Dubrovnik to Athens

---

Hi all,

Well has been an adventure getting to Athens.

Since my last note, we have travelled from Korcula to Dubrovnik by ferry. We had pre-booked accommodation with Rooms Ivo, a private house where they turn rooms into guest accommodation and have backpackers stay.

Very basic type accommodation with shared bathroom, but the place was clean and had aircon in the room, always a plus during this heatwave they are having over this way.
Rooms Ivo is just (about two hundres metres) outside the old town of Dubrovnik and right under the mountain which the Serbs etc bombed the town from during the war.

Yet another amazing place but very touristy. I think that it is sad that all the food is geared to the German, English and Italian tourists as it is hard to find genuine Croatian cuisine anywhere.

Spent a day on a little island called Lockrum, right in the harbour. It is run by the government and no-one can stay there overnight. It has a large nudist beach, which is lucky because some of the people who use it are LARGE nudists - why is it that old men aged in their 60's are the main users.

We actually stumbled into the nudist beach, along with most of the other ferry passengers after getting off the ferry. Nothing exciting I assure you. Topless bathing is the norm rather than the exception, and seems to fit it so easily with whatever anyone else is doing.

On Lockrum, I found a great place to dive into the beautiful clear waters, about 3 metres up. Because of the geography of the land the water gets very deep within metres of the shoreline and can be about 5 metres deep right by the shore.

The kids were doing bombing off the rocks so I did one which seemed to impress them and then their dads joined in and we had a small international competition with Italian/German/Croatian/English and of course NZ competitors, don't know who won, but great afternoon.

After three days in Dubrovnik Mel and I caught the overnight ferry to Bari, Italy. A very smooth sailing it was and we got into Bari at 7am, early as it happens and had to wait for Italian Customs to come to work at 8am before we were allowed off the boat.

Flew from Bari to Milan, where there is a shop called Paul's which is very popular, it is also in France - so now I am a fashion guru too. (Stop laughing)

Only in Milan two hours before connecting flight to Athens, but flight delayed and ended up getting into Athens after 1am, so lucky we had warned out hotel we would be late.

Athens has struck me as a well organised and clean city. A lot of English is used and spoken by locals, which is helpful as I have no idea about the language, but sounds lovely.
Took laundry to a laundrette nearby this morning and the young lady working there spoke English in mostly Greek accent, but prounounced words like here, there, and other similar words in a strong Australian accent. Asked if she had lived there and she said only visited once years ago, but her mum is Australian and married her Greek father and moved back here. She said she had a cousin living in Wellington somewhere.

Have found the Greek people nothing but helpful and very accommodating.

The changing of the guards at the Greek parliament was funny to watch - feel so sorry for those guys dressed in full ceremonial dress and basically performing in this heat (39 degrees)

Hear that you have had bad storms back in Auckland and across most of NZ, hope that you have all come through it unscathed and with as little damage as possible. Not looking forward to the sudden temperature change on my return, will be a real shock to the system. Still always next year :-)

In Athens for two more days and then to Folegandros Island near Santorini. Only has 525 residents and is very quiet but beautiful part of the Greek Islands chain, so I am told, will let you know later.

Anyway, hope you are all good, I am going great guns.

See you all in a couple of weeks - won't be doing pizza or pasta for dinner though.

Paul

---