Island Paradise

Let your Spirit soar as we sail across the blue Agean towards Santorini, picture white washed walls, blue roofs, palm trees, clear water, white sandy beaches and you will probably be as FAR FROM THE TRUTH AS POSSIBLE! I was rudely mistaken when I first arrived at Mykonos island, expecting palm trees and green grass I was greeted with rugged rocky landscape a severe lack of life bar the ocassional lizzard and seagull.

So my original thoughts of the Greek Islands were shattered with clouds overhead and a distinct feeling that I was the only one here no wonder they call it the LOW season! Good news is that a can of coke is only $10 AUS and Greek food is so far the worst I've had on my entire trip besides Egyptian pita bread filled with stones! haha

But all that aside its not the landscape that makes a place its the people and when you meet the right crew then anything can be amazing. A little downpour and overcast skies was not going to stop us. First day I met a girl called Kat on the ferry and we decided to cut our costs and share double room turns out that it was an appartment in the back streets. Leaving was easy when we left to explore the town but coming home proved to be a 2hour mission of wandering through the maze of streets. Where every building is white and the same shape and streets are bearly wide enough for 3 people to walk side by side..... however after hours of laughing as we walked into peoples living rooms mistaking them for our apartment we made it home by retracing our steps and following the slighest little thing we remembered which included drips of paint and water stains on the footpath!

Come the second night we moved over to the other side of the Island to Paradise beach and that night we had 15 people squeezed into a 2 person room. and I mean SQUEEZED! 3x2x2 walls is not a comfortable fit. But hey it was a LONG game of Kings that followed and after the power went out due to an electrical storm we decided to head into town in the rain to brave the tight slippery streets of Mykonos town. Firstly we gathered together and pretended to be a Contiki tour group which managed to get us into the Scandinavian club for free dodging the $15 cover charge. And then the night really started....... coming home at 4am only to realize that our small room was a nest of mosquitoes. I guess the punishment for having a late night is a long sleep in the next morning.... unfortunately for us it was the first sunny day and no-one was up till lunchtime!

Kat left that day for Ios and I opted to stay another night but unable to pay for a single room I squeezed in with 2 American girls that I'd met the night before. But 2 single beds and zero floorspace didnt make it an easy task to fit in. So pushing the 2 beds together we conquered the problem and were ready for another night out. This time we had South Africans, Aussies, Kiwis, Americans, Germans and Brits all partying on the beach =]

With coke being HIGHLY overpriced and food following suite - for a mere $240 you can get a seafood meal. I had been living on tuna sandwiches and cornflakes for the past few weeks. So when I met these American girls who had only been traveling for 5 days it was a dream come true. Their mums had packed them about 3kgs of AMERICAN snack food, everything from muesli bars to biscuits and nuts.... the best part was that they didnt want any of it so they offered it to me! Ohhh I was in food heaven... real food for the first time in way too long!

The next morning I moved onto Ios which was even more deserted than Mykonos but the weather was sunny and the beach was quiet and STUNNING! I met 4 British girls and a Canadian guy who were all pretty keen to go out for dinner so I thought I'd spoil myself and we headed out to Mexican which was DELICIOUS! We had live music at a little place called Harmony on the headland watching the sunset and one of the best parts about traveling with girls is that they don't often finish their meals.... so my meal and 4 others later I had finally caught up on all those missed meals of the past weeks.

Now I'm in Santorini and I think its by far the best island I've been to! After being swarmed at the port by a hungry careless bitchy mob of hotel owners trying to sell me a room for my stay I found a trustworthy guy and negotiated a price of 10Euro a night for a single double bed room with air-con, kitchen, and a PRIVATE BATHROOM! I was pretty damn impressed but it only got better when I found out that it had wi-fi and free breakfast. My life is looking up! Greece is starting to impress
Then I met two Aussie girls Ash and Nicole and together the three of us have had the BEST service and laughs with the owners. They asked of we were going out and we replied "yea we are going to go for dinner on the beach" they said "NO are you going out...when we say that we dont mean for a meal" So with that in mind the owners were alot of fun and we had free shots and snacks at the Hotel bar followed by a night of card games drinking the local Ouzo (like sambooka but so much worse!) in the owners room. Ha this trip just keeps getting better!


Laterz!

Greece- Accomodation Problems

I arrived 5 days ago now and people say that 2 days is enough in Athens but I’m still here and having a great time! My CS host and her friends are great!
The second night I was here I went out to a surprise birthday party, turns out that I was the one doing the surprising! When we turned up at the door they rang the bell handed me the cake and waited for the girl to answer. After a really awkward singing of “HAPPY BIRTHDAY” to a girl I have never met before the others came in and broke out in Greek.... gooble gah gah boo ha uooooooo.....

Then I spent a day exploring the Acropolis and temple of Zeus with a classic bunch of Aussie guys and girls, was good to have some home blood around me! And for the first time in weeks I was looking at something not completely covered in hieroglyphics but rather the ancient Greek architecture which is equally as stunning!

Today we are heading out to celebrate Sophias ‘name day’ in other words a birthday for your name. Just another excuse to give and receive presents really. So guys I think mine is in Jan lol.

But the time has come to move on from Athens and onto paradise! Tomorrow morning I have a 5am start as my ferry leaves for Mykonos at 7! Am really looking forward to seeing the Islands though but we are back into European prices, the cheap $4 rooms of Egypt are a thing of the past now it’s more like 40Euro a night!


The good news is that I’ve managed to book my ferry ticket, the bad news is that accommodation is completely booked out on Mykonos for tomorrow night. So I have a few options, one is sleep on the beach with all my gear which wouldn’t be too bad really provided I dont get dragged away by the local police... mind you then at least I get a free night in a cell right? Or I have from lunchtime till sunset to make a friend and ask to sleep in their room. I‘ll try my chances!

On Monday morning I’m meeting a CS girl from Canada (Suzy) we will be travelling together for about 10 days first stop is the island of Ios then onto Santorini followed by Crete! Before finally returning to Athens on the 3rd (ish) of October in time for the FREE MTV concert being held at the first ever Olympic Stadium in the world! Featuring Kaiser Chiefs and REM should be a blast.



But now its 1130pm and I have an early start tomorrow....

Adios!

Goodbye Egypt- 5 weeks is ENOUGH!

So after a hectic few days on a felucca I headed back up to Luxor. Where I found out that I got a load of money stolen by my Felucca captain GRRRR. He was not willing to admit anything by the looks of the picture was actually looking for a fight however after 5 days of phone calls and somewhat childish arguments in broken Arabic and scattered English I managed to claim my money back though thanks to my hotel manager who pretended to be the commissioner of the tourist police!

During those 5 days I got alot done, including the Valley of the Kings and the Valley of the Queens, Deir El Bahri, Luxor Temple, Karnak Temple and Edfu Temple, to name a few. But after a long 5 weeks in Egypt the endless array of temples and monuments becomes nearly as dull as churches in Europe! And so to spice things up a bit I decided to add a bit of life to my latest video (which can be found on the bottom of this page) by running, jumping and just downright scrambling across the ANCIENT buildings, pillars and ruins. Not such an easy task when you have to film it yourself and attempt to get shots without other tourists ‘polluting’ the

film! But it was fun all the same and I’ve got some great feedback for my video thanks guys!

After that I caught the night train from Luxor to Cairo, it should be noted that everything in Egypt runs on “Egypt Time” which basically means that a train scheduled to depart at 11pm will not arrive till after 1130pm . All manner of tourist agencies and even the train ticket offices themselves will tell you that the train is booked out and that no seats are available. But I managed to convince my couchsurfing host to get me a ticket off the black market, trouble with this is you pay twice the price the ticket is worth and get half the value. So after I got on the train I had a long discussion in English with the conductor who couldn’t understand a word I was saying, moral of the story is I managed to get a free upgrade to first class because I blatantly refused to move knowing plain well that all the Egyptian people in this carriage had paid less than half the price I paid!!

Then comes Cairo, after an 11hour ride I stumbled out of the station and made my way to the metro. I gota admit if your a female it’s NOT a wise move to travel on the metro! A squished (and I mean like 2 jars of sardines squeezed into one) hot, humid, and sweaty 40minute ride was to follow standing up the entire way with my backpack begging to be put down, but the floor could not be seen for the mass of shoes!

I finally arrived at my hosts place here in Cairo and they are amazing! A family of 5 working as missionaries in Egypt I couldn’t have asked for a more caring and loving family! So for the first time in WEEKS I had a hot shower, and an actual home cooked meal with cutlery and everything!

The next day was pretty laid back with a trip to the Cairo Museum..... once again it was a churches/monuments thing, and after a quick but detailed look at Tut’s mask I was back on the metro heading home.
The next morning was the day I had been waiting for, for 5 weeks. Today was the day I got to see the pyramids 10th Sept 2008. And WOW this certainly is not a church/monument thing this is a FLIPPING HUGE PILE OF RICKS IN THE DESERT! Haha Such simplicity yet such magnitude, had it not been 50degrees outside I could have sat there and simply stared all day.

Which brings us to today, long since I left Europe have I been CRAVING some western culture and it just so happens that Cairo can offer it! I went to CityStars Mall which far outdoes any shopping complex I have ever been to in any other country! 7 levels of air-conditioned paradise; from 1st class movie cinemas (all in English with leather reclinable chairs and your own personal waiter) to games arcades and all manner of retail shops to the all important food court featuring all the essentials: McDonalds, KFC, Starbucks! Sometimes it’s good just to immerse yourself in what feels like home!

After a lazy afternoon reading my new favorite book “The Shack” I organized my next journey starting tomorrow night I will be visiting 3 countries in a day!

SMILES =]

Death on the Nile!

It was a windy night with rough waters, not the perfect conditions for sailing, but turns out that like driving in Egypt; conditions or actual skills mean nothing, don’t even worry about a license, ‘just wing it, it’s Egypt’. Picture a boat less then 8meters long and 3 meters wide with two Arabic crew members who don’t speak a word of English, and then 4 travelers, 2 French who also don’t speak English an Irish twat and myself. When I signed up for a 2 night Felucca ride on the Nile this was not what I was expecting! But there I was and so it began.

The Irish guy did nothing to help the stereotypical view of Ireland -with questions like “does the river start at the sea?” and statements such as “I was going to start smoking because my friend told me it would strengthen my teeth”- I knew I was going to be in for a long ride! First night we sailed about 12miles downstream to a quiet bay and anchored on the riverbank, and sure enough the Leprecon didn’t fail to meet standards “if they point the nose to shore we are safer from thieves”. Now for one we are miles away from any sort of township we are on the flipping NILE! And in addition what difference would it make if the nose points to the shore or if the boat is parallel!?

The next day went pretty slowly as we gently flowed with the wind downstream from Aswan towards Luxor, but as night fell and we pulled into shore to get supplies, things got interesting. There was a MASSIVE shifting of Nile Cruise ships upstream and I’m still unaware of why in excess of 50 EMPTY cruisers decided to migrate up the river like a flock of birds migrating for winter, but it turned the peaceful atmosphere of water lapping on the side of the boat into a noisy stampede of massive ships. At stages the boats were 3 wide powering through the water at breakneck speeds as though it was the ‘Tour de Nile’ and so our captain no lights and no engine decides that he will challenge the MASSIVE ships and try and cross the river to anchor on the other side.

BAD IDEA!

The scariest 3 minutes of my life were to follow with waves coming over the sides of the already small Felucca and Cruisers towering above us as the crew of 2 went mad pulling up the sail, trying to balance the boat by dropping the fin all at the same time turning the rudder to steer us out of harm’s way. With the cruise ships stopping any wind that may have helped us sail out of the way we were headed straight for them with no way of getting out. As the ships drew closer our shouts were heard by the crew and all of a sudden we were blinded with flashing spotlights and blasting horns. Man we already know we are in the way that’s just not helping at all! Closer and closer they came until they were towering above us and as if by some miracle we floated in between 2 of the cruisers but with less than 20meters between us and the hull it was a close call.

But that was the least of our problems, being between 2 cruisers acted as a propellant in sending us backwards with the pressure of the water into the path of yet another daunting ship threatening to shatter our small boat into a million splintering pieces! This game of ‘dodgeship’ continued for 3minutes before we were finally able to catch the current out of the shipping lane and onto safe ground!


Oh Egypt... good times!

If you can't find the video at the bottom of the page click here to see the Death on the Nile video