It's All Greek To Me

We've had a whole week of wandering around, looking at ancient ruins, going to museums, eating greek salad, and meeting some awesome people. Since the last post we went to the National Archaeological Museum, which is filled with statues and bronze casts and dug up treasure from the area. We walked through the neighbourhoods and got a bit lost, which was great because we saw a lot of the non-tourist areas.




In the evening we went with our new friend Steve the Canadian, and his mate John the Aussie, to Lycabettus Hill to watch the sunset over Athens. The view was spectacular! The city has a lot of solar panels on the top of houses and hotels, so they all gleam in the sunlight.






We then went to the Olympic Stadium, and for a bargain 3 euros we got an audio tour of the place, which was pretty informative! I feel sorry for the poor lady handing out the audioguides though - she had to stand all day out in the sun with no shade to hide under!





The next day we wandered over to Kerameikos, the ancient graveyard, which was quite cool, but by now the ruins are all just kind of looking like a bunch of rocks, and our interest was waning - sorry Greece! There were a few pretty disrespectful tourists there, which made me realise why the guards there are usually so shitty at tourists, one guy even pulled a rock out of the wall - I mean Come On! It's an archaeological site!






We headed over to the roman agora, and the temple of Zeus. It struck me how little information is given at each site. Each place is basically old ruins cordoned off, with some guards to make sure you don't touch anything. That's why the acropolis was quite good - if you go, make sure to go to the acropolis museum first. It explains each part and has the statues and adornments that were originally on the site, and has a video showing the building and the eventual destruction of the Parthenon.







We had a day off to chill out and play computer games (I love WiFi!) and then we went on a tour to Delphi. Delphi was pretty amazing, it's about 3 hours drive from Athens. We went with a group of about 30-something, It was around 14 odd tourists, and a group of 20 USA university students who had been studying in Spain and decided to make a jaunt over to Greece. We quickly formed a little group, Me, Stace, Maggie from Boston, Eva the Puerto Rican DisneyWorld Orlando event manager (coolest job ever!!!), and Lily the Calgarian. The three girls were all solo travellers in various stages of their journeys.












On the tour we were taken to the Delphi archaeological site, the delphi museum, and then we had lunch (which was PRIMO! deluxe bakery rolls - aubergine and feta with tomatoes and lettuce!) overlooking the canyon just outside Delphi town. After Delphi town we were given some time to wander through a nearby ski village, and then we had the long 3 hour bus ride home. It was such a great day!

Today was exciting....
LAUNDRY DAY!
We spent over 2 hours at the local laundromat, and I met a couple of girls who live in Calgary! What a small world! Today we're just bumming around and relaxing as we've seen pretty much all of the sights of town, and then at 6am tomorrow we leave to catch our ferry to Mykonos! I'm pretty stoked because Lily and Eva might meet up with us on the islands!

till next time
xx Laura

Is that an old ruin, or just a rock?

Wow Athens is beautiful! I wasn't expecting too much because everyone I've met that's been to Athens says that its a bit crusty, but they're WRONG! Our hostel is right next to the Acropolis, so we went there early yesterday morning before the masses of people. The views were unbelievable! It's so weird to be standing amongst the stuff I've read about in text books for so long! They have a multi-sight pass, which, for 12 euros gets you into the acropolis, the ancient agora, agora (there's two), hadrians library, temple of zeus, and something else.





After that we joined up with a walking tour group that our hostel put on (woop woop only 5 euros!). Our guide took us around for about 2.5 hours and we went to the temple of zeus, the stadium, parliament, national gardens, the agora, hadrian's library, through the marketplace, around behind the acropolis through these teeny little streets that are designed to look like the greek islands because a whole lot of islanders came to athens for work and made the neighbourhood like home.






When the tour finished we wandered around town, and spent time at the ancient agora which is a really big complex, with its own little museum and a good lookout point where you can get great views of the acropolis. Its amazing how every turn in this city brings you to another ruin or church or something great to look at.







more later!
xx Laura

how do I get to triangle A circle-with-line-through-it N H?

Wow, so after a full day's travelling we finally made it to Athens!! It's been a while since I updated, so let me dust off my typing fingers!

firstly thanks for all the comments! Its good to know I'm not just blathering off into the ether, and that someone's reading this!

secondly... South Africa... *wipes away a tear*
We did so much stuff! I cant really talk about everything or we'd all be here for days, but here are a few pics to summarise:











And the highlight (apart from hanging out with family of course :D) was going shark cage diving with Stace and Gail!!! It was so amazing! I definitely want to give it another go!







The whole time in South Africa was so amazing, I cant do it justice with words, but I will definitely be going back!

Thanks to everyone over there who made us feel so welcome and took us out and showed us around! We really appreciate it!

I promise I will write a better blog next time, but my brain is frazzled!

xx Laura

Pasop Vir Jou Kop!

AHA! I have internet, I have a card reader... now I just need about six million hours to write out everything thats happened so far!

Kruger Park: a brief run down.

We travelled with Intrepid on an "independent" trip, which meant we were picked up in Johannesburg before dawn and were dropped off in the middle of nowhere to be picked up by John, our tour guide. There were four of us on the trip, apart from John. Me, Stace, Joana the german-hungarian who lives in australia, and Michelle the american from Maryland, USA. We started by going to Skukuza camp, keeping an eye out for animals on the way.

.. ok, looks like my internet connection is playing up, so there will only be a couple of pics on here!



In the evening we joined a tour group which were doing a night safari, which was ace, except for an obnoxious group of tourists who were really rude to our tour guide and to everyone around us. We had a great time anyway, and saw heaps of animals in the dark. The next couple of dys were filled with game drives, starting early morning at the crack of dawn, and by 7pm we were all fast asleep! We spent the first two nights camping out inside Kruger National Park in camp grounds, with only an electric fence between us and the wilderness! The second night mine and Stacy's tent was right next to the electric fence, and we saw a hyena walking past about a metre away from our tent! You could hear all the animals grunting and calling out in the night, it was fantastic!




On day three we got a super early wake up call. At 4am we hear Michelle shrieking and we leap out of bed to investigate. The impalas calling outside the tents sounded super close and the trees scratching on her tent made her think an animal was trying to get into her tent! No one could sleep after that!



In the afternoon we went to the lodge for our final night, which was just outside the KNP. The place was so swish compared to the nights camping!! Me, Stace, and Joana went to the cheetah park where they take in animals and fix them up and try to put them back in the wild. Their focus is on cheetahs, but they have a huge array of other animals like wild dogs, lynxes, lions, vultures, etc.




After our night at the lodge we took an early morning walk wiht John who showed us animal tracks and poop, and trees and how they are used, etc, around the game park. Then we all jumped in the van with Johan, our drinking buddy from the night before, and headed on back to Jo'burg, with a stop at Blyde River Canyon on the way. OMG The canyon is just amazing! I was blown away by how beautiful and HUGE it was! - and the complete lack of safety... they started a rail and then it just kind of stops halfway, LOL! After a grueling 11 odd hours in the van we made it back to amadwala lodge, where we upgraded to the super swish cabin complete with jacuzzi.. ahhh bliss!

Capetown:

pardon me, but, I nearly shat myself in the last couple of hours in joburg! We were heading to the airport and then all of a sudden, on the motorway we stopped. They had blocked off the motorway, in the middle, no detours or anything, and we couldnt go back. I was near tears because we were about to miss our flight! After 45 mins of waiting on the highway, they finally removed the roadblocks and we sped (and I mean SPED) to the airport. We only JUST made it!!!

We arrived in capetown and were picked up by Stacy's aunt and uncle, and since then it's been a whirlwind of meeting people, and going places!! We had a braai at Aunty Gail's and then spent three days with Aunty Sharon, and now we're back in Aunty Gail's care! It's been so fantastic! Here's a brief run-down of stuff that we've done:

saw iron man 2 (YESSSSS!!! movies in ENGLISH!)
went to the two oceans aquarium
shopped at century city and the waterfront (oooh new clothes!)
went to boulders beach to see the penguins
went to cape point
went to capetown castle and gold museum

I keep losing connection on here, so I dont think I'll load any more pics, but its been so great being here - and we have some amazing stuff coming up too! Bowling with family, braai (haha shame may lee), shark cage diving, table mountain, robben island.... and the list goes on!

gotta go now! (It's only taken me about 3 hours to load the few photos I have on here LOL)
xx Laura

The call of the wild

Well, we landed safely in Johannesburg and got ready for our tour the next morning. The flight over was unbelievably turbulent, it was like a 5 hour long rollercoaster ride! We set off for Kruger National Park at 5am, picked up another 6 people, and drove for hours and hours to get there. Once we got there we sorted out our tour group, me, Stacy, Michelle from the USA, and Joana from Australia, and met our tour guide, John. We set off on our first game drive that day and spotted so many animals. Kruger National Park is so amazing!!! Unfortunately I cant get my pics to upload, and it doesnt look like I'll have time/internet connection/computer skillz to be able to update the blog properly, so I'll have to update once we're in Greece, with photos. All I can say is, if you havent been to Kruger... GO! We camped out in permanent tents, with only an electric fence keeping us apart from the animals... a hyena walked past our tent! The food was fantastic and the scenery was breathtaking. I dont want to update too much, because pictures say so much more than words can! I had the best time, and am already planning my second trip to africa! We have so much in store for us for the coming two weeks, we have a little group together already for shark cage diving :D I've met a lot of Stacy's family and theyre awesome, I feel like I've known them forever :)

Anyway, I have to stop being anti-social now, so I will update in a couple of weeks... sorry to the people who have been asking me to update! (The pics of Kruger are amazing... but you'll just have to wait :D)

xx
Laura