Bec and Toms European Adventure

PART TWO.. (part three is coming, i promise!)

hethoandstokesyseuropeanadventure — Mon, 5 Oct 2015 11:24:00 GMT

Greetings…. one month down the track. Yes, part 2 of the last leg of the trip may have slipped my mind, but here it is! It’s never too late to relive the memories, plus its kind of nice for me go back now and write about it, otherwise i sit here at home thinking what the heck have i done this year, and why is it already october?!

So, i left you all at Montenegro, where we flew out of Podgerico, to Istanbul where we got a feed at the airport, then boarded our next plane to Sofia, Bulgaria! Bulgaria was a last minute decision that we squeezed in to the itinerary, one decision that we probably would not have made if it were just Tom and I, but in a group it seemed reasonable.. another place to tick off the list. With a slightly delayed flight, we rocked up to Sofia later than planned, around 10pm, and found ourselves a couple of taxis to get us to our apartment for the night. We found a taxi, a little Bulgarian lady, who we jumped into her car.. only to notice that the ID card on her dashboard was a photo of a big fat man, and not her… we then told her where we were staying and she gave us a ‘not very confident’ nod.. and so we drove… and drove.. and then we started driving down back streets… and then things started to feel a little suss… and then she slowed down when a ‘pimp’ looking man walked past the car… and then she put my window down… and then i thought i was going to be sold… **dying on the inside**… turns out she just had close to no idea where we were going and had to put down my window to be able to suss out the streets we were on… and eventually we turned up at our lovely apartment where a man with a huge scar down his face welcomed us… we hopped ourselves straight into bed and got some shut eye.

Sofia was pretty much just a stop over so that we could to Sunny Beach where we planned on staying in Bulgaria.. so then next morning we got up nice and early to go to the bus station and get a bus there.. there was limited to no information on buses/trains/anything on the internet so we were pretty much winging it… got to the bus station only to find that the bus didn’t leave for another 3 hours, and it was going to take us 8 hours!! Or… we could go back to the airport and get a 40 minute flight straight there and get there before the bus was even going to leave… job done. So, we booked a flight quickly, did some shopping to waste some time, then boarded our flight to Sunny Beach!

A lovely taxi driver picked us up from the airport and drove us the 40 minute drive to Sunny Beach, where we had a resort hotel room booked.. with a pool.. it was nothing fancy, I’ve stayed in nicer hostels.. but it was a bed and our own bathroom and we had a pool just outside of our bedroom door so no complaints. Sunny Beach was definitely different..it was a mixed feeling of Caval Avenue during schools, a carnival and Bali, but filled with British holiday bogans, cheap cheap cheap! It was a bit of fun, however I’m not sure i would recommend it as a holiday destination for you! We stayed here for 3 nights, relaxing by the pool.. shishas… late nights out and swimming down the streets through the biggest pour down I’ve ever been in.. literally, the streets were drowning in rain after an hour, i think they need to improve their drainage system! After our few nights here, we were ready to leave and head to our most anticipated destination..TURKEY…

The last 5 weeks (Part One..)

hethoandstokesyseuropeanadventure — Mon, 14 Sep 2015 11:32:00 GMT

HELLO!

As you all know, we are home, and have been for 2 weeks now. But upon request, Im finishing off the blog for those of you who are interested in our last 5 weeks of the trip.

I believe the last place we left you was in Croatia, before we headed to Budapest? Am I right? I’ll go check now…. lemme get back to you..

okay, yes! we left you in Croatia, the photos for the rest of the trip have been uploaded, so you have a rough idea of what we got up to.

It starts with a 6 hour train from Zagreb to Budapest.. the hottest..hottest..most filthy, stuffy train that I have ever been on in my whole life.. for a whole 6 hours. It was rather unenjoyable, but all the same, we made it to Budapest, Hungary. You always know when your gonna like a city while travelling.. because you see something like Maccas, or KFC.. or H&M.. and you know that everything is gonna be okay! Budapest has it all, and more. The city captivates you, swallows you then spits you out at the end, leaving you wanting more! It’s got something for everyone, history, future, bars, clubs, street food, hummus cafes, shisha, jewish quarter, museums, thermal baths, monasteries, palaces, parliament buildings, food markets, shopping centres… you want it, you get it, all in Budapest! We spent our 5 days there, meeting up with Seb (one of Toms mates from Anglesea who he grew up with), Jess (Sebs girlfriend), who we travelled with for our last 5 weeks, and their friend Sam (who turns out is one of our friends from Bendigo’s cousin.. small world), seeing the city, visiting the House of Terror (where hundreds of Jews were punished, just floors under the ground of the main street in Budapest), thermal baths in the iconic Szechenyi Bath and Pool (until the lightening storm kicked in and we were rushed straight back out of the water), eating as much street food as possible, going to Ruin Bar Szimpla, where old apartment blocks are turned into amazing 2-3 story bars filled with different sections and bars.. theres a spot for everyone, depending what kind of drink you feel like, or a shisha, and of course some building sightseeing occurred and plenty more eating… and shopping. Budapest, next to and equal with Berlin, was my favourite city in all of Europe!

After Budapest, we got an 8 hour train to Slovenia. This train was filled with games of celebrity heads and eating. We arrived in Ljubljana by about 9pm, where we got a taxi straight to our hostel and hit the hay.. travel days are tiring, no matter how little you do!

Ljubljana, Slovenia, turned out to be awesome! This wasn’t a place that Tom and I had even considered going to while planning our trip, but somewhere that Jess and Seb had suggested along the way. So, why not? We had no expectations, and although it poured down rain on us aaaall day on our first day, after that the sun shone and we couldn’t have fallen in love with Slovenia anymore than we did! Its a mix of Switzerland, Austria and Germany.. and it is so beautiful! Although not on the top of many (anyone’s) list, it truly should be unmissable if your heading that way. The scenery is stunning and theres something about driving through the country side that makes you want to skip through the sunflower fields holding hands with your whole family *awwwww*. Photos, don’t quite do this place justice, but it gives you a small insight of the beauty we witnessed. We visited Lake Bled (the beautiful, big touristy Lake to visit) and then we visited Lake Bohinj.. half hour up the road from Bled, but smaller..prettier..and quieter.. woooow! Not only is this country beautiful, but Ljubljana, the city itself, is small, but big, cool and quirky, busy but quiet.. make sense? We loved it! We also made a day trip to Piran, for a beach day, where we literally laid in the sun all day and did a whole day of sun baking.. ahh bliss.

Next stop was Bosnia-Herzegovina! Little did we know, the trip from Slovenia to Bosnia, was a long ass, sweaty, painfully draining 12 hour train ride. Booooo! When we eventually made it, we were rewarded with an upgrade at our hostel and given a private 6 bed apartment room, private kitchen and bathroom included, ah the small things! They must have known we had a long day. Bosnia was another country we weren’t planning to go (in fact, all of these countries, aside from Turkey, were unplanned until a couple months ago), and yet again we were pleasantly surprised. Bosnia, to us, was an introduction to Turkey. Our first stop was Sarajevo, the place where Franz Ferdinand and his wife were assassinated, and there leading directly to the First World War (sharing the fun fact that you probably all know, just because i didn’t know this). Sarajevo was another interesting city, with plenty to do, but as usual not enough time! We walked around, did some shopping (cheap cheap), ate Bosnian food (pretty much Turkish food), and drank Bosnian Coffee (Turkish Coffee). Then we hopped onto a bus (thinking it was about a 2 hour ride) and made our way to Mostar (turns out its 4 hours), where the famous 24 meter high Mostar Bridge stands. Mostar consisted of, bridge jumping (on Sebs behalf, google Hamish and Andy Mostar Bridge, thats what Seb did!), waterfall chasing, eating, relaxing, exploring and river swimming. The history is still very raw here, and the bridge itself was only finished being rebuilt in 2004, after it was destroyed in 1993 by Croat forces during the Croat-Bosniak War. Another (I know i keep saying that, but i can’t help it) amazing city. Can I say, highly recommended?!

After Bosnia, we got on another bus and made our way to Dubrovnik, Croatia, where we had hired a house for 2 nights where we would meet more friends of Seb and Jess, going from a group of 5, to a group of 11! This bus ride was also only meant to take 2.5 hours, but make that 3 hours, and then add in a 2 hour stop at border control, and you have yourself a 5 hour bus ride, with no food (because it was only meant to take 2.5 hours!!! ahhh). When we finally arrived, and thought we were dying, we made it to our house with stunning views of the old city and all bus rides were forgotten. We enjoyed 2 nights in another favourite city of ours, relaxing and just enjoying being back there. We tried to hire a car to drive to Montenegro, but turns out that to leave a hired car in another country will cost you over 600 euros, but the best part about this country, is that if they can’t give you what you want, they will sort something else out.. so the car hire lady, calls up a mate, that used to drive a mini bus, and for 200 euros, between 11 people, he drives us all from Croatia to Montenegro, and even takes us through the quiet border control, where you buy the police a bottle of coke and they let you through, no passport check required.Ta-daaa!

ENTER MONTENEGRO! Our first stop was a car ferry that took literally 5 minutes but takes off an hour and a half of driving, after that the next stop was BUDVA! A lively place, filled with a mix of backpackers and albanians, with a cute Old Town, a beach, plenty of restaurants, and a beautiful island a 20 minute boat ride (tinny ride) out from the mainland. We stayed at a cool hostel, that welcomed us all with a glass of beer..much to the boys disgust who all had a rather large night the night before in Dubrovnik..

Budva consisted of exploring the Old Town, finding a nice beach, which was sadly hard in that area with all of the albanians holidaying there on their sun beds that cover every inch of beach, and dirty ocean (have you ever seen a tampon float past you in the ocean? i have), and eating seafood. On our last night, our hostel organised a bbq on a secret beach on the island off the mainland.. they took us out in their tinny boat, cooked us up veggies and meat on a fire they made in the rocks, caught fresh fish there and then and cooked them up too.. and we sat on this amazing island, with beautiful clear water, and watched the sun set over Montenegro. Amazing.. The next day, we hired cars and started the drive to our next destination.. stopping at the famous Sveti Stefan, where it costs thousands of dollars to stay a night on the gorgeous island, and a casual 75 euros to use the beach.. we moved on pretty quickly from that pit stop..

The next stop in Montenegro, was Ulcinj. Tom and I don’t regret any part of our trip, but if there was a place that we wish we didn’t go to, its pretty much this place! Think Caval Avenue (GC) mixed with Kuta (Bali) and chuck in millions of Albanians and local Montenegrens selling their children on the street.. this is Ulcinj. It was dirty and about the only good thing to come out of this place was that we had booked a nice hotel where we could get away from it all. We spent the days trying to find a nice beach (tricky), and one day we made a road trip to the beautiful Skadarsko Jezero National Park, where we drove on the most dangerous one way windy road around half of the lake, drove through an (i thought) out of control burning off, and ate a terrible meal at what was supposed to be a good restaurant.. BUT.. this lake was beautiful and we drove straight towards the albanian border before making a turn and heading back to our hotel. We had one amazing night in Ulcinj.. and that was for Lauras birthday, where her partner Andy found an amazing place to go for dinner. It was called Miško, and it sat, literally, on top of the Bojana River. Owned by a local couple, who knew exactly what running a restaurant and good service was all about. Good service is hard to find in europe, the last time i think we had excellent service was Ireland…. 5 months earlier.. they brought out freshly caught fish on a plate and let everyone choose which fish they would like… and with an opportunity like this, Tom and I finally saw it fitting to spend large, and get ourselves our first proper whole lobster! We got to go up and choose which lobster we wanted.. then they even took one of the boys into the kitchen and showed him how to cook it.. close your eyes if you don’t want to read about how they did it.. They picked up the lobster.. took it into the kitchen, fed it a slice of cucumber.. then they stabbed it in the head and cut it straight down its guts! ahhh! then chucked it on the grill plate! apparently thats the most humane way to do it…. questionable, but hey at least it got a slice of cucumber before its death. The food was amazing, the best fish and lobster that I’ve ever had.. ever.. if you ever end up in Ulcinj.. which i don’t recommend.. but if you do.. You must go here!

The next day we made our way to the capital of Montenegro for one night before we flew out to Bulgaria the next day.. Podgorica was a shit hole.. don’t go there either.. unless you want to sit in 48 degree heat which makes you feel like you are melting in your own sweat.. the best thing about that city is that there was a good Zara store and a cute sausage dog lived at our hostel.

Montenegro was definitely a different experience, but its all apart of the adventure..

Photos: TURKEY!

hethoandstokesyseuropeanadventure — Tue, 8 Sep 2015 20:45:00 GMT

Photos: Bulgaria

hethoandstokesyseuropeanadventure — Tue, 8 Sep 2015 20:42:00 GMT

Photos: Montenegro

hethoandstokesyseuropeanadventure — Thu, 3 Sep 2015 21:48:00 GMT

Photos: Bosnia-Herzegovina

hethoandstokesyseuropeanadventure — Tue, 11 Aug 2015 07:06:00 GMT

Photos: Slovenia

hethoandstokesyseuropeanadventure — Tue, 11 Aug 2015 06:35:00 GMT

Photos: Budapest

hethoandstokesyseuropeanadventure — Fri, 31 Jul 2015 00:07:00 GMT

Photos: Plitvice National Park

hethoandstokesyseuropeanadventure — Tue, 21 Jul 2015 16:24:00 GMT

This place is extraordinary! Completely blew our minds. It took us around 5 hours to walk the whole area, you can't swim in this water though so the whole time it's crystal clear beauty just stares at you teasingly! It's a cruel world. We really did save the best until last in Croatia!

Photos: Krka National Park

hethoandstokesyseuropeanadventure — Tue, 21 Jul 2015 16:20:00 GMT

The NP you can swim at! Thank god... It was 40+ degrees this day!

Croatia = the good life

hethoandstokesyseuropeanadventure — Wed, 15 Jul 2015 05:36:00 GMT

Evening fam and fwiends!

A little mid-Croatia catch up for those curious on our adventures. We arrived in Croatia via ferry.. Have I already said that in the last blog? ah well, we slept like babies and it was splendid, blah blah blah..wake up = CROATIA! Our first stop was the amazing Dubrovnik Aka kingslanding For all of you G.O.T'ers. The old town is completely surrounded by a 1.5km wall, and inside lays marble streets and marble houses that completely blind you, and give you a thumping headache if you don't wear a hat and sunnies! when you walk through it you feel like you've gone back in time.... To game of thrones... But in fact, this whole town was 2/3 destroyed only 24 years ago when the yugoslavians bombed the shit out of it. it's incredible.. And shows no signs of the attack Except for all of the brand new bright orange roofs, and a few bomb shell holes in the church that survived the attack. You have to see it for yourselves.. but if you have no plans to come here, which you should have, then you can just peep at my photos. as usual, we ate good food, found a super dooper amazing lolly store, sat on the pebbly beaches and drank beers on the cliff bar overlooking the ocean. Sounds good, hey!

From dubrovnik, we joined our Sail Croatia crew and jumped onto the 'refuggee boat' aka the shittest boat of all the yachts setting sail that week.. But it didn't matter, we had the best people! We island hopped for the next 7 days, slept the mornings away, jumped off the boat in the arvos for a swim spot in the middle of the ocean, then docked in the port for the night for an evening of alcohol.. Bars..and clubs. You know your getting old, when your boat leader comes on And tells you the plan that you will be going to the cool club that all the celebs go to, at 2am, and you almost have a heart attack. Who goes out at that time, I'm in bed by 9 normally. So it was a slight adjustment to keep up with the 20 year olds.. But we made it out every night. And as a result, Tom and I are both sick and recovering on an island, with no plan to drink.. Or club... Again. in between the alcohol and hangovers, we visited the islands of Korcula, Hvar, Mljet and the mainland of Makarska and Split. It was a good week, but like I said, we've been left sick and vegie loading every night.

once we got off the boat, we ran to our ferry and said TAKE US AWAY FROM THE SHIT BOAT AND GET US SOME AIRCON AND BEACH TIME ASAP. which takes us to Brâc (pronounced Brach). We chose a sexy little island just off Split, to recover from the week of Sail. Staying in a guesthouse of a Croatian couple, who just gave us 2 shots of home made Grappa to get rid of our germs.. It almost killed me.. Or at least stripped my throat and stomach raw of any life it once had (Does that even make sense, my brain is filled with snot..and grappa). We've spent our mornings eating eggs for brekky, planning our last month of the trip (how damn crazy is that?!?!?) and then our afternoons are spent sitting on the beach. And that's it!

Croatia is super beautiful and we're looking forward to our next 2 weeks of exploring it some more. we're heading back to Split tomorrow for a couple nights before we start to venture up north, to visit the amazing national parks (Krka and Plitvice...google it..be jealous). The last 6 weeks are looking pretty hectic, we meet up with Toms friend Seb and his girlfriend Jess, who we are travelling with for the rest of the trip, covering another 6 countries before we head home. I'll try to keep you all up to date, but if the blog lacks, we'll see you all in 46 days!!!!

HAPPY TUESDAY (or is it wednesday? I don't even know)

Bec and Tom

Photos: Dubrovnik, Sail Croatia & Brâc

hethoandstokesyseuropeanadventure — Wed, 15 Jul 2015 05:36:00 GMT

Photos: Italy

hethoandstokesyseuropeanadventure — Mon, 29 Jun 2015 23:43:00 GMT

Italia!

hethoandstokesyseuropeanadventure — Mon, 29 Jun 2015 23:40:00 GMT

CIAO CIAO CIAO!! As our Italian adventure comes to an end, I thought I best update you all on all of our activities!

I'm writing this on the bus back to Rome and I actually cannot remember what I wrote about on the last blog.. but I don't think I've spoken about Italy yet, so I'll start from the start and if you've already heard about it, consider it a recap on the last blog.

Our first stop was Venice! ( I just remembered my last blog was upon arrival at Venice.. so we're sweet.. no recap after all). We stayed off the mainland as I mentioned and it was perfect! We got the campsite shuttle bus everyday into the island then when we were sick of having selfie sticks shoved in our faces, we could go back to camp and sit by our lush pool. Venice was beautiful, despite the craziness of it being flogged by tourists and tourist traps (it's actually tough being a tourist some times), it's a super picturesque city that we loved. Gondolas were a hefty €100 for a half hour ride.. so we got the water boat (€7 each, yew!) from one side of the island to the other, caught up with toms aunty and uncle, commenced our "must eat pizza and/or pasta at least once everyday" diet, sat by our pool, missed our camp shuttle bus at night.. twice ('merica tourists are impossible to stop talking about themselves), ..........

Next stop was Monterosso, the first of the 5 towns of Cinque Terre! We caught 2 trains, Venice to Milan, Milan to Monterosso, then we were picked up by our lovely shuttle bus driver, Leo, who took us up the mountain (and back down everyday) to Corvara where our little hostel stood. We booked this hostel in advance before we left for the trip to ensure we didn't miss out and it was worth it! Our host was a lovely Italian man, Francesco, in his early 30's.. we think.. who built and runs the hostel himself! Everyday we went into Monterosso and every night when we came home, Francesco and his sisters made us a delicious Italian dish and dessert! It was amaaaazing! We didn't have to lift a finger, which was good because after a day of hiking the cinque Terre, we struggled to stand, let alone cook!

So, the deal with the Cinque Terre hike is that you hike to as many towns as you like and then you get the train that runs between the towns, back to your town. So, first day, Tom and I are keen beans and we were like yes, we're gonna hike the whole thing today and then train home. Great plan. Start the hike, vertical steps.. up....and. ..up..and up..and up. Not one person ever warned us that a) the hike is an actual hike (I'm not sure what I expected when they said hike, I thought they were being dramatic), and b) the direction we went, from Monterosso to Vernazza, is in fact the hardest part of the whole hike.. I died. I obviously survived.. but I feel like, seeing as no one did me the favor of warning me, I will warn all of you, THE CINQUE TERRE IS ACTUALLY HARD AT CERTAIN POINTS, AND AT THESE POINTS YOU WILL THINK THAT DEATH SOUNDS REALLY NICE RATHER THAN GOING UP VERTICAL STEPS, CLIMBING ON ALL FOURS. Dramatic rant over. It wasn't that hard, you'll all be fine if you one day do it, because the views are worth it and the flat areas of the track actually even out the super tough bits. And because you work so hard, you get to reward yourself with as much pizza and pasta as you like! Yay! Anyway, pretty much the whole walk between the 3 first towns (the hardest parts of the hike) we were like "THANK God we don't have to walk back..Gee it would suck if you had to walk back.. wow thank god for trains" etc etc etc. .. guess what. We get to Corneglia (3rd town, 3 hours of walking complete) and hear a couple next to us at lunch.. "I can't believe the trains are on strike today"........

I'm not going to continue with the story because Bec and Tom killed themselves when they heard that sentence.

Juuuuuust kidding!

Yes, we walked all the way back to Monterosso.

Cinque Terre was amazing, we walked the last 2 towns the next day and caught the train home. This brought us to our next stop, Firenze!

Aka Florence (the stupid translated version of Firenze that the Italians have no idea why the English made up). We stayed in a b&b about 20 minute walk from the city Centre, owned by a little Greek lady who liked us because we liked Greece. She said she was even sad when we left because "I liked watching you guys come and go everyday"... we must have a good wave. Firenze is another beautiful city, where you can just walk around aimlessly and enjoy the sunshine and eat good food. We didn't bother with the crazy lines to see David because, we don't even know who the guys is. They also have the beautiful Duomo, which is spectacular on the outside and not so great on the inside, as we have learnt with most churches/cathedrals/duomos/basilicas. I didn't actually go inside though, god would not have approved of my shoulders showing so I was banned. Lucky Tom, he was sent in to assess the specialness of the Firenze Duomo.

Assessment result: it was alright. My wine on the other hand, was fabulous. I think I know who the real winner was that afternoon.

We ate the most fabulous food in Firenze, our diet consisting of pasta, pizza, croissants and pasta. And bread. And pizza. And wine! If you feel like drooling, look at the photos.. Although you could never really know the deliciousness of it all unless you were there eating it yourself.

We did a day trip while in Firenze also, that took us to Siena (nice, but wouldn't return), San Gimignano (beautiful and delicious, could definitely return to the country side and sip on wine all day) and Pisa (would probably never ever return, but that tower is super cool).

Next up, ROMAAAA! My favorite big city and by favorite big city, I mean between London, Paris and Rome. There is nothing to not like about Rome. Shops, food, Jurassic World in English, they've got it all! We visited the Roman Forum, the Colosseum (which I personally found a little underwhelming..I must be getting greedy when it comes to being blown away), and the Vatican City, also not thoroughly impressed (I wonder if God asked for €16 to enter the Sistene Chapel all those years ago..). But every other part of Rome has my heart!

From Rome we joined a busabout tour and travelled down to Pompeii and the Amalfi coast.. ticking off bucket list items left right and Centre over here! We did a tour through pompeii which was pretty crazy to see,stayed in the town of the delicious Limoncello, Sorrento! I know I know.. it sounds amazing. It was. We got a boat out to Capri the next day and spent the day with the rich and famous... aka we watched from the view site at the top of Ana Capri while the rich and famous sat in their gigantic yachts. Mariah Carey and James packer were there.. we didn't see them.. but we saw their boats! Unfortunately the blue grotto wasn't open all day due to the tide being too high so we went for a boat drive around the island instead, where I feared I would die because it was so rough. All up we had a good time, we visited the other towns along the amalfi, including amalfi itself.. ate more food.. drank more wine..and that brings us to now.

We're in Rome for one more night and then we are off to Croatia for around 3-4 weeks! Theres a lack of posts now that we are in countries for longer than before and the wifi seems to be getting worse the more south/eastern we go, but hopefully this biggy makes up for it all!

Xoxxooxoxoxxo

Photos: Greece

hethoandstokesyseuropeanadventure — Fri, 12 Jun 2015 05:51:00 GMT

Summer has begun!

hethoandstokesyseuropeanadventure — Fri, 12 Jun 2015 05:47:00 GMT

BUONGIORNO!! We have finally arrived in Italy! It took a train, a plane, a bus, another train and then another bus..and then a walk.. but we finally arrived at our destination of camp Jolly just off the Venice island..yes, we have a pool. Coooooool!

Anyway, Greece was indescribable.. literally, I just tried to think of some of the words I would use to describe it but none of the usual describing words really fit. We loved it. From the black beach of Santorini to the mountain ranges of Delphi. . Were we the only ones completely unaware of how crazy and beautiful the mountains are in Greece once you head in land??

Santorini was lovely, it's sort of exactly what you expect because it's so famous but then nothing like you expect all at the same time. There are no beautiful beaches with white sand, there is the black beach, and the red beach. And they are as they are named. . Red and black rocks! We were lucky that we booked so last minute, it seems that on booking.com, or maybe just in Greece, if the rooms aren't booked by a certain time the prices drop, so we got to stay in a lovely family owned hotel/resort/villa kinda place, a 2 minute walk to the beach and restaurants, 1 minute walk to our favorite 24 hour bakery and a 30 second walk to the pool, all for the price of a decent hostel. Heaven! We stayed in Perissa which is the black beach, south of the island. Then there is Fira, the capital of Santorini and then there is the city that you all know by photos, Oia! We stayed away from them as we read they are covered in tourists and what we hate most, tourist traps!! Dum dum daaaaa! It was one of our best decisions yet. Perissa we got to eat dinners on the beach, relax by our pool and walk around and not be harassed by said tourist trap trappists. We hired a quad bike for 2 days and roamed around the island and visited the other cities of course. . Then went home to our lovely quiet town.

On our last night we did what all tourists do. Literally. Every. Single. Tourist on the island was there. We watched the sunset from Oia. And beautiful as it was, having 10 people breathing down my neck and taking photos over my head was not as romantic as the photos make it out to be. They definitely took advantage of being behind a short person!anyway, we rode home that night, got lost.. I'm not blaming Tom. .. but I was focusing on the driving. .. just saying.

We caught the ferry to Naxos next. We did a lot of research into which other island we would do and decided on the road less traveled. Naxos is the biggest of the Cyclades, still very untouched with lots of local produce, family run tavernas and not completely overpopulated with tourists. We stayed in another nice family run resort, even closer to the beach than the last. However, this beach we swam in!! It was beaaaaautiful! The clearest water I think I've ever swam in! Most of our days in Naxos were spent on the beach, by the pool, eating our buffet breakfast, drinking wine, eating dinner on the beach and not a lot else. We ventured into Naxos Town, we stayed in Agios Prokopios (must check spelling. ..) another small town out of the main town and yet another excellent choice. We hired a bike for another 3 days there, as Naxos is really big, we drove inland one day and just visited small towns that had a whole lot of nothing there but enjoyed the views all the same.

In Naxos we ate too much food which we are still recovering from. I haven't been able to eat large pieces of meat since, which for those who know how much I love a piece of rare steak, it's big..and bad. I blame the little Greek lady who served me too much delicious pork one lunch time.

Next up, we caught a ferry to the mainland and a train into Athens! We just stayed the night before we headed off onto our 2 day tour to Delphi and Meteora! Meteora, is where 20 monasteries were built by monks centuries and centuries ago, on the top of these gigantic rocks! It was a bucket list item, so we booked the tour and were amazed! We were dealt an absolute twit of a tour guide to Delphi.. which was a little disappointing, but we moved on and tried to block out her shit talk. The drive to Delphi was nothing like I expected. . In fact, I'm not even sure I knew what to expect, but Greece is filled with mountains! Big Green mountains that have winding roads all up and down them, that we took! It was truly a drive I won't forget. We stopped in at the archeological site of the Greek god Apollo, see pictures 😊 then we drove onto Meteora where we stayed the night in a lovely hotel with buffet dinner and breakfast. . These things are way more exciting when you've been traveling for so long. . Although a home cooked meal would be better!

Meteora the next day was simply breath taking! The photos I've taken don't really do it justice, so if you think the photos are cool. . Just times the coolness by about 100000 and that's how awesome it was! We visited two monasteries which were a little heavy in religion information, but all the same we loved it! Then it was a 4 hour trip back to Athens. We stopped at the site where the Romans attempted to take on the Persians with only 300 men (for all of you 300 *the movie* lovers), then we hit Athens and hit bed!

Athens. We had very little expectations for this city, as we were yet to hear someone speak highly of it. Thanks to all of you, we lowered our expectations, and athens exceeded them all! It's a little grungy and touristy. .but you just can't say a town is bad when it has lovely Greek people everywhere!! And good food! We hit up the acropolis and Agora, ate lots of Greek food and that brings us to now.

But all up, we loved Greece. It's shooting up to the top of the list for favorite country so far!

Hope everyone's well, and not too cold at home. Mwahaha

Photos: Granada

hethoandstokesyseuropeanadventure — Mon, 1 Jun 2015 15:16:00 GMT

Gyros and quad bikes

hethoandstokesyseuropeanadventure — Mon, 1 Jun 2015 15:09:00 GMT

Hello from Greece! I'd say hello in Greek but my keyboard doesn't have the weird ass keys required. After a delicious 5 nights in Lagos where I last left you, a couple nights in Seville, 3 nights in Granada and a night in Gerona.. Plus one night in 2 Greek airports, we have arrived at the most famous Greek Island, Santorini.

We'll do a quick look back into our last week and a bit in Spain and Portugal. Lagos was perfect as I mentioned once or twice...okay maybe 10 times, in the last blog. We relaxed and regrouped by the beach after a heavy couple months of sightseeing cities. Then we bus'd our way to Seville in Spain, where we welcomed tapas back with open arms, and visited (for all of you season 5 game of thrones fans) the Alcazar! Aka city of Dorne, house of Martell. It was a beautiful palace with pretty gardens to walk through..and best of all, we felt like we were in the middle of G.O.T. Cooooooooooooool!

So we ate good food, drank wine, walked through a palace and met a crazy Spanish guy who we are 99.99999% sure tried to to break into our locker and steal our goods.. Lucky he not so smart. but he did break toms lock which he was least impressed with.

Then we caught another bus to Granada. Famous for tapas.. The Alhambra and surrounded by the Sierra Nevada (and here I thought that was American). So.. We ate good food.. We visited the Alhambra and we gazed at the stunning Sierra Navada. The Alhambra was amazing, a beautiful palace and gardens with incredible detail.. The men who built it must be seriously patient! See photos for the actual details. The town is filled with crazy hippies who live in caves at the back of the main town..question for you all.. Do hippies work? Or do they just grow arm hair, dread their locks and play the guitar? That's all we saw them do.

We then caught a bus, and 2 trains to arrive in Gerona.. A small town that connects the cheap Airline, Ryan Air... Where your luggage costs more to fly than your body itself.Gerona was just a stop over for the night to get us to the airport the next day, but this little place was gorgeous with small cobbled streets, teeny trinket shops, a massive cathedral and a big old wall. We wished we had longer to explore this place, maybe one day! And so the adventure to Greece began. We caught a bus to the airport.. Waited 2 hours for our flight.. 2.5 hours later we arrived in Thessaliniki, where we waited 5.5 hours for our next flight.. Then we got a half hour flight to Athens..by the time you get into the air, you start descending! Then we slept in shit chairs for 3 hours until our next flight at 5am to Santorini. Yes, yes we did feel like shit after all of that. The brain does not function well after 18+ hours of travel and roughly 3 hours sleep.

But Greece. Ohh Greece! I feel like I'm home. Jess and Luke used to always say I was adopted from Hawaii..but I actually think they meant Greece. The people.. The food.. The land.. The hotel.. The wine.. The food.. The food.. The food... Did I mention the food? Oh, and the food? We arrived at our hotel at 6am, way to early for check in but the lady who owns the place, got our room ready as soon as the last lady check out, so she let us sleep by the pool, then by 9am we tucked into bed in our little Greek studio apartment. From bed we moved to the pool. From the pool, we moved to the 24 hour bakery. Then we moved back to the pool. Then we go for a drink. Then we have dinner. Then we sleep. And repeat.

Santorini is beautiful, famous for its sunsets, cliffs and black beaches filled with white houses and steep stairs. We chose a quieter area over Fira and Oia, called Perissa. It's the black beach down the bottom of Santorini wiTh the Volcano sitting to the left of us. We hired a quad bike for our time here to see the main cities up south and get around quicker to dinner which is a 5 minute walk, 1 minute ride.. What can I say, the faster I get to food and wine, the better. I'm yet to have a bad mojito, and our meals have been absolutely delicious. Because we chose a quieter area, we don't have to pay a fortune for meals and drinks, we get to eat and drink overlooking the ocean and it feels much more relaxing than crazy Fira (the main town). We rode the bike into Fira today, about 20 minutes, and although beautiful to see, it was covered in tourists, which can take away from the town itself, so we're pretty chuffed with our little town we chose. We eat Gyros (the G is silent) for lunch every day, it's a pita with pork or chicken, lettuce, tomato and tzaziki and best of all.. Hot chips.. Mm mm..and only €2.5! It's impossible to eat anything else for lunch, these are too good to say no to!

We have 2 more nights here before we head off to Naxos for 5 nights, the biggest Of the Cyclades. The beaches are meant to be stunning, and less touristy then the other islands so we're looking forward to that. We may, or may not, have also gotten another hotel with a pool.. Treating ourselves all out for Greece. Holidays are tough. Then it's Athens for a 2 day tour to Delphi and Metoera before we head back to explore Athens! Not much else to say here..

Oh, except that Tom insists I tell you all, that I was bitten by a vicious Greek horse. Baha, now I know why dad never let me have a horse. It was standing there all pretty with its mane flowing in the wind, and i walked up to it and it let me pat it's head for a minute, completely gained my trust then it BIT MY BOOB!! I almost lost a boob. I have the bite to prove it. Dirty, filthy stinking horse.. I'll never trust a horse again.

That is all,

Love Greece xoxox

Photos: Sevilla

hethoandstokesyseuropeanadventure — Mon, 25 May 2015 06:07:00 GMT

Photos: Lagos

hethoandstokesyseuropeanadventure — Sat, 23 May 2015 06:12:00 GMT

Every photo here is pretty self explanatory..beach... More beaches... Another beach.. And a ocean kayak to.... The beach!!