Jun 07

Good afternoon from civilized Mother England! We have been in the most extreme of weather temperatures in the last 24 hours. Greece is in the middle of a heat wave, we were in it, although we were quite oblivious to the fact until we disembarked from the ferry at Athens! We were greeted with the most intense heat Noel and I have ever been in, seriously, we could hardly breathe, and lugging our luggage and backpacks didn't help.

We followed the passengers en masse (100's of them) off the ferry and just went with the crowd, the leader of the pack seemed to know where to go because we arrived at the Athens underground station and its actually quite a simple travel system, we managed to make it to Syntagma Square without getting lost and only for a mere E1.60 for two. We had been approached earlier by a taxi driver to take us to our hotel for E25.00, hey, we are very street wise now and know the value of the euro. One euro equals $2.00 NZ.

We had about a 10 minute walk from the Square to the hotel and in that time we reckon we sweated litres and our clothes just clung to us, the sweat trickled from places we never knew sweat glands existed!!?? Not sure how we looked when we arrived at the hotel reception, but by god we needed a cold beer by then! That's when the receptionist told us temperatures had risen that day to the highest level in 25 years = 460C IN THE SHADE! Can you believe that? Man it was unbearably hot in the room, the aircon was on overtime but we simply stayed in our room with wet towels on our feet, naked and we still sweated! OK moving on....

We arrived in London 24 hours later to a temperature of 16oC....work out the temperature difference!

England just appeared to be so clean green fresh and the rain just washed all that heat from our bodies. We are quite happy to be in temperatures we are used too!

Today London is saddened by the news of a massive bomb scare alert in Haymarket, Piccadilly, and it seems ironic that Noel and I were there yesterday afternoon. We caught the bus to Piccadilly Circus and walked down Haymarket to NZ House, walked past the American Express office where the car was located this morning. We are numbed by the news today, but this is real life London, it is expected, and it brings to one senses the vulnerability of us wee kiwis on this side of the world away from our lovely safe New Zealand haven.

We are flat sharing in a fabulous suburb of Fulham, near Wimbledon, and we know we shall enjoy living here, loads of pubs, parks, cafes, restaurants, and all near to buses and tube. The sofabed will serve us (and our guests) well, we are really looking forward to having guests and are starting the bookings for the sofa bed now, so first in, first served!!!

On a more sobering thought, we are on the serious look out next week for jobs, and are meeting up with some old friends so we shall have more news for you soon. Tomorrow we are at The Slug, a pub in Fulham which is showing the All Black v Oz test at 10am. Noel and I have our all black scarves ready, our first encounter of a rugby match in a London pub. Roll on Saturday!

Thanks for the comments too, enjoy these photos, they certainly brought a tear to my eye when we saw them! Cheerio for now, Noel and Elsie

We are saddened by the fact that all great holidays must come to an end. We have truly felt relaxed and unstressed here, and have fallen in love with all things Greek! We have also had the great fortune of meeting some lovely people, Pauline and Mark our English friends running a bed n breakfast in France to whom we had many a laugh on the beach with a beer, and lovely Nicolle from the bike rental shop who lives here on this little island with a population of only 800, and who kept giving us such cheap rental on the quad, half price, and we never asked it, nor expected it, we enjoyed hearing her stories and her cheerful disposition, farewell our little Greek girl, and Greig from Street in Somerset England who is here for a 3 month working holiday, sweating in the taverna at our favourite beach, Apandima, 7 kms away from the village, for whom Noel has enjoyed as they talk music all night long, and whom we have shared the sunsets with, and many nights and early morning stints at Remember Bar where we drink oozo, amstel and listening to old songs from the 70's til dawn..thank you both for your hospitality and company over the last 2 weeks for we shall truly miss you.

We have appreciated the way the Greeks take their time over most things, its just too damn hot to work quickly, and how they serve huge thick slabs of white crusty bread to you before you have even ordered a meal, the paper tablecloths freshly laden at the table as you sit down, the red wine is served in a tin decanter, the menu may look full but when its time to order, only a handful of meals are available, the way the Greek owner will come to the table and discuss how the meals are made, usually by his loving wife out the back in the kitchen, and how, when they present the meal to you, in one hand is the food, the other a cigarette! And always, well nearly always, a gratus token left by the owner, either an oozo, raki, or watermelon, they are generous and open. We thank the Greeks for that.

The food, well what can we say, simply and plainly delicious, oily, lack of vegetables, plenty of stewed veal and beef and some lamb, their full greek salads boasting always a huge slab of feta cheese covered with oil and fresh oreganum, which incidentally, grows wild here and smells devine. Their chargrilled squid, which we saw drying out on the wooden old boats on the seafront every day, ready to dine on that night. The juicy cucumbers, red full tomatoes, and olives, we truly have savoured their cuisine, and thank them for that.

The sea, the beautiful med. the crystal clear waters with stony bottom and little tiny fish that swim round your feet. The calmness of it, the freshness of it, we have our little 'houghton cove' where we have had so much fun jumping in from the rocks above, snorkelling and finding tiny fish and sea eggs, where the depth of the water seemed never ending, purely magical and we shall so miss that little quiet spot in the sea. We thank them for that.

We have sat and watched the most spectacular sunsets at Sunset Beach, you will see a photo next week of that, every night at between 8.20-8.50pm Noel and Shirley V, together with Greig, would simply sit quietly and watch and absorb the most colourful richness before us as the sun disappeared slowly beneath the horizon.....I don't ever recall seeing such a sunset before, it truly moved me every time. We thank them for that.

We have spent 2 weeks here, Antiparos is quite perfectly our special Greek piece of paradise. Kia ora, we shall love it forever.

We are now heading back to London, full of trepidation and again not sure of what to expect, we are ready to settle with a roof over our heads, having a permanent address, a washing machine and fresh vegetables! Our main aim there is to find work, and meet up with old acquaintances, so let's see what awaits us and roll on our next adventure!

Yasos and yamas!!

Yee ha, we are in heaven! This little island, 20 minutes ferry ride from Paros is perfect, picture this.....our own 2 bedroom whitewashed studio, covered balcony with purple flowering bouganvillia, overlooking straight out to deep blue sea, brightly coloured wooden dinghys, a blue domed church and an authentic wooden and whitewashed windmill, and more, the two frequent Paros ferries that come and go all day long, then the huge expanse of blue....water and sky, and to the right of us is the waterfront lined with tavernas and rooms to rent, its a very traditional small settlement and the main street is a long flagstoned pedestrian street leading from the jetty with tiny shops and tavernas abound to a quiet courtyard with again several cafes shaded by a giant eucalyptus. Beyond the village is Psarliki, a golden sanded clear water beach shaded by tamarisks, perfect for lying under and watching the topless women (that's in for the men!!). We met a couple from England who now own and run a b&b in France (a 3 hour drive south from Paris) and will meet up with them again, but let's tell you about our wee adventures....We hired bikes and rode 6kms to a quiet stony beach where the water was crystal clear, with the bonus of shade and a neat taverna selling thai food and of course cold beer and right on the beach.....you can imagine Noel's delight! More special though we walked on up a overgrown track to find concrete steps leading right to the water below, and we both jumped in and explored around the rocks underwater, just oh so clear and no one else there but us .....we won't use the bikes again as we were both bitten by gorillas in the butt!!? Another day we trekked south along the coastline where we spotted local fisherman bashing octopus on the rocks (to tenderise we suspect!) and further along the remote and stony trail in the middle of no-where a man with two dogs approached...the man was completely starkers!!! Yes, in disbelief we walked towards him not sure where to look....! We of course got round the next bend and discovered...you guessed it ....a remote beach complete with naked bodies everywhere.....!!!??? We had a great day out on a quad bike and hooned on up past our private little beach (top speed 33kph so don't get excited) to Soros beach and Ayios Yeorios where 3 tavernas were right on the beach all boasting octopus drying on the line out front...we ended up back on our private rocky cove and enjoyed the coolness of the water, temperature has increased over the last few days, apparently it is expected up to 40oC here tomorrow! At Pavlos Place taverna we experienced the best Greek meal so far, as we entered we were ushered to the kitchen to choose what we wanted to eat, all dishes made by the owner's wife, sister in law and various family members...superb atmosphere and the owner shouted us an oozo to cap off a delicious meal of slow ovenbaked lamb, beefstew, garlic potatoes, beetroot and spinach...wow! We have yet to visit the great cave and will report back to you soon. In the meantime we are now off to enjoy a picnic on the beach and for Noel to do more "bird watching"! Yasos

At last we are in touch. We headed for Sikinos. A non-event, stayed one night and ready to go at the next available ferry. Its a volcanic island, a tiny port with one taverna, one shop and nothing else. We had to catch the bus up to the top to buy a ferry ticket, and hang around a compact little village waiting for the return bus 2.5 hours later with nothing to do! We headed to Folegandhros about 40 minutes on the ferry again 300 metres above sea level, we headed to the centre, a beautiful quaint pretty village set around two squares with overhanging almond, flowering judas and pepper trees and loads of tiny tavernas with friendly Greeks willing to tell us their life stories. We met one who was in love with a girl from Blenheim who worked for him 4 years ago, he pulled out her Xmas card to show us....he had it in his shop! The locals do not tout for business, so it was quite a change getting off the bus and having to look for accomodation without being hasselled. There were a few Athenians there with their summer businesses, there is not much on offer during the winter months and whilst we are early in the season, we could see workman everywhere quickly painting, and setting up their little shops. We had a very executive type studio overlooking the med and had great sunset views, very nice with a bottle of vino! You will find fata morgana on the website, its an amazing hotel/apartment complex with the pool hanging on to the cliff edge! The first day we walked for 1.5 hours and after a swim returned to the village and with a ravenous apetite we scoffed moussaka chips and greek salad and two cold beers (that's for Joe and Ange!). Just what the doctor ordered! Day 2, we walked for 2 hours along a windy treacherous donkey trail through barren volcanic rock leading to Agali beach and walked on further until we discovered a small stony cove where the water was just oh so clear, we swam and savoured the cool refreshing water. We spent an afternoon drinking oozo on ice and met up with kiwis, south africans (from Elisabethtown) and a Swede! Boy did that oozo have a kick to it! We decided we hankered after a sandy beach, and one where we didnt need an arduous trek to get to, so after a 6.5 hour ferry ride we arrived at Andiparos where awaiting us were golden sandy beaches, beachfront tavernas, fishing boats and whitewashed blue and white houses.....I think we've found what we were after! YASAS!

Our last day in Santorini was quite special, we had a fabulous shared feast with Lois and Nancy, and spent our last night drinking on a roof top eating olives out of an ashtray (clean one) with Abbey and Gary from the UK - thanks for your version of a noy noy guys!! under a glorious sunset with views way across the caldera, a perfect ending to a fabulous stay. We realised as we descended down towards Athinos port in Santorini just how close to the clouds we were! The ferries are running so efficiently, you have to guess which one you have to catch, people everywhere, and you literally have to run on and run off at your destination. We had visions of a chug chug type that would meander slowly to the next island, arrive, engine off, and disembark at your leisure, no such luck mate! The engines remain running, and they get passengers on and off, cargo on, and just speed off immediately on departure time....we think Fullers could learn a thing or two!! We were quite nervous about finding a room, we were confronted by about 20 people throwing their room photos in our faces at the port, luckily we knew what part of the island we wanted to stay in and that eliminated most of the hawkers. We found a quiet spot behind the beach, Yialos, all self contained, balcony with view, it was a private hotel type of place, but we were the only ones there, $40 a night, so quite cheap compared to our $180 per night in Santorini! The port town of Yialos is quaint, several tavernas, most of them still closed, an odd internet shop and several travel agencies selling ferry tickets. Right behind us though, and its hidden from view from here, and a good 25 minute walk uphill, is the other village called Hora, and its full of irish bars everywhere, why is that? We need to find the history of this place, if anyone knows the irish connexion, let us know! We counted 12 nightclub/bars whilst sitting in a quiet lane eating our spinach pie! Most were closed though, the tourist season mustn't start here for another few weeks yet! The town is really pretty, narrow lanes, all painted squares, whitewashed, overhanging bouginvillia and vines, loads of shops geared up for the younger set (trendy jewellery, shoes, clothes, surfshop stuff etc). Quite a contrast from our neck of the woods here in the port town. Food wise a little disappointing, we had a deep fried meal of calamari and veges, but all deep fried and cooked by an english woman, gave us indigestion! but last night was great, we had appetisers of stuffed peppers (feta cheese and bacon), a beef and lamb stew (cooked slow in a claypot), meatballs (tasty as) and fresh vegetables (not fried or dripping in oil) but steamed! They gave us complimentary dessert of yogurt honey and sliced peel? and a liquer with honey and cinnamon, delightful, cheap E30 which included half litre of red wino as well, lovely! Weatherwise we had a hot sunny day here yesterday, we had our first swim in the Med. Koumbara beach, water temp was still a bit chilly, but crystal clear with fish at our feet! We lay under a tamarisk on the beach (shared with only two others) and a roaming dog! Temperate was around 28oC but today its overcast and a little windy, perfect for travelling! Next stop Sikinos, not sure about facilities there, so if all goes quiet with the Houghts, you will know the reason why! andeeo for now!