So far Greece is fantastic! We are almost at the end of the Greek leg and catching up on blogs from a little cafe in Mykonos on a disgusting stormy day.
Rhodes is absolutely beautiful......the old city wall is still completely in tact - well with a bit of restoration work, but the city inside it is extremely charming. All of the streets inside the old city are made from riverstones turne on their side and cemented in, not very confortable to walk on in bare feet. The first thing we noticed was that you don't get hassled hardly at all compared with Turkey. In Rhodes you can order a boot of beer, which is literally beer served in a 1L boot shaped glass. We had a look at the ruins of a few churches and the Temple of Aphrodite in the old city and then had a wander around the Palace of the Grand Masters (Palace of the Knights of St John) which has over 300 rooms.
Once we got out of the Old part and into a more modern Rhodes we took a little train which drives around the streets to see some of the main sights around the city. It is a minature model of a steam train, but doesn't run on tracks, it works just like a car (we have since seen that this is a common form of tourist transport in Greece). We found a cute little pub in a quiter area where we tried the local beer - Mythos - and a Greek coffee. It is very much like the Turkish coffee but not as sweet, it has a definite texture to it, and is made the old fashioned way over the fire.
We checked out the site at the harbour entrance where the colossus used to stand before finding a place to try some Greek takeaways....Pitta Gyros (Pork cooked on kebab, chips, tomato, onion and taziki wrapped in a pita bread) is the best! The Greek pita bread is quite different to what we have at home, it is quite thick and squishy.......and its really good!
The next island in line was Santorini. This wasn't quite what either of us was expecting, it is a lot higher. Most ofn the pictures you see of Santorini are taken from above the roof tops looknig down to the sea, but the cliff you jhave to get up is around 300m high all the way round, and it is straight up! From the water you can tell it was formed by volcano, and the buildings on the top just make it look like snow capped mountains. The ship was tenered as there is no real port, and you get tender boats to ferry you in to shore.
To get to the top you have 3 options....cable car, walking up the 600 steps (and these are not normal steps, they are about half a metre deep) or getting a donkey to the top. Of course we decided on option 3, but not entirely convinced they were donkies as some of them were huge. We lined up with the group that had gathered thinking they would tie a line of donkies together and lead them up the hill. Not quite how it works.....they get one of your feet in the stirrup, push you onto its back, then wack the donkey's backside and you're off! We actually thought we were going to die! There is no order to how they go up, the donkey just knows the track and makes its way up as it feels like it. There were about 8 that they sent up at the same time so they kept having little races and trying to fight with each other, or stopping for a feed. Logan got a crazy donkey that kept wanting to be at the front of the group. It also had small man syndrome and was the smallest donkey in the group, and kept trying to take on the big one, that was a similar size to a horse! The path they go up zig zags up the side of the cliff, one side it rock and the other is a shear drop. Of course they donkies take the easiest route and go right up to the cliff side when going around the corner, and then right up again the wall on the other side. Logans one pushed him into the wall and gave him a bit of a graze on his ankle, and Sara nearly got squashed between 3 of them, but after hearing other peoples stories when we got back to the ship we got off very lightly. There were a lot of falls, arms in slings and twisted ankles that night!
We decided to go out to the volcano, which is a seperate island 15 minutes boat ride from the main island. We got a lovely yacht across to to the island, and hiked to the top of the volcano (only about 20 minutes). It is still active and our guide dug away 5cm of dirt to let us feel the heat in the ground which was amazing. The whole island is just volcanic rock, but it is quite different to the type of lanscape you get at Ruapehu, as there is not lava flow.
After that we had a bit of a wander around Thira town, which is very cute. They hire out ATVs rather than cars to get around as there is really only 1 road on the top, all the rest are really noly suitable for walking or scooter. There are millions of stairs and meandering walkways everywhere.
That night back on the ship Logan had the final for his poker tournament where he got to play some of the ships officers. He ended up getting 3rd overall - 1st and 2nd were officers, and won dinner for 2 at one of the pay restaurants on the ship!
The next stop was Athens........complete contrast to the islands! Athens is a lot busier and in your face, but wasn't as dirty as we thought it would be. We hadn't really been hassled in Greece until we got to Athens, and it was back into being hassled by every street vender, and beggers again! Really randomly we saw heaps of turtles. They just wader around in various parts of the city. There are heaps of stray dogs as well, and we actually saw one at the Acropolis that was munching away on a piece of turtle.
Logan got sucked in again - he likes to think people are being helpful when they offer to show you the way somewhere or give you directions. Eventually he will learn they always want money in exchange for their help.
We caught the Metro into the city - the ship was docked in Piraeus, about 20 minutes walk, then 20 minutes on the metro away from the city. We were lucky as we wouldn't have been able to walk the distance, and there was a public transport strike the day after we were there. The weather was forecast for thunder storms, but the day cleared up to beautiful sunhshine, so we managed to get in all of the sites at the Acropolis, and the original olympic stadium along with a few other things. There were flea markets everywhere that were bustling, and we managed to find somewhere in the centre to have lunch. There was a strip of cafes which looked like a really nice place to have lunch but the street sellers were in your face the whole time, just one after the other people shoving stuff in your face to try and sell it to you. Even little kids would come up and play the accordian or a home made guitar to try and get money out of you, so we ate and left as quickly as we could.
Once we got back on the ship the weather turned and the thunderstorms that had been forecast started. There was a little freak tornado that came across the ship - the band were playing on the deck, and all of a sudden they stoped and were pointing out the side of the ship. When we looked out you could see the wind moving in, then all the birds took off, and within about a minute it was on the ship flinging deck chairs everywhere. It lasted about 2 minutes and then it was gone and the rain started bucketing down.
This morning we arrived in Mykonos, and unfortunately the weather hasn't improved. Thunder and lightning all morning, and rain bucketing down.
We managed to get a little look around in before the rain started. The streets here are amazing - again not suitable for cars, the streets were designed like a maze to confuse attacking pirates, so it is really easy to get lost without adding int everything looks the same and the streets are really narrow. The streets are all paved with stone, and when the rain got really heavy they turned into gushing rivers! The sun has just started to show itself now so hopefully our shoes will dry out in time for tomorrows adventure in Crete!
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