Athens and beyond

First, apologies to those of you I have been unable to reply to personally. Time has been short, plus I switched into holiday mode and it became difficult to find the motivation to sit down at the computer in the midst of a Greek Island wind-down.

Athens…

….was SO hot. It got up to 38 degrees one day.
We visited more amazing archeological sites….the Acropolis, the Parthenon, the old Roman ruins…. trekking around the city in the scorching heat either on foot, public transport, or a tourist bus. I bought a parasol, they were quite the thing around Athens, with lots of street vendors (more about them later) selling them.

I have to say that despite all the fantastic history and sights....we are so lucky in NZ - now I really know it!!!! There are just too many people in Europe. Greece has not been too bad overall, but in Athens there's still about 4.7 million and another 3 million in the ‘burbs. I went to the post office one day and you have to get a number from a machine and then wait for your number to come up at one of the counters. My number was 294 and they were up to 271….had to wait about 20 mins just to buy a couple of stamps!!!

There are lots of people living in parks, street prostitutes, people snorting drugs, beggars in wheel chairs and/or with missing limbs……

We saw several street protests going on…busloads of cops in full riot gear. We asked them what was going on and they said…’It’s nothing, nothing’. Then one of them said…’just some trouble with fascists’. We finally got the story from the paper - Students protesting at the Govt wanting to privatise the public (free!!) university system.

At the same time that was going on, African migrant workers, who get a red ticket which allows them to be in the country and work, were staging a demo about the fact that they can be taken into Police custody, held for 12 hours and have their ticket taken off them for no apparent reason…they then can’t work and have to resort to illegal ways of making a living – the best of which seems to be selling goods (such as Prada knockoff handbags, sunglasses etc) on the streets – but they have to constantly dodge Police. So, you’ll be sitting having a coffee and suddenly a stream of about 20 tall beautiful black men with bulging white sheets over their shoulders will go jogging by. Five or ten mins later, two or three Police will follow.



Sooo….lots of political unrest. It was great to escape to the islands and just have a holiday!!

I’m not going to write too much about that bit, except to say it was fantastic and involved sight seeing, beaches, and even a wee bit of adventure tourism when we hired an ATV to get around the spectacular volcanic island of Santorini where we finished our holiday after attending Alex and Lisa’s lovely wedding. We have heaps of photos of the wedding and will email these to the Ruth family shortly. Tried to post one here but it keeps turning itself around! On that note, no photos of Stephen on this blog sorry, as photos on my camera not yet downloaded onto computer.

Before Santorini we spent three days each on Syros and Naxos…both lovely places with a slower pace. My favourite was Syros.
We are back in Athens tonight before flying out tomorrow for Singapore – home on Friday. See you all soon.

Turkey Tour and Rhodes

Turkey Tour

Hello again!! It was hard to find time to blog on our tour down the coast of Turkey.

Early starts to our sight seeing filled days, rushed showers at 6pm and meeting ‘the group’ for drinks and dinner at 7pm didn’t leave much time for anything else. We were very lucky with the group, who were all Aussies apart from us, and good sorts – (12 of us all together) – but for us, it’s not really the way to travel. Much better, we think, to go where you want, have a wander around to absorb the local culture, and maybe do a day trip or two about the place on some kind of local tour.

We stayed in hotels that were trying very hard to be flash 5 star places, but weren’t quite making it due to Turkey’s lack of understanding about what constitutes 5 star accommodation, which they seem to think means BIG and western style with expensive fittings and fixtures – never mind that the air conditioning barely works and the food is mediocre!

We got to see so little of these places due to the schedules that we may just as well have stayed in a dormitory – except for the last one, which was actually the best, far less pretentious, with a thermal pool and swimming pool. Yum.

Anyway, enough about that!

The country side was beautiful, and in coastal places, we could almost believe we were in the Bay of Islands or Coromandel. Hills, sea, green…very NZish. Then we’d come to a small town and it would be immediately obvious again that we were in a very poor and very foreign country. The small towns were ramshackle and broken down. The Govt of Turkey has this thing (we were told) where people don’t have to pay rates unless their house is complete. Hence, there are many houses with a half finished second or third storey whacked on top of the original structure. Fair enough!

There is also still a lot of damage from the big earthquake about 15 yrs ago, so many piles of stone and dust about the place.

After miles and miles of gorgeous countryside, we’d come upon one of these little towns, or a city of intense ugliness!!! Rows and rows of identical 5 or 7 storey apartment blocks. Honestly!! What were they thinking!!

We saw many famous archeological sights, all absolutely amazing to behold – the Acropolis in Pergamum, Troy, Ephesus…with it’s 2000 year old ruins of marble streets. The tour guide was historically knowledgeable which was fantastic – he’d tell us stories about the places, both mythologies and the stories behind the myths.

We also went to Anzac cove, which was unexpectedly affecting. Such a beautiful beach, which looked so Aus or NZ. You can imagine the wee boys thinking it was just like home – and then it all was turned into a scene of horror and despair. I just had that Pogues song called ‘And the band played waltzing Matilda’ running in my head and I have to admit I shed a few tears. All the headstones at the gravesites read ‘age 18 (or 20 or22).

A couple of the Aussies were seriously into it and had brought their mini Aussie flag to stick in the sand and we did a minutes silence.

So – whew! Turkey was all mind boggling and fantastic – but I won’t be going back !!!!!! Turkey is a bit like 70s in NZ – not a decent coffee to be had ANYWHERE!!!!


RHODES

I can’t tell you how good it felt to get on the Ferry to Rhodes and know we were leaving the tour schedules behind and were on our own again.

Our comfy little place here is more than adequate and the people are lovely and not trying to rip you off at every opportunity….and you can browse in a shop without being continually pestered….AND, most importantly, great coffee.

This has been a bustling little port since 500 BC, conquered by the Romans, Arabs, Turks. Civilisation here is estimated to date to 6000 BC!!!! I have to tell you, it’s so funny in Europe…they talk about the ‘new town’ built after an earthquake or invasion, and the new town will have been built in the 16th century AD or something.

Yesterday we went to the old city, built in 1309, biked around the waterfront and sat on the beach for a bit. Today we did a little tourist train trip around the city then had a cruisy day, each doing our own thing for a few hours before catching up for a late lunch and heading to the beach for a while.

Tomorrow we head off to Athens for five days, so should get good opportunity to do an Athens blog and some emailing.

Istanbul

Istanbul
OMG.

As always, we’ve been getting around on a bit of local transport. Trams are the big thing here. They run every five minutes through the city. People crammed into every single one, chokka blok – sardines doesn’t even begin to cover it. Twenty million people in Istanbul….unbelievable…..a bit of culture shock going on!!!

The city is split by the Bosphorus channel, one side of the city is in Europe, the other in Asia. There is a huge bridge across the channel, or it’s about 20mins by Ferry….and costs 1.30 lira, lira having about the same value as the NZ dollar. Ferries also run every half hour or so and are crowded as.

Istanbul is very beautiful and very hard. Very big, very crowded, very poor.........and someone from every shop out on the street trying to reel you in and get you to buy something, and they look so offended and wounded when you don't.

Daren't stop and look at anything that takes your fancy or you find yourself ensnared.
It’s hard, because you know they have a tough life, but at the same time you get really sick of it and it’s pretty exhausting.

We looked at a mosque yesterday and this guy started talking to us in english and suddenly we had a guide. He was actually really good...knew his stuff and we learned lots more than we would've wandering about on our own. He told us he had a job three days a week as a history teacher at a college and spent two days a week being a guide.......for which he was paid a retainer by the mosque, of about nz$50 per month - and he made about nz$300 a mth for teaching job. He said $250 to $350 per mth was pretty standard income......and things here are not all that cheap...maybe a little less than nz, but given the equivalency of our currency with Turkish Lira, the buying power of the average Turk is pretty minimal....which is why the shopkeepers are so pushy with us tourists. Their monthly income is about 10 to 15 percent of ours, yet they pay similar prices for things as we do.

On the street, there are about 15 men to every woman. The women are either in full muslim get out (burka) - or headscarf and long coat (quite stylie) - or normal dress with headscarf - or normal dress. Quite a range, and not unusual to see family groups which incorporate the full spectrum, i.e. one of each.

Also on the street, many stray cats and dogs. The cats prowling about and being fed by locals or eating scraps from the mountains of rubbish (which seems to be cleared every day) and the dogs, very placid, just sleeping in the sun. We were told that the dogs were registered to the city of Istanbul. Not sure if that's true!

We went to see the whirling dervishes last night - it's a branch of Sufi-ism which seems to have lots of similarities with buddhism - death of the ego, unifying with the oneness of Spirit..all that mystical eastern stuff. And who could blame them, life is pretty tough here and you'd have to believe in something.

The ceremony involved chanting, music and twirling. Impressive to watch - tho' the insane french couple next to us, having some kind of hissed french argument were slightly distracting!

We actually ended up moving and went and stood at the back!!

Today (Saturday) we joined our tour and went to the Blue mosque, the Sofia and the Sultan’s palace. Very different being part of a tour and seeing only the beautiful places…and they are absolutely stunningly beautiful, probably more so than anywhere else we’ve been so far. Lots of photos of these places, but not down-loaded yet, so will no doubt bore everyone with those later. It's also great to have the info from the guide, who is very knowledgable about all the sites, the history etc.

Tomorrow we head off down the coast with the tour, which is all Aussies apart from us!!

It’s 4.40am and we’re sitting in Athens airport waiting for our connecting flight to Istanbul. Have managed to have a couple of ‘power naps’ but feeling quite awake now. Our plane from Rome got in just before midnight and our check-in time for Istanbul was 6am, so decided to save $$ for more exciting things than a place to lay our heads for a few hours.

Anyway – to continue the blog where we left off ……

Florence

Yes, it’s a beautiful city full of amazing art and architecture, but by golly it stinks!!

The streets are cramped and narrow and full of rubbish – and the smell seems to rise up from the drains. If Rome was permeated with the sweet aroma of cake shops, the air of Florence was definitely tainted with something far less tantalising.

We visited a few AMAZING churches and the (copy) statue of David on the hill – great views of the city from up there.

We hired bikes and escaped. We went far afield to most of the gardens around the city, of which there are several. Just out of the city a garden runs for miles on both banks of the river, for walkers, cyclists etc – very beautiful. Looking back at the city from out of town a bit, it was easier to appreciate its graceful domes and arches minus the reek, but still an occasional whiff reached us.

We stopped on one of the bridges to look down at the water. Stephen said ‘O look, there’s otters in the water’. We stopped to watch and they went ashore on a little stretch of sand……not, Karen thinks, otters at all with long pointy tails like that! Giant water rats!!

The next day, 12 May, we were up early to head back to sweet Rome on the 9.09am train. Arrived at the station in Florence about 8.30. After buying our tickets from the self service machine we headed to the café....but it was absolute madness in there, and so, to our eternal shame, we had McDonalds for breakfast in Italy.

The coffee was crap, but the bacon and cheese toastie, surprisingly delicimo. They have a slightly ‘Italianised’ menu….honest!

Rome

Arrived in Rome early afternoon and after checking into hotel, went for a wander. God, the sheer scale of things is just incredible. It’s such a beautiful city. Went to the Terni fountain. Legend has it that if you throw a coin in to this fountain over your shoulder you are assured of a return to Rome.

We got a ticket on a 24 hour hop-on hop-off bus at about 6.30pm, the last bus of the day, and had the whole open top to ourselves. We sat right at the front and Stephen stood up and shot video, until he got told off!! It was a two hour trip around Rome, at sunset…fantastico. …and of course our tickets were valid until 6.30 the next day.

After packing up and leaving our bags at reception, we went back and jumped on the bus again, visiting historical sites and seeing the ruins..the oldest was the fortifications built in 700BC!!.

The most incredible church was the Basilica San Maria Giovanni….HUGE and absolutely stunning, but there’s something really disturbing about all that gold and art in the possession of the church. Also very odd, in one wing which was sectioned off there were people actually ‘worshipping’ and all these other people taking photos of them…..and in the main hall, actual confessions going on!

Ah well - Arivaderci Roma – Turkey, here we come.

The best way to get to Siena is by bus, otherwise you have to change trains somewhere obscure, as Siena is off the main line.

The bus trip was good, only took about an hour and a half, with beautiful Italian countryside scenery all the way. We arrived outside the city walls, got off at the wrong stop and proceeded up the very steep streets wheeling our suitcases behind us….honestly! a taxi would have taken five minutes but Stephen insisted we could walk it in 10. Half an hour later (of which 10 minutes were used for walking and the rest for stopping and bickering about not getting a taxi) a not very happy, hot and sweaty Karen arrived at the B and B. O yes, and Stephen was there too.

Our room here is lovely…large and airy, and in an 800 year old building, just around the corner from the main square of Siena, which is HUGE and surrounded by towering and majestic old buildings. How did they build them so high….they must’ve had some pretty effective engineering skills – o and a disposable workforce of peasants probably helped.

We are on the third floor of our building and there are about 80 steps up to our room…my leg muscles are getting seriously toned. We have our own toilet and sink in a wee tasteful cubby hole bathroom. There is a huge white tiled bathroom with the shower across the hall. This bathroom is shared, but so far we haven’t seen anyone else. (no, not because we haven’t had showers Dan).

Siena has banned traffic banned from the main centre, except for residents, service vehicles and buses. Scooters and pushbikes are allowed up to a certain level, just outside the main square.

On our first day, after wandering around for a bit to get an overview of where we were, we decided to hire bikes for the next day. Not such a great idea it turned out, as it was a scorcher of a day, the streets were a bit too steep for me to handle, and outside the city walls where it wasn’t so steep, there was heaps of traffic and I was a bit freaked out!! Persevered, but ended up pushing my bike quite a lot.
Amazing views of the countryside tho’. Because the towns and cities here are built on hills, the views from the high spots are endless, countryside fading off into a ‘distance haze’ rather than obstructed by suburban sprawl.

The next day I insisted that we act like proper tourists, cruise around some galleries, churches and shops, and enjoy lunch and a glass of wine sheltered from the midday heat under an umbrella belonging to one of the many cafes.

This we did and it was very relaxing and enjoyable. Bought a 10 euro ticket for ‘Siena’s treasures’ which got us into 5 different places: Duomo (cathedral) Battisterro, (baptismal church), Museo Dell Opera and Cripto. All UTTERLY amazing, as you can see below. We also took a wander around the university grounds, where there was a very pleasant garden, and we sprawled in the shade of a tree for half an hour.

We finished the day with a picnic atop the castle walls. The walkway around these walls is probably one of the flattest parts of Siena – hence it seems to be a bit of a ‘jogger’s track’, but we sat on a stone seat and enjoyed our deli food, including strawberries and whipped cream for dessert. As always our feet by this time of day were sore but it was worth pushing ourselves to get there and see the famous golden Tuscan sunset glowing off the terracotta walls of the city below us.

So, Siena is beautiful, but a bit tricky to get around. There are lots of tourists and we’ve heard English spoken more here than anywhere else so far on our travels.
Because of the number of tourists, it’s also a bit more expensive than elsewhere. I’ve tried very hard to be sensible and not do too much shopping here!

Tomorrow we catch a bus to Firenze (Florence). Everyone says it’s fantastic so looking forward to that!!

Now, with the posts on our site, I think the deal is that you have to have a gmail account. Anyway, we’re happy to keep replying to you individually by email, so that’s no problem.

Food, Assisi and Spello

About the food. This is a country where they have coffee and pastries for breakfast...my kind of place. Or, for the more savoury minded, there is bread and cheese. Also, special note to my daughters, hands are often used as cutlery, so I'm in my element.

Pannetteria's (cake shops) are on (almost) every corner, with mouth watering varieties of cakes and tarts, often combined with Gelatterias/Yoghurterias - gooey mountains of whipped icecream decorated with a slash of sauce and a sprinkle of fresh fruit. Frozen, but not too frozen...maybe a step or two up from snow-freeze consistency. Icecream of such flavoursome intensity - dark chocolate, tiramisu, marscapone, strawberry, raspberry...MELON - that even a none icecream eater such as myself has developed a wee bit of an interest.

If you buy a cake to take away from a panneteria it's quite a production. They circle it in a strip of cardboard, wrap it in waxed paper printed with their name, and then wrap a ribbon around it!
It's all very reasonably priced too, and if you have your coffee standing up at the counter, Italian style, it's only about 80c to E1.

Trains

The trains in Umbria are fantastic. It's really easy to get around, tho' signs are all in Italian so important to know the words for ticket and platform - and also to check the timetables! Between us, me with my phrase books clutched in one hand and my glasses in the other, and Stephen with his interminable maps, we have had no (well, very few) problems. We even managed to book a bus to Sienna for tomorrow AND find out where it left from. You have no idea how much of a thrill this is! It feels like such an achievement.

Assisi

Assisi was 20 mins by train from Perugia, where we are staying. Beautiful, but very touristy I thought. Lots of fantastic churches with beautifuly painted interiors and bronze cast 'stations of the cross'. We got a few nice nik naks and a couple of bottles of local wine, before heading off to.......

Spello

......just another 8 mins on the train, Spello is a much smaller and very pretty town. Unlike the other hill top towns, it's not a huge trek or a bus ride from the train station to the historic centre, only about 500 metres. Tiny streets with flowers everywhere. It also seemed a lot less touristy, but it was raining so maybe that made a difference. However, just the layout and the feel of the place was quite different and when I come back, I'd like to stay there.

Lake Tressimino

After our day of hill top towns yesterday we decided to try something different today and headed off to Lake Tressimino - about 30 mins on these wonderful Umbrian trains.

We got off at Pergianno.
A short walk from the station is the lake front, very lovely, with trees, tables, cafes, gelatterias etc - tho I suspect it may get quite busy later in the season and also suffer from mossies, as I spotted a couple even tho' it wasn't a particularly warm day.

A couple of streets back is the old town, with quite an array of little ristorante and pizzerias. There is camping around the lake too, but of course we hadn't brought the tent! (thank god says karen)

We tried to hire bikes but they had all been rented out already. Instead we decided to get the ferry out to Isolta Maggiore, an island in the middle of the lake. This was stunningly beautiful and completely lacking in shops. I definitely plan to have a few days there next time if poss.

Quite hilarious today - we got asked for directions by two different lots of Italians - once at the ferry and once at the train station! We obviously look like we have a clue, even if in reality we are lurching blindly from one experience to the next.

Off to Sienna on the bus tomorrow - can't wait!!!

Italia

OK. I've already told you about riding bikes around ancient Rome. Stephen has video footage of me cruising through the crowds up to the Colosseum !!

Our next adventure was catching buses and using the Metro and train to get ourselves around a bit. We went out to the beach 'Largo Roma' - on a day pass, jumping off at a couple of stops on the way for a quick squizz around. The beach was a bit disappointing for such spoilt NZ individuals as ourselves. We decided suburbs are suburbs and headed back to town......but jumped off at a couple of 'edge of city' places, San Paolo and Equilino, both very interesting in different ways.

On this excursion we had to change Metro's and got a wee bit lost. At one point we found ourselves heading down the side of a motorway back into the centre of Rome. Stephen was keen to keep going but I managed to convince him that it wasn't a good idea by saying he wouldn't walk down the side of the Hutt motorway, so why did he think it would be ok in Rome where there was ten times more traffic!!

I was busting for a wee by this point. Stephen managed to convince me to duck behind some bushes in a lay by - would've been fine but for the stinging nettles....Aargh!! Lucky for me it was only the top of my leg that got stung. Quite painful but dealt to it with some vinegar (balsamic, only the best) back at the apartment.

Did I mention our beautiful three level apartment with a roof garden in Rome? It almost seemed a pity not to spend more time there, but so much to see and do.



Saw all the big fashion shops on our way to the Spanish steps - SOooo many people - got some video footage of the throngs and shots of Dolce Gabbana and Versace shop windows (specially for you Jess). Hilarious that none of the famous shoes the Italian's are obsessed with could possibly be worn in the streets of Rome, which are all old cobbled - hence anything other than a good solid heel would probably lead to a hospital visit!

Anyway, after four days it was time to move on and we headed off to Umbria.

We are now staying in Perugia until 7 May, doing day trips to Assissi, Spello, and Lake Tressimo, before heading to Sienna and Florence. More about our day trips as they happen.

We arrived in Perugia late on Saturday afternoon, dropped our bags and went to the old city for a look around. Like most of the old cities in Umbria, old Perugia is a hill top town. We are staying in a hotel on the edge of the city, kind of on the town belt with spectacular views. Perugia is a University city so a lot of young people hanging about on a Saturday evening.

The streets are very steep (think Devon St, Dan) but there are lots of pedestrian shortcuts, with steep steps. Lucky we're from Wellington and well used to this sort of thing.

Our first full day in Perugia, today, is a Sunday...Domenica...

The city doesn't exactly shut down, but it is Italy after all, so quite a few things closed.

We went looking for a Farmacia to find plasters to put on the blisters which had formed on top of my previous blisters, but couldn't find anywhere. As walking had become a bit of a problem for me we decided to have a quiet day and went to an internet place to arrange bookings for Siena and Florence.

We then got the bus back up the hill and I hobbled around the piazza (square), while Stephen sneezed his way around next to me, as something seemed to have activated his allergies.

What a pair!!

Anyway, there was a market....a genuine local market rather than the street hawkers with their array of goods from China who are all over the place in Rome...so managed to get some cute little things.

We then sat down for a glass of Vino and decided to check out the Cathedral. We walked in on a Mass being said........lots of people attending . We sat down and joined in for a few minutes....I made the sign of the cross, couldn't help myself.

In many ways Italy is like being on a different planet. It's a completely different mentality and mode of being. However, after only 5 days (and a few tense moments involving stinging nettles and motorways) we are both beginning to adjust our mind-set.

Language wise, I prepare myself for every interaction by memorising the lines I need....but then I can't understand the answers, so that only works for the most basic of things, such as ordering off a menu or asking where the toilets are. Thanks to my Italian tutor my accent is good, so people think I know much more than I do, which is kind of nice but also quite difficult.

I now preface things with 'Ciao - Sona Neo Zealandese, scusami, mia Italiano non che benne' - Hi, I'm from NZ, sorry, my Italian is not so good'. This has made a real difference - they know we're not American or English and are much friendlier.

What else can I tell you about Italy....there are little birds that sound like squeaky toys...there are lots of people carrying stupid little dogs around in handbags......(now we know where Paris Hilton got the idea from)....it's a country of stone walls, wooden shutters, wrought iron fences and balconies filled with the tumbling colour of beautiful flowers.

Thanks to those of you who have replied. It is possible to post comments directly on the blogsite, or emailing me is fine too. It's great to hear from home!

Dan, I'm glad things are going well and you and Jess are studying together. Good you enjoyed the lasagne. Tell Walla she'd better start pulling her weight, or you'll pile up all her used cat saucers in her favourite sleeping spot.....and tell your slack sister to email!!

Jill - hmm yes - I think maybe some parts of travel are a bit like child birth - better when they're over. Missing the wee laddies and glad they are doing well. Can't wait to see Angie's tooth. Show Lachle the video of me so he doesn't forget me.

Michele, if you are keen for a trip to Italy and Alan is over the travel thing, count me in! You really do have quite an Italian look about you and will fit right in!

Fliss - yep, we can get replies! The food is fantastically yummy. Glad your first day in new job went well.

Claire - your little travel pack was SO good, as were your tips about Singapore airport - thank-you! And yes, the pizza is better than Hell's.

Love to all