Day 20 to 28

Day 20: Sunday 10^th July

We spent the morning… well late morning, trying to pack and organise ourselves to go away. Eli, Katherine and I, plus two of Elisa’s friends (Anna and Natalie) were going to catch a ferry from Tuscany to Sardinia at 11pm. Natalie’s car isn’t that big and hence Katherine and I had to share a bag of Elisa’s and leave our huge backpacks at her house. Katherine and I managed to pack all our stuff into a small bag which in comparison to Eli’s bag was tiny and she still needed another bag for her shoes!!!!  Lunch was really yummy - Eli’s mum made some fresh tuna and tomato dish and cooked mussles in this really nice sauce. We also had melon and proscuitto.

Natalie and Anna then came to pick us up and we all squished (literally) into the car with all our bags. Elisa and Natalie were sharing the drive so every about hour we all got out, wondered around and then swapped seats.

Picture of Eli driving with the trees 

Photo of Anna, Eli and Katherine in the backseat 

What Katherine and I found amazing was that as common as maccas is in Italy, there are none along the high ways (autostrada). They have special café/convenient stores for the specific job of lining the autostrada. They have everything from ice creams, to chips to sandwiches and hot chips. Our route took us from Vicenza to Padova, past Bologna, past Florence and then we stopped off at Pisa and saw the Leaning Tower.

Katherine and I in front of the Leaning Tower of Pisa 

What we all found particularly amusing about the Leaning Tower was everyone around it. Everyone was pretending to either push it over, hold it up or something of the kind.

Everyone near the Tower  

Once at the port, we had dinner and then had to line up with all the other cars for about two hours. Everyone was completely delirious with tiredness. On lookers must have found our group hilarious as it was a mix of complete hysterical laughter, sleeping, singing, dancing and basically mucking about.

Photo of everyone in the car  

The ferry was pretty cool, it was like a smaller version of a cruise ship with cabins, bars, swimming pools even restaurants.

The Ferry 

All the cars were parked on the bottom decks and you could get a cabin for the night if you wanted to pay extra… but us all being poor students (or backpackers in mine and Katherine’s case) had to find somewhere on the ground to sleep. We found the kid’s room and we were going to sleep in the play equipment because the ground within it was padded (like gym mats) however we didn’t put anything in there to bags it so once when we’d returned from outside some other teenagers had taken it… needless to say we were very disappointed.

Our corner 

In the end, we slept on the ground and actually slept which I was amazed about.

Day 21: Monday 11^th July

We woke up at 6am when the boat turned on all their lights and the music and then got a croissant for breakfast. It took an hour to drive to Natalie’s house. It is this really cute beach condo thing, with two bedrooms, a loft, two bathrooms and then small kitchen/living area and then a really nice terrace out the front where we spend most of our time. We put on our swimmers, put on sunscreen and then went right to the beach. Unfortunately, the nice beaches aren’t within walking distance of the house, so we have to drive.

The beaches are gorgeous - Blue/turquoise water, white sands and amazing views. Instead of surfing here, the sport of choice is windsurfing. Holy moly…. We would recommend that all males take up the sport!! When it isn’t that windy, there is a wind surfing school, but when it gets really windy, the school closes as it is too dangerous and then they (they being the teaches and those who are good) are out on the water doing tricks and showing off. It’s fantastic to watch.

Windsurfing 

What still amazes me about the beaches over here is that mostly, they all have bars attached to the beach where you can get some food, alcohol and listen to music which is generally played loud enough so you can hear it on the beach. The one attached to our usual beach (Porto Pollo…. Chicken Bay!) is called “Rupi’s Chilling Out”.

Rupi’s 

So, after showering and eating dinner at home we went back to “Rupi’s Chilling Out” for Happy Hour (which is known as Aperitivo over here). Natalie (who’s family owns the house) comes over to Sardinia every summer and has done for four years. My impression so far is that she knows a lot of the locals and the bar tenders (bonus for us!). We can’t go anywhere on the beach without someone yelling out “NATALIE!!!”

As we were pretty exhausted, we watched the sun go down and then chilled at home before going to bed relatively early!

Day 22: Tuesday 12^th July

We went to a different beach today which was basically rocks and beautiful clear water. We were swimming around the bay when Elisa got stung by something and honestly it looked like she swam 50 metres in a flash. Natalie and Anna were too far out so they decided to stay at the beach and walk home whilst Katherine and I went with Elisa to find a pharmacy/doctor.

We found the Pharmacy first and then they directed us to a doctor. It was all pretty scary because the mark on Eli’s arm swelled up and she had a pain in her back and we weren’t sure what the cause was. But once we went to the doctor, and back to the pharmacy to pick up some tablets and stuff for the pain she was okay.

During the afternoon, Elisa, Katherine and I went into the town, Palau, for a bit of a shop.  What began as shopping for clothes ended up being shopping for food! We had some really nice gelato and then bought biscuits to share. At about 8ish we went to Aperitivo at Rupi’s and the bar tender gave us a 60 euro drink for free! Apparently, the bar thought we were all Australian (Natalie wasn’t there) and they seemed pretty confused when Anna thanked them in Italian. We then ate dinner on the beach consisting of a steak, a sausage and some chips. For what I expected them to taste like, they were actually really nice.

Photo of the Drink 

One guy then came to chat to the five of us (well three as Katherine and I don’t speak Italian) and spent the time trying to pick up one of the Italian girlies. Needless to say, Katherine and I found this to be highly entertaining. He wasn’t being exactly subtle and gave off an air of being incredibly desperate. We spent a lot of the night hanging on the beach between Rupi’s and another bar about 100 metres down the beach. We got an ice cream, danced to the music and just chatted to the locals. It was really good fun.

Me, Elisa, Katherine and Anna 

Katherine, Elisa and Anna Mucking around 

Day 23: Wednesday 13^th July

During the morning, the Italian ladies had a bit of a steamy conversation about whether or not to go to another island in the area (about an hour by the ferry). Elisa, Katherine and I ended up staying in the area whilst Natalie and Anna went to the Port. They ended up staying as well, as they missed the ferry but we didn’t find that out until much later.

Anna and Natalie dropped us at Porto Pollo and we hung around the beach for a couple of hours. The walk home was treacherous. Honestly, us walking in 35 degree heat for over an hour was awful!

View on the walk home 

Okay, so it wasn’t really that bad. We were walking on bush tracks then on beaches and it probably seemed worse because of the heat and how hungry we all were. To congratulate us on the walk home, we had a really delicious lunch. Definitely worth the walk home!

We then napped for a couple of hours before heading to Aperitivo for a cocktail each and then went into Palau for dinner. I love how European cities don’t die after 6pm. At 10:30 when we were wondering through the streets, there were stalls opening, music playing and all the shops were still open. It truly has a much better night life (not in terms of clubs) than we have in Sydney at the moment. We got a pizza slice each for dinner and then got a gelato. Katherine and I then bought some bracelets before we all climbed back into the car. We all then went to another bar where we met some of the Italian boys who then took us down some back street path to a beach where there was a party occurring!

Having a dance at the Beach Party 

The party was held at the Bar at the beach and it had a live band who were actually really good. We managed to get 3 free drinks throughout the night and we met heaps of people! When the dance floor got too hot and sticky, we made our own one on the sand and surprisingly people we didn’t know joined us.

Elisa, Lorenzo (new friend!) and Katherine 

The Italian girlies were tired so we got home at about 2:30ish.

Day 24: Thursday 14^th July

This morning, Katherine and I made pancakes for breakfast. It was nice to eat something from home. We then went to Porto Pollo where it was ridiculously windy. We ended up going to the beach on the other side to watch the windsurfers and the kite riders. Some of the most experienced windsurfers were even wearing helmets! So, that kind of gives you an idea of how dangerous the wind was at that time! The skill they have is incredible. I know idea what a cool sport it was before.

Windsurfers 

It ended up being too cold so we went back to the Rupi’s side of the beach which had the bar to act as a wind block.

Our Italian friend Lorenzo and the water 

We ended up going home at about 5 to sleep and chill out whilst the Italian girlies were still hanging at the beach. At about 8:30 when they got back, we had dinner and then at about 11:00ish we headed back to Rupi’s for another beach party!

This beach party had a white theme to it.. but unfortunately because it was so cold… I gave up on wearing my white dress due to the cold which was frustrating but I ended up warm in my jeans and jumper! Katherine ignored the cold and pushed forward in her white dress… although she was wearing a black jumper.  The party to start off being really dead… but as it got later, more and more people arrived and it ended up being a lot of fun although to be completely honest, the music was still pretty bad.

Katherine and I 

We managed to meet loads of new people who all thought being Australia was “exotic” as Elisa would put it. They all attempted to speak English which was really appreciated as our Italian… was a little worse for wear. We figured out that Lorenzo (who we met the night before) had been on exchange in Canada and Alex (who we had met at the beach) went on exchange at the Gold Coast and now goes to uni at Brighton in England. One of the Italians, Alberto… was hilarious. He always made the effort to introduce us to more people… however I think that his intention was a little less than innocent as afterwards he asked “Do you have a boyfriend?” To Elisa, Anna and I – Eli and I both replied with no which he said “good.” Whilst Anna said yes and he replied with “…. That’s a liiiiitle bit of a problem”.  

The five of us ended up dancing with some of the Italians for hours and then once the bar closed at 2am the party moved into the car park where someone put music on via their car.

We ended going to the beach with Alex and Nad (pronounced Nard). Nad thought it would be amusing by telling Katherine he didn’t speak much English and have her attempt to speak Italian to him. We found out on the last day, whilst he was speaking to an English client at the windsurf school, that he does in fact speak English. After leaving the boys on the beach, we all went home at about 3:30 am.

 Day 25: Friday 15^th July

So today, Katherine and I decided that we wanted to go and explore the main town of the area, Palau. The town is a port town, and so the centre backs onto the port.

The town itself is tiny but very cute. It has typical Italian architecture and a similar vibe to any other town we’ve come across so far. What was different is that everything closes (except a couple of bars and restaurants) between 1:00 and either 3:00 or 5:00.  When we wondered through it was lunch time, so we ended up stopping at some restaurant in a backstreet which surprisingly had amazing food for a good price.

Katherine and I 

When we finished lunch, most of the shops were still closed so we hung out in the play equipment for half an hour or so. It was frankly one of the coolest playgrounds I’ve seen in a long time!

Katherine in the Play Ground 

As people were still tired from the night before, during the night we just hung at some bar and played foosball. Which I officially announce I am no good at. Katherine smashed me! We were playing Australia vs. Italy but as I was so bad, Katherine deflected teams!

  

Day 26: Saturday 16^th July

Today we spent the day at two different beaches instead of our usual Porto Pollo.

The first beach reminded me of Sydney beaches because it had surf. Okay, well I’m pretty sure the surf was only there because it was really windy but it was there all the same.

The second beach was so gorgeous. It was hidden down this dirt road and you had to walk through the sand dunes… but it was oh so worth it. It had dazzling, blue, clear water. We hung around at this beach for at least a couple of hours.

As usual, we went to Aperitivo at Porto Pollo at about 8. Aperitivo was really fun, we were there for longer than usual as there were more people to chat to.

Anna and I 

In the bar, the guys (who we had made friends with at the white party) were playing a drinking game called “Salute to Captain Puff” which was a bunch of movements and drinking. Truthfully, it was one of the strangest games I have ever seen. They tried to get Katherine and I to play but neither of us really understood what was going on - so we just watched.

We also made friends with two little Italian girls and played with them for hours. A song played that Natalie really liked, so the 5 of us plus the little girls ended up dancing.

Afterwards, we ended up chilling at the beach with us girlies and Lorenzo which was nice.

Day 27: Sunday 17^th July

Natalie and Anna left early in the morning to go to another island near Sardinia for the day whilst Katherine, Elisa and I slept in and then hung around Sardinia. Katherine and Elisa went to the beach for a couple of hours in the early afternoon whilst I went for a walk and then hung around the house. We met back at 3:00 where we had yummy pesto pasta for lunch with Sardinian bread.

Katherine at the Beach 

We met Anna and Natalie at home and then we all went to Aperitivo where we saw the sun go down. We also saw Marco (not my host brother) and Lorenzo who we chatted with for a while. Compared to the other nights, the bar had really good music playing and free Paella (food). So, once again we hung around longer than expected!

Anna and Natalie wanted to go see Harry Potter, so we drove to the main town of the Island and they watched HP whilst we wondered through the main street which was lined with stalls. Katherine, Eli and I all ended up having our hair down with a plat and something attached to it which means you can attach dangly things to it. Really that’s the only way to describe it… even though it doesn’t make much sense.

Day 28: Monday 18^th July

Today was unfortunately our last day in Sardinia L

  

We were all rather devastated to be leaving but ready at the same time to move onto another place.

We spent the day at Porto Pollo tanning and chatting and once we got bored of that we moved onto annoying our friends whilst they worked at the windsurf school from the upstairs area above their storage place.

Us upstairs  

Unfortunately, we took it a liiiiittle too far. Katherine got a fright after seeing Lorenzo who pulled himself up to the ledge we were and pulled a face at her. Alex (our Italian who lives in Brighton) ended up stealing my camera after taking too many photos.

 Alex

Lorenzo 

  

We left the beach to go shower and finish packing and then at about 6:30 we left Natalie’s to go to the port where we were catching a 9 hour ferry and we are proud enough to say that we got the play equipment as our bed rather than the floor!

Day 29: Tuesday 19^th July

So, today was basically a traveling day – we caught four trains, a bus and a ferry and stopped in 5 towns to get from Sardinia to Munich in Germany.

It’s probably easier to understand our day if we list it.

1. Tuscany (where the port was)

We got to Tuscany at about 6:00am and then walked to find a bus stop and then caught a bus at 7:00 to the main station. We reserved our three train tickets from Tuscany to Verona where we discovered that the train we intended to take at 10:00 from Florence was full, so we had to wait until the 12:30 train.

Elisa and Anna agreed that it was probably safer to wait for a long period of time at Florence so we caught the 8:10 train and got to Florence at about 9:30.

2. Florence (where we stopped for 3 hours whilst we changed trains)

They were lovely enough to then mind the bags whilst Katherine and I explored Florence.

Florence is absolutely lovely and after those three hours, Katherine and I definitely agree that we are stopping there on the way home.

3. Padova (changed trains)

Our train to Padova was running 35 minutes late and so we had 5 minutes to rush to make sure we caught our train to Vicenza.

4. Vicenza (picked up our bags)

Here we said goodbye to Anna and Elisa, Picked up our huge bags and then got back onto the train.

5. Verona (stopped for an hour waiting for a train)

We were changing trains here to catch the train to Munich. There wasn’t much around the station so we just had to chill in the station for an hour.

So, that’s all for now – we are currently on a train going through Austria on our way to Munich, Germany to see Kate O’shea!

Ciao!

Cait and Katherine

Day 12 to 19

Day 12: Saturday 2^nd July

Today was more of a transition day, as we had to wait in Athens to apparently meet up with Katherine’s family friend, Peter. Unfortunately, due to miscommunication he flew straight to Mykonos leaving us stranded in Athens, luckily the Bineham’s were also heading to Athens on the 3^rd so we hung around waiting for them.

After leaving the President hotel (the one affiliated with contiki) we journeyed to another hotel, known as Centrotel where we discovered you pay for the area rather than the facilities. The receptionist, after seeing two struggling backpackers gave us a room upgrade which included a balcony with a lovely view of everybody else’s balconies.

* Please note: the view includes a wonderful outlook of the stomach of an old, enormous Greek man. Whilst we make fun of the view, the room was actually really nice for the price we paid for it.

The day itself was pretty unexciting, we wondered through Athens, got a gyros for dinner, and watched some movies.

Day 13: Sunday 3^rd July

After waking up rather late, and chatting to Andy and Allie on Skype we missed breakfast and had to pack rather haphazardly to get to our third hotel in Athens in five days. We were meeting the Bineham’s at the hotel, where they were kind enough to get a room for Katherine and I. I would like everyone to note that it was in an incredibly safe area of Athens with a great front row view of the riots.

When asking the cabby to drive us to their hotel he asked us several times if we had the right hotel and the concierge of the hotel asked us if we needed help rather rudely – clearly the hotel doesn’t see backpackers a lot!

We had a wonderful lunch with the Bineham’s and spent the afternoon catching up and swimming in the pool. Dinner was an event… Well I suppose it wasn’t dinner in itself but the entertainment during dinner and what occurred afterwards. During dinner the live entertainment which consisted of two old Greek men (one with a beautiful comb over) singing and playing their instruments. When comb over guy left, the other one decided to flirt with a table of Canadian ladies by getting them to sing and dance with him. He was also kind enough to include the rest of the restaurant by getting us to clap…Getting is the wrong word, forced is more appropriate as every time we stopped he would yell and glare at us. Needless to say, we got out of that restaurant as fast as possible. When wondering back to our hotel through Syntagma square (where the riots were and now was currently filled with people) we noticed policemen, well they were the riot squad armed with shields and gas masks. After hurrying back to the safety of our hotel, Marc and Jacqui thought it would be a brilliant idea to go onto the balcony and get a first hand experience of what the protests were about. Protesters were using green lasers to blind the various policemen around. Marc and Jacqui were then accosted by green lasers and with this not deterring them, they were dancing, posing and even waving at the protesters!

The Riot

Day 14: Monday 4^th July

After a huge breakfast we all (Anne-Maree, Marc, Jacqui, Katherine and myself) headed to the airport to catch a flight to Mykonos. The security getting onto the flight to Mykonos was strangely more than the security getting off the flight from Rome and into Athens. The hotel we were staying in was really nice. Katherine, Jacqui and I shared a room and we had to go up and down at least 30 steps to get to it.

Katherine and I decided we wanted another one of the amazing gyroses we had gotten the week before and so dragged Jacqui around the maze of Mykonos looking for the gyros store. After an hour and a half of wondering we eventually found and it was just as good as we remembered it. We finished the afternoon with tanning by the pool, cocktails and dinner at the hotel.

On our balcony    

Day 15: Tuesday 5^th July

Katherine and I have decided that like Fiji, the Greeks have their own time frame, everything is done late and very slowly. One positive of this is, that Breakfast is held late in the morning! Which allowed us to have an amaaaaazing sleep in!

During the morning we shopped with Anne-Maree and Jacqui. The greek islands have some amazing stores from clothes to jewellery. Katherine bought a necklace whilst I got a really nice turquoise ring with some Greek symbols. After a while we stopped for drinks in Little Venice. The area had an amazing view however the company was questionable. I got sat on by a young French boy who was running wild. Anne-Maree maintains that I saved his life because if I wasn’t there he would have fallen like onto concrete. Lucky I was there! We returned to the hotel during the mid afternoon and went and laid by the pool with cocktails. Katherine and I slept by the pool and when Jacqui eventually woke us up, the family friend Peter, his friend Chris and Marc were with us by the pool.

View at dinner

Eventually, Chris and Pete left and we all showered and got ready to go out for dinner. We went for dinner by the port and it had an incredible view of the water. Dinner itself was alright but it was still a really nice location. Jacqui, Katherine and I then went for a shop on the way home. Jacqui bought a really nice ring and I bought a pair of high shoes.  At about 11:30ish Chris and Pete came and picked Katherine and I up from the hotel and took us out. We first of all went to a bar and then we went to two clubs in Little Venice. The first club had a little stage near the DJ and the four of us danced on it for ages. There was also a table where everyone took turns of dancing on it and at one point Katherine, Pete and I danced on it whilst Chris stayed on the floor. We then moved onto the 2^nd club which had more old school RnB music which was also good to dance to. Chris and Pete then took us home at about 4. Whilst we were walking back to our room I managed to cut myself on a cactus and so whenever I walked pass it again I went out of my way to avoid it.

Day 16: Wednesday 6^th July

Katherine and I were woken up by Jacqui at 10:30am when she had decided that we had slept enough whilst she was awake and that we were to go to breakfast with her. I’m not going to lie… Getting up was little bit more than a struggle. After a well deserved breakfast we got into the car that Marc had hired so we could explore the sights of the Island.

Katherine and I have decided that the roads on Mykonos were not designed for more than one lane of traffic. Saying that the experience was nerve racking is an understatement for all of us! I felt very sorry for Marc who had to drive. We met a truck head on, had to go skinny, dirt roads, try and get up hills that the car would not go up and avoid huge buses on corners.

We first  visited a light house.. or well attempted to. The first road to the light house we tried to get up but the car refused and went back down the hill. Instead we got to a point with an amazing view.

View from top of the Hill 

The day was about 35 degrees in temperature so we then decided to go to a beach. The beach was pretty cool, it had seats and umbrellas like the one in Rhodes and a bar close to the water. Except rather than sitting in the seats we all mostly hung out in the water.

The Beach  

We then found the party area of the island which looked like so much fun. We decided that we will have to go back with friends.

We went to watch the sunset at Chris’s sister’s house. It had the most amazing view. We went out for dinner with the family again and then met up with Chris and Peter in the Bar at the hotel.  We stayed there drinking cocktails, got a free shot (2^nd free drink) and chatting for hours.

Day 17: Thursday 7^th July

We got up early this morning because we had to be at the port at 9:20 to catch a ferry to Santorini. The ferry trip itself was long (about 2 hours) and was really uneventful – we slept and played cards.

Jacqui on the Ferry 

Once at Santorini we had to get a taxi or a bus up the hill to Fira, which is the main town. Jacqui and Marc got into a taxi and then went to the hotel to check in whilst Anne-Maree, Katherine and I were still at the port. We then were waiting for a taxi when a man driving a bus told us he could drop us at the hotel for cheaper – so we got into the bus. Unfortunately the bus didn’t drop us exactly at the hotel, it dropped us at the bottom of a hill and told us to walk up. Once at the top of the hill we had no idea where to go so we called Marc who also told us he got lost so he came and found us. The entrance to the hotel was down a set of stairs and then you had to go down more to get to the door. Katherine and I were staying in the hotel next to them as there was no room in their hotel, so an employee then took both our backpacks (one on the front and one on the back) and then walked down three flights of stairs to our room in the other hotel.

View from hotel   

After settling in, we went out for lunch in the centre of Fira to this restaurant which had to most amazing meatballs. During the afternoon we just wondered around the town, shopped for a bit and then sat in the Jacuzzi of the hotel.

We went to dinner at a restaurant just near the hotel and it had incredible food. The best food I have ever eaten in Greece. Like uhhh it was so good and it had an astounding view. We had these tomato ball things which were by far the most fantastic things ever, tzatiki, risotto, pasta, chicken. It was just amazing.

Picture of view   P1030370

Day 18: Friday 8^th July

On Friday we did a tour of the volcano and the hot springs near Santorini. We got like an old sailing boat (kinda like a mini pirate’s ship) to the volcano island and then once docked we had to walked all around the island.

Photo of the boat   

The walk was really tedious and hard as it was all in sand and up hill. Jacqui and Anne-Maree stayed at the bottom of the second hill whilst Katherine, Marc and I separated from the rest of the tour group as the tour guide kept giving us useless pieces of information that was already in the information brochure and went ahead. It was pretty amazing to see the various craters formed as a result of eruptions. Currently there are still active chambers underneath the island! At the top of one of the hills there was mini towers made from various pieces of rock. Katherine then decided to become apart of the trend and made her own tower.

We then got back onto the boat and went to the hot springs. We swam from clear, blue, cold water to copper coloured water that was really warm. The sea floor was covered in rocks so we swam through the .5 m water so we couldn’t touch the bottom. Anytime we would it would be all gross and slimey – so you wouldn’t know if it was an animal you were stepping on or a rock. The only problem was that the copper colour was mud which then got stuck all through our swimmers.

That afternoon Katherine and I said goodbye to the Bineham’s and then caught a ferry from Santorini back to Athens. The ferry trip was about 5 hours and the water was really choppy. Surprisingly, the trip went really quickly as we slept for the majority of it. We got into Pireas Port, Athens at about 10:30ish and then caught a cab to our hotel. Only problem was that neither us nor the cabby knew where the hotel was. We knew the name but not the address so we spent a good 20 minutes going around in circles until we found it.

Day 19: Saturday 9^th July

Today was a traveling day.

Within 24 hours we traveled in:

• A Ferry
• Taxi
• Another Taxi
• Airplane
• Walking
• 3 Trains
• Elisa’s Car

So, to start the day we thought the plane left at 11:30 and being silly enough not to check our tickets we got to the airport at 9:30 only to realise that our plane left at 12:30…bloody brilliant start to the day.  Only after attempting to sleep and play some cards did we finally line up to check-in. The check-in wasn’t yet open but there was a queue starting to form.

Once check-in and through security (which is more strict going out of the country then coming in?!) we sat in our seats which we discovered were surrounded by teeny bopper American girls who honestly thought they were the best thing to ever happen. They had no personal space issues and felt perfectly content putting their feet on our arm rests… even when asked to remove them. One of them then had an altercation with an English man who then, when getting off the plane blocked their way and let us through! Win for Australia!!!!

Once at the airport we caught the train to Termini (the main station at Rome) and then spent an hour wondering around the station in 30 degree heat with our backpacks on, trying to 1. Activate our eurail passes and 2. Reserve our seat on the train. Once that was all complete we had like 10 minutes until our train left so we got a perfectly healthy meal of MacDonald’s to take onto the train to eat. The train trip was actually not bad, it was 4 hours and we slept and play cards and luckily the train itself was really nice as we had four seats to the two of us and had a table.

Finally, after changing trains at Padova we got to Vicenza where Elisa picked us up. She informed us that we were picking up her friend Giorgia Bedin where we were to change at her house and then going to their other friend Clara’s birthday dinner! As you can imagine…. After traveling for nearly 7 hours, we were… overjoyed!

Dinner wasn’t too bad. I got to see my friends from when I was there on exchange and saw my host brother Marco. The food was also pretty good! At the end of dinner, a couple of us then went into the centre of Vicenza for a little while to have a couple of drinks and to just have a wonder around the town. At about 1ish we decided that we were absolutely exhausted and needed to go to bed.

Due to us being in Italy now,

Ciao, a piu’ tardi

Cait and Katherine 

Day 6 to 11

Day 6 to 11 (26/6 – 1/7)

Sunday (26^th June) during the day was rather uninteresting. We sat outside by the swimming pool which was on the roof but couldn’t tan because it was windy and cloudy so we played cards, chatted and took photos.

The view from the top of the hotel

That evening we met the rest of the Contiki Crew with a meeting to gain general information and then a big Greek dinner in the oldest district (which is the tourist district) in Athens. There are a range of English speaking nationalities in our tour group – the majority being Americans, then Australians, Canadians and South Africans. We are most definitely the youngest but ages range from us to about nearly 35 I would believe. We have made mates with 2 other girls from Sydney (Sarah and Steph) who are 24 and absolutely lovely. They kind of remind me of Katherine and me as they are traveling in a pair and one is short and one is tall. There is an interesting range of personalities in the group which have neared confrontation over the last couple of days.

Dinner was so much fun. We had three courses of traditional Greek food with Greek wine and wonderful live entertainment. Hearing everyone’s stories about where they had been or where they were heading to was really motivating. Learning everyone’s adventures what we should and shouldn’t do in various countries was very informative.

Day One of the Cruise

On Monday we began our cruise. We had to meet at 7:15 which was highly irritating after having ended up at the bar the night before with everyone from the tour. The boat is massive; fits about 15 000 people on it with two pools, 10 levels, a disco and many, many bars. We were lucky enough to get a drink special where we get unlimited drinks between 10am and 2am from Monday to Thursday for only 95 euro. Let’s just say we most definitely made use of it!

To start of with, we had a emergency evacuation drill. It was pretty amusing – everyone was standing around in bright orange life jackets.

 Monday during the day we tanned in sun lounges which were littered across the upper deck and during the afternoon/evening we went to Mykonos. Holy Moly, it is stunning and it is by far both mine and Katherine’s favourite island.

Steph, Sarah, Katherine and I all wondered around Mykonos for about four hours. It is so cool throughout the back streets, its mostly white with the doors and windows accentuated in various colours - mostly blue but there is also red, green and turquoise.

 

We had a Gyros (pronounced Yuros) which is a Greek kebab. It has chips, pork or chicken, tomato, tzatziki and onion in it. You can get various types but that is known as the original. Sounds really strange, but honestly it is sooooooo good. After walking around the town, we got cocktails at a bar known as “Martini” which is apparently quite popular. We got seriously lost getting back to the port to catch a tender boat to the cruise ship but luckily we made the last tender boat at about 10:20ish at night.

Later that night we went to the “disco” on the boat - it is really more like a club as it has a bar.  We had a fabulous night dancing, using our drinking cards (the boarding passes!), and getting to know our fellow Contiki members. It closed at 2am and shockingly (not really) it was mostly the Aussies left in the club with a few Americans and Canadians at the end. I think we surprised them with our partying spirit ha.

Day 2 of the Cruise

Shockingly we slept in a bit on Tuesday and nearly missed getting to Turkey! But lucky enough the house maids woke us up and we were off the boat and in Turkey in less than 20 minutes which is pretty impressive I think.

     

Turkey was interesting. We went through the bazaar and they will try anything to get you into their shop. You can’t look at anything without them practically pouncing on you to buy something. Honestly, they are so desperate for you to buy something that you don’t even have to pay in Turkish Currency. We didn’t buy anything but we did look around. We got back on the boat at 11:30 and went and had a buffet lunch which was actually rather nice and then had a nice long sleep. Unfortunately, I got really boat sick when I woke up because the water was really rough and therefore the boat rocked… a lot. So I spent the next 4 hours curled up in bed and therefore missed the next island. Katherine was lovely enough to stay behind with me even though I told her she could go.

That evening I felt a lot better and then went to the Contiki Cocktail party and then we had a karoke night. The whole Contiki Group ended up singing Bohemian Rhapsody which was hilarious. Then the disco started and we had some drinks and danced with the rest of the group, it wasn’t as late as the night before but we still didn’t get a huuuuge amount of sleep.

Day 3 of the Cruise

So this morning was the first time we actually got up for breakfast. Wasn’t too impressed.. everything was a bit… bleh I suppose. Any way, today we went to an island called Rhodes. It was kinda cute because it had two parts – old and new. The old part was built within castle walls and the new part was current Greek architecture (not white and blue).  During the morning Katherine and I roamed the old part of the island. We wondered through the bazaars, the castle itself and through the old streets. Apparently, the roads of most of the islands were designed in an almost maze like way to protect the locals from the pirates who came to attack the towns.

One of the walls within the town

For lunch, we went back onto the boat and had just the buffet. We found Sarah (one of the two from Sydney) and the three of us wondered back into the town and to the beach. The beach was incredible and so different to the beaches back home. I mean, they use their beach as a major source of income for the town; from charging for the beds on the beach to having the bars serve drinks to people on the beach and then finally people wondering up and down the beach offering to sell cakes, drinks, ice creams and even massages. It was so crowded (see the photo below). We were lucky enough to find three beds near the water, near the exit and near a nice/reasonably priced bar that played good music. The water was sooooo blue and very clear. Although one major problem with the beach was that it was pebbles not sand and they hurt when you sink into them.

The Beach at Rhodes

At night we just danced again in the disco and once again it was only Contiki… well mostly Australians left on the dance floor at 2.

Day 4 of the Cruise

Today was our last full day on the cruise. We actually got up for breakfast and then we went to the island Crete. All the historical sites were too far from the dock for us to get to in the allocated time and so Katherine and I wondered around into the centre of the town but we discovered it smelt bad.. so walked back to the boat.

Lunch was nice, it was international day on the cruise so they had food from all over the world. We ate on the upper deck with Sarah and Steph before then heading back to our room to pack.

We did a tour in Santorini. The lady who ran the tour reminded me of the dad from My Big Fat Greek Wedding. She would explain the Greek origin of every English word… even the word “down”. It had the Contiki people in absolute hysterics and therefore no one was actually listening to anything informative she had to say. Santorini is gorgeous. Everything is so photogenic and clean.

First of all we went to the a small village which was stunning. The guide was telling us that the greatest income of Santorini is due tourists. We wondered up and down the streets basically taking photos of everything. We have noticed that everywhere you go in Greece there are stay cats and dogs just lying everywhere, especially on the islands.

Then, we got a bus to Fira which is the main town of Santorini. At this point my camera ran out of battery so I’ll get photos once Sarah (one of the Sydney girls) uploads hers.

We went and had a drink on a bar with the Contiki people which looked onto the sunset and over the sea – amazing view. To get back to the boat we had to go down the escarpment, so as one should do in Santorini we rode down on Donkeys! Katherine was stuck on a donkey that was grouped to a group of American school girls who were also on the cruise whereas mine was roaming free. My donkey decided it didn’t want to be last so tried to over take all the others. With doing so, It practically ran down the hill whilst ramming me into the wall, plants and other donkey’s - Terribly amusing for everyone else around me.

Katherine on the Donkey

That night was by far the most amusing. Firstly,  they had international music going on (to fit in with the theme) and the song “From the Land Down Under” came on. Then, when the dance music came on there was a bunch of American teenages dancing incredibly inappropriately. Let me give you a brief image… There was very little space between them and they definitely should not have had their hands in certain places. They had been dancing like that all week and basically everyone was sick of it. Kristy (one of the Australians) after telling them to stop it… went and threw a glass of water on a pair of the two gyrating teenages. Even though…. That was probably wasn’t the best thing to do, it was well needed – they needed to cool down!  In the confrontation between Kristy and the teenages involved them coming to “bash her” as they said. But when they came over, the whole of the contiki group stood up to support her. What the teenages failed to notice is that one of our mates is a 7 foot male and when he stood, they quickly backed off. In the end security kicked the teenages out for being inappropriate and we continued to dance!

Final Day of the Cruise

We had to be out of our rooms by 7 and in a meeting at 7:15, so with very limited sleep - getting up earlier than this to get ready and then have breakfast was a great struggle.

We got off the boat at 7:30 and then we got onto a bus with some of the contiki people to do a tour of Athens. The Acropolis was amazing and totally worth seeing however, the amount of people, the heat and the lack of personal space made it… not as great as I thought it would be. We were on a tour with some other public people and so in the end when going up we separated and made our own tour.  I was amazed at the amount of people who had a lack of respect of others. They were pushing in, pushing you out of the way… well just very pushy. It took hours to get through and finally we met all the contiki people down the bottom, we had a water in a café nearby.

We got back to the meeting spot to find that firstly, there was no bus (which had all our belongings in it and secondly, no tour guide. We all had a major panic which resulted in 7 people running around like headless chickens looking for either the bus or the tour guide. Eventually we found the tour guide who informed us that the bus hadn’t arrived yet. When the bus eventually arrived, it took us back to the President hotel where we would be staying. Katherine and I then went out to lunch with Kimo (the 7 foot American man) and an Australian couple from Canberra. Lunch was so good. We each chose a dish and then shared and once finished the waiter gave us a shot of some Greek liquor on the house.

During the afternoon, we had a bit of a look around the area, tanned and basically relaxed as we were both exhausted from the cruise. Dinner was interesting, we had dinner with 4 other contiki people. We must have looked hilarious as a group as it was 6 girls and then Kimo. The food itself was strange, it wasn’t traditional Greek food; it was like a modified version.

So that has been the last week, we’re still in Athens for another couple of days. We’re meeting up with the Bineham’s tomorrow which should be good. Sorry for the long entry….. There is just a lot to say!

Till next time!

Andia

Cait and Katherine