It's been a while... Part 2 - Greece!

Greece.... Greece... where to start...


Why on earth I decided to spend such an enormous amount in Greece I will never know! I think my reasoning was something along the lines of:  1. Hotels in London are so expensive at the moment due to the olympics and 2. There will be heaps to do in Greece! 


So on the 31st of June after spending four days back in London, I once again went through the process of booking an Addison Lee to take me to Victoria Station to get the Gatwick Express to Gatwick for my flight to Athens. For some reason this particular evening I decided to double check my booking. Lucky I did because, well, had I gone with my first instincts, I would have ended up at the wrong airport! My flight was leaving from Heathrow!


The flight to Athens was rather boring, and annoyingly I had been moved from my original seat in the first few rows, to right down the back of the plane! (I have such good luck with plane seats). I arrived into Athens airport and pretty much walked straight through to the taxi rank. There was practically no customs, passport control winked at me on my way through and that was that! 


I got into a taxi with a very scruffy driver who drove his early 90's model Merc at 170kph to get me to my hostel! I don't know what it is in cabs, but for some reason I feel defiant to wear a seat belt! I don't know if it's too much time in Tuk Tuk's in and around Asia or what it is. But I very rarely wear a seatbelt in cabs, very silly I know, and it's something I'm working on. However, if you've ever been in a plastic upholstered Merc doing 170kph and your'e not at the wheel, let me tell you now, a seatbelt is a MUST! It took one corner for me to go sliding across the back seat and I'm now a cab-seatbelt wearer for life! (CSBW4L). Incredible! 


Anyways, he did safely get me to my hostel (the Athens Backpackers) or at least to the street it was on. I was on my own for the lugging my luggage up the street part! 


Now, anybody who knows me, and I mean REALLY knows me, knows that I can rough it at the best of time, I've been camping, I've slept under desks on the floor at work, under boardroom tables.... generally I can sleep anywhere! I had decided to book into a backpackers for a one main reason.... to meet other people travelling the same as I was. I had booked into a 6 bed female dorm with an ensuite. 


On arrival into the backpackers the lovely guy at the front desk lugged my luggage up a flight of stairs to the lift, and send me on up to my room. As far as hostels go, I couldn't fault this place. The staff were friendly, the rooms were spotless, the bathrooms cleaned daily and were also spotless (until they start getting used!). The only issue was, no aircon! Greece was in the middle of a heat wave, and it was 40 degrees outside with 75% humidity! KILL ME! The first two nights were not the greatest sleep wise, but we eventually discovered the indeed the aircon did work, we just had to ask for the remote! BRILLIANT! 


The backpackers has a bar upstairs, and if you go up at about 8.30 and stay for an hour, you can watch the sun set behind the Acropolis, very cool! 


There were different ladies every night in my room, all absolutely lovely, all travelling the globe! 


Because I had quite a few days before my tour started (Athens, Olympia, Delphi and then 7 Days Greek Islands) I decided to take my time going around Athens and sight seeing! 


I did the Acropolis (three times in total), Hadrian's Gate, the Olympic Stadiums, the museums, the restaurants, the markets, the gardens, the zappion, virtually everything!!! It took me all of...um.... three days.... lol I'm kind of glad that I got everything done up front, as I ended up knocked on my ass about 6 days in with a migraine. Which unfortunately forced a change of accommodation to a hotel, and about three days in bed! Okay, it was bed and the pool!  

My tour of Olympia, Delphi and Athens was great. We had a wonderful tour guide (Theo) who organised everything for us. Walked us to restaurants/clubs/bars (not that I did the latter) and was all around just awesome! We got to see so much, and by the end I was ruined (pardon the pun!) as were most of our group! 

The above is where the Olympic Torch is lit every year. 

The next part of our trip was the 7 day cruise. On the first part of my trip I had met some wonderful ladies, who were also doing the 7 day cruise. Theo had the bus drop us at our Athens hotel where the next morning we would be picked up by bus and taken to our cruise ship. 


The 7 day cruise was part of the contiki that I had originally booked, and I'm very sad to say, that booking through contiki was the largest waste of money EVER. Most of you know that I'm an enormous contiki advocate, and throughout Europe and Egypt they have been wonderful. Greek Island cruising..... what a waste! There was absolutely nothing that I got from my contiki that I couldn't have and wouldn't have done for myself. /end rant.lol


So first stop on the journey was Turkey, Istanbul in particular. Holy crap! What a busy city! There were thousands of people EVERYWHERE! Unfortunately we had some not so correct information given to us by our tour manager, and with a lack of an actual map with street names, getting around, especially through the Bazaar was quite difficult. I think with a good amount of information and a map things would have been a breeze! However the Bazaar in Istanbul is truly a sight to be seen! Thousands of things to buy, millions of colours, billions of people! 


We visited mosques, markets, an underground cistern, caught the metro and wandered around aimlessly! Then thank god, we headed back to the ship! When I say WE I mean Camille and I: Earlier in the trip I had made friends with a girl from Puerto Rico named Camille. We were each other's rocks on the ship. I think without her I would have thrown myself overboard! haha It was fantastic as we were both so similar, and had generally had enough of whatever we were doing at around the same time! Ruined as we came to call it! 

Next we headed to the Greek Islands! For some reason I didn't take an enormous amount of photos of the Greek Islands, I'm not really sure why. However, travelling the Greek Islands really makes you appreciate how absolutely incredible our Australian beaches are. The beaches off the North coast of Queensland are a million times more beautiful than any of the beaches we saw in Greece or Turkey! So I'm not entirely sure what all the fuss was about! 


I had my 27th Birthday sailing into Izmir which was nice, the boat staff were incredible, I had a birthday cake, towel animals on my bed, a birthday seranade and all sorts of things! I also received a giant block of Toblerone, which actually lasted til the end of the trip! lol 


The next stop was supposed to be Mykonos but unfortunately didn't make it to Mykonos, as it was too risky to dock with tender boats to transfer, so ended up on a little island called Syros. Syros is beautiful, so clean, laid back and friendly! I would go back in an instant! 


We also visited Patmos, Rhodes, Crete and Santorini. I got rather burnt in Rhodes, and it was the first and last time we (Camille and I) visited the beach. Both of us were RED raw by the end of our day, and I'm still peeling! lol Whoops! 


The below are a couple of photos from Patmos, and a photo of our ship, the Louis Cristal. 

Santorini was lovely, we weren't there very long, just enough to do a tour and then have a little bit of down time wandering around the town of Oia (pronounced eea). The photos from Santorini are below:

By the end of the 7 days (which seemed like SOOO much longer) I was so ready to get out of Greece it wasn't even funny! lol I'm also pretty sure that if I never saw another souvlaki or gyros again in my life I would definitely live! lol 


The day we arrived back into Athens, Camille and I had a very cruisy day around Athens, and spent some down time watching movies in her hotel! That afternoon I took a flight to Paris....which is where I am now!  


Thats all for now! Sorry for the novel! 


SJ x

It's been a while....Part 1 - Spain

Hi All! 

Okay, I'm extremely slack and haven't blogged in what seems like forever! It seems at the moment that I keep starting, and then something happens and I don't get back into it for ages! 


So What I'm going to do is break down all my travels into separate posts which will hopefully make things a little easier for everyone to read and probably me to write! 


I hope this post finds everyone safe and well! 


So.. my trip to sunny Spain! 


I flew out of London on Wednesday the 14th (June) from Gatwick Airport on a 7:00am flight. Epic Fail. I had arranged the night before to get an Addison Lee (like a taxi) to take me to Victoria Station so that I could catch the Gatwick Express to the airport the 5.15 train EW!. Gatwick Express my backside! We ended up being delayed on the line at some point because we were too early, and then ended up late. Also Gatwick Airport isn't particularly well signed at the entrance from the train, and it took me a couple of minutes to realise that I had to transfer terminals via shuttle train. UGH! By this time, it was about 6.20am and I was resigned to the fact that I may have to buy another ticket to Malaga. 


Finally arriving at the terminal I managed to check my bag and proceed to bag drop desk, to be greeted by a very grumpy Susanne, who promptly told me off for being late...um yeah THANKS Captain Obvious! After a few calls to re-open the baggage check, she told me that it would take at least 10 minutes to get to gate 106, and that there was NO STOPING on the way and I would need to RUN! Me? RUN? this must be a joke! Alas it was not. It so turns out, that indeed I can run.... I can also jump over children, baggage and anything else that thought it might interrupt my passage to gate 106. I'm sure there is some funny sod sitting in security, watching my epic journey in slow motion from the CCTV... 


After what seemed like a lifetime I rounded a corner and was greeted by a big glowing sign informing me that I had indeed reached gate 106 just in time for boarding <insert victory music here>.
I was definitely the colour of a beetroot, and sounded like an old man with emphysema...
Row 8 seat F. Thank god! Sitting down, and rearranging myself, I was greeted by two ladies (mother in her 60's and daughter in her 40's) I'm sure I long-jumped past somewhere around duty free, who no doubt had had a casual stroll to gate and had indeed made it in time....  I huffed a brief hello, how are you? and they didn't talk to me again the rest of the flight... HA 


Flying over spain is truly amazing. It looks like a giant patchwork quilt that someone has very carefully sewn together with threads of dark green trees. We passed over the snow capped Pyrenees Mountains and eventually landed at Malaga Airport.  


So besides wanting to visit the South of Spain, I have been dying to come to visit my Aunty Jo. She is my Father's sister. Over the years Jo has come home to Australia for Christmas's and we have had brief catch up's then, but I've never really spent much one on one time with anyone on that side of my family! 


So once I arrived in London, I sent her an email to see if she would have me for a couple of weeks! I was delighted to find out that indeed I could stay as long as I liked, and could consider her home in Coin, my Spanish Home Away from Home! 


Jo picked me up at the airport, and we drove back to her home in Coin. The landscapes on the way from Malaga Airport through to Coin are incredible! As you drive along, you see a lot of nothing, then all of a sudden a little township, that takes you less than a minute to pass entirely! It's incredible and I love it! 

The view from Jo's terrace!

Jo is the head of the Coin branch of the British Legion, so an enormous part of her time is dedicated to organising all sorts of things for the BL. The day after I arrived, they had a conference in Torremolenos, a little town on the coast, I decided to tag along and make a day of wandering around this adorable little sea side town. 


I made the epic mistake of wearing my walking boots... way too hot... and within about 20 minutes of being there I had bought a hat and a new pair of Havianas! WINNING!!  I spent most of the day wandering in and out of little shops and up and down the board walk. I stopped for "Cafe Con Leche" (Oh Lorena would be so proud) a couple of times and then eventually stopped for lunch at a beach side restaurant, with a stunning view of the beach and all the Germanic tourists already cherry tomato red bathing in the sun. 

The beach at Torremolenos!

Friday Jo took me out to Puerto Banus, which is like the Gold Coast of Marbella and Malaga, there are yachts and Ferrari's everywhere, and for every Ferrari, there are three beautiful restaurants! It was lovely to walk through the Marina and the shops. We had lunch in a little restaurant with official the worst Payella I have ever had lol but you have to try these things right? 


Saturday I spent most of the day lounging around the pool at Jo's (yes it's a hard life I lead! lol ) reading the final books in the 50 shades trilogy (which I quite enjoyed). In the evening Jo took me to a "Race Night" in aid of one of the Animal Welfare charities around Coin. Unfortunately the race night didn't exactly go ahead, but the British Legion still managed to raise about 100 Euro for the charity!

The pool where I found myself lazing... a lot!

Sunday morning we had a nice lazy day and headed down to the local tat (junk) markets to have a look around and then headed to the house of two BL members to help with a clean up of the garage for the BL tat stall and a lovely afternoon BBQ. 


Monday afternoon we went down to the Arroyo De La Niel Marina for a wander around, the Marina was absolutely beautiful! There are so many little restaurants and lovely beach! We found a lovely little mexican place for dinner and sat and watched the people go past! It was truly a lovely afternoon! It may have been followed up by gelato.... oops! Yes my hips are rapidly expanding! lol Oh well! 

People watching at Arroyo De La Niel Marina. 

On Tuesday Jo took me into Old Town Marbella. The buildings were absolutely incredible! We stopped for lunch in Orange Square and then wandered around the shops (Jo can shop like no other!). 
I find the heat in Spain makes me very tired, and even walking around is draining! 
On our return to the car, which we had earlier parked downstairs in honestly one of the tightest carparks (on a whole not just the particular space) we found that we were indeed stuck! Trying to reverse out without hitting something was going to be a nightmare! luckily, 5 lovely men came to our rescue, each watching a certain corner of the car! Absolutely hilarious! Finally we were out!! 


Later in the week, we headed out to Ronda, a lovely town on the top of a huge gorge, with beautiful old buildings, a bull ring and lots of other things to see and do! The views from the lookout at Ronda were absolutely incredible! On the way from Ronda we headed to a little town called Juzcar. Juzcar is a TINY little town where every building is painted Smurf blue! Yep Smurf Blue!! Apparently Sony came along and offered to repaint the entire town, if they would let them paint it blue for promo for the movie. The townspeople agreed, and the village was painted BLUE! Later Sony were to come back and paint the village white again, btu the townspeople voted and decided to keep the village blue due to the rise in tourists coming to see the town!


News Article on the town --> http://news.sky.com/home/world-news/article/16133348 

In my final few days we drove around Malaga and went up to an old Fort that looks out over the beautiful city and had lunch and a wander around. I was lucky enough to be invited to go on one of the Legion trips out to Alfanati (sp) for their annual cherry festival, and I definitely spent more than my share of hours lazing by the pool! 

I honestly had such an amazing time in Coin and surrounds. I can't wait to go back! 


Next Stop London for 4 days, then off to Greece! 


Stay Safe! 


SJ x