28th August to 4th September 2006 - Pireaus

We are currently back at the port of Athens, Pireaus enjoying our down time. Feel free to send emails and comments on the blog as I am checking them daily at the moment. We are eating, drinking and enjoying ourselves too much!

PIC OF PIREAUS TRAIN STATION



PIREAUS BY THE BAY



On Saturday 2nd of September we will be going out to dinner to celebrate our marriage with all the greek relatives.

On Tuesday 5th of September we are going backpacking to explore the Peloponese for a couple of days. This will include Nafplio. Richard's friend Harry has told me this is his favourite place in Greece so I am looking forward to it. Then we will be going to Diakofto to take the cog railway up to Kalavryta to see the Vouraikos Gorge.

Poros Island - Greece 9th August to 27th August 2006

9th August - Poor Richard is running errands for his Mamma while I am in a air conditioned internet cafe updating my blog ;-)

From the 10th of August to 27th of August we spent on the Island of Poros swimming, eating, sleeping and catching up with Richard's relatives. Richard got to hire his motorbike which made him happy.





From Poros we got the opportunity twice to visit the mainland (Peloponnese) where I got to walk on a crater of a inactive volcano which involved a bit of rock climbing. We had the best steak and chips that night at a little tavern in a local village. So cheap 5 euro. We also got to visit a waterfall called Devil's Bridge. Photos to come.

8th August 2006 - GREECE!!!!!!!!!!

Our wake up call is at 4am. I don't like the early starts but I can make an exception for this one as we are leaving Venice to go to Greece.

We fly Lufthansa (spelling, sorry) and I am so impressed. We had a stop over in Munich for 30 minutes but our plane was delayed. arrrrhhhhggg! I cannot believe all the delays we have experienced. Anyway I was impressed because we got a tarmac transfer which involves a little van taking us quickly from one plane to another. I think I was on German soil for a total of 30 seconds.

We are finally in Greece!!!!!! I am so happy. Richard's parents took us out for dinner. It was the best meal I have had in weeks.

Venice -Italy - 6th and 7th of August 2006

Venice is beautiful. There are a large amount of tourists here for such a small area but it is still very enjoyable.







My favourite area of Venice is Saint Mark's Square which includes the Basilica of Saint Mark and Ducal Palace. I could spend hours just looking at the detail of the Basilica.

We bought lots of presents for family here as there is so many beautiful things. I could take suitcases of the stuff home if I could carry it all.

4th, 5th & 6th August 2006 - Rome

On the 4th we left Lisbon for Rome. A day in transit which involves getting up, packing, catching a bus, checking in at the airport, customs, waiting, waiting, getting on plane, plane on ground for 1 hour and delayed because another passenger had to be escorted off. Nearly all our flights have been delayed. Very frustrating!!!!!! At this point Richard and I have had more than enought of flying but the show must go on.

In the evening I saw pretty much all the sights except the Colosseum and the Vatican. My favourite would have to be the Trevi Fountain.





And I don't understand what the big deal is about the Spanish Steps, it seems to be a meeting place for young people - It reminds me a bit of the steps of Flinders Street Station.



5th of August - Saw all the sights of Rome by day including the Colosseum, the Vatican, the Trevi Fountain again, the Piazza del Popolo, the Pantheon, the Piazza Navona with it's fountains, markets and street buskers. After lots of walking we soaked our feet in a fountain at the Piazza Venezia. It felt sooo nice! I don't think it's allowed (feet in fountain) but we did it anyway.









The food in Rome is really average. The pizza is really poor. The take-away pizzas at Pizza Hut in Australia are better. That says a lot. The only real exception is the ice cream. It is sooo good!!! I wish I had one now!

We are staying at Hotel Everest. The people running the hotel are a little strange.

6th of August

Get one more look at Rome. Today was spagetti / pasta for lunch and that was really average too. Everything is really expensive in Italy. We are counting down the days till we get to Greece and eat lots of yummy food!

Another plane trip, this time to Venice

Sintra - Portugal - 3rd August 2006

I loved Sintra. It was so nice. It is a bit like the Dandenongs/ Cockatoo area in Melbourne. We walked all the way up to the Castle and watched the bus loads of tourists go past us. Believe it or not I was happy to walk but Richard did a lot of complaining.






The Castelo dos Mouros is perched on the slopes of the Serra so it was quite a walk up hill. It looks a bit like The Great Wall of China without all the fog. The views were great. Here's a photo.



After all that walking we treated ourselves to a traditional Portuguese meal.

After siesta in the evening we went for a walk in search of more cakes! I have to mention a street performer in Lisbon. He plays the accordene (sorry spelling) while his little dog holds a small bucket in it's mouth where tourists place money. We feel so sorry for this little dog because he is there all day in the heat and his master is not very good at playing. We can hear him playing from our hotel room, it's bad. But the dog is very cute, poor little thing.

Lisbon, Estoril - Portugal - 2nd August 2006

Today we explore what remains of The Castlo de Sao Jorge. It nothing special but the views from the castle are excellent



Later we caught a train to Estoril / Cascais so Richard could go swimming. The weather here is wonderful. High 20s, not too hot, not a cloud in the sky.



While Richard was swimming I sat in the shade where a lovely African / Portuguese boy named Slyvester tried to pick me up. He was 22 and very cute. Richard had competition!!!! Unfortunately when Richard returned from his swim, the poor boy got embarassed and disappeared. Richard thinks I led Slyverster on because I did not tell him I was married. My defense was that it never came up in the conversation and I wear a wedding ring, isn't that enough?

Also had a look at the biggest Casino in Europe which is located at Estoril / Cascais.

In the evening we went to a park (don't have the name or pictures on hand, I will update later. Within the park we could see the world's longest bridge which is 14kms long.

Lisbon - Portugal - 1st August 2006

We are finally in Europe! Customs in Portugal are so polite!

Air Portugal is so much nicer to fly with than Air Canada



We arrive in Lisbon nice and early in the morning. By this stage I have not slept in over 24 hours. Crying children are making it almost impossible to sleep on any of the flights we have been on. We cannot check into our hotel until 12pm so we spend the morning roaming around Lisbon.

PIC OF ME ON OUR HOTEL BALCONY IN LISBON



We take Tram No 28 up, down and around. Lisbon is full of little streets, all cobble stoned. We can see the Castelo de Sao Jorge (A castle) in the distance. I especially love the The Elevador de Santa Justa and the facade of the Se, the city's cathedral. The ticket for the bus we got from the airport to Lisbon allows us to use public transport and ride up and down on the Elevador all day. This is really good value for money.

PIC OF TRAM 28



PIC OF ELEVADOR DE SANTA JUSTA



PIC VIEW OF LISBON FROM TOP OF ELEVADOR



After siesta we take a tram and go to see Torre de Belem, a beacon for navigators and a symbol of Portuguese navel power.

And the cakes in Portugal are so good! Richard has admitted that they may be better than Greek cakes....Ha...the Greeks don't always do it better!

Leaving New York - USA - 31 July 2006

Wake up and watch some American TV - the Tyra Banks show. Pack and take one last look at the streets of New York before we make our way to Newark Airport. New York has 3 airports, unfortunately we didn't get to use JFK. Newark airport has this unique light rail system to take you to your terminal. The carriages look like little bubbles.



US Customs arrrhhhhhh........ They are just so rude and despite the fact they speak english, I can't understand them. The lady (if you could call her that!) at customs told me to take my shoes off and I could not understand her. So she just starts yelling and screaming at me. A fellow passenager explained to me what I had to do. Shoes have to go through the xray scanner because of the incident a couple of years ago where they intercepted someone with explosives / a bomb in their shoes.

We walked 94 blocks of NY - 30th July 2006

We walked all the way from 31st Street up 5th Avenue via Central Park to 125th Street in Harlem. Yes we walked 94 blocks!!!!!!!!

It is Sunday morning and I cannot believe all the people who are going for a run or a jog. It is like there is some sort of triathalon going on but it is just a normal Sunday for a New Yorker in Central Park.

PIC OF CENTRAL PARK



VIEW FROM CENTRAL PARK



We walked cautiously through Harlem (high crime / non tourist area) but there was no need to as it was a friendly and colouful place. Lots of illegally copied CDs and DVDs here.

PIC OF HARLEM



We caught the subway back to 34th Street where we did some window shopping in 5th Avenue. Richard let me buy a bag in Macys. It is just a tourist bag with Macys written on it. I have never seen so many handbags in all my life. Walked past Saks on 5th Avenue. Gee with the prices no wonder Wiona Ryder did a bit of shoplifting there!!



We had a siesta again in the afernoon ad walking 94 blocks takes a lot out of a person!!!!

In the evening we went for another walk through little Italy. I like.

I notice some of the prices at the restaurants during our walk. One place wanted $50 (USD) for a porterhouse steak. On top of this you have to pay taxes and tip so you would have been up for $65 USD or $80 Australia for a steak!!!!!!

No wonder we have been dining at McDonalds!!!!!

29th July 2006 New York

We arrive in New York early in the morning. We are unable to check into our hotel until 3pm. Our hotel is located at Hearld Square almost on the corner of 31st Street and 5th Avenue. Good hotel - highly recommend it.

We walked down 5th Avenue. There was a farmers market on as it was a Saturday. We had the most yummy apple. I think after all of the crap food that Air Canada had served anything else would taste superb! We had spinesh pie for lunch from another market.

New York has some nice parks. Lots of little sqirrels, they are so cute. And they have enclosed areas for dogs or dog parks as seen in Sex and the City. Remember when Charlotte bought a dog with the intention of picking up men when she visited the dog park? Well there were lots of young single girls with dogs in these dog parks/runs. These areas were a bit smelly and not one bit glamorous!



We had a look at Ground Zero where the twin towers once were. It was a little errie as there was a street performer playing Amazing Grace on his recorder (flute). It is a huge area that is now without buildings, it's bigger than the MCG.



We also caught the Statton Island Ferry (for free!!) out to see the Statute of Liberty.





Then we caught the subway back to our hotel for a well deserved siesta. The subway is terrible. Dirty and hot. Believe it or not our public transport in Melbourne is better. We were sometimes stuck 15 minutes in that subway waiting for a train. It was terrible. No wonder the girls from SATC only ever caught cabs!!!!!

In the evening we checked out Times Sqaure.








It was Saturday night so the whole place was packed and it was hard to move. I enjoyed this and thought it was an amazing experience. I noticed there was a lot of garbage on the streets and rats. Yes there are plenty of rats in New York. It is dirty and not nearly as glamourous as it is made out to be in TV and movies.

Delay No. 2 - 28th & 29th of July 2006

Today our plane is supposed to take off at approx 1pm to Toronto (30 minute stop over) with a connecting flight to New York.

As we have to be at the airport 90 minutes prior to take off we decided to sleep in and not see any more of Beijing.

We get up, have breakfast and take a taxi to the airport. When we check in we receive the news that our plane has been delayed by over 5 hours. This completely F%&ks are flight to New York. At this point we are flying with Air Canada. All I can say is NEVER FLY WITH AIR CANADA! They gave us meal vouchers for lunch and dinner at the airport but the meals were very average. Internet access at the airport would have cost me 100 rmb or about $17 aud unlimited. Too expensive and at that point I didnt have much to write and was not in a good mood.



We got free accommodation in Toronto because they could not put us on another plane until the next day. This meant one less day in New York which we were not very happy about. The accommodation at Toronto was 5 minutes away from the airport but a good 30 minutes away from the centre of Toronto. I was way too tired to do anything other than go to bed. Richard took a taxi in to Toronto for a look. He said it was nothing special, Auckland (NZ) is better. He took a couple of photos. It had an area that looked a bit like Docklands in Melbourne.

Disaster struck in the morning at Toronto airport. It was 5.30 in the morning, we had very little sleep. First I was harassed by a rude customs officer. He was so rude to me, demanding what I was doing in Canada. Telling me if I wanted to go to New York I would have been better off driving there. Was AIR CANADA going to pay for that? I dont think so. Half the time I could not understand what he was saying because of his thick american/canadian accent. It was hard to believe we were both speaking the same language. When I couldnt understand him he got frustrated and more rude towards me. It was hell!

Straight after this we approached what looked like an xray scanner for all our hand lugguage. Richard had already put all his stuff through including wallet, mobile and ticket. I was tired and extremely flustered by the customs officer so I just followed what he was doing. It wasnt the xray scanner but another place to check in lugguage (not carry on lugguage). All our belongs, including cash were gone.



There was no airport staff there to help us. We thought this was really poor. When we approached the lady at the desk she was completely rude to us. We were freaking out and all she could say was "you"re not following me, how will you know where to go if your not folling me" Stupid Canadian b%cth! She also carried on about our inability to read signs. The signs were small & not the clearest. She said this happens several times a day. Doesnt that go to prove that the airport staff at check-in are not doing a very good job?????

All our stuff was returned by the bagguage handlers and they were very kind to us. More honest than bagguage handlers in Australia if you believe Schapelle"s story.

The plane flight was long but we were glad to be out of the airport at Toronto

Second Day of Beijing - 27th July 2006

Postcard image of the Great Wall of China



Today we went to THE GREAT WALL. The weather surprised us. It was humid but cold. Unfortunately visibility on the wall was minimal because of the thick fog. We could only see 100 metres ahead.



Richard did a bit of investigating and managed to arrange the trip to the wall for one forth of the price we would have paid if we had arranged it through the hotel. We gave the Ming Tombs along with the Jade factories (you buy, you buy, very cheap) a miss.

For anybody interested there is a new bus service run by the Chinese Government that takes you straight to the wall at Badaling. The bus service is called ?????(will update this). Pick up is from the south east corner of Tian anmen Square. It costs about 90 rmb or $15 aud. It includes return bus service and entry to The Great Wall.

There were about a dozen very cute bears that I threw food to just before the entry to the great wall. The bears appear to enjoy the attention and the food. It did not appear that they were tortured or being treated inhumane. We were feeding them cucumber. Im sure they would have loved some meat.



We took a "pulley" or cable car up to the wall but found it would have been quite easy to walk. The cable car took us up the north side of the wall. We later walked up the south side. There are far too many peddlars (fawkers) on the bridge selling tourist crap. The fog and the crowds of tourists made it hard to take good photos :-(

The further away from the entrance to the wall the less crowds ;-)

Richard was impressed by my physical capabilities in climbing the wall as he had his doubts.

The only negative aspect about the trip to the great wall was trying to find the bus to take us back to Beijing. Tempers were tested. Signs were misleading, the language barrier was great and even when they could understand what we were saying they could not help us. All I can say is that they better know their product before the 2008 Olympics!!!!

Finally we found a gentleman with a van who offered to take us to the car park where the bus was located for a small fee of 20 rmb. He was able to understand what we were asking after we showed him a photo of the bus from the brochure.

Beijing - China - First Day - 26th July 2006

We start the day with no chinese yen or rmb. We use an ATM inside the bank which was the smartest thing we could have done as the ATM instructions are all in chinese. The security guard helps us withdraw money. The people of China are so polite and helpful.

Then we walked along Wangfujing Street which is a shopping mall. The streets of Beijing are very clean.

Following this we visited a Jingshan Park at the north of Forbidden City. People there were doing Tai Chi. Very pretty place.




Then we spent much of the morning exploring the Forbidden City and Tian anmen Square.







In the evening we went to the Dazhalan Street Markets where I purchased fake 2008 Olympic mascot paraphernalia. Its impressive that they already have 2008 Olympics merchandise for sale and even more impressive that the fake stuff is already doing the rounds at the markets.



Tonight we decide to treat ourselves to a big meal at a nice restaurant. Richard insisted we must try the Peking Duck. And I liked the look of the pork dumplings. They stuffed up our order and we ended up with vegetable dumplings and 2 serves of duck. This didnt really bother us. It tasted really good but later in the evening the duck had its revenge!!!!! The evil thing would not stop becking at our insides!!!!