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Published: December 3rd 2009
Hi all,
Finally have found a good internet place so it is time to update the blog. Although Scott tells me I am not funny enough in them :-(. So sorry if I bore you but here goes.
We picked Vicky up and had a fun afternoon seeing the main sights while poor vicky dragged her luggage around with her! (dont worry we did help her........a bit!)(Well she did forget the VEGEMITE!!!). The Acropollis is the main focal point and although it is iconic and looks great from a distance it is a little bit of a let down close up - all covered in scaffolding. Had a lovelt meal and made our plan of attack for the week. We decided to hot foot it around Peloponnese. We crossed over the Cornith Canal. A massive 6 mile long man made canal that effectively makes Peloponeese an Island. It is massive because it is so deep. Really impressive construction work - even if it was done by the French!.
We went to Epidavros to see the first of many ruins. It is impressive as it has a really big theater in good condition. As the weather was lovely it was great to walk around the big site. We finished the day in Nafpolio a "well to do" get away for Athians. A lovely promanard along the harber edge and a castle all lite up at night. Had a nice meal even if only 3 things on the menu were available (a theme that carried on for the whole week - eating in Greece out of season is not easy!)
The next stop was a place called Monemvasie. If you ever find yourself in Peloponese go there. It is a island connected by a causway. On this tiny island bit there is an old town with the original street and buildings. People still live there and there are a few bars and restaurants (about 3 of each). It is a world heritage site and we stayed there for a night. However we did have fun on the way as the road we were on and Tom Tom told us was tarmac the whole way suddenly turned into a steap gravel track. Poor Vicky in the back got bounced all over the place! even if Scott was trying to bounce her off the sofa!!
We did an amazing road trip over the Langada pass. Great hairpin bends and views. This took us to Olympia. It is a nice town but as it is out of season it is deserted. The site itself is massive and still have the first stadium and where they still light the torch every year. So we are in OLYMPIA (with a sports stadium), we see the OLYMPIC museum, that has the OLYMPIC rings on it and after walking around the site for 30 mins Scott finally puts two and two together and says "oh this is where the olympics started"..................some times I think my blondness rubs off on him!.
From there we crossed back to the mainland via a 10 Euro bridge that was really difficult to find even though it is massive?!? We drove to Delphi another really nice town on a hillside. Had a lovely meal in a very local bar - more grilled meat!. Delphi its self is again a large and impressive site. A temple, a stadium and a theater all in beautiful settings - made all the better by the sun.
Then it was time to drop Vicky off after a last evening in a tiny fishing village. It was a great week and we really enjoyed having Vicky to visit. Great company, great weateher and great places we visited. Thanks Vicky (it also meant we had a shower every day for a week rather then once a week!).
After that we made our way up to Albania making our last stop in Greece was Vikos Gorge. High in the mountains we stayed in a little village and visited the look out point. The gorge is MASSIVE it is in the record books as being the biggest in the world.
We were unsure how we would go in Albania. We thought we would have to buy insurence/entry fees ect. So when no one asked for anything we didnt ask questions we just drove a way quickly. We found out quickly that the roads are the worse yet and the drives are mad. They have only been driving 10 years so the roads are very limited as are the driving skills. They have only recently issued road rules - people are slightly unsure what to do at roundabouts. Also as Arminia was full of Ladas Albania is full of Mercs!. 8 out of 10 cars are merc and a lot have GB plates!!
We were trying to get to a place called Barat. We took the yellow road which is meant to be a secondary road. After passing a few villages the road heads up hill and slowly gets worse and worse. It is not only a dirt raod but muddy and slippy, it is as wide as Ducky, bumpy and hell and has a stright drop to one side. I had my eyes closed most of the way. We come to one patch of puddles and didnt want to risk the Ducky any further and we turned around. First time a road has beaten us :-( poor Ducky the shame of it all. Back in the village we asked - surely that wasnt the right road but yep that was the road we should have been on!
Albania has some lovely secenry and really friendly people but some of the things you see. A market we drove through ahd everything from sofas to live Turkeys...people are walking along swinging a live Turkey by the feet. Scott also managed to get us stuck in the mud. At a monument we were looking to sleep near. WE were well and truely bogged. Luckily there were some rocks close by so in the dark, wind and rain we are carrying roacks back and forth to build a little road for Ducky!! oh the fun.
We are in the capital Tirana at the moment. It is a lot more "developed" then the rest of the country and had a lovely few hours in a revolving bar yesterday looking at the city from above (although Scott was confused as the "bar" from the outside was not rotating........blondness again!). It is just the little things, a river runs through the city with a road going up one way and back the other way on the other side. This road is the main road but if you drive to the end it just stops!!!!.
Well I think I have prob put you all to sleep. I'll try not to leave it so long next time. We will head to Montenegro in a few days (we are actually washing clothes in a washing machine at the moment for the first time in 8 weeks!). I'll also try and upload some more pics.
Hope you are all well and I'd love to have an update from you guys.
Miss ya heaps
xxx
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VIcky
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Vegemite
I brought 1/2 a tub some people you just can't please them! :-) It was a lovely week thanks for having me - travelling in the back of Duckie is luxury big sofa access to all the food!