Munich to Greece

Hi!!!

Long time no write (again). I've been told we last updated after Copenhagen... that feels like ages ago.

Well, we took the rain with us from there to Munich to meet Carly. We stayed with her friend Amelie and her family (Carly had been there for two weeks) which was an absolute delight. We were made so welcome, arriving just after 7 in the morning on a Saturday and being picked up from the train station (Yes we had what Carly would call a “train station moment” when Carly and I ran toward each other and hugged). We had a traditional German breakfast and then were taken on a tour around some of the city, including going to the top of Olympic tower to take in the amazing view of Munich.

Home for lunch also traditional, funny white sausages and HUGE pretzels! We went down to see Oktoberfest by night, the next morning saw the Oktoberfest parade and went on to see Oktoberfest by day and have a good old stein... One litre of beer went down quicker than I thought it would!

After lunch we said goodbye, took Carly with us and took a train to Salzburg.

The train ride was short which was different to what Al and I had been experiencing and the hostel we stayed at was one of the best yet. Carly and I went to a palace (Al had already been last time he was in Salzburg) with lovely gardens and the all famous rotunda from Sound of Music. We then met up with Al and went to see the back of the Von Trap family house, a really big nice church that has nothing to do with The Sound of Music and Mirabella Platz, where some other part of the movie was filmed. It was a short but good time and then we were off to...

Bled, a tiny gem of a town with only 5000 people surrounded by the beautiful mountains of Slovenia. Slovenia by the way turns out to be a gorgeous country and if ever in the area visiting is a must! We only spent a night in Bled, and after waiting around for more than an hour late at night for our hostel to be opened for us we were happy to get to bed. The next day explored and took a walk around the massive lake. There is a little island in the middle of the lake with a church on and we hired a little row boat to go out to it. We caught a train that night to Ljubljana (the capital of Slovenia) and that night Carly had her first dorm room experience, loud snoring and very smelly!

We stayed here for two nights. A lovely city, we went on a free walking tour to learn some history and then went exploring ourselves. We climbed a very steep hill to a castle (every city in Europe seems to have its own castle) and walked through the food markets, buying deliciously fresh fruit and veg as went. The kitchen at the hostel was well equipped so we cooked for ourselves (such a treat from Kebabs and bread, ham and cheese) and enjoyed a bit too much ice cream! The day we left we strolled around a massive park and walked to the train station to change countries for the fourth time in about as many days.

To Croatia, another beautiful country. Zagreb was our first stop, the capital. Our hostel was nice but a bit out of the way, but the tram system was really good so it didn't matter too much. We stayed only one night here, but spent more money than we should have on things like sun glasses, watches, shoulder bags, earphones and chocolate with the brand name “Nika”. Although Carly did get a banana for free because the man didn't have change. We left very late that night for an overnight train (another first for Carly) and it had free water, croissants, soap and hand towelettes... The things that get us excited.

This train took us to Dubrovnik, Where we still had the pleasure of rain, although much more than before. Dubrovnik is a city set up the side of a very steep hill. So when the rain comes the city literally turns into a big waterfall. We arrived and called our hostel to ask them to pick us up, and got a very angry man on the other end telling us he had waited up until 1.30am the previous night for us to call him... for the first time we had accidentally booked the wrong night. He turned out be a very nice man after telling us 100 times how angry he was and how we should have called and us saying how sorry we were. He got us settled in and after realising we were nice people and really were sorry, he said sorry for the email he sent us, which we hadn't received because we had been on an overnight train. When Al checked his emails the email said that when we reserve somewhere we should actually turn up and ended with the line:

“You are not guests, you are.....”

So insert what you will, we thought up a few ideas but mainly just laughed, because he apologised a million times and told us how nice he thought we were.

Anywho, the city was nice but laden with tourists, who Alex will not associate himself with and tells me we are travellers not tourists! One lady even had a backpack for her dog...

We mainly just walked around read our books and ate ice cream. The man from the hostel, Ivan, took us down to the port, apologised one last time (except for the email he sent us after we left) and let us be on our way.

We had a very long night on a ferry with people screaming, and being sea sick, that took us to Bari, Italy, where we spent the day waiting for our next overnight ferry to Patra in Greece. This ferry was much nicer with escalators and all. We had a pretty good sleep to make up for he lack of the night before, and turned up tired in Patras to wait for our bus to Athens. While waiting at the train station Carly and I went to grab some food, and my small backpack with my shoulder bag inside was stolen. Not anything too bad stolen just some really annoying things. We spent that afternoon at the police getting a report and took the train the Athens for a short stay. We went to the Acropolis, not as impressive as some ruins I've seen and wandered around the big market.

Another ferry that night took us to Santorini, where we stayed four nights! We had a few troubles with the hotel but all in all it was lovely, walking around the little streets and hiring a scooter and quad bike to explore the whole island. Watched a beautiful sunset in Oia over beers (a smoothie for Carly) and had a lovely relaxing time. We ferried to another lovely island Paros, for three nights where we did pretty much he same thing but had a much nicer hotel, and hotel manager. Alex helped him install Skype and he made sure we had everything we need. He has the life; 6 months of the year in Greece over summer and the rest in the Philippines where his wife is from doing nothing! The rain only caught up with us on the last day in Paros so we had lovely blue skies, just like in all the movies and postcards! We took another ferry back to Athens last night, and tried to see Corinth today but with a mix up of trains it didn't work out.

So now I'm writing from another overnight ferry (the nice one) from Greece back to Italy, to start out Italian adventure. Who knows, Carly might find an Italian Stallion and Ryan Ferguson is meeting up with us in Bologna.

Also, we have started watching a show called United States of Tara, with Toni Collette. It is the most brilliant show and acting and we love watching each new episode.

So, for now Calamara (that means good morning but it's the only thing in Greek I could remember), and hope whoever is reading this is loving life on the other side of the world.

Much Love.

Nika

Prost


Carly having a taste of beer.


The back of the Sound of Music house.


Bled


View of Ljubljana from the castle


Sunset at Dubrovnik


Nika chocolate



Greek flag.


Santorini