and Barbara . The hotel is grand in an old fashioned way. The ceilings are incredibly high. The bed is low. The furniture is mahogany. Here we are in the lobby waiting to go to dinner. We had to wear the tags.
We sat with Leslie, Barbara, Marilynne and Sandra. Two other women, Lee and Doris, joined us. Then an older couple, Margaret and George, joined us. Margaret gave the cruise to George for his 80th birthday present. Ellen and Betty, her new roommate, came down later and sat at the next table.
Margaret told a joke. She said a doctor friend of theirs got a girl pregnant and told her he had money and would take care of everything. He wanted her to leave the country to have the baby --at his expense. So she said, "How will I let you know when the baby is born?" He told her to send him a post card with the message "sauerkraut" and he would know that meant she had the baby. Six months later, his wife calls him at work to tell him, "You got a very strange postcard today." "What did it say?" he asked.
"It says," she replied, "Sauerkraut, sauerkraut, sauerkraut -- two with wieners, one without."
Well, that joke was a big hit and Margaret looks so prim and proper that it was doubly funny coming from her.
She also told a joke about an old couple - 90 and 88 - getting married and going on a cruise for their honeymoon. When asked my his cronies the old guy said they had sex almost every night. "Really?" they asked, "wow." "Yeah," he told them, "we almost had sex on Monday night. We almost had sex on Tuesday night. We almost had sex..."
On Monday, June 8th, breakfast was meats, breads and cereals, but also eggs, barely cooked bacon and home fries. We sat alone but later joined Leslie and Barbara. Brian and his wife were sitting with Sandra and Marilynne.
After breakfast it was back to the room to put out the bags. The bags had to be outside the room by 10:30 a.m. Then we went and sat in the lobby (after checking out). Leslie came along at some point and did a reiki healing massage on my blisters.
At 11:00 a.m. we went over to see the changing of the guard ceremony. That was quite a display. We bought water and changed a traveler's cheque as we found a place that didn't charge commission.
Then we went back to the hotel to wait with Leslie and Barbara for tour bus #3.
The tour bus took us to the Acropolis. The guide went up with us and we came down on our own. It really is a ruins and there isn't much left. All the statues and treasures are in the British Museum in London.
I didn't really pickup on any energy or feel anything but hot. We bought 10 postcards for $1 (300 drachma). I also bought a little oil painting on canvas for 3,000 drachma ($10).
We stopped and had a cold drink (a slush) and I had an ice cream bar (Boss). There were so many ice cream commercials on the TV.
After we left the Acropolis, we drove around the city and saw some other ruins, the president's house, the university, the library and some churches. Then we stopped for a bathroom, drink and shopping break where I bought a cameo. I was always sorry I didn't buy one in Italy.
We drove to the ship. I fell asleep on the bus driving to the marina. I couldn't stay wake. We unloaded, put our luggage on carts and went through customs, got on the ship by about 4:30 p.m. The lines and waiting weren't too bad. They kept our passports.
Once aboard, we were taken to our cabin, R-46. We had three portholes, two beds, an ottoman, a couch, two chairs and a coffee table. Our bathroom was pretty big given what I was told to expect from cruise ships.
We were so hot and tired we took showers and changed. I even unpacked everything. Then we went to the theater at 6:15 p.m. for an orientation. We met Brian and James, Paul the cruise director, and George the excursion director. ( See the plan for the day.)
After the meeting was over at 7:00 p.m. we had until 8:30 p.m. for dinner. I had already showered and changed so we turned in our passenger sheet and left our credit card imprint at the Purser's Office.
We met up with Barbara and Leslie who showed us how to get to the Boat deck and the Lido deck. We went up to the Lido deck and sat on lounges waiting for the ship to take off (pull out of port). Leslie cried about missing her Golden Retrievers when I started picking cat and dog hairs off my dress.
We bumped into the woman from the plane who gave Mark her seat and chatted with her. Leslie and Barbara went to change for dinner. When the boat pulled out the soot from the smokestack irritated Mark's eyes, so we went back down to the boat deck.
At dinner they seated us with Marie from CT, a therapist, and Kate from KY in telecommunications who wants to get into the cruise line business. We all got the veal cordon bleu except for Marie who is a vegetarian. The veal was tough and rather terrible.
We talked about how we ended upon the cruise. Marie was interested in James Van Praagh and wasn't sure she was going to get anything out of the cruise. Kate also was interested in James but also just likes cruising.
After dinner there was free champagne at 10:15 p.m. to meet the captain. Marie was too tired and went back to her room. So we got champagne with Kate. Paul is a very annoying cruise director, no matter what language he speaks. We left after 2 champagnes.
Mark and I walked around and found the card room and the writing room/library.
When we came back to the room I fell asleep pretty much right away. Mark was up downloading photos from the camera until 2:00 a.m
On Tuesday, June 9, 1998, at
7:00
a.m. (day
planner
here)
they announced we had landed (or docked, I guess) in Crete. But I
didn't get up until 9:00 a.m. when the cabin steward tried to get
in.
We had to get to breakfast by 10:00 a.m. on the Lido deck. We made it. They had cereal, fruit, muffins, pancakes, eggs, bacon, ham and croissants. We ate and then went back to the room for a bit until the seminar. Mark was mean to me in the elevator going down and I felt like I might cry a couple of times today.
The seminar was held in the theater at 11:00 a.m. with Brian. He is very low key. I am impressed. Brian is very funny. He and James together pretend they are taking their show on the road.
I was definitely able to relax--maybe too much. I may have nodded off because I felt myself startle, my neck bobbed and I woke up. I saw color images for the first time. I saw white light. I saw an opening, a hole of some sort, and a fish swimming through it.
When Brian said to remember a pleasant childhood memory, nothing came to mind. Not that I don't have any pleasant childhood memories, but I couldn't come up with one on the spot. I could hear the whole time, but I can't remember all the images.
We did an exercise with books and balloons, but when I opened my eyes, my hands were still pretty much at the same level -- instead of one up, one down. Yet I knew what was supposed to happen.
When we did an exercise where we looked, in the dark, in a focused concentration state, at our partner's face, Mark's face went blank. When I looked at his features, they disappeared. They reappeared and he looked lion-like at one point. His nose changed shape and he had lines along the sides of his face.
Mark saw nothing.
After the exercise, some people reported what they saw. A couple of people said they saw the other person's head disappear and then those people said they had seen themselves beheaded. Two different people saw the same woman as a man. Things like that.
We had lunch after the seminar and sat with a couple from Englewood, CO (Kay and Terry). He was a man of few words, in commercial real estate. She was more into it. They have been to other seminars.
I wanted to talk to Margaret, as she was regressed before. I saw her and George there. George looked like he was asleep. I've seen George around quite a bit without Margaret, always wearing a funny t-shirt. I guess he's getting a break since his arm is broken, and he is 80 years old. I saw him today at lunch laughing it up with two other old guys.
Mark and I didn't go ashore in Crete so we
took a lot of pictures from the
ship.
We docked at Santorini at 4:00 p.m. Mark and I disembarked on tender #4. The heat is almost unbearable for me, and, of course, is totally unbearable for Mark. The entire island is on top of a cliff. You have to either ride up on a donkey or take a cable car. It seems like cruelty to animals for big fatties like us to ride a donkey in unbearable heat. So we took the cable car up which scared the shit out of Mark. I wasn't crazy about it either.
The view after you get up there is breathtaking. The sea is blue like I've never seen before, a deep, dark blue, and then a lighter greenish blue closer to shore. We didn't get to see any beach in Santorini . It is just a mountain sticking straight out of the water. The sidewalks are large pebbles set in cement, and they are worn and slippery. All the houses are white, some with different colored roofs.
We walked around, up and down the hills in the beating sun. It was hot. Santorini was beautiful. Lots and lots of jewelry stores. We bought 4 t-shirts @3500 drachmas each. I bought 2 magnets @ 900 drachmas each and a set of ceramic fish salt and pepper shakers for 7500 drachmas. There's so much gold. I bought 2 big scarves (pareos), one was 2000 drachmas and the other 3900.
We caught the 7:00 p.m. tender back. It was steaming . We got back, took showers, changed clothes, and later went to eat. Mark fooled around with the cameras and dowloading to the computer before we left for dinner.
At dinner we sat with a non-voyage father/daughter team from California/Miami. She lives in Greece now, Mark says, but I don't remember that. I saw Kate and Marie from dinner last night, but didn't get to talk to them. I would like to ask them what happened to them in the session. I haven't had a chance to talk to Leslie, Barbara, Sandra or Marilynne since the session. Every night at dinner the stewards sit you somewhere different.
I found this an interesting story from another couple at the table tonight from Palm Desert, CA. When Brian said to regress the husband saw or felt himself on fire and didn't like it, so he came out of it deliberately. Without knowing that happened to him--his wife said when she looked at him, her eyes started watering and burning. Then as soon as Brian said the exercise was over, her eyes stopped watering and burning. Their experience seemed significant to me, but they really didn't know what to make of it. They are here, primarily, to see James Van Praagh.
Tonight we went up to the midnight buffet where, it seemed to us, they were serving the leftovers from earlier in the day. The strawberry t art w as delicious. The couple we had dinner with was there, but we sat outside. Mark isn't being very sociable. I signed up for the Rhodes tour tomorrow by myself so I gotta be up by 7:00 a.m. and it's after 12:30 a.m. now.
June 10, 1998
Wedensday
(See the schedule
for
the day.)
The tour today was very interesting. The atmosphere was lighter without Mark. I didn't know anyone on the tour, and no one talked to me. As a matter of fact, when we had lunch with the couple from Paris and Texas, they didn't realize I had been on their tour bus. I remembered them. She walked up the acropolis in mules.
We drove up the coast to Lindos today. The houses are built of cement and they are in varying stages of being built all over the place. Tourism is big business on the coast. Rhodes is a resort for Germans, English and Scandinavian. All the houses had panels and a tank on top and I meant to ask th e tour guide what it was. I thought they could be solar panels and hot water tanks but I could be wrong. (I asked Lola on board about the panels and I was correct.)
Lindos
has an acropolis too. Acropolis
just means high point of the city. I walked
up
with the group. The temple at the acropolis in Lindos was impressive.
Once
again it was ungodly hot. The pavements were lined with vendors. Lots
of lace, crocheted and embroidered tablecloths, bedspreads, doilies,
etc. Lots of ceramics--plates, vases, urns and the like. Ladies were
sitting on lawn chairs with their wares on the dirt and
rocks.
Incredible amounts of gold and leather as well. Shop after shop of postcards, tourist books, maps, scarves, pareos, clothes and all sorts of stuff.
I bought a little watercolor (or looks like a watercolor) in a frame for 1800 drachmas ($6). I left it in the shop where I bought a bubble water but they called after me and I got it back.
The pavements are pebbles in cement. I also peed in a water closet or hole in the floor behind a door. But actually I thought it was better than a filthy toilet. It was clean. You just had to stand up and aim.
Rhodes
is impressive too. The medieval city was out of a picture book. I
never saw anything like it.
We sat today at lunch with a man and woman from Texas. She is French, from Paris. What a bitch. She was a pain in the ass. She gave us the third degree about what we are doing. Then she didn't particularly pay attention to the answers. She was a such a bitch, a French bitch. She couldn't get over we weren't having drinks with lunch. She had a carafe of red wine. Mark hated his food and got real obstinate with her. He told her he was a couch potato. She said it was an expensive way to watch tv. I told her it was his vacation, he could do what he wanted.
How have things been going so far? I'm not sure. Did I expect to get something out of this trip? I think so but I'm not sure what. We are pulling out of port now. I'm going to go look. It is beautiful. The sea is so perfect, so calm and blue. Yet I feel like I've hardly had a chance to enjoy anything. I feel like I'm always supposed to be doing somethi n g--not just sitting. I don't know why.
We got dressed up for formal night tonight. I wore the new black skirt and top with my sequined jacket. Mark wore black pants, white shirt, red tie and black and white striped sports jacket. He looked wonderful. We sat with a big group at dinner--Leslie, Sheila, Barbara, Ellen, Betty, Kate, Marie, Sandra, Mark and me. Mark was the life of the party. He really seemed to be enjoying himself. Of course, Marie is very funny. At the very end of the dinner, she was telling us about her trip to the Himalayas to see the Dalai Lama.
Although, of course, everything is very nice, I think the food is good, not fabulous. But I'm really surprised at the service. The waiter at lunch today was almost surly. Our cabin floor could stand to be vacuumed. The cruise is not completely full. Our group went from an original 125 to 180, but there are only 530 passengers on board out of a possible 620. I'm not totally impressed.
Of course, other people, cruisers, are telling us that it's not up to snuff. Some say Princess is the best. Others say Princess is very good, but Crystal is the best. All say this ship is too old.
Tourism is big, big industry here. One of our tour guides said that Greece lost the Industrial Revolution. They have no industry. They get by on agriculture, olive oil and tourism. Greece is a democracy.
After dinner, at 11:00 p.m., we went up to the Lido Deck to have a meditation on the full moon with Ellen and Esmeralda. Esmeralda originally from Brazil, has 3 children, and lives in Miami. Leslie, Barbara, Marilynne, Sandra and another woman whose name I don't remember now and her mother from Atlantic City/Somers Point, NJ joined us. It was a hand holding, deep breathing group meditation (meaning only one person said anything). Then everyone hugged each other.
Esmeralda prayed for us to have abundance and prosperity in our new life, our new beginning in Florida. Afterwards, the woman from NJ (whose name I think is Betty) sang a couple of songs. She used to sing on the Steel Pier in her younger days. She was very good and should have been in the talent show.
We went to the midnight buffet with Ellen and Esmeralda . We sat and talked and laughed. They were very funny. Ellen has a daughter. She is working on her Ph.D. on human sexuality. Esmeralda has a mother-in-law who asks questions all the time driving everyone crazy. An interesting crowd.
Thursday
June 11, 1998
(See the
schedule
for
the
day
.)
The morning tour was to Patmos but we didn't go. We slept late this morning and missed breakfast. We got out of the room around 10:30 a.m. and watched the group tender in and get on the ship Then we walked around the boat deck. Mark picked a fight with me about walking around the deck even though I said I wanted to walk around the deck. So I said he always seemed to pick a fight before we had a session.
At about ten minutes before 11:00 a.m. we went down to the theater. There was a movie going on about St. Paul. We went in and watched the end so we'd be there when the seminar started.
James ran Thursday's seminar. We did some meditations, deep breathing, centering ourselves, visualizing ropes going from our ankles and spine to the center of the earth. Breathing in mother earth energy and cosmic energy. Then we chose partners and did an exercise where we ran our hands around the other person, not touching them, but seeing if we felt any energy coming from them. I worked with a woman from Chicago named Pamela.
Pamela said she felt alot of heat from below my neck, chest, torso but not legs and not head. She said it made her palms tingle. I honestly did not feel anything. She said she felt heat when I was running my palms around her in her left breast but she didn't open her eyes to see if my hands were there. Pamela told me she found a lump in her breast but I didn't feel or sense anything.
The next exercise was to try healing. So it was sort of the same thing only generating healing. So she asked me to generate healing on her left breast so I did. We held our palms up to each other a few inches apart. She felt heat, I felt nothing.
Then we did another exercise. We switched partners. I switched mainly because I felt bad for Pamela since I knew I wouldn't be able to sense anything. I had Sandra for a partner. I gave her my ring. She told me she saw a bedroom, dark, with a very big, bigger than normal bed. That is, of course, what our bedroom looks like and our bed is big. She also saw the word "love."
When I held Sandra's watch, I saw nothing. I sensed nothing, I felt nothing but anxiety that I wasn't going to be able to do it. I tried to think something up but I couldn't. I did the relaxation exercise beforehand but I saw darkness. I saw a spider and a mountain in the darkness but that's it. I told her and she tried to read something into it. Said she lived on a mountain in New Jersey but I don't feel like I have any psychic abilities.
There were four women sitting next to me who did not participate and not only did they not participate, they were giggling and made me feel uncomfortable. I mean, even Mark was participating.
So that was Thursday at 11:00 am until 1:00 pm. We then had to eat lunch and head out for the tour. We ate lunch up on the Lido Deck at the buffet. We sat with a young woman from Puerto Rico who is hear by herself. She said the water here is very calm. She also said she didn't have time for much else besides eating, sleeping and touring. She said she gets up earlier on her vacation than she does when she works.
We bumped into Leslie and Barbara going for the tour so we sat in the Solaris Lounge with them and Sandra and Marilyn. Sandra and Marilynne got called first. Then we went. We drove on the bus for awhile to get to Ephesus.
First, actually, we went to the house of the Virgin Mary. It's declared a holy site, I guess, by the Vatican and people make pilgrimages there. It was a very quiet and restful spot but you did have to file through sort of single file. It wasn't really restored as far as the rooms put back to their original use. The walls were standing but it was mostly a shrine with a statue of the Virgin Mary and an altar to her.
At the end when you left they were selling rosaries for $6 each so I bought two.
Ephesus
was pretty amazing.
They
have excavated quite a bit, most of it in the last 20 years.
The
streets were paved with marble.
It
had a public restroom (latrine) for the common people of the time.
They had clay pipes running under the city streets for water so they
were pretty advanced. The restoration is going pretty well but what a
lot of work they have to do still. Our tour guide's name was
Nilay
and she said to Mark that she could
tell he was quite interested in the historical information. She said
after one has been doing this as long as she has, one can tell who is
interested and who is not. And that's true, Mark is interested in
ancient history.
The Stella Solaris people took our picture in front of the library. There was an excavated brothel. There was a stone with directions to the brothel on it. It was quite fascinating.
It was incredibly hot and as we walked along with the brutal sun beating on us, we were steaming. Whenever a tree presented itself, everyone went and stood under it. Nilay was pretty good about trying to get you under a tree.
There was a very large amphitheater that they still use for concerts. After we came out of Ephesus, th ey were selling silk scarves for $2 or $3 each depending on where you were. The $2 ones are machine stitche d and the $3 one are hand stitched. They are hand painted and almos t like tie dye, very pretty. I bought about 5, I think.
We've been buying postcards at every place to get good pictures and usually you can get a 10 pack of postcards for $1 or maybe $2. I bought a book on Ephesus, I was so impressed with it, for $3. I also bought bookmarks, 3 for $5, and we got a 45 minute video for $15.
At the end of the tour we went to a village
where there is a carpet factory. We saw them weaving the carpets. I
even tied one double knot, which is how the turkish carpets are made
(by double knotting). Then we saw them spinning the silk from the
cocoons. Very impressive. At the end they were giving out free soda
or beer and crudites and we sat and watched some high school kids do
native 
dances.
It was very pleasant, very entertaining.
After we got back, we went and changed and I even rinsed off but there wasn't much cold water. So I put the sundress on I had on earlier. We went up to the buffet and it looked pretty good but I just did not feel like servng myself so we went down to the dining room. Everyone we knew was seated already so we let them seat us, and they sat us with another Frenchwoman. She said she didn't speak English, in perfect English, and I figured whether she did or not, she didn't want to talk to us. So we pretty much ate alone.
I had the greek specialty again, spicy meatballs with rice. The meatballs were nice and soft and not spicy at all. Mark even ate one. They were very good. I had raspberry sherbert for desert.
After dinner we came back to the room. I had a beer for dinner and fell right alseep. Mark downloaded pictures. After he was done, he said he was going to the midnight buffet so I went with him. They had spaghetti. I had crudites and desert--li me pie. So it's really Friday June 12, 1998 at 1:00 a.m. now.
Friday, June 12, 1998
(See the
schedule
for the
day.)
We got up at 8:00 a.m. this morning and went to breakfast, came back for a nap, and then got up for lunch. When we were waiting for the elevator we saw Leslie go by so we went up and waited with Sheila for her and then we had lunch together. Today I had spinach and cheese pie.
After lunch we had to dash for the tour to Troy. Troy was the least rebuilt of all the ruins we saw.
The beating Turkish sun was relentless on us today. I, of course, did not get any color. We went to Troy on bus #6. Our tour guide, Beko, was very knowledgeable. The tour guides have been interesting, each in his/her own way. He said he majored in economics at the university, then applied to the Department of Tourism. He had to take tests, then take a 6 month course, then more tests, then a 4 month trip around Turkey. He's been doing it for 11 years. He studied economics so he had a lot of ideas about why inflation is so high and what they can do about it.
Part of the reason, he said, inflation is so high is that the banks borrowed international money. Then they didn't have it to pay it back. Then they borrowed it from the Turkish corporations. Turkey does have industry, mostly in Bursa, mostly textiles. They do not have to import fruits and vegetables either. Most Turkish people do not keep the turkish lire but change it in for foreign currency, then get turkish lire for spending money. The farmers and peasants buy gold and hold onto it because if you hold onto the lire, it is worth less in a month or a year then when you got it.
They are developing tourism to get more
foreign currency into the country. No one will borrow from banks
because interest is so high. 10% per month. A fiat or toyota would
cost $14 or 15,000 but a Jeep would cost $60-75,000 and a Ford
Mustang convertible would be $80-95,000. Mostly due to import tax.
They make toyotas, hyundais and fiats right here in Turkey.
Troy
was pillaged by Heinrich Schliemann. He found all the treas ur es and
took all the treasures b ack to Germany in 1873. Russia has them now
in the
Pushkin Museum
. Somebody, Austrians or Russians, helped the Turks with something, then the government said
they could take stones. So they ended up taking all the stones from
one site that was an entire city and now it's not in Turkey anymore
but in another country. We went to a little museum today that
wasn't much by our standards. Yet it holds local artifacts that the
local people have just found around. So they are starting to try to
get their stuff together. They realize tourism is big business. But
they have a lot to do. There is so much to do in Troy and probably
elsewhere. The guide said they were hoping they would find some
inscriptions or something that would guide them or tell them where
things are and how they should be found. Like descriptions of the old
cities. Troy has 9 layers and Schliemann just
rumbled through them all and left a big mess. I ended up buying 3 scarves for $5, 3
t-shirts for $10 and a vest for $8. Then back in Canakkalle I bought
4 more scarves for $5. When we got back to the tenders, they were
giving out orange juice. Mark bought some 4 cokes/soda for
$3. I mean, of course, almost everyone who was
there had a loved one who died. Mark is skeptical but I believe it. I
mean, what harm is there in believing it? I believe in the whole
thing, in spirits, in their ability to communicate with some people,
with some people's ability to communicate with them. I don't even
know sometimes why it is so hard for people to believe in things.
Especially since most people do believe in God. Anyway... Tonight was Greek Night for dinner. We had
a bunch of different greek specialties. I don't think there was
anything I didn't like. I ate it all. We sat with Kate and Marie and
Linda. Linda was on our tour today and she sat behind me and we
talked a couple of times but I didn't know her name. I just wish something would happen to me.
But maybe wishing doesn't cut it, maybe I need to develop some
discipline, start meditating. Things I've been thinking about doing
for years. When I was a kid I wanted a vision, to see the Blessed
Mother, to be holy, to be chosen, to be a martyr but I didn't pray a
lot or anything. I even remember in high school trying to read the
bible. I couldn't get through it. So... Tonight after dinner, when we were leaving,
Brian
and James
were ahead of us. So I hung around
and got both of them to sign my books. I didn't have much to say to
James but I did talk to Brian. What a nice man. I asked him if he
knew John Amoroso and he said yes, he remembered him. He said a lot
of times people ask him if he remembers someone who he spoke to once
at a book signing in 1982. But he said he worked with John and the
ARE, the Cayce group, and that he's happy to say he remembers him.
And to say hello to him. He said he is very good and remembers John
is from Pennsylvania. A long day and we have to be on the tour by
7:45 a.m. Anyway I should sleep since we need to get up early and
it's almost 1:00 a.m. It's Saturday night now, June 13,
1998, and, it's almost 1:00 a.m. again. We were in Istanbul
today. It was a good day. We
had
Beko the tour guide again on Bus
17. He drove with a tour bus 6 hours from Channakelle to be in
Istanbul today. Of course, I forgot the tickets for the tour and had to run back into the ship, to the cabin, then back to the bus while everyone waited. Beko is very enthusiastic and interesting.
Istanbul is a city teaming with people and life. Whereas most of the
islands of Greece seem to be there for tourists, Istanbul is a city
regardless of tourists. When you descend the tour bus, men, women and
children run up to you calling, "Lady, one dollar." Women selling
scarves, men selling books, children selling postcards. First, we went to the Sulymaniye Mosque.
Beko explained some things about the Moslem religion. Since Turkey is
a poor country and religion is separate from the state, they've
adapted the religion somewhat to suit their needs. Moslems need to
pray five times a day but they can't all make it to the mosques any
more. Friday was their holy day but most work on Fridays now. The
women don't have to cover their heads. Women work. Religious women do
wear scarves. He said it is an individual religion. Then we went to the
Topkapi
Palace. We had to put our bags
through x-ray and go through a metal detector to get in. This is
where the Sultan lived and where the treasures they have are now
stored. One whole wing used to be the kitchen and the other wing
housed the harem. Now their is an emerald room where the topkapi
dagger is along with many uncut emeralds. One emerald weighs 8 pounds
and the Sultan used to use it as a paperweight. There were thrones made of gold, diamonds
and rubies, a gold compote set encrused with diamonds. Daggers, guns,
quivers are all bejeweled. There were snuff boxes Mark, Barbara and I worked the rooms in
reverse order. It was so crowded, so full of people. We went down to
where the cafe is to see the view. Istanbul is divided by water. One
side is on Asia Minor, the other on Europe. The palace overlooked the
golden horn, as it is called and the view After the palace, we went to lunch. I'm not
sure of the hotel's name. The hotel had a real bathroom though where
I had to go. So, Mark waited for me and when we went in to sit down
we sat with three other couples we didn't know. One couple was from
San Francisco, the airlines had lost their luggage for five days. One
couple was from New York, I think. I don't know where the other
couple was from. The couple from San Francisco was going to be
staying in New York for a couple of days before returning home. They
were talking about where to go. The husband said his wife would be
shopping. Mark pipes in, "But you haven't worn all the clothes you
brought with you on this trip." He got a really big laugh on that
one. They served us a variety of different
appetizers. I think I tasted them all. I enjoyed the eggplant.
Another was yogurt, one was chicken and walnuts all mushed up,
another was little potato balls, and some spicy meatballs are all I
remember now. For the entree, it was meat and mushrooms in a creamy
sauce with rice. I ate it all. Nobody else did but I didn't taste
anything wrong with it. Then we had fruit-watermelon, cherries and
green plums for desert. After lunch, we went to the Grand Bazaar.
They took us to Bazaar 54 to see the carpets and gave us a little
lecture on the different types--the wool on wool, the wool on cotton
and the silk on silk. The carpets were beautiful. All the different
textures, colors and patterns. The silk on silk rugs have over 4,000
knots in a square inch. The colors on the silk rugs shimmer and from
different angles there are different colors. The silk is actually
incredibly sturdy and ca n last hundreds of years. Mark said there was no way we were getting
a rug with pets. The cats have almost ruined the chinese c arpet we
have by throwing up hairballs on it. They recommended cleaning the dust and dirt
out of the carpets by turning them upside down and walking on them
that way for about a week. Then we left and went and looked out the
jewelry. There were beautiful things and I bought some. I had a
tremendous anxiety attack over it. But I think I'm over it
now. We never did get out to the covered old
bazaar. Istanbul is a place you could spend a lot of time, I think.
The streets were so narrow and the cars and buses were everywhere. It
was absolutely amazing how those buses can get through those streets.
Istanbul still has the Roman aqueducts and
the bus can barely squeeze through one of the arches. The last place we went was the Blue
The Turkish Muslims get circumcised between
the ages of 7 and 11 years old. There was a little boy outside on the
steps who has been studying. Mark and I were very surprised by this
as we did not realize Moslems got circumcised. After we got back from Istanbul, we needed
to get ready for our cocktail party with Brian and James and the rest
of the group at 7:45 p.m. It was the second formal night, which I
didn't realize at first and after we went up and saw everyone dressed
up, we went back to the cabin and changed. Mark wore a black tie,
white shirt, black trouser s and the black/white striped jacket. I
wore the dress, black and gold, that Mary Ann gave me. I wore my new
jewelry. We got our
picture taken with Brian and
James. At the cocktail party, where we sat with
Leslie, Sandra, Marilynne, Barbara and Esmeralda. Drinks were free so
Mark and I had a few champagnes. They also had martinis and
manhattans and white wine. Dinner was after the cocktail party. We had
the 8:30 p.m. seating every night. Esmeralda was feeling a little
woozy from the champagne since she hadn't eaten much all day and we
were a little late getting into
dinner.
Therefore, the three of us ended up sitting by ourselves since the
other table had filled up. Usually the tables were just for 4 or 5.
There were some tables for 6 and then a couple of tables for 10. But
when you sat at the table for 10, you could only talk to the people
next to you anyway. So many times we had two tables for 4 or 5 next
to each other. We talked with Esmeralda about cosmic
things. Being from Brazil she's very sensitive to energy and stuff.
She believes Mark and I are soulmates. She started reading tarot
cards when she was 12 because she could see very clearly what they
meant. She stopped doing it when it became not so clear to her after
she got older. She told us about the guy who wrote "The Alchemist"
and told us to follow our dreams. But right now I want to write about a card
reading I just had done up in the card room. Ellen had invited us,
which tonight was Mark, Esmeralda and I, to a meditation in the
library. After we watched the ship's show we took Esmeralda up to
show her where the library is. There we found Ellen, Alysse, Amy -
Brian's daughter and her friend Allison, another blonde woman I don't
know, a woman who a spirit came through for and Ellen. Allysse was reading tarot cards for Amy.
When she was done she read them for Esmerelda. Then I sat down to get
my cards read. She looked up at me, asked me my name and where I live
and then said, "I see a spirit behind you who is guiding you. You
will do psychic work. Do yo know who ths guide could be?" I said, "No, not really.: She continued, "It will be your choice, the
guide is not pulling you. You did psychic work before, in a past
life. I see you in Greece, sitting by the side of the road, you are a
gypsy and you look like you are reading cards. It looks like you are
reading my cards and it's scaring me," she said. She opened her eyes
and kinda shook her head. "You could be a healer. You are on a
spiritual path. You have started it by coming on this cruise. How did
you get here?" I told her the story about the dream, for
about the tenth time this trip. I said I have been feeling a strong
spiritual pull for the last 3-4 years. She said it might not be right away if I
didn't want to do it. I have a choice. But if I'm interested, it is
there . I 've been doing a lot of reading and will continue to read
books on the subject. I should start studying. Well, needless to say, I was
ast ounded. Then when I shuffled the cards and put out
three piles, she said she could see that I was very busy at my work.
She said she could see a lot of work the re and s he could see that
there will continue to be a lot of work. She sees a catastrophe
coming at my work and that if I'm thinking about getting out, now
would be a good time. Lots of long hours and late nights. Everything
that was done would have to be done again. She could see that I was afraid to make the
change but I needed to make the change to move on. It's the right
thing, it's time. Then Mark had his cards read. He sat down,
he shuffled the cards and made his three piles. She said she saw
great fear. But she also saw an event that would happen and that he
would know what it was when it happened what it was. When this event
happens, he'll be able to overcome his fear. Ther e is a lot of love
in his life and she thinks a love of business. She said it was
possible we will do something together, maybe some
business. After the card readings, when everyone
left, Mark, Esmeralda and I talked more about the readings. Esmeralda
thought our readings were fairly accurate. She said she herself is a
hard person for others to read because she puts off so much energy.
She said I could be a healer and that I put off healing energy, or
something like that. Esmeralda missed her family. But it was
late and we all headed back to our cabins. This morning when we were heading towards
Mykonos, the water was slightly rough and the vessel was moving at
great speed. It was the roughest the water has been and it was
difficult to walk. Some people were a little queasy. I put my
wristbands back on. We woke up with our alarm at 7:30 a.m. and
went up to breakfast around 8:00 a.m. We looked at the photos and
Brian came along and was looking at them also. He remarked how he
looked exactly the same in every picture. After he said it, I looked
and he was right. He was exactly the same in every picture. James
wasn't. But the angle, the smile, everything about him looked the
same. We were laughing, he is very funny. We ate with
Marilynne, Leslie and Barbara who
were already seated. Mark got an omelette, I got poached
eggs. At 9:00 a.m. we had a session with Brian.
We sat down a seat away from Esmeralda, on the end of a row. Brian
was once again very funny. He remarked about his picture and said he
was really drinking coffee in the back when the pictures were taken
and it was very difficult to do that so that's why he looked the same
in every picture. He said how to do that would be taught at an
advanced training session. Brian's voice is absolutely hypnotic. You
can hardly stay awake when he is talking. He did a group regression.
Nothing happened for me. I was aware of his voice, and I tried to do
what he said. I had many more images than before and some color.
There was one really, awful frightening face but it didn't scare me.
But no regression. I don't think I was asleep but I'm not following
along. He did a healing meditation and I might
have dozed a little bit in that one. It included swimming with
dolphins, and talking to your problem area. But I really didn't seem
to be there either. Then after that, he got a volunteer to pick
volunteers. Pamela, who I had partnered with before, was the picker
volunteer. Five volunteers were picked but only one was regressed.
Brian weeded through them. A woman named Gail was regressed to a life
around 25AD in Israel where she slipped and feel and some boulders
crushed her so she couldn't breathe and then she died. He did a fast
hypnosis where the person looks in his eyes and presses down on his
hand. Then later he lifts there arm and drops it and then he taps
them on the head counting back from 3. Then we got a disembarkation talk at 11:00
a.m. and ribbons, bus assignments and times for the morning. We had
time for lunch between 11:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. when we had to be
back for the last session. For lunch we looked in the dining room, and
Leslie, Barbara, Marilynne, Lee, Doris, Sandra and Sheila were there.
I don't remember who else was there right now. We ate with Sheila and
Barbara. We had spring rolls for a change of pace. We had to rush down for the session with
Brian
and James who answered questions
for the first hour. The questions ranged from "have you ever run into
people or regressions from other planets?" to what happens to cats
and dogs to abortion. Brian told a story about Elizabeth
Kubler-Ross. For this we were sitting on the right hand
side instead of our usual left. Marie and Kate were on the right
also. Marie asked if we wanted to work with them for James' exercise.
We did but James' exercise didn't include working with a partner this
time. He asked for volunteers to have their auras read by the
crowd. Brian did another regression with a heavy
set woman who wanted to find out about why she was overweight or if
her being overweight had any past life basis. She regressed to a
lifetime where there was no food or water and she died of starvation
in her mother's arms around 4 years of age. We came back to the room afterwards. I did
some packing. Then at 4:00 pm we took a tender over to Mykonos with
Sandra, Marilynne, Sheila, Lee, Doris, Esmeralda, Leslie and Barbara.
We started off together but eventually everyone wandered off ,and
Mark and I were on our own. We found a silver shop where I got a lapis
ring ($36) and lapis earrings ($20) and a greek symbol ring for
$9. There was beautiful stuff in this shop
where a shell (whelk style) with two curved rows of lapis was $250.
They also had silver seashells for about $110. The stuff was
beautiful. Ithought I might regret not getting the shell but I had
already bought so much I just couldn't get anything else. The streets were lined with jewelry shops
with one window more outrageous than the other. We saw a pegasus
necklace that was unbelievable. Mykonos was a very quaint village, much
more peaceful than anywhere else we were. Especially after Turkey,
where you were greeted by dozens of street vendors as you got off the
bus asking you to buy books, postcards, scarves, t-shirts, tops and
flutes. They called you, "Lady, one dollar." Mykonos seemed the kind
of place you could stay for awhile and just relax. I found it hard to
get a sense of what a typical Greek's lifestyle might be like since
everything is catered to tourism. The postcard book on Mykonos was
$2, expensive comparatively speaking.
Tonight James did what it is, I guess, that James does. He let the
spirits come through. According to James, the spirits come to him and
whatever spirit is able to lower its vibrational level to James'
level is the spirit that is able to get through. I'd say he
communicated with at least 6 people. On some he was right on the
mark, everything he said or asked them was true.
and other
treasures
beyond the wildest imagination:
,
. Even St. John's arm and
skull
were there.
was
breathtaking.
Mosque.
The Blue Mosque was in good shape. It was almost closed for prayer
but they let us in. 
We
had to go through very quickly. You must take off your shoes. They
give you a bag to carry them with you. If women have sleeveless tops,
they give you a scarf to cover yourself. If men or women have on
shorts where your knees show, they give you a scarf to cover
yourself.
Quick navigation, Bottom, Top
It's almost midnight now on Sunday night, June 14, 1998. We
were docked in Mykonos today and are now on our way back to Athens.
Our bags are packed and outside in the hallway and we are naked in
bed because all our clothes are packed. We have 4 very heavy
suitcases, Mark's camera bag, and my bag of souvenirs.
To go to more photos, click Greece or Turkey.
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