Ali & Bob's Trip

These shoes have done some klms! Never let us down once. While flying today figured out that in the last 6.5 weeks we have caught 7 planes, 11 boats, ships, water taxis, ferries and gondolas, 10 taxis, two coaches, 5 mini buses, and 2 cars. And that was between the walking.

We have learnt many things on our travels including that Australia really is the lucky country, about economies of scale, and that people are pretty much the same wherever you go, even Americans.

Thank you to everyone who has told us how much they have enjoyed this blog, and the love and good wishes that you have all sent from home.

I must have sung "Home Among the Gumtrees" a thousand times at gigs but now I really know what that song means. In the meantime I had better go and polish my shoes and sleep, sleep, sleep.......

Being born on an island, albeit a very very big one, does make you want to look at other islands and I've been on a few, Dangar Island, Manly, Ireland etc, etc. But the Greek Islands we visted yesterday were up there.

25 degrees, glassy waters and a boat full of greeks made for a fabulous day. Like all our adventures I wasn't sure how it would all pan out, especially after we drove through the streets of Athens early Sunday morning through the remants of fires from more riots but the chaos that we started with ended in peace and tranqility as we cruised the Saronic Coast. Three islands in one day, our favourite I think was Hydra, no cars, the only way to get around is donkey or shags pony and the people were pretty laid back. Ali took a dip (well her toes anyway) and we can now add another ocean to our list of "been there done that!".

But we both now long for home. The sound of kookaburras waking us on a Saturday morning, the sound of gum nuts on our tin roof, our own bed and the smell and sounds of the Pacific Ocean. We have seen things we never thought we'd see, done things that have left us gobsmacked. It's almost to much to process but we can now spend our days together with our memories to treasure.

I'll do one more blog on our safe return home to our back verandah and bbq. The big Island calls.

Had dinner with Bev and Ron last night from Ipswich. Can you get any more Australian than that! Bev even has purple hair! Very cool. Great to swap stories from home and our impressions of Greece while sitting under the shadow of the Acropolis.

Its funny, although we loved being in London, our first port of call, we were both a little unsure of what we were doing and some of the people are a little ....confronting. But now that we have a few traveller miles under our belts we seemed to just blend into a city straight away. Of all the places we have been, Athens is probably the most dangerous and has a high police presence but today we just strolled around like locals soaking up the atmosphere. Athens is a fascinating city, the markets are bizarre, the squares and streets are full of people who looked like they would slit your throat for two bob, but I've learnt to look staright ahead and walk like you own the street and then you just become prettty much invisible like everyone else. Great fun.

Drove down to the coast and harbour today, completely different to Athens central, wide streets, huge ocean ferries, sail boats and that blue, blue ocean you see on the postcards, Can't wait to get on the water tomorrow to have a closer look.

Final dinner and drink with the survivors from the tour tonight so tomorrow one more day before we head home to the lucky country!

So the Greeks will inherit the earth.......or was that the meek? The Greeks are not meek but they are friendly and I have had no trouble with them at all. They don't seem to like each other though and they do not like their government. Didn't quite miss the riots yesterday. There was a snap protest called yesterday arvo and that turned a bit nasty....as we went to dinner we were greeted by the sound of tear gas guns and sirens so yeah, a little different to home, but part of the adventure.

Walked up to the Acropolis yesterday, fantastic and one thing they don't tell you in the brochure is that the view up there is brilliant. 360 degree views of the city (which was clear due to recent rain so no smog). You do get an idea once your up there how vast the city is and what great builders the Athenians were.

Walked all over the city today, did the hop on hop off bus, had fish platter for lunch and will go to the Plaka area tonight which is full of eateries. Tour is pretty much done and dusted now so we are back to being on our own, which is great. Have hooked up with an Aussie couple and will have tea with them tonight. I'm sure the talk will drift towards home as we are all starting to miss those flat vowels.

Tomorrow we drive down the coast and then tour some islands Sunday. By the way forgot to mention that the riot squad stayed in our hotel last night, nice lads, so we felt perfectly safe.

The Oracle told me today that in the end you choose your own destiny. Wise words in deed, no wonder the Oracle is an Oracle.

Greece has a lot of mountains and we drove over through and around most of them today. Lots of farmland as we drove towards Athens, sheep and sheep and greek salads everywhere!

Arrived in our hotel with the news that lots of riots in Athens yesterday so hopefully they have blown off a lot of steam and things will be quite for a few days, or a least until we get out of town! Athens is a city of 7 million people but seems very spread out and not as busy as Rome or Paris, but we go out exploring tonight so we shall see. More ancient ruins to view and then some greek dancing to finish off the tour. A few quite days (we hope) in Athens before we fly out Monday arvo into Sydney Tuesday arvo. Onwards we go.