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Published: December 24th 2009
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Well folks I finally got around to writing the next installment of my travel blog on Greece albeit I have been to Mykonos, got over the flu, back to London, now batching it in Amsterdam and now Berlin........So I am going to preface with something I read in a mag on the ferry over to Amsterdam (utter luxury just quietly and only $77 incl cabin!)..... 'There are no foriegn lands it is the traveller only who is foriegn'
Sometimes I feel just like that but having a great time nevertheless, facing all the challenges in all the different countries. But if you have a passport and Travelex cashcard the world is your oyster!
Well we finally hit Athens somewhere I needed to take the kids for ancestorial reasons but for me I would've preferred swahililand! Greece (Athens) is wonderful place for history, yeeros, and the Islands otherwise get out to the latter as quickly as you can...Nothing has changed with the advice that I was given during my last trip in March.
As mentioned in my FB posts, we greeted Athens with a 3 week garbage strike you should see the CAPITAL of the country
utter disgrace piles of rubbish metres high on every street corner, there were rolling student protests because they want to put in security measures at the medical school and something to do with a kid getting shot by the cops and dying. On the day of the demo's they closed the city streets and absolute caos ensured, plenty of hand waving by the cabbies quite
entertaining actually! So at the end of the day the greeks are credited with inventing democracy and they sure know how to practice it!
On a positive note the outdoor tavernas are bliss regardless if its in the Plaka, Monastaraki or on some island. The romanticsm of sitting down having a souvlaki or coffee (there seems a lot of that going on, coffee that is....I should get my mum over, she would make a killing reading coffee cups!)
in an outdoor tavana under the Acropolis you cant beat it. We decided on a traditinal souvlaki dish in the monastaraki watching people and gypsies strutting their stuff. It must be in the genes Princess absolutely loves the idea.
Took the spacecadets to the scene of the movie My Life in Ruins,
the iconic Acropolis, Parthenon 1896 Olympic stadium, Zues Temple, climbed that big hill in the middle of Athens that got the heart pumping! and the new Acropolis Museum which they built to prove they could care and display the Elgin Marbles.....If you can remember what I wrote in my London Blog nothing has changed I'd leave them in the BM.....there goes my application for a EU passport!
By this time we lost contact with my mate Lefterie and havent seen him since....oh well the adventure continues unabated!
One quiet day we decided to take the wonderful Metro to the 2004 Olympic Venue.....OK all that could be said, about the Olympic legacy thats the venue is a perfect movie set for Mad Max's Parts 5,6 and 7 post-apocoliptic movies the venue is perfect. Might have a quite word with Mr Miller for a spotters fee or at last a credit in the next movie!......You want to see a white elephant you gotta check this one out.
BTW their Olympic Stadium looks mighty like the Bulldogs home ground!
Before I get onto Mykonos and brush with Shirley Valentine, Athens' Metro after 5 yrs, built
for the 2004 Olympics, Im amazed its still spotless, perfect in every sense....Its definately the best we have travelled on by a country mile! There I've said it one good thing that comes out of Athens and the Ferry's aaahhh ok thats when they are not on strike.
Whilst in Greece princess wanted to visit at least one Island (been watching Mama Mia me thinks) so down to one of the 5000 ferry agent shops we went and booked 3 tickets for the ferry to Mykonos...We are not talking Launa Park ferry here folks they are like little Ocean Liners, they take cars trucks everything and you can even camp on deck.
One thing about these ferrys as they go into each port you gotta understand these ferrys arriving on these remote islands is like there lifeblood for everything except for wifi and mobiles which appears everyone has one, even the little old grannies all dressed in mourning black.
Aaahhhhh Mykonos picture postcard even in winter (at least it was warmer than the rest of europe, time for t-shirts and thongs) home of sun, sand, windmills, little venice, shirley valentines, the 'Ramrod Club' and Petros the
Pelican.
Ramrod Club you ask, those of the rainbow lifestyle persuasion would know what I'm talking about!
Well we rocked up got picked up from the port by the dad of the chick who'se place we were staying at, holding up a sign so we can find him.....I said to myself look out, VIPs coming through we can only dream! As you can imagine the place was literally closed, apart from 1 motel, 1 taverna, 1 deli and the cop shop even the Maritime office was closed. Who cares we had the place to ourself including our $80 lunches (pasta) and $50 brekkies (pancakes) yes folks they got you by the short and curlies and not a cheap yeeros to be seen and you cant exactly go shopping....lucky my 2009 and 2010 leave loading come in! Mykonos is a beautiful place with its maze of quaint little whitewashed streets (pathways) and all their white houses and blue or red feature colours.
The place has 7000 permant residents not sure how many Shirley Valentines but there is a lot of ex-pats, place blows up
to around 50-70,000 at its peak....from what Ive seen all I want
to say is I'll hang out for the shoulder season!.BTW local tap water is not safe to drink...not kidding bottled water is extremely cheap to buy and highly recommended....thats the public service announcement.
Wwweeeeell guess who we just missed out on seeing....WOG BOY himself Nick Giannopoulos (I think thats how he spells hos name) well it happens Gizelle from Switzerland (aka Shirley Valentine) said the island was pandemonium whilst he was filming his latest epic blockbuster...the island was asked to supply 400 extras, shiate just missed out seeing my name papaspridopoulos taramousalatas in the credits!
BTW Gizelle's story is a fair dinkum 'shirley valentine' one. 20 years ago she was a swiss tourism consultant rocked up to Mykonos fell in love and settled there running a relaxed newtownie looking type of coffee shop called 'Suisse' with $50 breakfasts). In the morning I think every 'Shirley Valentine' rocked up even one from down under to have coffee with Gizelle formerly from switzerland!.
We had a small matter of the HSC and ATAR results coming out whilst we were on Mykonos so after 20,000 FB chats and posts (all going on at the one time mind you....taking in
the time difference doesnt the generation Z species sleep) princess was relieved that she comfortably made it into Uni for primary school teaching which is what she wanted..cant ask for anything more than that.
So there you have it i'll go back to Mykonos one day for a seachange (when that EU passport comes through) we caught our strike riddled late ferry in time to catch the connecting flight to London (man was I shitting bricks) for the spacecadets to be home before xmas.
So before I go onto my batching Blogs (PG)....its been a fantastic time spending quality time showing the kids a small part of the world including snow in London all outside of Bossley Park. With souvenir shopping done, I can happily say the spacecadets have been raised, educated and now travelled and I love them more than anything else on this planet....Have I missed anything! So off they go to get on with their lives flying VS200 London to Sydney...bon voyage!
So there you have it 3500 photos later they're gone!
and Im off window shopping in Amsterdam...the adventure continues folks!
Later groupies
SK
Solo Tourists
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