Greece, Croatia and Turkey

View from first dinner in Ios

The memories are becoming fainter and I am getting impatient with myself so the next three countries are coming at once.  Messy I know.

Can I just say Nick almost gave me a heart attack, I thought he was having and Epileptic fit.  Never actualy seen him move so fast.  You till never guess what just happened.  The "Spurs" just scored a goal or whatever they call point.  I have no idea who they are playing but I did my best to fake enthusiasm.

Back to the point.

45kmph of power between the legs

Athens, staying at Athens Style  How fitting I know.  First thing we did was go for an F. off greek salad and a bottle of white wine and may I say those were the juiciest cucumbers I have ever eaten.  Amazing location, but not for long.  Next morning, crack of dawn on another bloody ferry to Ios "the party island".  All up fun but slightly disappointing.  I dare say perhaps I am too old for starting a night out at 12:30pm and for the screaming drunken blond 18yr olds.  Was no helped by the fact that they played the same songs in EVERY club.  On the up side we did find our trips song (and dance) and as humiliating as that was it was worth it. 

The beauty of Santorini, and of course the scenery

White beach on mermaid rock

Brain flash....falling over.   By this stage I had already had mine.  It was in Egypt, sharing a room with Boz.  I was in the shower (shower over bath) sudding up, in between hair washing cycle so had my lovey satin pink shower can well adorned (thanks Clare) and all of a sudden the world moved slower than an Indian in a pool (sorry Dad not being racist but it is true).  I slipped, grabbed onto the shower curtain and fell.  I could feel the donk, donk, donk of the shower curtain pulling out of the shitty plastic rings as I went down and was waiting for some sort of shooting pain in some part of my body, toilets, basins, corners were all waiting to gouge into me.  Then it was over, the shower curtain around me like the wings of an angel and I am brought back to reality by a soft weary voice..."Lucy?.....Lucy?....Are you alright?"  Boz stuck her beautiful little face around the bathroom door to see me spread eagle legs over the edge of the bath looking like a stunned mullet (in a very fashionable shower cap) laughing hysterically on the floor.  Very lucky I was not to do more damage, a hospital visit in Egypt is something I would not wish on anybody.

The famous sunset in Santorini, I think its still a secret don't tell anybody!

So back to the story, in Ios we had two more of the team go down in the bathroom.  First was Tess.  It was slightly less dramatic but very much a "skweek-ka-thump" in the bathroom going down the steps.  Painful on the arse no doubt but she is a tough lady and laughed it of (with a glass of bubbly).  Then the second troop fell, Clare.  Same step, same bathroom, same bloody noise.  Stupid stairs.  Should have complained but always woke up too hung over to remember.  Franciscos?  I think that is where we stayed.  Nice enough place, more Aussies than you could poke a stick at though.

Only 2 days in Ios then to Santorini.  HELLO SANTORINI.  Instant Love.  Beauty, peace, serenity, oh the serenity. Stellios is where we stayed, everything you could want.  Go there please.  Seriously, I am pleading.

Croatian sunset

Santorini came and went in a gleaming happy mist, back to Athens and then we lost a leg.  It's name was Boz.  Boz went on an expedition to Estonia while Clare, Tess and I headed to Croatia.  It was hard walking with 3 legs.  Especially after a few bevies.

So the jourey began, two massive overnight ferries, one long day waiting and shopping and eating in Italy, then Dubrovnik.

News flash, Nick just gave me a heart attack.  The Spurs kicked another point.  Woo! Can you feel the excitement!

Of course I can drive a boat!

DUBROVNIK.  Bloody unreal.  Stay in the Old Town, thankfully the knowledgeable Clare told us to do so and she was entirely correct.  Absolutely beautiful.  If you have never seen a pigeon tornado this is the place to go.  Ask Tess to see the video.  The only video I got was of a drunken man talking to himself.  Bless him.

How to get to the turret bar, underwear is highly advised

Then begun Croatia Sailing.  Brilliant.  Island after island, day after day of crystal water, beer, horrible Croatian wine, sun baking, eating and dancing.  Made some great friends on this trip.  Tour was with Busabout, only go on the one way trip through, you get ferals on the round trips.  We discovered this on Pirate night didn't we girls.

View from the turret bar

Every bloody day, hard work you know.

Croatia was over way too quickly, or maybe we just drank too much.  Before you knew it we had embarked on 50 hrs of train travel from Split to Istanbul - Turkey.  Oh my god.

Girls you know how we said we would laugh about it when it was over, I am still not laughing.  
Note to self:  just because you are on trains for 50 hrs does not mean they will serve food or drink.  Thank god we had a lovely train conductor man who took pity on us and offered us some stale bread, grapes and some horrid crystalised peanut pate looking paste.  Also, Tess can vouch for this, BEWARE of randoms with foot fetishes.  They may strike at any time.

Acrobatics in a Turkish dungeon

The most beautiful Turkish woman I saw

Turkish Tessa

Hagia Sophia, only 1500 years old

So we eventually got to Istanbul with no expectations apart from food and water and our leg back.  I was pleasantly surprised.  Staying at Bauhaus Guesthouse was a dream, the guys working there were so lovely and helpful, brilliant area of town.  And did we go to town, hello shopping!  The Grand Bazaar, the Spice Bazzarr I don't even like Turkish Delight but that didn't stop me purchasing half a kilo of the wobbly powdery stuff.  Bags, clothes, art, lamps, sheisha pipes, it was on like Donkey Kong.

Day trip (5 long hours each way) to Gallipoli was incredible, again a great tour guide made it something else.  It was really interesting to hear the stories about how close the ANZACS and the Turkish army became so close and had so much respect for eachother even though at the end of they day their main objective was to destroy the each other.

There was a big plaque at one of the sites which had the following inscripton:

Anzac Cove

Those heros that shed their blood

and lost their lives...

You are now lying in the soil of a friendly country,

therefore rest in peace.

There is no difference betweek the Johnnies

and the Mehmets to us where they lie side by side

here in this country of ours...

You, the mothers,

who sent their sons from far away countries,

wipe away your tears;

Your sons are now lying in our bosom,

in peace.

After having lost their lives on this land hey have become our sons as well.

ATATURK 1934

If nothing else during the trip, that made the eyes well.

News Flash, Tottenham scored another point.  3 - 1, a soccor game with 4 whole points.  Unheard of.

Anyway, Gallipoli was a long day but well worth the trip.

Before you knew it, the time to depart was upon us.  Just like departing my home town there were hugs, kisses and no tears until I walked away and lost my shit.

Hours later I arrived at Heathrow Airport, there was approximately 20m of clear sky between leaving the clouds and touching tarmac.  What have I done.

Egypt

This is going to be in a nutshell because I have most likely already told you the good/bad/ugly stories about the first 6 weeks of the trip but I think we should start at the start.

So, the start was Egypt.  Everyone will tell you that one day you have to go there, and you do.  The history is breathtaking, the Pyramids, the Sphinx, Valley of the Kings, Abu Simbel, everything historical about this place will leave you in awe, especially coming from a country that has the shortest history book known to man.  And yes it is saturated with tourism and there are people everywhere, plastic bags do fly around the pyramids in mini tornado's and the tombs smell like stale urine but you just have to look past that.

Something that was not so easy to look past was the horrendous amount of animal cruelty going on.  Donkeys, horses, dogs, cats...well and truly under nourished and often worked to the bone.  It was so sad and at first we thought there was nothing we could do about it and we got pretty angry.

Intrepid Travel is a fantastic organisation who believe in responsible travel and do their bit to give a helping hand to countries that they work in.  We visited ACE (Animal Care in Egypt) and there were mixed emotions.  All the girls on the tour had a teary to see these poor animals who had been brought to the shelter, the first animal we saw was a black lab who was in a terrible state.  That set me right off on a blubbery mess having two black labs back at home, then we saw a gorgeous horse, I think her name was Betty, girls correct me if I am wrong, she had been brought in 3 months prior to our visit when her barn caught on fire and colapssed on top of her.  As a result her entire back was completely burnt, one huge open wound and this was 3 months on.  Regardless of her injuries she was the cheekiest little bugger!  So sweet, she kept knocking her water bowl off the railing and at one stage cornered Tess on the barn, I think she just wanted some company.

Anyway, brilliant thing they are doing over there, if you are feeling generous or just want a good tax return and want to give some money away I can assure you that if you donate to these guys they are putting the funding to good use.

Wake up call on the Felucca, Sunrise on the Nile.

We (this will often mean myself and the 3 wonderful girlfriends who traveled with me, Clare, Boz and Tess) spent the first day on our own before the tour started.  Bad idea.  Completely out of our depth and lost in Cairo.  It is full on there, dirty, loud, not the most inviting place to say the least.

When we got our tour leader Hanny who by the way was absolutely fantastic, if you go on an Intrepid tour in Egypt request him, life became a lot easier.  If possible avoid going to Egypt during Ramadan because you are not really supposed to eat or drink when the sun is up and in 45 degree heat that isn't easy.  And ladies please cover up.  The amount of ignorant European travelers walking around in short shorts with their tits out was disgusting.   

Very important note:  food in Egypt is an epic fail.

Have you ever seen a dry cucumber?  If not go to Egypt.  You will have plenty of dry everything.  To try and combat dryness in the food you will most likely start smothering everything in Tahini, the most common sauce type food they have.  Then you will hate Tahini.  Then you have nothing but dry cucumber to eat.  I guarantee you will loose at least 3kg over 1 week in Egypt because of a combination of eating dry cucumber and having a very sick stomach for most of the time. 

If I were to go there again I would definitely make an effort to see the north coast of Egypt, Alexandria area.  We didn't go there as part of the tour but we heard wonderful things about it.  Oh and a must, Felucca ride along the Nile.  Girls I think you would agree this was one of the many highlights of Egypt.

After 8 days the tour came to an end, said goodbye to some great friends that we made on the tour and we all went our separate ways.  The next leg of our trip was Greece, hello Greek Salads!!!

In the Beginning

Okay it isn't quite the beginning.  To be precise I left the land down under 74 days ago.  When you say it like that it does seem a rather long time.  Can you believe it is November?  I certainly can't, I know everybody says this every bloody year but this year has flown.  As have I it seems.  Nick told me to start a blog when 74 days ago but I didn't listen to him.  Now I am starting one and of course it was my idea.

Before I do this let me get something clear.  I generally think that people who write blogs, especially concerning themselves are self centered egotistical douche bags who kid them selves that people actually care what they are doing enough to take 10 minutes out of their busy schedule to read their meaningless dribble.  Now although some people may beg to differ I am not one of those people and still think my life is relatively boring just colder than usual.  But it seems I am very lucky to have lots of people back home who want to know what I am up to on the other side of the world so this is for you.  And it is also for me so I do not have to keep repeating myself.  Joking.  sort of :)