Milos - Greek Islands

We arrived at the port of Milos and were greeted by our host Petros. This seemed strange, as the internet advertised we were only 150m from the port. He loaded us into his car and gave us a half minute orientation around town and we were there, the drive took less time than loading the car. After dumping our stuff we headed back to the port for dinner. There is quite a bit of a selection but we choose a mamma and papa type restaurant which was overlooking the port. We had bread and Taziki dip, Greek salad and a Mousaka which was really good so we were thinking of Lyn as we ate. After dinner we headed back to the hotel and collapsed happily knowing we didn’t have to be up early in the morning. After a huge sleep in we finally got out of the room at about midday. Petros gave us a map and basically planned three full, jam packed days of sightseeing for us. This being said he quickly sent us on our way because there wasn’t much of the day left. We headed for the bakery to get some breakfast and swung past the bus stop to see when the next bus was to Plaka and realized there was one about to leave. After a rash decision we jumped on realizing that we were not wearing the best shoes or had enough water for the day. First stop in Plaka was the café. Neither of us function very well before caffeine so it is a necessity we are slowly learning to budget for. Having that out of the way, we headed up castello hill to a church with views of the whole island. On the way up we bumped into an English couple who had been on the bus, we would bump into them a few more times today. The views were fantastic and we had the place to ourselves which was nice after our last two stops were very busy cities. We headed back down the hill and headed for the next town down the road. Here there were some Catacombs and an ancient theater to see. When we arrived, the Catacombes had just closed, damn Greece and their 3pm closing times. The ancient theater was nice, but in the middle of restoration, and in the area was also the site of where the statue of Venus de Milo was discovered. We continued down the road to a traditional port village, where the houses were built into the cliffs, on the beach. The ground floors of the houses were garages to store boats and fishing gear. We walked along the shore line escorted by one of the local stray cats that was intent on getting some pats, it is amazing how friendly the stray animals are in Europe. As it was getting late, we thought we had probably missed the last bus, so headed home across country dirt roads. It was not a long walk and had some nice churches and views along the way. For dinner back in town it was souvlaki time, ‘a souvo a day…’.

Petros the owner of the hotel had suggested we should do a sailing boat tour around the island to see some of the coast line in areas which are not accessible by road. He’s a local so knew better than us so off we went. The boat was not very big but only had 5 passengers including us and the two crew members John and Joanna. It was a nice warm sunny day, although as we sailed out of the bay the breeze was a bit chilly.

We cruised along the coast, past the towns and villages we had walked through yesterday. There was a number of small fishing villages like the one we had seen. There was some spectacular coast line and rock formations. Soon John pulled the boat up in a secluded bay where it was time for a swim. Jumping off the boat into the water was a very cold shock, I thought the water was meant to be warm? We swam around the bay with our snorkels, not a lot to see but still fun. The beaches had nice sand, and was a chance to warm up.

Our next stop was a beautiful cove with sheer white cliff walls, clear blue water and a series of caves and rock formations to explore. Again it was off the side of the boat into the water for a swim, this time we swam through a cave which bought us out the other side of the cove back into the sea.
Back on the boat we enjoyed a beer and pasta lunch (not so greek!). While we dined, John was trying to start the little dingy we had towed all the way out here. After an hour of trying he accepted it wasn’t going to start. John and the 5 guests still piled into the boat, only it had to be powered by the oarsome Damien. We paddled around and through a few more caves and coves. Finally it was back to the sailboat to head back to town. Everyone had a turn at captaining the ship on the way home. Then we spent the rest of the journey drinking cold beers in the sun on the front of the boat. Back at the Hotel we were joined by Laura and Morris, the English couple we had seen the day before. We had drinks on our balcony before heading down the street a souvlaki. They will be travelling around Greece for about 3 months in total. We had decided we needed some wheels to explore the island a bit better. There seem to be different laws concerning the licensing needed to hire motor bikes on each island which meant we couldn’t get a scooter on Milos. This meant it was either a tiny gutless car or we could spend a little more and get an awesome buggy for the day. You only live once so the buggy won. Our first stop was an amazing beach called Sarakiniko which consisted of wind sculpted white rock formations. There wasn’t much sand to lie on but the crystal clear water contrasting with the white rocks was stunning. It also had the added attraction of cliffs to jump off into the water, which by the way was very cold! We spent most of the morning here, lazing, swimming and taking heaps of photos! From there we drove along the coast, visited a few more beaches which were also very nice and then ended up in a small seaside town. This had a nice beach with trees on it which had been painted white of course, a not so subtle reminder that you are still in Greece! In this sleepy town we had a coffee in a café right by the water, Frappe, Greek Style. We got chatting to the waitress who was lovely although not from this island.
In the afternoon we visited a couple more nice beaches before spending some more time lying in the sun and swimming. It was then time to return the buggy and head back to the hotel. We ate dinner in the same restaurant that we had been to on our first night. The food was great again, the old guy was lovely and gave us free dessert and raki shots. Then it was time to get some sleep, before our early ferry ride in the morning.

Athens - Greece

We had heard that the Acropolis is over run by tourists by about 9:30-10am so we had planned an early morning, but didn’t hear the alarm, opps! We did however manage to be down for breakfast at 8am and out and up to the Acropolis by 8:30 and thank goodness! The rumors’ were correct, the whole hill side was overrun by 10am. It was difficult to walk some of the paths let alone get good photos, luckily we were just ahead of the masses. We were disappointed by the information sign’s at the acropolis, as it only explained about the restorations that took place rather than why the various monuments were built and how they were used. Also the fact that most of it is covered in scaffolding and roped off was disappointing. Luckily Damien decided to lug around the Lonely Planet so we had a short story time in front of each monument. It is a very cool place, despite the crowds and scaffolds. We found the best way to enjoy it was by picturing ourselves in toga’s and sandals, walking around when it was all looking pretty and being peeled grapes by our servants and slaves. We are also glad that we visited the British Museum to see all of the stones that have been removed from the site. Despite the Greeks wanting their stones back, I am glad the English took them and looked after them. If it had been left in Greece chances are that they would also be in a state of ruin. The Acropolis ticket includes some of the other archeological sights around the city so we planned our day around what we could get into for free. Our first stop was Hadrian’s Arch (one of our favourite Romans, he built the wall in England) and The temple of Olympic Zeus. The arch was dedicated to a Roman guy named Hadrian for all the public buildings he contracted around the city. It was a gateway between the old Greek part and new Roman sections of the city and represented this with a large arch for Rome topped by a three square Greek arches. The temple of Olympic Zeus was huge but not much remains of it. The frontage was very impressive but most of the rest of it has fallen, one column which is lying on it’s side was actually topped by the wind. This was very interesting as you could see how all the pieces of marble are stacked to form each column. From there we headed through the Gardens towards the main square for a Greek style of the Changing of the guards. We were a bit early so we found a cheap souvlaki for lunch then headed back to enjoy the show. It is very different to the English changing of the guards and looks a bit like dancing but without music. They would hold their legs up in the air and touch pom poms which were attached to their shoes, hilarious. Once we had finished lunch we had a walk through side streets trying to follow a walking tour from the lonely planet. This was a bit tricky but we did manage to find a small village of white washed houses behind the Acropolis. These were built by workers who were employed from one of the islands to make one of the temples. It was a maze of tiny alley ways, some as narrow as about 40cm. We made our way to the Roman Angora, another archeological site then headed for the Ancient Angora site only to be told it closed at 3pm which was a bit annoying. Our touristy day had finished early with the sites closing at 3pm, so we headed to the tourist information to get our ferry tickets to Milo’s organized only to discover it was closed. We managed to book tickets at a travel office then started to head home. We stumbled across cheap coffee and felt this opportunity had to be embraced. Just as we sat to enjoy, we spotted some lost Frenchies without a map or accommodation. In true backpacker style we had Samual and Marie follow us back to our hostel. After some down time in our room we headed to the flea market which was like a flea market anywhere and then had a fantastic cheap Greek salad. To finish our day we met our new friends Samual and Marie in the roof top bar at the hostel for happy hour and were soon joined by Jordi from Canada. Our ferry ride did not depart until 2pm so we had the morning to have a last look around Athens. We had a look around the Ancient Angora site along with the museum which was quite good as it ran through some of the basic developments of Greek art. Gyros for lunch, picked up some fruit for the ride and we were on our way. I am currently sitting in one of the deck lounges, scoffing a half kilo of fresh cherries, as Damien has a nanna nap trying to think of things to do for the next 3 and a half of the 7 hour trip to Milos. I might have to play Solitaire.

Istanbul, Turkey

After a fun last night in London, with some of our closest London friends, we were up early for a final bacon and egg breakfast and to finish our packing. We were out of London and on our way to Luton Airport in no time, we thought we had left heaps of time, but it still felt like a bit of a rush to make our 2pm flight.
We arrived about 7.30pm local time, in Asia! It wasn’t that easy, at the baggage claim we were waiting for Christine’s bag but it didn’t appear on the conveyer belt, even after everyone else had cleared out. Asking at lost and found, it is there with the oversize luggage as the zip holding the little pack onto the big pack had split and jammed. Unable to separate the two we leave it dangling off the back of her pack and head out to find a map.
The airport was a long bus ride from the city so we ended up sharing a taxi with Jake and Rachael, an English Couple we met at the airport. They were staying near us in Sultanahmet, and after the hassle with the bag we didn’t feel like taking several buses. We checked in to our hostels and then the English couple met us for a drink at our hostel in the rooftop bar. We then headed down the street and found a nice Kebab. Our first morning in Istanbul we went for a wander around Sultanahmet (old town), to get our bearings. This is the part of town with most of the tourist attractions so we found the Blue Mosque, Topkapi Palace and Ayasofya Muzesi without any problems.
Our first stop was a visit to the Basilica Cistern which is a 6th century Byzantine Cistern. It is beneath the city and has fine brick vaulting that is supported by 336 Corinthian Columns. It was dark inside with quite nice lighting. There was a photography exhibition inside which all the photos having a water theme. There are also two Medusa stone heads attached to two of the columns which were huge. We enjoyed our first Turkish Coffee and Dips for lunch, sitting in beanbags in the sun. In the afternoon we checked out the Hippodrome, which is the site of an Ancient Roman Chariot Racing track. They are currently paving the oval track with bricks so it takes some imagination but it still has Obelisks in the middle. The most famous sight in Istanbul is the Blue Mosque. It is large and has decorations on the inside, although it was not as blue as the name suggests. As you enter you are violently struck by the smell of feet, everyone has to take their shoes off. 80% of the mosque is sectioned off for men to pray, the rest is divided between sections for women to pray and tourists to visit. In the evening we met up with Jake and Rachael for dinner and drinks again. They had found a nice restaurant nearby to try which was built into an old print works building. It had great food so we all headed home very happy. Struggling to get out of bed as early as we had hoped, we rushed breakfast and headed down to the Topkapi Palace. Not our favorite palace that we have seen (so spoiled) but it was nice and quite big, but had a lot of areas not open to public. There were lots of antiques, clothing, crowns and jewellery (gold, diamonds, jade, emeralds, ivory) etc. Christine was really impressed by some of the headdresses that were decorated by 50+ caret diamonds. The long queues and big crowds did not exactly enhance our palace experience. Walking through town and along sea front Damien had a fresh fish roll from the docks (4 lira!). We checked out the Spice market for a look, lots of spices, Turkish sweets, rugs, clothing, plates, handbags etc. The markets in the streets continued through the city all the way, to the Grand Bazaar. The Grand Bazaar was bigger but had similar goods, 4000 shops, 400 products! Lots of stalls with same products, bit more hassle from shop keepers. The Bazaar seemed to have more gold and jewellery than spice market, but no food or spices.
We had hoped to visit Taksim, the main square in Istanbul for dinner, however we both fell asleep for an hour or so at the hostel, so ended up eating locally at Doy Doy, nice food and a bit cheaper than the touristy places near our hostel. Next morning we took a river cruise along the Bosphorus River. This passed a number of the local sights including the Galata Tower, Dolmabahce Palace (which has of 600m river frontage), Ortakoy Mosque, The Bosphorus Bridge, Beylerbeyi Palace (summer house sultan), fort and small towns. After about 1.5 hr we arrived in the town of Anadolukavagi. Here we had lunch in fish restaurant by the water and walked up a hill to Yoros castle (from the Roman Period). The walk up the hill took us through various shops and cafes, and past signs saying “castle this way, free entrance” however, when we got to the castle, there was a sign saying “Closed for restoration”. Luckily there was a nice view of the Black sea and the castle wasn’t unimpressive from the front. After taking the boat back into town we visited the Spice market again this time buying some Turkish delight and cushion covers. We then had to stop for Turkish coffee and Turkish delight! Continuing to walk we crossed the bridge and watched local fishermen. The Galata Tower was our next stop before finding another friendly local who was super keen to sell us dinner in small back street. After dinner we continued along a major shopping street to Taksim Square which is one of the main squares in Istanbul, before catching the tram home after a long day.
We had breakfast at our hostel (Antique Hostel) with our Mexican roommate David on the roof top bar/café. It had a great view over town and the water. It was a nice clean hostel, with quiet bar. The staff were very friendly especially once they heard we had some vegemite!
We only had half a day in Istanbul as we had our flight to Athens to catch in the afternoon. We headed for the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Art. This was quite good with lots of stuff to look at with the highlights being a set of big wooden doors decorated with intricate metal work, small sculptures and ceiling to floor carpets. There was a very interesting ethnographic collection downstairs which showed how the nomadic tribes of Turkey live as well as how home life in Istanbul has changed over time.
After the Museum we headed to a cheap restaurant for lunch which ended up being expensive when Damien accidently ordered 2 mains. He wanted a bit of the chicken and a bit of the beef from the canteen style restaurant and ended up with a lot of both. So to sum up Turkey, the locals are very nice, when they are taking your money!
We headed back to the hostel to collect our bags and were then on our way to airport via the metro. We arrived at airport nice and early, since the flight to Athens was delayed 2 hours which just meant we could take full advantage of the free samples of Turkish Delight in the duty free shop.