Thursday, September 16, 2004
grease lightening
so, 30 days on, all present and correct and returning to base.
naxos was perfect. 6 days of sun, newspapers, more palace defeats, getting lost on walks, despairing at greek food, wind, and generally doing not much. we began to enjoy ourselves when deciding we weren't travelling but instead merely on holiday for a week.
24 hours in athens. a wasted visit to the olympic village area - everything was shut up and waiting for the paralympic opening ceremony tomorrow. instead we had to settle for watching 2 wheelchair athletes playing tennis on a very new and blue looking court. the acropolis - 12 euros entry fee so we looked at it on a postcard. oh, and we had to pay extra to leave the bags in the hotel today after we'd checked out - ridiculous...
anyway, enough is enough, a brief visit to the UK (courtesy of The Landlord); Riga for Will's stag weekend and Amsterdam with Melissa. then it's onto Corsica and our very own coast to coast trek.
conclusions.
ferries are better than buses.
sunset is better than sunrise.
beaches are better without any wind.
anything is better than greek wine.
photos are better than text on the website.
turkey is better than greece.
everyone is better than crystal palace.
naxos was perfect. 6 days of sun, newspapers, more palace defeats, getting lost on walks, despairing at greek food, wind, and generally doing not much. we began to enjoy ourselves when deciding we weren't travelling but instead merely on holiday for a week.
24 hours in athens. a wasted visit to the olympic village area - everything was shut up and waiting for the paralympic opening ceremony tomorrow. instead we had to settle for watching 2 wheelchair athletes playing tennis on a very new and blue looking court. the acropolis - 12 euros entry fee so we looked at it on a postcard. oh, and we had to pay extra to leave the bags in the hotel today after we'd checked out - ridiculous...
anyway, enough is enough, a brief visit to the UK (courtesy of The Landlord); Riga for Will's stag weekend and Amsterdam with Melissa. then it's onto Corsica and our very own coast to coast trek.
conclusions.
ferries are better than buses.
sunset is better than sunrise.
beaches are better without any wind.
anything is better than greek wine.
photos are better than text on the website.
turkey is better than greece.
everyone is better than crystal palace.
Monday, September 13, 2004
Sunday, September 12, 2004
Backgammon, boobs and late check-ins
First off... to all those doubters who thought I could never win at backgammon (Janet and Graham - who sent me personal condolances via email!) please take a look at the scores now! And it should go in the record books that today on the beach Pete refused to play anymore because I was winning too often! Enough gloating (for now!)...
Shortly after finding our salvation in an internet cafe on Ikaria we decided it was time to leave the island (we'd had enough of Vasilis the creepy B&B owner). Sitting in the harbour waiting for the 9pm ferry we realised that the whole island had their timetable backwards as we watched all the shops and restaurants open for business at 7pm (Our guidebook even said in one town the shops opened only from 9pm to 3am - Melissa, PBS - you should go on holiday there). It was like a mini London morning rush hour.
The ferry ride was yucky: 2 hours late departing, sitting outside on the deck in the cold wind and stormy seas. I had to wear my sleeping bag. It's quite amazing that even with sea sickness I managed to win 2 out of 3 backgammon games (oops - sorry; a little more gloating just snuck in there).
Mykonos - It's lovely I hear. Arriving at 2am to find the pension where we had booked locked and unstaffed made the island seems somewhat less than welcoming. It was a toss up between staying up all night or sleeping on the street. In the end we phoned every single hotel in the guide book until after about 20 minutes someone answered. Amazingly he was around the corner. Unfortunately his rooms were double what we had budgeted.
In the light of day Mykonos town was gorgeous - perfect stereotypical Greece. We sat on a bench next to a white stucco church in the harbour and had yogurt and honey for breakfast. Then caught the hover craft to Naxos (where we are now). No time for backgammon on the hovercraft... to busy watching the Greek version of Neighbours.
Naxos is perfect. Beaches full of overweight overtanned middle-aged Swedes... so no 'am I fat in my bikini' traumas... today I even managed to sunbathe topless for the first time in my life. Pete of course was mature about the whole thing (ha!) - I think his obvious distraction at my tomato red boobs (I burn easily) may have helped me win another few rounds of backgammon on the beach. All's fair in love and backgammon.
Shortly after finding our salvation in an internet cafe on Ikaria we decided it was time to leave the island (we'd had enough of Vasilis the creepy B&B owner). Sitting in the harbour waiting for the 9pm ferry we realised that the whole island had their timetable backwards as we watched all the shops and restaurants open for business at 7pm (Our guidebook even said in one town the shops opened only from 9pm to 3am - Melissa, PBS - you should go on holiday there). It was like a mini London morning rush hour.
The ferry ride was yucky: 2 hours late departing, sitting outside on the deck in the cold wind and stormy seas. I had to wear my sleeping bag. It's quite amazing that even with sea sickness I managed to win 2 out of 3 backgammon games (oops - sorry; a little more gloating just snuck in there).
Mykonos - It's lovely I hear. Arriving at 2am to find the pension where we had booked locked and unstaffed made the island seems somewhat less than welcoming. It was a toss up between staying up all night or sleeping on the street. In the end we phoned every single hotel in the guide book until after about 20 minutes someone answered. Amazingly he was around the corner. Unfortunately his rooms were double what we had budgeted.
In the light of day Mykonos town was gorgeous - perfect stereotypical Greece. We sat on a bench next to a white stucco church in the harbour and had yogurt and honey for breakfast. Then caught the hover craft to Naxos (where we are now). No time for backgammon on the hovercraft... to busy watching the Greek version of Neighbours.
Naxos is perfect. Beaches full of overweight overtanned middle-aged Swedes... so no 'am I fat in my bikini' traumas... today I even managed to sunbathe topless for the first time in my life. Pete of course was mature about the whole thing (ha!) - I think his obvious distraction at my tomato red boobs (I burn easily) may have helped me win another few rounds of backgammon on the beach. All's fair in love and backgammon.
housekeeping
3 things.
1. censorship. noone was intentionally censored. we, or rather I, merely deleted the wrong one of the duplicate posts. everyone can sleep easy tonight now.
2. back gammon. we, or rather I, have changed the rules. with the scores at 32-32, a truce was declared. we now play games of best of 5. there's never a dull moment these days.
3. photos. lack of is explained by problems with the memory card. will hopefully be sorted soonish.
1. censorship. noone was intentionally censored. we, or rather I, merely deleted the wrong one of the duplicate posts. everyone can sleep easy tonight now.
2. back gammon. we, or rather I, have changed the rules. with the scores at 32-32, a truce was declared. we now play games of best of 5. there's never a dull moment these days.
3. photos. lack of is explained by problems with the memory card. will hopefully be sorted soonish.
