From The Greek Islands To The Bavarian Alps!

Hi there :)

Hope everyone is well. Sam and i have just got back to London after a 2 week trip exploring more of Europe and visiting OKTOBERFEST!

GREECE....

We first flew to Mykonos which is one of the Greek Islands. We only visited one of the many Greek islands and we're glad we picked Mykonos. It was fantastic. It had everything you would imagine a Greek island should have...crystal clear blue water, bright white square buildings and little paved walkways. It was beautiful.

Mykonos Town was full of little shops and cafes looking over the water and the beaches had great views to sit and enjoy cocktails.

Everyone gets around the island on scooters, 4 wheel quad bikes or funny 3 wheeled mini trucks. We hired a quad bike and had it for the 3 days we were there. It was great for exploring the little beaches and coves all over the island which is easy enough to do.

Below is our favourite beach which we went to quite a few times but the water was a bit too cold for lots of swimming. Thankfully we had lovely blue skies though.

It was lots of fun getting around on the bike until we ran out of petrol late one night! We were on our way to try and find 'Super Paradise' beach which apparently has a good bar at night. It was pitch black (no street lights) and we couldn't find the beach so were heading back into town (but still ages away) when the bike conked out! There was no fuel gauge but Sam was expecting there to be a reserve fuel tank but no luck! We pushed the bike a few hundred meters before a really helpful local helped us out :)

Mykonos is famous for the windmills on the island which you can see behind us on the hill in the pic below. Also the sunsets are amazing

From Mykonos we took a five hour ferry ride to Athens...

ATHENS...

We spent 3 nights in Athens which was plenty of time to see the famous ancient structures and visit the old town. We found Athens to be a bit dirty and run down compared to some of the other cities we've seen in Europe. I guess it is pretty old! :) The picture below is taken on one of the streets of the old town where we found some nice restaurants serving great souvlaki and Greek salad!

On our first afternoon we took a tour to Cape Sounion along a coastal road to the outskirts of Athens. We saw the Temple of Poseidon there on the southern most point of Athens. Poseidon is the 'God of the Sea' and the temple is on the top of a cliff looking out to sea.

The following day we did a tour to the Acropolis. Unfortunately it was under renovation so had a lot of scaffolding but still great to see. I'm definitely glad we took a tour to have someone explain what we were looking at!


These are a couple of pics we took looking back over the city of Athens from the Acropolis. There are a lot of stray dogs in the city of Athens (particularly in the old town). We were told by our tour guide that during the 2004 Olympic games they put all the stray dogs in shelters for the 2 weeks then when it was all over, they opened the doors and let them all roam again. Its sad because a lot of them have been abandoned and many would be quite adoptable probably.


Our tour also took us to the Panathenaic Stadium where the first modern Olympic Games were held. The stadium is behind us in this picture, you can just see the Olympic rings behind our heads :)

Then it was on the plane to Munich for some beer drinking... I'll let Sam write this one :)

MUNICH & OKTOBERFEST...

Hi!

We had a nice sunny afternoon to check out Munich before spending the the next day at the Oktoberfest. Munich is a great little town in the South East part of Germany called Bavaria. It would have been great to stay an extra couple of days even if it was to enjoy more of their really nice traditional foods, have a bit more of a look around the old town and drink more of their awesome beer. They really have the best beers in the world, which is lucky because at the Oktoberfest we drank litres of it!

We stayed in a nice hotel in Munich with a great view across old town, these are some photos from our room and inside the city.

Then... The next day we had an early start at 9:30 so we could grab a seat in one of the "tents" (these beer tents are like aircraft hangers!), we sat at a table with some real friendly locals and drank 1 litre steins of beer pretty much all day!

Anita did really well considering she had never been a beer drinker, I guess Oktoberfest is an exception!

We had a great time listening to the bands and seeing all the Germans get right into the tradition with all their outfits.

Then later in the arvo we caught up with Leah and Bekki who were on contiki tour and kept on partying with them, we also found Bianca!

(Right to Left - Leah, Anita, Bekki & Bianca)

AUSTRIA (SALZBURG & VIENNA)...

After our quick stop in Germany for Oktoberfest we caught a train down into a small town called Salzburg. It's a really pretty town set on the Salzach river. We arrived about lunch time and did a tour in the afternoon up into the Bavarian Alps which borders on Austria and Germany. The Alps are also called the Northern Limestone Alps. The limestone makes the river a cloudy aqua colour which is interesting. Salzburg sits just below the Alps on the Austrian side. Our bus drove up into the mountains (home to 'The sound of music') where we got a view of 'The Eagles Nest.' The Eagles Nest is Hitler's old conference centre perched on top of the mountain.

We only had a night in Salzburg and spent some time wandering in the old town. We had some schnitzel and then apple strudel for dinner (as you do in Austria) which was delicious.

We were so relieved to have only one night in salzburg but only cause of our nightmare roommates. We were staying in a hostel and for the first time in a share room. It was only 4 of us though and we thought it would be ok for 1 night seeing as there were no private rooms left. Oh, how wrong we were! We were sharing with 2 boys who left their things everywhere, snored, farted, snorted and coughed all night! The coughing was taken to a whole new level when we were sprayed from the top bunk by spit and flem! That's right, FLEM! I can't even explain how disgusting it was - never again!

The following day we continued our train trip across to Vienna...

VIENNA...

We arrived into Vienna after dark so we got some more schnitzel and checked into our hostel (single room this time and much nicer). The next day we wandered around and joined a walking tour which took us to some of the main sights in the old town such as St Steven's Cathedral (almost continually under construction since 1147) and the Hofburg Palace.

The weather had turned cold and overcast by the time we reached Vienna so we spent time in many famous coffee houses, as the Viennese do, and sipped our hot chocolates.

Vienna is a very cultural, artistic city so we showed some culture too and went to see the opera! We were told about cheap standing tickets (for 2 euro) which go on sale at the opera house just 80 mins before the evenings performance. We were told that it's worth lining up early for the tickets just to see inside the building. So we did that and it was definitely fun to check it out. We didn't stay for the whole show though.

The next day we went in the rain to see the Schonbrunn Palace (apparently lovely gardens which we didn't see cause of the weather). We also walked past the Parliament Building and City Hall which were cool.

Above is the palace and below is city hall.

From Vienna we flew back to London which has turned cold and rainy again too, oh well, i guess winter is coming again already!

Valencia & La Tomatina

Hola!

We just got back from a quick 2 night trip to the east coast of Spain for the La Tomatina tomato fight festival!

We stayed in Valencia because Bunol (where the tomato fight happens) is a small village and only half an hour from Valencia. Valencia, on the other hand has many attractions worth seeing.

When we arrived in Valencia we made our way to the hotel which we had booked as part of a group tour. That afternoon we went to the beach and dipped our toes in the Mediterranean Sea. The weather was very warm and the sand lovely but we didn't think the ocean was very clean. It looked kind of muddy and weedy. The Spaniards are very beautiful people and many like to show off their bods :) Even the grandads!

On our first night after tapas for dinner we joined our tour group for drinks at a cool bar in 'old town.' It was beautiful walking around at night and seeing all the buildings and streets. The entrance to the old part of town had a castle tower with an archway and huge doors you walk through like into another world.

The next morning we caught a bus at 8am to Bunol for the tomato fight. We wandered with the masses of people through the town and down into a very narrow street where we stood packed like sardines for 2 hours! The tradition starts by a competition where people attempt to climb for a leg of ham hanging from the top of a very tall, greased-up pole! Weird I know! Once the ham has been retrieved a cannon sounds and the first of 5 dump trucks roll through the packed, narrow street off-loading their part of the 55,000 kilograms of tomatoes! Then it's ON!



As the trucks roll through everyone gets jammed hard together as the crowd parts for the truck. Meanwhile whilst struggling not to get crushed by the masses, tomatoes and wet, sloppy articles of clothing are flying everywhere! It hurts when one smacks you in the eye but is bloody hilarious when it hits the person squished next to you!

The tomato fight itself last for one hour and a second cannon signals the end. Finally after being drenched in tomato slop the entire crowd makes their way out of the street in a foot deep of tomato soup! It's pretty crazy!!!

Locals stand out the front of their homes with their hoses washing off the crowd after the fight. This is helpful cause you're not allowed back on the bus if you're still messy. It was hard getting all the bits of tomato skin and seeds from hair and ears especially!

All-in-all a great, fun experience but not one we'd do twice! :)...and tomato is off the menu for a little while.

We had one more night and half day in Valencia where we took more time strolling in 'old town'. Its a lovely place with lots of character. It looks especially Spanish and thankfully we had enough time to enjoy it all on our short trip.

We saw Buckingham Palace and a did few other things last week as well which are in the blogg below.
Bye for now... xox... don't forget to leave us comments!