Vienna (Austria) & Budapest (Hungry) - 6th, 7th & 8th September 2005

6th September 2005 - Fly to Vienna, explore town by night including St Stephen's Cathedral, the Haas House, the Graben with the Statue of the Holy Trinity, The Church of St Peter, The State Opera Building and St Michael's Tract.

7th September 2005 - Vienna, Our hotel has contential breakfast. Yippee, my first decent cup of tea since Australia. The tea in Greece was terrible. I gave up after the first week. I had one cuppa and it tasted like weetbix and milk. Visit the Palace Schloss Belvedere, the Hundertwasser House including the toliet of modern art (one expensive leak in the loo!). Lots and lots of walking - my feet need a holiday

PHOTOS OF PALACE SCHLOSS BELVEDERE









8th September 2005 - Budapest. The pest was a real pest. It was a city. The highlight for Richard was the bank dealers. They were almost the only good looking women in the country! Buda, the old town was the highlight, especially the Fisherman's Bastion. Lots more walking, however, there was a Funicular Railway that can take you up to Buda. They charge a fortune for a 50 metre, also vertical trip. Money goes a long way in Budapest as long as you are careful not to get ripped off. One place tried to charge us 800 wiggle woggles for a bottle of water which is $5 Aust. I called the Hungrian currency wiggle woggles in figgle foggle land because 20 Euro was about 4,600 figgle foogles or 3,800 if exchanged at the railway station and not the bank. CRAZY!!!

31st August to 6th September 2005

31st August - We are leaving Santorini today. Over 8 hours in the ferry back home. I'm glad I saw Santorini and it's volcano but I will not be going back any time soon. Apart from the villages, it is a very barren place, not trees grow in the volcanic soil.

1st September - We will now spent some time with Richard's family until the 6th September. After that we are heading to Vienna, Prague and Budapest.

Bye for now

Santorini - Greece - 30th August 2005

Today Richard swam at Kamari beach.

Kamari is a beach resort situated 10 kms southeast of Fira, the capital of Santorini. It is one of the more developed resorts on the Eastern coastline of Santorini. The beach at Kamari is almost 5 kms long. It is a black sandy beach with countless bars and restaurants along the seafront. A frequent bus service links Kamari to Fira (the capital). We took the bus so that Richard could have a swim.

He complained the water was dirty. The air planes full of tourist kept coming overhead every 5 minutes....So serene...not!



We went to Oia in the evening to watch the sunset. Oia, pronounced ‘Ia’, is the most famous of all villages of Santorini. It is known throughout the world for its quiet life and fantastic sunset, and is certainly the most beautiful and picturesque village of Santorini.

The village is also situated on top of an impressive cliff and offers a spectacular view over the volcano of Palia and Nea Kameni and the island of Thirassia.
Oia is situated on the north of the island, 11 km away from Fira.

It is a traditional village with charming houses in narrow streets, blue domed churches, and sun-bathed verandas. Its streets have plenty of tourist shops, taverns, cafés, and other shops.

If there was 1 million tourist in Fira yesterday, there were 2 million tourists watching the sunset in Oia today. Oia is a nicer village and the sunset is better here.

PHOTO OF SUNSET



BLUE DOMED CHURCH (I POKED MY FACE INTO THIS PHOTO, SO DID SOME OF THE OTHER TOURISTS)



HERE IS A PHOTO OF ME IN SANTORINI GETTING FRIENDLY WITH ONE OF THE LOCALS



We were planning to go to another island called Tinos but the price to get there was unbelievably high. One of the travel agents in Santorini got nasty with us. The lady who served us, would not tell us the price and Richard had asked several times, they printed up the tickets and then told us the price. I told Richard there is no way we are paying that much and we proceded to walk out. The owner of travel agent got angry, telling us he had already printed the tickets and we had to take them. We were not falling for that one and kept walking. We could hear him cursing us down the street.

Santorini - Greece - 29th August 2005

Santorini here we come.



After over 8 hours on a ferry I am sad to say (sorry donna) that Santorini is very disappointing. People kept telling me to book accommodation ahead (most of these people had never been overseas). We have not booked any accommodation in advance in Greece. We have had no problems what so ever getting accommodation even though August is the peak period. The problem with booking accommodation ahead is that they require (more often than not) a credit card payment up front. As one tourist said to me, you get to the place and it can be not what they advertised, in other words you have paid for a dump and trying to get your money back is almost impossible.

When you hop off the ferry there are hundreds of people with signs above their heads advertising their hotels. SEE PICTURE



They take you to their hotel by bus and you get to view the room before you accept it. The Port of Santorini was crazy. But this system works well thoughout Europe an it ensures you don't get ripped off.

On Santorini we stayed in Fira. I have never seen a more tourist infested place in my life. All the photos you see on postcards in Santorini have been touched up. It is the most overrated place I have ever seen. It does not feel like Greece because there are so many English speaking tourists. I had one yank tell me "Get out of my photo". They are so rude here. We saw the sunset in Fira today with about a million other tourists, that was the highlight.

Pireaus - Greece - 27th and 28th August 2005

27th - Lazy day back in Pireaus staying with Richard's Mum. Dinner with Richard's friend Harry. They met during army service which is compulsory in Greece for boys. Hit the Flea Market for sourveigns.



28th - Another Lazy day in Pireaus. The soccer was on tonight. Pireaus' team won and the whole place went mad. The Greeks are crazy for soccer.

Volos - Greece - 26th August 2005

Today we leave Volos. However we cannot get a train back to Athens until 5pm. So we checkout at midday, Richard went for a swim while I sat at the beach bar for about 2 hours, then we went out for lunch to a traditional restaurant. The dishes at restarants/taverns vary depending on the region of Greece you are in. For example, Ouzo is big in Volos.

BEACH BAR IN VOLOS



6 hour train trip to Athens was not fun. Someone had blocked the toilet on the train by putting toilet paper in the toilet (you have to put your paper in the bin and not the toilet in Greece - Yuk). All this urine and god knows what else was in the bowl while the train was rocking from side to side. It was disgusting. I thought I was going to be sick. This is not as bad as having to use a squat with no toliet paper. I have had to use a squat several times so far including one in Meteora and Santorini too. A couple of times a day someone comes in to hose them down as there is no flush.
Yukky Pooh!

Pilion Region - Greece - 25th August 2005

Today we explored the surrounding areas of Volos by bus. I didn't have any breakfast and got very motion sick in the bus. However, it was worth it as we went to this very nice village called Makrinitsa which is part of the Pilion region. After a lot of moaning about how sick I was feeling we sat down for traditional Greek cakes and iced chocolate. Not a very healthy breakfast! PICTURE OF WHERE WE HAD BREAKFAST



Richard took another bus trip while I had a siesta.

Then in the early evening we took yet another bus trip to Kala Nera in the Pilion region. Richard swam in his undies! hahaha! Really nice, relaxing, peaceful place. Richard thought it would have been nice to get a hotel room there for a couple of days. Maybe another time.

LOOK CLOSELY AT THE GIRL NEXT TO THE SNOKEL FLIPPERS - ZOOM IN BOYS!!!

Volos - Greece - 24th August 2005

24th August - We leave Salonica for Volos. Again we use the Lonely Planet book for accommodation advice and stay at Hotel Jason with a balcony overlooking the main road. PHOTO TAKEN ON BALCONY OF HOTEL JASON



Finally Richard gets to go for a swim. He was getting really shitty with Salonica because the swimming beach was about 16kms away by bus. Volos is fairly quiet by day but come 9-10pm at night the whole place comes alive. There are Taverns for about 1km. SEE PHOTO



There are a lot of students in Volos as there is a university here. Our hotel room came with a balcony so when we got tired of walking at night we bought drinks at the kiosk and retired to our balcony to watch people walk by.

The kiosks here are like milk bars. Except there are no rules in Greece on what they can sell. Kids can buy alcohol, cigarettes and porn from the kiosk if they like. Nobody really gets drunk here as I have been told it is not socially acceptable (unlike Australia). The teenagers here are also well behaved despite the fact that they have access to pretty much anything they like.