GREEK ISLANDS

Day 87 - 91

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANDY PANS!!!! Hope you had a terrific day! We thought about you all day...and had a retsina for you!!! Lots of love from your lil sis and Greg xxx

Thanks so much Annie for all your emails and Kitty's Song. We finally printed it and will read it on the boat! Will email from there! BIG HUGS Love ya sissy, xxx

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Cyclades. Greek Islands

Hiya's...we'll we're back from the Greek Islands..so weird, but we sailed into Pireaus Port thinking we'd just get an internet connection while we wait for our ferry to Lesvos (which is an overnight trip, 12 hours) but there's no internet around...and because we've got a few hours to kill, Greg said why don't we just catch a train to Monastraki and use the connection there!

So! We're back in Athens...it was a very familiar feeling getting off at the train station to a place we called home for a few days. That's how it seems now to...we're so transient that we're settling into places within an hour and where our packs are...our home is!

And so...we looked up at the Acropolis and thought...yes, we've been here before! Silly hey...and we're back at the same internet place..and we're trying to print out Kitty's Song that Annie sent..and no printer. That'd be right eh..just when you desperately want to do something...you can't! Arrghh....

So he's headed upstairs to see if he can print there...(I've just sent him an email from here hehehe)

About the GREEK ISLAND.

They were truly beautiful! We had a wonderful 5 days on Santorini and on Mykonos. And we didn't want to leave. In fact, we both felt quite depressed this morning when we knew that we were heading out again....but everytime we do think that, the next place is just as, if not more, beautiful. So we hold on to that..

Santorini was the first place we stopped at, after our last night was spent in Athens listening the the Pommy's wailing way at having lost the Milan, Liverpool soccer game. It went on for ages..no kidding. But what happened was there were a heap of ridgy didgy fans that couldn't get in because there were so many fake tickets. Consequently, the Liverpoolians revolted and the police were sounding sirens in the square just to stop them 'wailing'! So the last night in Athens was a sleepless night!

The ferry, Blue Star, was a fast ferry. Left at 7.25am and arrived 81/2 later. We had a cabin but we were separate, so Greg was in with 2 other guys, i was in with 2 other girls (the only tickets left!)..and so we ended up sitting outside on deck..and at one stage when i did go back to the cabin there was a girl and a guy in there!! Gawd....

At least i got my book read, Treasures, that Greg is now reading! (I picked up yet another one of Mauve Binchys books, Quentins!)

We stopped at Paros and Naxos (loved your story about this island sis!) and passed Irakia and Los. All beautiful islands.

We were glad to have accomodation sorted...so when we arrived, our name was up in lights and we just went with our driver. And talk about a beautful hotel. We were ON TOP Of THE CLIFF..and the hotel was called Kafieris...so beautiful. Our view was magical. We could see out to the Caldera where the volcano here eruped in the 60's so it was still very black soil. We felt like we were on holidays....truly. We dined on moussaka finally, drank retsina..and just loved it..and just soaked the place up.

Walked to Ios, saw a donkey riding with a cart and came back to the most magnificant sunset..

So romantic..

And so was Mykonos as well. We had to find our own accomodation here..aDamianos, which is a family guest house. Their were heaps of signs as we got off the boat..at all places that looked the same so we just picked the first person that 'accosted us'!

And we picked well! Our apartment, once again, overlooked the bay..and was just beautiful. And only 50 euros a night. We saw on the door it went up to 140 Euros in the high season. There were other apartments in the same complex too..for 40 euros but not as big and comfortable, but certainly as gorgeous. People who came to stay there from South Africa said they stayed at place up the road for the same price and it was a DUMP. (They had to stay where we were because they missed their boat out!)

We hired a quad bike and what a lot of fun that was! We drove to all the beaches on the islands and sunbathed and just lapped up the water and the beautiful sunsets once again. And got sunburnt!

The Greek islands are magical. I'm so glad we decided to go..it wasn't originally on our list but once in Athens, we just couldn't NOT go.

The people are so friendly here in Greece too. Honestly, we've just found they have a great sense of humour and although our Greek is crap, their english is terrific!

Not we're off to Lesvos..and it'll be interesting to see what happens...we don't know if ther's internet there or not...but we want to go to Limnos (Lemnos) as well.

Will let you know...and will let you know how we go with Turkey too..Jaak, we're already a bit dubious about Turkey and how to get there, so we'll be checking the hostility out that's for sure....Greg has also had a horrific experience in Turkey (which i'll tell you about AFTER we've been) so we're going to be careful. If we don't feel safe catching a boat, we'll fly back to Athens and on to Istanbul..so don't worry :-)

And yes, we'll be in Northern Europe in Julyish...We'll email you from Lesvos if we can find a internet cafe!

Okies..time to go!

xoxoxoxox

PS We tried Souvlaki at Pireaus and it was great! (we were hesitating..but it's fresh here in Greece!)