Sunday, August 22, 2010
DAY 96 - Corinth
19th of August - Whitey's Birthday and a trip to Corinth
The day began with a camera, some singing and present opening. I wish all morning started with opening presents :) Luckily for Nicole and viewers, she didn't go to bed with wet hair otherwise the video evidence of the reaction to the awakening choir would have been scarier.
Greek yoghurt, fresh fruit and tea loaf provided a very scrumptious breakfast before meeting the bus on the sea front and travelled north to Corinth. First we stopped at Marathon which was the sight of the Battle of Marathon. This was the first invasion of Greece by the Persians in 490B.C. The Greeks won the battle and sent a messenger back to Athens, a journey of 40km, with news of the victory. After running whole way, and telling the good news the messenger dropped dead due to heat exhaustion. Moral of the story. . . don't run 40kms in the blistering heat, take a bus. While everyone else on the tour was taking pictures of the grassed mound of dirt that was put there was a memorial we, the pack decided to take other pictures to remind us of the location.
We arrived at the present day Corinth and stopped at the canal lookout to "look out". The canal connects the Gulf of Corinth with the Saronic Gulf in the Aegean Sea. It cuts through the narrow Isthmus of Corinth and seperates the Peloponnesian peninsula from the Greek mainland. The canal is 6.3km in length and was built between 1881 and 1893. It is 21 metres wide which is too narrow for modern oceans freighters. Therefore the canal is now mostly used by tourist ships. The water in the canal is 8m deep and at a maximum, the walls are 52m high.
We travelled on to Acrocorinth (575m.a.s.l.). Luckily the bus could take us up to a point near the lowest gate on the west side of the hill. This hill was fortified in ancient times and its defences were maintained and developed during the Byzantine, Frankish, Turkish and Venetan periods. The fortifications include three layers of walls in which we passed through three gates while still climbing up the hill and trying to avoid slipping on the well worn marble. Within the fortress is a mosque build in 16th century and ruins of the temple of Aphrodite. There was also fanastic view of the Isthmus and the hills of the Peloponnese.
We wound our way back down the hill and got dropped of in Ancient Corinth during the middle of the day. While some people on the tour set their sights on exploring the museum and surrounding ruins which date back to the 11th Century B.C. and have statues of Augustus and his grandson Lucius Caesar and of other Roman Emperors. Others including us, took refuge in a taverna (Greek restaurant) which over looked the ancient Roman site. The owner took a shining to Jess, and was very insistant that he would take her acceptance in marriage as payment for the meal. He was saddened when we wouldn't let Jess go but was secretly stoked when Jess gave him a hug. (Sooo romantic. . .not!)
It was later heard that Jess should have told the owner that back home she had a boy friend who was 6 ft 6, and 120kgs of pure New Zealand muscle and could press him into olive oil.
We made our way back to the hotel and cooled down with a compulsory dip in the pool. The night was ended by being taken to a cafe which had amazingly comfy couches and great music. Happy birthday was sung for the forth time that day and a couple of drinks made a great day complete.
The day began with a camera, some singing and present opening. I wish all morning started with opening presents :) Luckily for Nicole and viewers, she didn't go to bed with wet hair otherwise the video evidence of the reaction to the awakening choir would have been scarier.
Greek yoghurt, fresh fruit and tea loaf provided a very scrumptious breakfast before meeting the bus on the sea front and travelled north to Corinth. First we stopped at Marathon which was the sight of the Battle of Marathon. This was the first invasion of Greece by the Persians in 490B.C. The Greeks won the battle and sent a messenger back to Athens, a journey of 40km, with news of the victory. After running whole way, and telling the good news the messenger dropped dead due to heat exhaustion. Moral of the story. . . don't run 40kms in the blistering heat, take a bus. While everyone else on the tour was taking pictures of the grassed mound of dirt that was put there was a memorial we, the pack decided to take other pictures to remind us of the location.
We arrived at the present day Corinth and stopped at the canal lookout to "look out". The canal connects the Gulf of Corinth with the Saronic Gulf in the Aegean Sea. It cuts through the narrow Isthmus of Corinth and seperates the Peloponnesian peninsula from the Greek mainland. The canal is 6.3km in length and was built between 1881 and 1893. It is 21 metres wide which is too narrow for modern oceans freighters. Therefore the canal is now mostly used by tourist ships. The water in the canal is 8m deep and at a maximum, the walls are 52m high.
We travelled on to Acrocorinth (575m.a.s.l.). Luckily the bus could take us up to a point near the lowest gate on the west side of the hill. This hill was fortified in ancient times and its defences were maintained and developed during the Byzantine, Frankish, Turkish and Venetan periods. The fortifications include three layers of walls in which we passed through three gates while still climbing up the hill and trying to avoid slipping on the well worn marble. Within the fortress is a mosque build in 16th century and ruins of the temple of Aphrodite. There was also fanastic view of the Isthmus and the hills of the Peloponnese.
We wound our way back down the hill and got dropped of in Ancient Corinth during the middle of the day. While some people on the tour set their sights on exploring the museum and surrounding ruins which date back to the 11th Century B.C. and have statues of Augustus and his grandson Lucius Caesar and of other Roman Emperors. Others including us, took refuge in a taverna (Greek restaurant) which over looked the ancient Roman site. The owner took a shining to Jess, and was very insistant that he would take her acceptance in marriage as payment for the meal. He was saddened when we wouldn't let Jess go but was secretly stoked when Jess gave him a hug. (Sooo romantic. . .not!)
It was later heard that Jess should have told the owner that back home she had a boy friend who was 6 ft 6, and 120kgs of pure New Zealand muscle and could press him into olive oil.
We made our way back to the hotel and cooled down with a compulsory dip in the pool. The night was ended by being taken to a cafe which had amazingly comfy couches and great music. Happy birthday was sung for the forth time that day and a couple of drinks made a great day complete.
DAY 94 - Athens
Athens with Oakhall.
We looked around the Acropolis, Acient Angora, Hadrians Arch, Temple of Zeus, and there was more to see but really marble is marble, and there is a lot of it to be seen in Athens. Marble can be shaped in many beautiful ways but with the day’s heat, and after looking at the important ruins we felt we’d seen enough.
To finish off the day we went out to Cape Sounion to watch the sun go down. The were some ruins (no surprise by now) at the top of the hill and in what would have been the court yard couples were watching the sun set… we felt our laughing and general shanaggians would be unsuitable for their quite special moment so we went to the front of the ruins as the sun slowly set.
Sunday, August 15, 2010
DAY 91-100 - OakHall Tour (Nea Makri, Greece)
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| The Kiwi and Irish girls |
This tour was set up to be a very relaxing holiday again a big contrast to the hustle and bustle of 13 countries in 24 days - bliss! Out of the 10 days at the Hotel Thomas Beach, 3 were excursion days and the rest were free days to check out Nea Makri, the beach or the pool - it was really too hot to do much else.
Hotel living agreed with us, no bunk beds, air conditioning, ensuites, wardrobes and drawers - ah the small things, also not having to pack our bags for 10 whole days has been magic!The "most important things in life" changed from where are we staying, how are we getting there and what are we going to eat, not to mention how much is it all going to cost to... pool or beach and where can I fill my drink bottle (oh and where is the closest toilet that I'm allowed to flush the paper down - that's a hard habit to break!)
The week started out with blistering temperatures reaching the 40's and has ended with strong winds bringing it back down to a more mild high 20's.
As always the supermarkets were one of the first port's of call and with most of the packaging being in Greek and the supermarkets being 2 storey's they were quite different to the Tesco's and Marks and Spencers that we had grown to love while in the UK. We also sampled some of the sweet delicacies at the bakery including Baklava and other one's I wouldn't have a clue what they were called! Lipton tea was back and Kath had a great plan of buying a 1.5 litre bottle to use for the rest of the week as a drink bottle but the cleaners were too fast for her, whisking it away to the rubbish not long after she had finsihed the last drop...much to her despair!
More on food we got Breakfast and Dinner provided by the Hotel and breakfast consisting of the most amazing fruit salad and Greek yoghurt was a winner
Finding a launderette sent Abby and Jess on a wild goose chase faround 3 different dry cleaning places finally having success at Texa's where they couple behind the counter spoke minimal english, but after alot of sign language and washing machine like movements they left hoping that their clothes would be washed when they came back at the end of the day. Hooray, when they returned not only were they washed but they had been dried and folded and bagged up in this massive bag (Kath is trying to give you perception in the photo below!)
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| Add caption |
On Friday night we headed out for some ten-pin bowling action.
DAY 90-91 - London to Athens
Arriving in London we found our way to the Hostel for the night. After scaling the 6 flights of stairs we seriously contemplated not having to go down them again until checking out the next day. But nevertheless this was not to be! We arranged to meet Abby's friend the lovely Nicola who we were leaving some of our excess baggage with to meet the tight requirments of Ryanair (15kg!) . Poor Nicola didn't know what she was signing up for but was sweetened by the fact that Whitey ran back specially (yes an extra 'up and down' the 6 flights of stairs!) to get her gift that we had left behind.
Finding ourselves back at Heathrow the next morning it was hard to believe it was only 3 months ago we were there as fresh-faced, paled skinned Kiwi's with our whole adventure ahead of us. Now as "seasoned travellers" somewhat less pale and still Kiwi's we booked in with Aegan Air with thoughts of finally finding some sunshine on our journey. The flight over was fairly turbulent but otherwise reasonably uneventful - other than Kath's great suprise that she was sitting next to some New Zealander's for the whole trip and hadn't realised! (and no just to clarify she wasn't sitting with the rest of the Pack!) She was shocked she hadn't picked the accent while talking with them and then she was further shocked when they inquired where she lived in the UK as her accent sounded British!
Arriving in Athens we walked out into the oven-like heat and the sun blinding our eyes - success, we had found the sun!
After a chilly nights sleep due to some over-excited air-con which had us wishing we had brought warm jersey's with us, we headed out to look around Athens before meeting our OakHall tour group later in the day.
The searing heat had us shade-hopping down the streets and eventually seeking refuge in a large department store which kept us amused and cool! A very tasty feed of Macca's possibly the best ever - especially the McFarm, gave us the stamina needed to get back on the train out to the airport, hunt out our new tour group and relax in organised tour goodness!
Finding ourselves back at Heathrow the next morning it was hard to believe it was only 3 months ago we were there as fresh-faced, paled skinned Kiwi's with our whole adventure ahead of us. Now as "seasoned travellers" somewhat less pale and still Kiwi's we booked in with Aegan Air with thoughts of finally finding some sunshine on our journey. The flight over was fairly turbulent but otherwise reasonably uneventful - other than Kath's great suprise that she was sitting next to some New Zealander's for the whole trip and hadn't realised! (and no just to clarify she wasn't sitting with the rest of the Pack!) She was shocked she hadn't picked the accent while talking with them and then she was further shocked when they inquired where she lived in the UK as her accent sounded British!
Arriving in Athens we walked out into the oven-like heat and the sun blinding our eyes - success, we had found the sun!
After a chilly nights sleep due to some over-excited air-con which had us wishing we had brought warm jersey's with us, we headed out to look around Athens before meeting our OakHall tour group later in the day.
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| Melting in the 40+ heat while waiting for the train |
DAY 89 - Oxford
Oxford - town of knowledge, I think we felt more wise just entering the town. Actually we learnt alot from Abby's friends Malcolm and Amanda Rutherford (MAR for short). The Rutherfords and their landlords generously put us up for the night.
After a fantastic meal made by Rutherfords we went out to do some hunting and gathering for some dessert. Off to the allotments down the road. MAR have had a allotment for a year (I think) it costs approx 7 pounds a year to lease it.
As nice as going to pick blackberries in the evening with good friends is, our excitment doubled with the knowledge that there was a possibilty that we might see a fox. We tipped toed through the allotments down to the end where there was a reservation to enhance native wildlife habitat's. Really it looks like a whole lot of trees with patches of weeds. Malcolm explained that the native plants appear to be weeds - as in nz they are considered weeds. A bit to get your head around. Anyway, no fox. We swallowed our disappointment and picked delicious berries instead. Most of them made it to the containers. As we went to leave the berry patch Malcolm called out shhh, we stopped, oh joy of joys there was the elusive fox across a clearing. We quietly walked around the clearing but sadness of sadness... he was gone. Feeling like we had achieved much by our outing we returned to MAR's home and ate fresh picked berries with icing sugar and organic double cream (amazing the difference in the cream!! so tasty)
To bed we headed. As MAR technically live in a small but cosy cabin at the end of the garden the girls were split up. Two inside the main house on couch cushions and two in the "two person" tent in the garden.
Abby and Jess were the lucky ones to share a night in the tent. The tent looked not too bad until bedding was put in and then two people top and tailed in it - this is not an easy process for all involved, mainly Abby had her face in the tent roof and Jess was jammed up against the wall. There was some sleeping done i think.
In the early hours of the morning when the sleep was as elusive as a fox Abby thought to her self " man my ears are hurting" her left ear was clearing up but she had developed the same in her right ear. "man it sucks not being able to hear" she also discovered that after a couple weeks of deafness that she had been whispering for the entire time and noboby had pointed this out. As talking normally sounded like she was shouting in her head. Then it occured to her " I'm flying to greece tomorrow, can I fly? will my ears explode?" These thoughts occupied her for sometime that and the roof of the tent was very close to her face.
So the next morning While the others explored oxford Abby set out to the Doctors again. 50 pounds for a consultation this time and waiting for way too long she discovered that it wasn't boil but a very bad infection that had her ears canals so swollen up that it was making her deaf, not to mention all the goo coming out, yuck. This Dr prescribed ear spray with anti biotics in it this time. (Much more effective within two days she had gone off the painkillers and hearing has returned significantly)
Meanwhile..... the remaining 'hearing' (though they thought they too were starting to go deaf as they couldn't hear Abby speaking the last few weeks!) members of the Pack headed into Oxford for the morning to see what there was to see! With Kath happily settled in Starbucks with all the luggage, Harry Potter and a big cup of coffee (what more could a girl want) Whitey and Jess tried to conquer as much of Oxford as they could in 2 hours with a 'must do' list from MAR.
We wandered through the covered markets and marvelled at the cake decorating stall.
We had a deja vu moment when we found Lincoln College...
... and also poked our heads inside Jesus College.
Just as an explanation Oxford University is different to what we know of a university set up in NZ - the university comprises of various colleges where the students live and tutors conduct lessons. So as a general rule different colleges would specialise in different subjects, or your choice of college would depend on its history/status.
We also wandered through the Bodleian Library thanks wikipedia for the following info...
The Bodleian Library (pronounced /ˈbɒdliən, bɒdˈliːən/), the main research library of the University of Oxford, is one of the oldest librariesin Europe, and in Britain is second in size only to the British Library. Known to Oxford scholars as “Bodley” or simply “the Bod”, under theLegal Deposit Libraries Act 2003 it is one of six legal deposit libraries for works published in the United Kingdom[2][3] and under Irish Law it is entitled to request a copy of each book published in the Republic of Ireland.[4] Though University members may borrow some books from dependent libraries (such as the Radcliffe Science Library),[5] the Bodleian operates principally as a reference library and in general documents may not be removed from the reading rooms.
Then it was a stroll to the train station and once again we found ourselves London bound.
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| big thank you malcolm and amanda! |
As nice as going to pick blackberries in the evening with good friends is, our excitment doubled with the knowledge that there was a possibilty that we might see a fox. We tipped toed through the allotments down to the end where there was a reservation to enhance native wildlife habitat's. Really it looks like a whole lot of trees with patches of weeds. Malcolm explained that the native plants appear to be weeds - as in nz they are considered weeds. A bit to get your head around. Anyway, no fox. We swallowed our disappointment and picked delicious berries instead. Most of them made it to the containers. As we went to leave the berry patch Malcolm called out shhh, we stopped, oh joy of joys there was the elusive fox across a clearing. We quietly walked around the clearing but sadness of sadness... he was gone. Feeling like we had achieved much by our outing we returned to MAR's home and ate fresh picked berries with icing sugar and organic double cream (amazing the difference in the cream!! so tasty)
To bed we headed. As MAR technically live in a small but cosy cabin at the end of the garden the girls were split up. Two inside the main house on couch cushions and two in the "two person" tent in the garden.
Abby and Jess were the lucky ones to share a night in the tent. The tent looked not too bad until bedding was put in and then two people top and tailed in it - this is not an easy process for all involved, mainly Abby had her face in the tent roof and Jess was jammed up against the wall. There was some sleeping done i think.
In the early hours of the morning when the sleep was as elusive as a fox Abby thought to her self " man my ears are hurting" her left ear was clearing up but she had developed the same in her right ear. "man it sucks not being able to hear" she also discovered that after a couple weeks of deafness that she had been whispering for the entire time and noboby had pointed this out. As talking normally sounded like she was shouting in her head. Then it occured to her " I'm flying to greece tomorrow, can I fly? will my ears explode?" These thoughts occupied her for sometime that and the roof of the tent was very close to her face.
So the next morning While the others explored oxford Abby set out to the Doctors again. 50 pounds for a consultation this time and waiting for way too long she discovered that it wasn't boil but a very bad infection that had her ears canals so swollen up that it was making her deaf, not to mention all the goo coming out, yuck. This Dr prescribed ear spray with anti biotics in it this time. (Much more effective within two days she had gone off the painkillers and hearing has returned significantly)
Meanwhile..... the remaining 'hearing' (though they thought they too were starting to go deaf as they couldn't hear Abby speaking the last few weeks!) members of the Pack headed into Oxford for the morning to see what there was to see! With Kath happily settled in Starbucks with all the luggage, Harry Potter and a big cup of coffee (what more could a girl want) Whitey and Jess tried to conquer as much of Oxford as they could in 2 hours with a 'must do' list from MAR.
We wandered through the covered markets and marvelled at the cake decorating stall.
We had a deja vu moment when we found Lincoln College...
... and also poked our heads inside Jesus College.
Just as an explanation Oxford University is different to what we know of a university set up in NZ - the university comprises of various colleges where the students live and tutors conduct lessons. So as a general rule different colleges would specialise in different subjects, or your choice of college would depend on its history/status.
We also wandered through the Bodleian Library thanks wikipedia for the following info...
The Bodleian Library (pronounced /ˈbɒdliən, bɒdˈliːən/), the main research library of the University of Oxford, is one of the oldest librariesin Europe, and in Britain is second in size only to the British Library. Known to Oxford scholars as “Bodley” or simply “the Bod”, under theLegal Deposit Libraries Act 2003 it is one of six legal deposit libraries for works published in the United Kingdom[2][3] and under Irish Law it is entitled to request a copy of each book published in the Republic of Ireland.[4] Though University members may borrow some books from dependent libraries (such as the Radcliffe Science Library),[5] the Bodleian operates principally as a reference library and in general documents may not be removed from the reading rooms.
Then it was a stroll to the train station and once again we found ourselves London bound.
Monday, August 9, 2010
DAY 86-88 - Bath
Ah Bath was a change of pace from Plymouth. A different feel in the air. Beautiful gardens and Georgian stone buildings. People milling around enjoying the shops and sights. There are musicians busking at most corners. That's right we are back in the tourist loop again.
We were staying in a hostel above a bar in a 6 bed girls dorm. Girls dorm because it is pink has mirrors, a hair drier and even more extravently hairstraighteners! Here we met Andie a Canadian Massage therapist in her 7th month of her 1 year trip - extreme compared to our small 3 and a bit months.
Our first night in Bath was just walking around the center of town, taking in the sights (particularly of shops that might be revisited the next day) we watched a guy playing a Hang Drum outside the Bath Abbey and Roman Baths.
The hang is made in Switzerland and is shaped like a UFO and is played by tapping points around the circumfernce causing a ringing sound. The different points are different tones in a scale. It has a mesmerising rhythmic kinda sound. (check out Wikipedia if you want to know more)
Then one of the most exciting moments of our visit happened... further around the square we were sitting,came a ringing bell and shouting. We listened carefully. Joy of joys the pasty shop down at the corner was closing for the night and was selling pasties for a pound!!!! Jess's dreams of getting everything and anything for pound, no matter how unrealistic it might be, was finally coming true.
Some might not realise this but Bath has very close conections with Jane Austen. Two of her six books are partly set in Bath and for a short while Jane herself lived in Bath. So we thought we better look into this. The Jane Austen House was a good place to start, a shop full of Jane Austen tourist stuff was very amusing, including I heart Darcy stickers and Darcy posters. Whitey tried to convince us that Darcy was actually Colin Firth but we corrected her quite quickly.
We went on the tour of the house, which wasn't actually a house she lived in but it is on the same street, close enough I guess. A Lady gave us 15min talk on Jane and her family which was.... informitive. We walked around the relatively small museum and tried to decide if it was really worth the money we had paid. Not really maybe more for the die hard Jane Austen fans.
We continued on our tourist jaunt when we came across the famed fashion museum found in the assembly rooms. The assembly rooms were the upper rooms built for balls and the such, in Jane Austen' time this is were Society socialised in the evenings. It has been repaired from damage in the wars but the chandeliers are original and very impressive. All that georgian architecture once again. You feel a bit like you were in a period drama walking around the beautiful rooms.
The fashion Museum was ok, its redeeming factor was its free audio guides and a display of 12 of Princess Dianas dresses. Including one she had worn to the Ballet when she was in New Zealand. The commentary talked about her wardrobe being a costume of a princess. She balanced the restrictions and pressures of being in the royal family with her own natural dress sense and style. It was also sad to see photos of her and listening about her struggles and triumphs knowing how had it ended for her.
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| Abby playing dress-ups |
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| Fashion...apparently! |
The next day it was a slow start. Rain was falling gently and persistently from the heavens. This didn't matter too much as some of the girls were partaking in a worthy NZ auction. But we did eventually venture out into the decievingly misty rain. Soon very wet we tried to escape to the mall only to find that it is an uncovered mall. So we dashed around some more to find some lunch.
After lunch we headed to the world heritage Roman Baths for which Bath is named after, along with the rest of the population of Bath! Initially when were discussing visiting the baths we were unsure whether we needed togs. After a stakeout outside the Baths we observed that nobody seemed to be carrying towels or bags that potentially held towels so we concluded there was no swimming. Though we hoped there would be foot dipping.
Unfortunately our hopes we not realised as the only touching of the waters of the spring was actaully drinking it. Or "taking the waters" which is what the springs were famous for in more recent times. The healing properties of the spring waters natural occuring minerals and metals were said by many to heal everything from gout, infertility to obestity. These "many people" were generally the ones trying to make as much money out of an opportunity as possible which they did. Now this Museum was definitely worth the money we paid. Free audio guide again and we followed slowly around the displays of Roman artifacts and heard stories about the people of the time. Then out to the steaming pools that are fed by a spring that is initally 64 degrees C, cooling to 47 by the time it reaches the pool. It is also the only natural occuring hot springs in England. The pavers around the pools are worn and uneven by the many feet that have past over them. The Baths and associated buildings have been hidden under ground for many years - it seems almost wrong that we can wander around on these ancient stones. Again the briefness of New Zealand's history was very apparent to us. The next stop is the Pump Room, again described in Jane Austen. It was for the people of society. The water was pumped up to the room to be taken at leisure whilst talking and making business conections and seeing who else was around. We also tried taking the waters. Unsuprisingly it was warm and metallic tasting not that appealing really.
After a quiet afternoon shopping and snoozing (by Abby to try and rid her self of two infected ears) Kath and Abby joined our roomie Andie for a quiz night in the bar below the hostel. Andie had also recruited John- scotish bomb disposal man in the army with way too much time on his hands and Ryan- american reduntant history teacher who had lived in some very dodgey flats (that rivalled even dunedin's infamous student flats!!) The quiz started with two rounds of particullarly obscure questions about inventions and fruit. another round of general questions and we were one behind the lead team going into the last round, the music round. With Kath and Ryan on our team we were in with a chance. A long wait to hear the results, the quiz master slowly handed back the sheets of paper starting with the lowest points. She was down to two, we were in with a chance, and then..... we won!!!! Won what exactly? Well a 75 pound bar tab to share.
The next morning we had time to kill before our train so we made use of the Mayors free guided walking tour. It was completely free! William our tour guide
talked us through the history of the bath in 7 mins and then showed us round the sites telling us amusing and quirky stories about the areas. An enjoyable and informative experience.
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