We flew to Athens and arrived to find more sunshine, so many cats and a lot of idle men (Greek economy..). Our first impression wasn't hugely positive, with apartment blocks run down (check out the view from our hotel window below) but that changed when we visited the beautiful acropolis site atop a large park with many ruins inside. Honourable mention to the elderly gentlemen playing backgammon in an otherwise empty shop front.
Our first attempt at the Acropolis sent us packing with 'closed for Easter Sunday' signs on the gates (timed our trip to give us Easter in Italy then Easter in Greece! Nice!) - instead we ate souvlaki and walked the streets watching lambs turn on spits. We found the National Gardens with lots of orange trees with impressive fruit. We also found the possible inspiration of the Ministry of Silly Walks: two armed guards with pom-poms on their shoes taking the most ridiculous steps to move from the sun to the shade. And we sited our first eucalyptus tree which we later found all over the Greek Islands too.
On Day 2 we made it inside the bottom section of the acropolis, to see the museum and a handful of old buildings. Walking over the dusty white rocky sand covering the ground and feeling the blazing sun on our shoulders we laughed at ourselves when we realised we'd been cautiously looking for the non-existent snakes.. After a lunch with live music and a free shot & sorbet to end the meal we arrived at the main acropolis gate... to find it shut in 5 minutes. Clearly the acropolis didn't want to see us this trip, so we ate gelato instead.
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| A water clock! Tell the time of day by how much water is left. |
We set out in the early horus of the morning on board a ferry to Santorini. Set for picturesque white buildings, hot beaches and gorgeous sunshine we were not disappointed.
While on Santorini we explored the main town, Fira and took a hike out to a big rock with a lone chapel perched on the edge. Fira was filled with stores selling beautiful white dresses and cool shirts, lots of the locally produced wine and handmade jewelry and art.
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| Some cliff-side barrecode |
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| Ready for lunch! |
We spent a day at each of the two black beaches and the impressive red beach, where the cliffs are deep volcano red and the sand is super hot to touch. We walked along the sides of the dangerously unpatched white rocky roads where cars, buses, trucks, scooters and ATVs zoomed past at crazy speeds and no helmets, and made use of the erratically driven public buses. We saw many vineyards where the vines grow in spirals very low to the ground on quite rocky soil - despite their unattractive appearance they produce some bloomin' good wine!
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| One of many vineyards on the island |
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| Doors to inside the cliff.... |
In between all of this we spent plenty of time beside the bright blue pool at our hotel, with cocktails in hand and enjoyed the company of our hosts Poppy and Vagelis who gave us a great time.
We saw many bright blue pools on Santorini, many like ours had lounge chairs around them and gave great views. Not once did we see anyone in a pool... If you're going to visit Santorini, April is the perfect time - it's still cheap, sunny and much quieter than summer!
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| The three donkeys |
We left Santorini in the dead of night aboard another ferry to take us to Rhodes (Rodos), a larger island close the coast of Turkey. Rhodes Old Town is walled with an old moat that you can walk through where we found hundreds of cool lizards and some pretty poppies. Once we made it through the tourist shops and medieval castle we enjoyed getting lost in the tight backstreets, wandering past cats and locals with doors propped open.
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| Australia represents! |
Our hotel was located in the new town, a fairly good size with plenty of shops and places to eat. A few minutes walk from our front door took us the beach (sooo windy!) and an old take away store where a man who'd been working there for decades sold us a souvlaki for 2 euros a piece.
Following the coast took us along beaches where Greek 50 year old men wearing nothing but spedos played a form of racketball and glowed bronze from the tan, along to the wharf where Greek 70 year old men fished on camp chairs. The wharf was a busy place with a couple of cruise ships spilled retired English couples to keep the tourist shops busy.
On the insistence of our hotel owner and the incredibly friendly restaurant owner who fed us breakfast on our first morning, we spent a day in Lindos. Lindos is a town perched on a hill about an hour up the coast. Donkeys carried people through the bright white buildings leading from the beautiful white beach with clear blue water, up to the castle at the top. We hung out with a young Canadian, Alistair, in the morning, and spent the afternoon playing soccer in the waves.
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| SNAKE! |
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| This style of stonework made up many of the pavements on the island |
The Greek islands were a definite highlight of our trip and the perfect place to sit back and enjoy the sun in proper holiday-style! We've now arrived in Spain and the end of our trip seems to be creeping quickly closer :o
