The changing of the guard, Buckingham Palace.
Sun chairs, Phuket, Thailand.
The ferry from Ios to Mykonos was mean to be about 7hrs, but due to extremely rough seas it took over 10hrs. The sunset on arrival was beautiful though. And we didnt have to get on any more ferries, others had connections all the way back to Athens, another 4+hrs!
We stayed at Mykonos Camping at Paranga beach. It was beautiful, but the beach was almost entirely covered in sunbeds and umbrellas that you had to pay for. Apparently on the 1st of July (beginning of peak season) the prices of almost everything at mykonos doubled.
The windmills at Mykonos town taken from 'Little Venice' a bunch of restaurants that are right on the water.
This is Paradise Beach, the next one around from Paranga. Pretty much all of the beaches at Mykonos are 'clothing optional'. Sean was in heaven, boobs everywhere.
Unfortunately for me only the fat, old men were naked, that is until Sean got into the spirit of things! (Notice, there aren't too many others around at 6am!)
As previously mentioned, the scooters got smaller and smaller each island. Can you imagine both of us on this one?! At one stage Shannon had to get off the back three times just so we could get up one hill! (Not that Shannon was too heavy, it was the bike!)
So...we made it back to London safely. We didn't get pickpocketed, had nothing stolen, and only left behind one power plug, due to a small amount of drinking in Biot. We have had amazing trip and awesome weather almost our entire trip (4 cold/rainy days in 3 months), since leaving Australia on 9th April. Then we arrive back in London, 15 and raining. We thought the pilot was joking when he told us the forecast...I guess we will have to get used to it.
The view of Milopotas Beach from our bungalow.
We again hired a scooter for a day. They seem to get smaller each island.
Church in the capital, Hora.
The beaches at the islands are amazing, and the water is so salty that you pretty much float. They dont have lifeguards here, I guess they dont really need them.
The town itself is like a little maze, it is quite easy to get lost here.
I mentioned that the temperature seemed to increase everyday that we were in Athens. That trend has continued, and it is only now that we realise that we are in the middle of a heat wave and that there are bushfires throughout greece. We only had a ceiling fan in our bungalow, so spent most of our days lying in the shade by the pool to escape the 47 degree heat as much as possible. I ended up with heat rash/stroke, where was Dad and his airconditioners?!
A long way from Ios to old Sydney Town.
On the way into the port of Santorini. There is a constant flor of cruise ships. You can see Fira, the main town of the island in the background and the goat track zig-zaging its way up the hill. The ferries go into the actual port, so we didnt get to ride the donkeys up.
The rooftop of one of the luxury hotels in Fira. Our place was nice, but not quite this nice.
Caldera views.
More caldera views, with plenty of boats coming and going.
One of the few churches without a blue roof.
Typical Santorini church.
Sean with his new friend, Donkey.
The town of Fira.
One of the days there we hired a scooter and cruised around the entire island. This is for some reason called the Red Beach, no, the red cliffs surrounding the beach really are amazing. They just seem to come out of nowhere. It is a bit of a hike to get down there, it is quite crowded and costs 6euro for a sun bed and 6 euro for an umbrella.
Red Beach continued.
Greek Sundried tomatoes.
The scooter.
Us looking like we have just stepped off the set of Hogans Heroes.
Sunset from Oia, the second largest town on the western tip of the island.
Perissa Beach, where we stayed. Black volcanic sands, with a texture similar to those of riverbed sands in Alice Springs, (not that I have spent a lot of time in them). You can see where the smooth lava meets the sand.
Sunset on the ferry on the way to Greece from Italy.
The temperatures in Athens were approximately 40 degrees. We decided to head out early to see the Acropolis. the temperature increased everyday that we were there.
Athens seems to spread forever, or as far as the eye can see through the haze anyway.
The Parthenon was completed in 438 BC. A bit more history than Australia, eh?!
We found a store in the Plaka that sells many different types of alcohol in beautifully coloured bottles.
This is the view of the Acropolis from the rooftop bar at our hostel.
We found a Gyros shop close to the hostel that we visited every day while in Athens. Sean (and the boys from NSW, Ben and Steve) helped put this beer sign up during one of our visits.
Sean with his much loved Gyros. One is never enough!
New sunglasses, which have been much needed on this trip. I hope I don't get a sunglasses tan line!
We went to Casa di Giulietta (the home of Juliet) where we saw the 800 year old balcony that Shakespeare wrote about.
The walls of Juliet's house are covered with graffiti, love notes.
The white one, below the big orange one is the one Sean stuck up there with our names on it. Isn't he romantic!
Verona from the top of the hill.
