Hello from Athens

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Well, we are in bustling Athens at the moment, and are about to embark on the last leg of our journey, travelling over to the Greek Isles.
Chester filled you in on what we had been up to as far as Florence, so we will fill you in on what we have been up to since.
We travelled from Florence to Rome via Pisa, but only due to a train-ticketting bungle where we were given a ticket for the wrong date after paying 30 euros for a booking, but we managed to jump on a couple of non-reserve trains anyway. The trip was a bit longer but definitely more scenic as we went along the west coast which went very close to the coastline. Rome was great - had a very welcoming feel, though the place we stayed in left alot to be desired. The owners were lovely though and we spent most of the 2 days we were there out and about anyway. We saw most of the sights in that time and got to see the Trevi Fountain and Pantheon at night. Sorry we can't post any photos just yet, but we will try to if we can on the islands. Breakfast was included in our room price at a cafe up the road, and we got a croissant (or a cornetto as the Italians call them) and a coffee, but we had to eat/drink standing up at the counter or it would have cost us extra just to sit down. They charge you for everything, including the water and bread, even though they actually just put it on the table as if it is complimentary!
We did the Vatican, St Peter's and Sistine Chapel in one day, and the amount of people there was amazing. We basically had to follow the crowd through the vatican museums to get to the Sistine Chapel and it was well worth it. Though, the chapel was packed with people, and you had to keep moving around to get the best views of the ceilings and other paintings inside. Most of the Vatican museums were awesome to see, especially the artwork on the walls in the various rooms we went through. We did the hop-on hop-off bus again, which although dearer than public transport, we found was the best way to get to all the places you need to see.
We had abit of a break at a park called Borghese Gardens, and we hired a tandem bike to ride around the park. Teresa was on the front and she took us down some tracks that were made more for mountain biking. We were both pretty sore afterwards! We also both got sunburnt and had to buy sunscreen for 15 euros ($24) for a little spray pack.
There are lots and lots of monuments and sculptures and statues dotted around Rome, and there are also quite a few archaeological excavations going on as well.
The Colosseum is an awesome site. We managed to get there before the crowds, so we quite enjoyed our time there without feeling too rushed and then headed for Palatine Hill and the Forum. We also had one of our best meals at a little place made for tourists near the Colosseum where the waiters were very friendly and the food fantastic.
We went from Rome to Pompeii, where we managed to pick a fantastic time to be there (not) - there was some sort of festival geared towards children and there were kids everywhere. We also picked a bad time to get into town - around 1pm, when everyone is closed for lunch for 2 hours including the hostel. We managed to find a piece of pizza and had a chocolate shake from McDonalds to tide us over until dinner. The next day we spent walking around the Pompeii ruins, which was quite amazing. Again we managed to beat alot of the crowds and tourist groups and saw the best stuff without being too rushed. There are alot of walls and frescoes and buildings that are surprisingly well-preserved. Again there was alot of preservation work and archaeological excavations happening. We spent around 6 hours there as it is such a huge sight. Very tiring though. We missed out on seeing an ancient brothel though which apparently had some very interesting graffiti pertaining to costs, who to see etc - you get the idea - there were quite a few tour groups wanting to go in (read: about 100 people at least!) so we decided to skip it.
From Pompeii, we headed to Naples for 2 nights where we went for a day-trip to Capri. Beautiful blue waters, craggy coastline, pebble beaches, white-washed houses, five-star resorts and expensive boutiques. Again very touristy and full of people, but we enjoyed a walk along the coast-line which took us a couple of hours and took some great pictures.
From Naples we headed to Bari, where we stayed for a night at a B & B, which we would highly recommend. The young man who runs it was a great host, and it has been the best place we have stayed in so far. He even made us coffee for breakfast the next morning!
We then headed to the port to wait 8 hours for our boat to Patras. We think we got a bit of good luck as we got to Patras from Bari for only 10 euros each, which was the port taxes, but we got a bunk in a 6-bed dorm with shower, and we think we were only meant to get what they call airline seats with our eurail pass. We certainly weren't complaining. We got off the boat and caught the train to Athens, arriving at around 6pm last night, didn't have any accommodation booked, but walked to the nearest youth hostel and got 2 nights.
Today we went into town in search of a travel agent and found Nikos at IVIS TRAVEL - from tomorrow morning onwards, all we have to worry about until we leave is what we will be having for lunch and dinner (They are his words!) He has organised transfers to and from the ports and hotels on the islands we are staying on (Mykonos, Naxos, Paros, Santorini and Crete), a hotel when we get back into Athens and even our transfer to the airport to fly home has been organised! We still can't believe that he managed to get every thing organised for us to start island-hopping tomorrow at such short notice. And since we have done well wi th our budget we have decided to go abit more up-market with our accommodation and stay in 3 and 4 star hotels. Can't wait. We will try to post again from one of the islands, but if we don't you know it's because we don't have any time with all the swimming, sunbaking and relaxing we are doing over the next few days.
See you all soon,
from a soon-to-be-tanned Sel, Teresa and Chester.

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