Island Hopping...

Greece was beautiful. Greece was hot and sunny. And more importantly it was actually a holiday. You know, a trip where you go away, relax, have the odd cocktail, see some beaches, and come back less tired than when you left. So we flew out of Gatwick and into Athens. We got a crammed bus from the airport to the central square. Then it being late at night we paid far too much for a taxi to take us the rest of the way to our hotel. The next morning we were up and out into the city to find our way to the Acropolis. After being directed in the right way by some coppers, we soon come across the famous outcrop.

We spent much of the day using a concession ticket to see the Pantheon, Hadrian’s Gate, and other sights amongst using every available water fountain to quench our thirst! Feck it was hot. We dined on the largest donuts known to man and watched the changing of the guard at the tomb of the Unknown Soldier. We wandered streets crammed with impromptu markets, where the sellers of ‘genuine’ Gucci bags, Prada sunnies and the like would roll up their goods and take off when the law appeared. Late in the day when our feet could walk no more, we stopped for dinner and a few well deserved cold beers.

After spending some time trying to figure how the heck to get a train or bus to the Peloponnese Peninsula, we decided to flag that and instead head down the port first thing in the morning and see if we couldn’t get ourselves a ticket to Mykonos on a ferry. So up with the crows, and across town on the metro to the port, where we find ferry offices everywhere and get a couple of tickets for the 7.30am ferry to Mykonos. After a smooth sailing we find ourselves in the islands by lunchtime. Luckily, accommodation owners meet all the ferries and hold signs saying what accommodation they have, so it’s no trouble to decide to stay in a cabin at Paradise Beach without having booked ahead.

We spend the afternoon on the beach and walking partway into town. On our walk we come across giant cacti, giant dandelions, and cute white washed churches. We stop off for a dinner of souvalaki (kebab with tzatziki and hot chips inside-delicious!) washed down with a cool beer before catching the bus from the beach into town to watch the sunset from a hill above the town. The next day we bus back into town and spend the day discovering the beauty of Mykonos town with its white washed walls designed to create a maze that pirates would get lost in, bustling Little Venice and graceful old windmills on the hill above the beaches. We wander the port, down ice cold beers and ice-creams to keep cool and get lost in the streets and hit the souvalaki for dinner again. Just before we leave town for the night, we come around a corner and almost step on Petros the Pelican who’s been the town’s mascot for over 50 years (see Facebook!)

The following day we ferried off to Paros and got a mint room in a pension just up from the beach in the town. We jumped on a bus and car ferry to Antiparos, an island just off the coast of Paros where we spent the avo exploring and sleeping on the beach. Ahhhh just writing about it makes me relaxed. The next day we hire a quad bike and spend the day doing a loop of the island and its beaches and churches. We pass fishing villages, olive groves and fields of hay. Back in town, with a fresh dose of sunburn we head into the cool calm interior of Ekatontapiliani ("church of the hundred doors") which dates from 326AD. To change things up, that night we dine on some different Greek cuisine, Mousaka, Greek salad, Tzatziki and local red wine before watching the sunset from the old port.

From Paros the next day it was a quick jump to Naxos, our third island. We found the owners of a pension at the port and decided to stay with them (Studios Naxos, highly recommended). Our room is amazing and the complimentary jug of family made wine went down a treat. We cool off with a bit of a paddle at the beach before walking into town and exploring the waterfront and walking up the hill to the old castro above the town. On a sunset buzz we watch another, this time from the point along the coast from the main town. The next day we head into the centre of the island by bus and explore a little mountain village with our first stop being a 300 year old family business making Naxos Citroen liquor, only made and sold on the island.

The next day we’re off again, this time onto Santorini. As we arrive into Santorini we head down into the bowels of the ship to get our luggage and wait by the vehicle gang plank to disembark. The ship lowers its gangplank as we’re backing into the port and we get our first amazing views of Santorini. What a beauty. We decide to camp it up again and get a cabin at the camping ground. The skies are grey but we head into town to explore and take the island in with all its dramatic scenery. We’re back on the souvalaki for dinner, mmm.

The following day we nosy about the town in the morning before doing a 3km hike along the cliff top from the main town of Fira to the town at the islands end, Oia. We stop along the way for numerous shots of the stunning surroundings and again with the churches. We arrived into Oia and I feel in love with the place. It had beautiful, beautiful churches, including those with their picture postcard perfect blue domes and serene sunsets. The following day we hire a quad bike and set about exploring the island with its black and red beaches and more pretty churches (if that’s possible!) On our third day in Santorini we cruised about the caldera, and hiked over the most recent volcano which still emits poisonous gases. Next stop on our cruise was a dip in the natural hot pools just off the volcano. Last stop on our cruise was another island of Santorini, called Therasia, the island free of tourism (well relative to Thira, the island we were staying on). On our last night we watch another Oia sunset before catching midnight ferry back to mainland Greece.

Arriving back into Athens the following morning, we manage to stumble across the train station in the port that goes to the Peloponnese Peninsula where we want to spend our last few days. To our dismay we get there and there’s a crowd of people outside and we find out through the security guard’s passable English that there’s a strike on! Uhoh. Luckily for us, there is just the one train running that day and its due in 45 minutes! After learning that if no one turns up to operate the ticket office we can get on the train for free, we are let out onto the platform to wait. The train rolls in pretty much on time and we get a free train ride to the peninsula. We swap from train to bus at the Corinth Canal, which is the most impressive canal I’ll ever see. We arrive into pretty Nafplio late in the afternoon and find the most rickety old pension (but clean and with ‘character’) to stay in just off the main street. We explore the streets which are awash with pink petal bloom before hitting the hay.

In the morning we catch a bus to the nearby ancient ruins Mycenae (It’s in the movie Troy, as it’s where Agamemnon is King of. Agamemnon being brother to Menelaus who was married to Helen of Sparta before she skived off with handsome Orlando). We spend a few hours there exploring before heading back to Nafplio and late in the day climbing 999 steps to the top of a mountaintop to a Venetian castle, Palamidi castle. We head back down for our last meal of wine and souvalaki and our last Greece sunset. The following day we make our way back to Athens by bus and head home to London, so relaxed we’re almost horizontal.

Lest we Forget

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So after crossing on the ferry to the Gallipoli peninsula, we hiked a kilometre into North Beach after passing through security and took a seat in the stands at the commemorative site. Claire and Michael found us and invited us to come sit with them as they had a good possie with a better view of the where the service would be in the morning. After settling in we went for a nosy about. I’ve never seen so many porta loos in one place and probably never will again! The afternoon was gorgeous with a good sea breeze to keep us cool. We whiled away the hours chatting until the sun goes down and then put on a few more layers. We had some nibbles for tea and a kebab. It cooled down a fair bit with the sun disappearing so on went the polyprop and later I burrowed down into my sleeping bag with a hat and gloves covering any extremities. After dark a band started up playing old classics like ‘click go the shears’ and ‘it’s a long way to tipperary’. An aussie singer belted out ‘Waltzing Matilida’. Managed to doze badly through the night, keeping warm with cups of apple tea. Eventually its was 4am and everyone was stirring. Before the service starts they screened some biographies of some of the ANZACS who died on the two big screens. One boy, yes boy, was just 17. That choked me up. The service started about 5am and after dozing badly all night, I’m was suddenly struggling to keep my eyes open! NZ’s Governor General spoke followed by his aussie equivalent. There were some beautiful hymns sung. The wreaths were laid and then came the Last Post. Love the Last Post. Two minutes silence followed. In the silence it was eerie, but peaceful, with the waves crashing in the background on the beach below. After the service we knit up with our tour buddies and hiked up to Chunuk Bair. In polyprop, two t-shirts, a jacket, hat, gloves, scarf etc etc, the hike soon means I’ve had a bit of a bead on as the sun had gained some fierce heat even by 8am! At the top we took a seat in the stands and soaked up the sun waiting for the NZ service at midday. The NZ service is really good, with the Gov General speaking again with a good speech. The Navy band plays before and after the service cranking out ‘The Maori Battalion’ kisi ow wey hey. Some pillocks do the haka after the service, which personally I think is a bit inappropriate, as it’s a war dance, which is precisely why we’re there - remembering those lost – to war. So why would you do a dance that's a challenge? The Turks let us come and pay our respects to our dead on their land, and then we go and do that. I was a little disappointed. Whilst it’s become a way of celebrating national pride, like when we win the sevens, I just didn’t think it was time or place appropriate. After the service we wait our turn until our bus turns up to get us. 7500 people require a LOT of buses. I’m out to it as soon as we’re on the bus back to our hotel and straight into bed after a quick buffet dinner at our hotel. What a great experience. The next day we’re back at Gallipoli to take in the site without the crowds. We go through the war museum and see bullets that have become intertwined after hitting each other midair when the gunfire was so heavy. We learn that the ANZACS played cricket on the beach and the Turks sang in the trenches with the ANZACS cheering for more. They say that WWI was the last war fought by gentlemen... We go to North Beach and have photos with flags in front of the ANZAC sign. After North Beach we go to ANZAC cove and see Simpson’s grave (the guy who carried wounded soldiers down the cliff face on his donkey). Then we go back up to Lone Pine and Chunuk Bair. Eventually we’ve seen it all, and we start our drive back to Istanbul. We get in around 10pm and head straight down the street in search of a nice ceramic dish/bowl/platter. We find a beautiful platter at a store that is closing up for the night and don’t have to haggle for it when the owner wisely cuts the bullshit and offers us a good price right off the bat. Upon learning it’s our wedding present to ourselves the owner throws in a small bowl for free. Then we head back to the hotel and have a beer and shisha pipe with our tour at the cafe across the road before hitting the hay, exhausted by our ‘holiday’. We’re up early the next morning to fit in a visit to the Grand Bazaar before our flight. What a maze, I was tempted to leave a trail of Turkish Delight so we could find our way out again! After ticking off the Grand Bazaar we headed to the airport and farewelled our tour buddies to head home. What a fabulous holiday!

The Delights of Turkey

Turkey. Ah Turkey. I think everyone should go to Turkey. What a place, and what people. (And sorry for not doing my blog sooner!) Okay so a week before Anzac Day, after several hours sleep we hauled our tired bodies from our beds and made our way to Heathrow in the wee early hours of Saturday morning on the 18th of April. We were off on what some refer to as a pilgrimage to the place where kiwi’s and Australian’s alike etched into history what it is to be an Anzac. Brave. Determined. Enduring. Courageous. Ingenuious.

Anyway I digress. Back on our plane we were both out like lights before we’d even begun taxiing down the runway. The only part about the flight I remember is the hot breakfast. Its funny how ridiculously excited and surprised you can get on a non-budget airline about complimentary water (yes water!), beverages and food coming down the isle toward your seat when you’ve become accustomed to flying with Easy Jet and the likes. Its like all your Christmases have come at once. We arrived into Istanbul and the wonderful machine that is Travel Talk (can’t rate them highly enough after doing both Egypt and Turkey with them) picked us up and dropped us at our hotel smack bang in the midst of the old town. Before you could say Apple Tea we were out on the pavement exploring the city around us. We walked back the way our bus had bought us and came upon the beauty of the Blue Mosque. There were people, young and old, couples and families, Turkish and not, everywhere, soaking up the sun, lounging about on park benches or the lawn, amongst the many tulips and strolling through the paths in the grounds of the mosque. After taking some snaps in front of the Blue Mosque, and noting the ‘poor cousin’ on the opposite side of the street we made our way down to the waterfront of the Bosphous Strait and ambled along there for a bit taking in the happenings of the city. After getting a bit lost in a massive park, we found our way back to the streets of our hotel and have a dinner of kebab, the first of many. We noticed, to our surprise, that Istanbul is quite a clean city, with flowers and trees everywhere. The people are not as conservatory in their dress as in Egypt and I’m quite happy to be about the streets in only a top and skirt with Ryan and am not constantly being given the once-over by men and women alike. We can walk into a shop and walk out again without people chasing us down the street trying to sell us stuff (as in Istanbul they understand ‘just looking’). I think, naively we we’re expecting Istanbul to be similar to the Egyptian cities we visited. First impressions of Istanbul are right up there, love the vibe the city has! On our first proper day in Istanbul the tour heads out on a walking tour of the big sights of Istanbul. We start in the Hippodrome and see an obelisk from Egypt (fierce debate reigns over whether its was a gift or a ‘long term borrow’ as Ryan puts it, by Turkey). There’s also a rotunda given as a gift to Turkey in 1902 from Germany and in a nutshell was why Turkey ended up on Germany’s side in WWI. From there we head to St Sophia, which had its origins in 326AD as a basilica, before being used as a mosque and now is a living church. It has one of the most impressive domed ceilings, and was the inspiration for the Blue Mosque, which sought to surpass the size of the St Sophia dome, but failed. No other church has a wider dome, barring that in the Muhummad Ali mosque in Cairo. It says something about work ethic and skill of days long past to find that St Sophia was built from scratch in 4 years. Our visit saw scaffolding in the centre of the church to aid the painting of the ceiling of the dome. The scaffold has been there for … 10 years, 2 times longer than the entire construction period! We then head to Topkapi royal palace, which is impressive.

We break for lunch around 3pm though by now several of the group have had their tummies eat themselves and I’ve gnawed off my arm up to my elbow! A number of us opt for the speciality dish at a wee café opposite the Blue Mosque, a delicious tomato and meat based dish on bread. We finish up with the Blue Mosque, removing our shoes, but taking them inside with us, so no cheeky kids can nick off with a ‘new’ pair of shoes! The inside is beautiful, just beautiful with a plethora of blue tiles of varied designs forming the walls and ceilings. We finish off our day with a boat cruise on the Bosphous Strait. We sail along with Europe to one side and Asia to the other, admiring the grand old summerhouses and palaces of royalty gone by. After our boat cruise, we have dinner and finish off with a complimentary cup of apple tea which is delicious. We then proceed to shop up large at the sweet store down the street from our hotel and stuff ourselves with a variety of yum Turkish delight! Day two saw us up early and on the road for our mammoth drive to the Cappadocia region. Fair to say I slept most of the way, though did take in some of the countryside and towns passing us by. Early afternoon gave us a break for lunch where I sampled the Turkish pizza, which was delicious. It was like French bread cut into sections and halved through. Minced up meat of some sort and cheesiness was cooked on top with some herbs for good measure. A more than generous mound of these pizza pieces came towards me for just 4TL and I did my best, but only got through half at most!

We finally arrived into the Cappadocia region and our underground hotel under darkness. After dinner we headed over to the neighbouring town to partake in the relaxing goodness that is a Turkish bath. First they fry you (steam room), then they dunk you (freezing cold plunge pool!) and then you go back for a second dose of steam. Then it’s onto the good bit, after lying on a warm marble table you get a scrub down followed by a massage. Last but not least is a hair rinse and wash (with shocking cold water dunked over your head mind you!) and then under a hot shower to finish! Bliss. What a great way to unwind from a taxing 11-hour bus ride!

The next morning we were up early to see as much as we could of the Cappadocia region. We started with a sightseeing spot beside a cluster of fairy chimneys before heading to our next spot; where there was one shaped very much like a camel and another like a statue of the Virgin Mary. The chimneys are kind of like clouds, if you stare long enough you find a resemblance to all sorts of things. From there it was onto an area where the fairy chimneys all became rather phallic in appearance. Almost creepy! Climbed into a couple that had been carved into and used as churches, what a strange life it must have been to live in those amazing rock formations. Then we headed off to an open air museum where we saw some truly amazing fresco's painted on the ceilings of more churches in the fairy chimneys. Finally it was off to a small cliff top market with great views of the region where we were able to try Turkish ice-cream. Quite a different consistency to the old Tip Top from home, and no hokey pokey here folks! At another stop for the view, there was stall selling lots of delicious nuts, peanuts, cashews, sunflower seeds, etc etc and natural viagra. Yes that’s right viagra at a roadside stall. You don’t get that back home at the farmer’s market!

After our fairy chimney sightseeing, we headed to a carpet making family company to see the rugs of Turkey being made by hand. Ryan had a go, but lacked the needed nimble fingers! The carpet business owners feed us all more Turkish pizza and yum cheesy things and the local red wine which is really good. (Love red wine nowadays)! They roll out about a hundred carpets for us to peruse and we’re sorely tempted, but it’s a little too pricey given our upcoming Europe trip. If only we were here on ancestry visas! After another stop, this time at a ceramics factory, it’s back to the hotel for dinner before heading out for a boozy night. First up we get treated to a show by three whirling dervishes, which is quite magical. The rest of the night we drink the free alcohol, including the local tipple, Raki, aniseed tasting drink mixed with water and watch traditional dancing. After our last night in our underground hotel, we head off to Pamukkale. But before we leave Cappadocia we have a poke around the underground city, which is like 20 stories deep. People lived a completely normal, albeit, underground, life down there. There was a meeting room, church, morgue, winery, kitchens, etc. Totally kitted out! They’ve found hundreds of these underground cities and believe they were all linked to one another. We stop further along our way at a small village school to watch the games of the children. They play a fun looking game where they race to wrap their buddy like a mummy in toilet paper! Next stop is a caravanserai, a hotel for camels, the largest and best dating from 1229. We stop again for some yoghurt, honey and poppy in its legal form as poppy seeds. We reach our hotel in Pamukkale and whilst I would like to say I soaked in the hot mineral waters that came through a special tap into the bath, I was actually feeling a little bus sick after 12 hours or so in the bus so headed straight to bed! Up the next morning we bus up to the calcium terraces of Pamukkale and the ancient ruins of Herapolis. The terraces have been made a world heritage site and UNESCO is helping the local people restore the terraces to their natural state. At one stage there was a hotel built right on top of the terraces and people could walk willy nilly over the terraces and bath in them with their shampoo and products. Needless to say this has been banned and the hotel has been demolished. You can still walk over the terraces, but only a certain area. We look around the amazing intact remains of a theatre in Herapolis which dates from 300AD and seats 15,000 people and then have a wade through the warm pools. Back on the bus we drive through a small village where our guide points out some houses with bottles on their roofs. The bottles advertise a girl of an age suitable for marrying living in the house. A potential suitor need only shoot down the bottle. A fairly simply courtship it would appear! Our next stop is Ephesus, an ancient coastal city now in ruins, dating from 10BC. One of the most beautiful ancient cities, it was famous for having one of the seven wonders of the ancient world – the Temple of Artemis (wikipedia it). The ruins are impressive and it would have been beautiful in its day. We see a theatre, main street, men’s public toilets (which were a place to hang out), many temples, churches, main square and hospital. We see a carving of the Goddess of Victory which inspired the designer of the Nike symbol. There is a beautiful and impressive Library, the third largest in the world and another theatre which with seating for 44,000 is the largest in the ancient world. At the bottom of the main street there are coded directions to the city’s brothel. And believe it or not there was a secret passageway from the library to the brothel, so men would go to the ‘library’. Leaving the ruins, there are stalls selling normal tourist guff, with one stall announcing its ‘genuine fake watches’. Honesty! The next day we’re up at the crack of dawn to fit in a stop at another ancient Greek city before driving to Cannukkale and crossing on the ferry to Gallipoli.

Kobenhaven

Okay, so I’m bad, very bad. And I started out so well. Okay so I started out so, so. This blog on our long weekend to Copenhagen back near the start of, dare I say it…March, is long, long overdue! A lot has happened since then, which I’ve touched on in other blogs, but here goes.

So in need of a holiday from being back at work for 2 months (probably our longest stretch!) and to celebrate Ryan’s recent birthday we headed to Copenhagen for the weekend, his choice of destination. After arriving on the Thursday night, we hit the ground running on Friday morning after absolutely gorging ourselves on the delicious buffet breakfast included in our room price! Fresh out of the oven breads, cheeses, meats, spreads, fruit and cereals (including Honey Puffs, ah the treat cereal of my childhood), a decent coffee machine and juice with bits in, what more could too tourists on the cheap look to do but gorge ourselves!

Hmm Heathrow injection anyone!? Bit like the ‘Fresher Five’ for you all friends back home.

We wandered through the streets to make the Carlsberg brewery our first stop for the day. Having our hotel sit on the border of one suburb to one side of the street and another suburb to the other side, being the one noted on our map as the city’s red light district made for an interesting walk to the brewery!

As we entered the site we found carved elephants marking the entrance with what we thought was the nazi sign on their sides. After thinking 'whats up with that!?' we carried on into the brewery.

After turning up for the 11am guided tour only to find out that the guided tours ceased more than 2 years ago (thanks Lonely Planet!) we proceeded to do a self-guided tour around the brewery. Being a wine girl I must admit I thought the brewery would be much more Ryan’s thing than mine (and he didn’t think it was going to be very good) but we both entered the bar at the end having thoroughly enjoyed it. The brewery had a collection of 18,219 bottles of unopened beer! And the most massive horses in the world, Jutland Horses, that used to pull the carts filled with the beer barrels. Google them, they’d eat a Clydesdale for breakfast.

During the tour we were enlightened as to the 'nazi' signs at the brewery's entrance, finding out that its symbol was used to denote good luck before the nazi's hijacked it and tainted it with the stigma associated with what they stood for.

After sniffing our way around a smorgasbord of red apples, citrus, rose, liquorice, toasted bread, vanilla, oak, chocolate, coffee, smoke, honey, cloves, coriander, caramel, prunes, sulphur and more, we proceeded to make an educated pick of what free beers we wanted to down. Suffice to say that the Mr Carl knows his beers.

After another hearty breakfast the next morning we set out on a walk through the main square of the city, with the Little Mermaid in the port our ultimate destination before walking back through Nyhavn and more of the town. Disappointingly we found that the Tivoli Gardens, which we planned to do the following day and said to be the inspiration for Disneyland were shut until April.

Anyhow, we set out through the streets starting at the Central Station, quite a pretty building, with the most bicycles parked outside I've ever seen! Either bicycles are as cheap as chips or there is very little crime in Copenhagen because chains and locks were largely non-existent! Went by the City Hall and then climbed up the Round Tower, Europe's only tower with a spiral ramp walkway, rather than staircase. Think it did about 7.5 revolutions around its core before reaching the top and giving good views out over the city. After that we headed off to Rosenberg Castle, a picturesque castle surrounded by a moat where the Danish crown jewels are kept. Heading towards the port we walked past some 17th century naval houses. Arriving at the waterfront we grabbed a photo with the highly divisive Little Mermaid given Copenhagen is the home of Hans Christian Anderson. Poor thing has been decapitated 4 times over, had her arm loped off once, been knocked off her rock once and painted red! Not sure where all the controversy arises from!?

After the mermaid we walked along the waterfront past the Copenhagen version of St Pauls, saw the Copenhagen Opera House. Saw the current royal residence where Mary from Tassie now resides with her Prince. Then we walked around the beautiful canal area of Nyhavn before seeing the Royal Theatre house and wrapping the day up.

The following day rain put paid to any more sightseeing, so we spent the day ducking in and out of art galleries and museums before catching our flight back to London.

And that was our long weekend in Copenhagen in the happiest nation on earth. And who wouldn't be with all that good beer and Danish pastries!?