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