Thessaloniki is a bit of a wasteland, a bit dirty and boring so Ill skip our day there...from here we caught a sleeper train to Istanbul. After sleeping on the airport floor in Athens and all day waiting in Thessa, the hand basin in our private carriage became a makeshift foot and underarm shower hehe ALL CLASS we are...The sleeper was suprisingly good, comfy even. We slept until the border at which point we were woken by a man yelling at us to surrender our passports and get off the train. An interesting experience when there isnt much english goin around and its 3,30am. You just trust your not getting ripped off with the visa entry...there wouldnt be a hell of a lot you could do even if you were! The train got into the city at about 9am and we found our hostel and passed out till the afternoon, then got up to sample our first turksih kebab. Let me just say it aint no Uncle Tobys! They cut open a bread roll and wipe up the fat drip tray with it..then they fill it with meat and a few bits of salad..no sauce unless you ask, so it can be quite dry...although I guess thats what the fat is for..lubricant.!
The next few days we did the tourist route...pausing for a day because poor trent got a tummy bug :( Among the notable sites were the two large mosques - Aya Sofia and The Blue Mosque. They are beautiful from the outside and we were keen to take a look inside, but the entry fee for one was just stupid and the other we visited during prayer, so we admired from afar. Later we visited an old underground cistern, used to supply the city with water. Check out the photos, I think they came out nicely. The same afternoon we had a poke around the Grand Bazaar and met a few characters. Some delightful, some a**holes...all part of the experience of bargaining I guess! Its fun to look around but not as cheap as we would have liked.
Around the hostel we stayed at in the Old Town there were some beautiful alleways decorated with creeping vines, hanging lights, turkish cusions and the ever present hookah! The old town has so much more charm than the New Town, which is practically the same as every other main city we have been to. Same old stores...H&M, Nike, Billabong etc etc. I didnt rate it too highly although it looks like it has a good modern bar scene which we unfortunately didnt check out.
We also visited Topkapi Palace and saw among other things, the Circumcision Room of past Sultans. A whole room dedicated to that! The palace was nice, reminded me of Aladdin so I loved it hehe. Ill never forget the wealth we saw there. Rubies, diamonds, emeralds, pearls...adorning everything. A VERY wealthy empire id say. Later on we returned to the bazaar and bought ourselves some matching leather poofs and a hookah...the start of our very own international backyard lounging area!
Istanbul isnt only interesting for its history and monuments, its an interesting city to walk around as a female. Things are a bit different for the fairer sex. The country is predominantly muslim and dress standards in Eastern Turkey especially, follow the religions strict rules. I was mindful to dress modestly, although even when I did I was still stared at left right and centre. We heard stories of women being felt up and leered at, and its just plain annoying and rude from my point of view so I had to remind myself it was just the norm in turkey. I also wasnt looked at or involved in conversations between men and Trent and I. They would speak to Trent and ignore me, that can be annoying too, except for when theyre trying the sell.
The very last morning in Istanbul a cab driver didnt think his first two trips around the block to stare at me were enough, so he followed it up with a third driveby and a leer.. I was more than happy to get on the bus and leave at that point...Leave for our next stop....Gallipoli...
More soon xoxo
Monday, July 20, 2009
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Beach n Booze n Ball n Bat
Ios.. Finally, a holiday! We deserved it by the time we got there... hehe kidding, i bet so many of you will get angry at me saying that. All I mean is, after a few months of travelling non-stop, a whole week of hedonistic activities is more of a treat than usual!
We booked in to a really good place called Far Out Village and Camping. We shared a decent triple room, and the place had the most important facilities for our week there.....several pools and several bars. There is also a beautiful beach right out the front with free umbrellas and sun lounges. We also played tennis most days and and bought a ball and bat so we could play out on the sand. There's not much to fill in your days on Ios so to break up our beach, drink, nap routine we hired a scooter and a quad bike and rode to a beach across the other side of the island. I got super crispy on the ride because the sun is so intense, but it was worth it to check out a relatively empty beach on a greek island. I had a little scooter too and found it really fun, I wish I had rented my own out! (I was on the back of T's scooter)
It's time to confess my greek island sins now.....I didn't adhere to party island rules....I only went out once!! And even then I made myself sick with drinking!! Such a bad effort I know, I was too busy catching up on sleep and reading the Twilight books! But, the other Andy really picked up the slack though and sinned in many other ways im sure!! I wont go into details in case mother Smith reads, but lets just say his average bed time was 7am in the morning! Such a good effort, kudos. Trent had a couple of good nights out too and the both stayed away from the porcelain bus unlike myself. In my defence....as weak as it may be....the drinks on Ios, more specifically the Fun Bar, are so hectically potent! One menu read.....Vodka, Midori, someorrather liquer and a dash of lemonade...they weren"t kidding. My whole glass was alcohol, and literally a dash of mixer! Hence the trouble....
The bar scene on Ios is incredible though, I was pleasantly suprised to find out that there were no big clubs charging ridiculous covers like the Belearic islands. I think Ios nightlife may be geared toward the single population although still fun for us boring couples.... but most people are there for a big night out and whatever that may lead to!
The photos pretty much tell the story of Ios I think....Beers, cocktails, beach....I dont think I have missed anything...
Although it seems there's not much to tell, it really was a fantastic week. I'd love to go back one day with a group of friends...perfect for a week hang out.
From Ios we hopped aboard another ferry back to Piraeus..this one was just a tad horrible...there are no smoking regulations in the sitting area so for 3 hours I breathed in second hand smoke which made me feel ill. Wasnt impressed. We got back to the mainland, revelled in the fresh air and jumped on a bus to Athens airport. It was a long bus ride and I was shattered by the time we got the airport, so I happily set up camp with my towel as my mattress, sarong as my sheet and bag as my pillow. I zonked out so much I didn't realise Andy had left for his flight! sorry Andy! We decided sleeping in the airport was a better option than trawling our gear around the city for 8 hours of down time...so here we stayed until check in for our flight to Thessaloniki....a large coastal town in the north of Greece...
It's from there I will pick up the next blog...enough of this one already!
Love from us, T & A!
We booked in to a really good place called Far Out Village and Camping. We shared a decent triple room, and the place had the most important facilities for our week there.....several pools and several bars. There is also a beautiful beach right out the front with free umbrellas and sun lounges. We also played tennis most days and and bought a ball and bat so we could play out on the sand. There's not much to fill in your days on Ios so to break up our beach, drink, nap routine we hired a scooter and a quad bike and rode to a beach across the other side of the island. I got super crispy on the ride because the sun is so intense, but it was worth it to check out a relatively empty beach on a greek island. I had a little scooter too and found it really fun, I wish I had rented my own out! (I was on the back of T's scooter)
It's time to confess my greek island sins now.....I didn't adhere to party island rules....I only went out once!! And even then I made myself sick with drinking!! Such a bad effort I know, I was too busy catching up on sleep and reading the Twilight books! But, the other Andy really picked up the slack though and sinned in many other ways im sure!! I wont go into details in case mother Smith reads, but lets just say his average bed time was 7am in the morning! Such a good effort, kudos. Trent had a couple of good nights out too and the both stayed away from the porcelain bus unlike myself. In my defence....as weak as it may be....the drinks on Ios, more specifically the Fun Bar, are so hectically potent! One menu read.....Vodka, Midori, someorrather liquer and a dash of lemonade...they weren"t kidding. My whole glass was alcohol, and literally a dash of mixer! Hence the trouble....
The bar scene on Ios is incredible though, I was pleasantly suprised to find out that there were no big clubs charging ridiculous covers like the Belearic islands. I think Ios nightlife may be geared toward the single population although still fun for us boring couples.... but most people are there for a big night out and whatever that may lead to!
The photos pretty much tell the story of Ios I think....Beers, cocktails, beach....I dont think I have missed anything...
Although it seems there's not much to tell, it really was a fantastic week. I'd love to go back one day with a group of friends...perfect for a week hang out.
From Ios we hopped aboard another ferry back to Piraeus..this one was just a tad horrible...there are no smoking regulations in the sitting area so for 3 hours I breathed in second hand smoke which made me feel ill. Wasnt impressed. We got back to the mainland, revelled in the fresh air and jumped on a bus to Athens airport. It was a long bus ride and I was shattered by the time we got the airport, so I happily set up camp with my towel as my mattress, sarong as my sheet and bag as my pillow. I zonked out so much I didn't realise Andy had left for his flight! sorry Andy! We decided sleeping in the airport was a better option than trawling our gear around the city for 8 hours of down time...so here we stayed until check in for our flight to Thessaloniki....a large coastal town in the north of Greece...
It's from there I will pick up the next blog...enough of this one already!
Love from us, T & A!
Friday, July 3, 2009
Gyros and Cheese Pies
Arriving in Athens, we took a horrendous bus ride into the city. A sweaty hour later we arrived in a not so special looking square and used the metro to get to our hostel. Anyone who has ever had to use a metro system anwhere, would appreciate the cleanliness of this tube. They have added pieces of Athen's history to the walls and so it doubles as a museum in some parts. Impressive, refreshing and makes a difference when you arrive to a new country.
We checked into Athens backpackers which I would recommend to anyone. We met up with Andy Smith on our first night and so had a good little trio goin on for our Greek travels.
This hostel we all stayed at had a great rooftop bar that overlooks the city. They mix mean drinks and have a cool floor cushions so that you can share shesha and travel stories. We only had two nights in Athens so this is as crazy as we got in the city. Gotta have some stamina for sightseeing ya know! Together (and with some Canidiots*) we walked to the Acropolis. For all the hoo ha it was really disappointing for me. Whoever is running the joint needs to clean it up, put some signs around the place..just something. Of course it is impressive to see such old buildings on top a hill overlooking the whole of Athens. If you cast your mind back to its time its flabbergastering. Its just that after travelling so much and seeing so many well planned out sites, it can be a let down that you can only get information if you pay more for a guide...and I think that is a rort. Same goes with The Temple of Olympus Zeus. There is no landscaper assigned to this area clearly apart from the big crumbling temple, its a wasteland. On the counter of my negative spiel we a) got in to both for free although have no idea why and b) had plenty of fun enjoying modern Athens. Although Athens is quite large, there are some really fantastic squares or plazas surrounding the Acropolis area. We generally just enjoyed walking about the place, eating gyros (new favourite) and cheese pies. These two foods will be new home staples for us. Gyros are just greek style kebabs although they are made with thick pita, meat, salad, hot chips and tatziki and are just plain amazing. Cheese pie is any kind of pastry mixed with any kind of cheese and is perfect for a pastry garbage guts like me. We did indulge in a traditional greek meal although the names escape me now. Just think moussaka and souvlaki. That about sums up our short stay in Athens. From here we took the metro to the harbour at Piraeus and took a ferry to Ios, one of the greek islands. We arrived at night time but could still see that it was going to be good choice to stay for a week. A whole week!! woohoo!! one place for more than 2 days!! Well thats what was goin on in my head anyway..
I think from now on I really need to break up our stories into shorter blogs, so I will let you digest this short story before I begin the next....enjoy. trent and andy
We checked into Athens backpackers which I would recommend to anyone. We met up with Andy Smith on our first night and so had a good little trio goin on for our Greek travels.
This hostel we all stayed at had a great rooftop bar that overlooks the city. They mix mean drinks and have a cool floor cushions so that you can share shesha and travel stories. We only had two nights in Athens so this is as crazy as we got in the city. Gotta have some stamina for sightseeing ya know! Together (and with some Canidiots*) we walked to the Acropolis. For all the hoo ha it was really disappointing for me. Whoever is running the joint needs to clean it up, put some signs around the place..just something. Of course it is impressive to see such old buildings on top a hill overlooking the whole of Athens. If you cast your mind back to its time its flabbergastering. Its just that after travelling so much and seeing so many well planned out sites, it can be a let down that you can only get information if you pay more for a guide...and I think that is a rort. Same goes with The Temple of Olympus Zeus. There is no landscaper assigned to this area clearly apart from the big crumbling temple, its a wasteland. On the counter of my negative spiel we a) got in to both for free although have no idea why and b) had plenty of fun enjoying modern Athens. Although Athens is quite large, there are some really fantastic squares or plazas surrounding the Acropolis area. We generally just enjoyed walking about the place, eating gyros (new favourite) and cheese pies. These two foods will be new home staples for us. Gyros are just greek style kebabs although they are made with thick pita, meat, salad, hot chips and tatziki and are just plain amazing. Cheese pie is any kind of pastry mixed with any kind of cheese and is perfect for a pastry garbage guts like me. We did indulge in a traditional greek meal although the names escape me now. Just think moussaka and souvlaki. That about sums up our short stay in Athens. From here we took the metro to the harbour at Piraeus and took a ferry to Ios, one of the greek islands. We arrived at night time but could still see that it was going to be good choice to stay for a week. A whole week!! woohoo!! one place for more than 2 days!! Well thats what was goin on in my head anyway..
I think from now on I really need to break up our stories into shorter blogs, so I will let you digest this short story before I begin the next....enjoy. trent and andy
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