In about 7 hours we will be leaving Athens and take our 24hour journey home.
Our last couple of days here have been amazing. Thinking Athens would be a giant hole after all the riots and chaos and the fact that last time my family was here we were pick-pocketed twice, and I using my ninja skills was able to stand and do nothing. Although we thought we wouldnt enjoy it ,we have.
In other news ,on our last day on the beautiful island of Skiathos we decided to hire a 4-wheeler and travel around the island beach hopping. This proved to be the most beautiful experience we could have possibly hoped for. We went to about 8 beaches and spent many hours in the water wollowing. We even roughed it up and took a hairy drive to a beach where we were totally alone.We sped trough the dirt roads and took time taking in the views on this suprisingly mountainous island. Was the most magnificent way to end a trip.
Going home we have mixed emotions, but we are both very excited to see everyone, can't believe how long it's been and how quickly it's gone by.
We wish all the best to our fellow travellers and hope you enjoy the rest of your journeys.
Next time we speak will be Cape Town.
ML
Wednesday, 20 July 2011
Saturday, 16 July 2011
The last days
It is nearing the end of our journey and I fear this may be my last post abroad. Leah and myself will be heading to Athens (hope its safe) on the 18th ,then after a lovely 24hour trip we will be arriving home on the 21st, (at like 5ish ,please come get us) Looking back at our trip its unbelievable how much we've done and what we've experienced. We could keep doing this for ages and getting back into things will no doubt be tough.
When we are back home I will defiantly be writing more about goings on in life.
Everything aside Lee and I have spent the last two days in Skiathos spending as much time in the sun and water visiting all the beaches and relaxing as much as possible.Yesterday we decided to do some beach hopping and stumbled upon a 'Banana Beach' the name of this beach should probably have rung some bells but it did not, next thing we knew there where many 'bells' ringing in front of our faces as we managed to walk into the most popular nude/gay beach on the Island, after some awkward back tracking and eyes at the sky we managed to find the real beach we where looking for, I felt like a man again.
Tomorrow we will be manning a 4-wheeler and taking control of the roads,as this wont be the first time this trip im behind an engine I know its a bad idea, Lee will be behind me ,shes ecstatic.
Love you all back home and those not at my home
(ps, hope the wrist gets better ma)
ML
When we are back home I will defiantly be writing more about goings on in life.
Everything aside Lee and I have spent the last two days in Skiathos spending as much time in the sun and water visiting all the beaches and relaxing as much as possible.Yesterday we decided to do some beach hopping and stumbled upon a 'Banana Beach' the name of this beach should probably have rung some bells but it did not, next thing we knew there where many 'bells' ringing in front of our faces as we managed to walk into the most popular nude/gay beach on the Island, after some awkward back tracking and eyes at the sky we managed to find the real beach we where looking for, I felt like a man again.
Tomorrow we will be manning a 4-wheeler and taking control of the roads,as this wont be the first time this trip im behind an engine I know its a bad idea, Lee will be behind me ,shes ecstatic.
Love you all back home and those not at my home
(ps, hope the wrist gets better ma)
ML
Thursday, 14 July 2011
WELL HELLO THERE
Hello world, it has been a while, more than a while, its been 2 weeks.
My deepest regrets for not keeping everyone updated and confirming that Lee and myself are alive, well we are alive and well. Things have been crazy since we left Milan and we haven't had a chance to reach the internet at all.
Let me give you a summarized recall of the past events as even now I dont have long.
We Left Milan and headed to Rome, I was extremely excited for this, Lee was almost tempted to tie one of those baby leads to me (whats up with those, childhood nightmare) We arrived in the city that started cities ,the most advanced of the civilizations in the world, only to discover we didnt have a hotel room as it had been flooded, interesting events passed to find us around the corner in a different hotel where the rooms where only half flooded. The next three days we spent walking Rome into the ground, we did everything possible in this amazing city, despite so much to do in Rome it is all relatively close together. The heat brought us to our knees and we did most our traveling at night. We fought lions in the Colloseum (again apologies for the spelling) we hi-fived the pope and ate more ice cream than an eskimo during summer. We met Guy traveling the streets and Lee and him decided to destroy their shoes about an hour away from home at midnight which resulted in some barefoot complaining through some nice dodgy streets. We discovered that the saying 'All roads lead to Rome' is very helpful when trying to get to Rome ,but very unhelpful we trying to find your way to your hotel, as all the roads definately didnt lead to our hotel. I think the real saying is all roads lead to Tin Roof, but neither tin, nor roofs had been invented yet so that is how the Romans may have got confused.
After a lovely time in Rome we headed for Corfu on one of the most interesting ferry rides I have ever taking in my life, we realised that trying to book the cheapest seats we have infact booked a tiny piece of carpet with half of Turkey on board, this proved to be quite a night, we met two Canadian girls Suzie and Ellise who where coming to the same place as us in Corfu, the legendary Pink Palace, but before we got there we had 10 hours of fun fulled events on board where the turkish population decided the only way to bear the trip was get hammered off their trollies and start fighting , not the men ,the woman, not as funny as you might think that is.
After eventually arriving in the 'prehistoric'(no proof though) island of Corfu we where driven to the Pink Palace, and oh WOW was this a 4 nights we wont be forgetting, not that we really remember them. When they say 'Pink' they really mean PINK, not just like light red. Apon arrival we had pink Ouzo shoved down our throats ,this was at about 7 in the morning after the turkish ferry so it wasnt ideal. we then went on to have one of the most amazing times of our lives, we spent the days in the sun and night at the bars, we met the most amazing people and may have become slightly Canadian/ alittle German, so Hey to Greg, Steph, Max ,Lorelle ,Mindy ,Calisha ,Vince and Benny we miss you guys already and have already cleaned your rooms in Cape Town.
On one of the days we decided to go on a tranquil cruse around the Island ,which proved to be extremely relaxing and calm, nothing out of the ordinary ,we all just enjoyed a sober day on the sea (The previous two sentances are a lie)
We then partied the night away and decided to go for a night time swim, leaving all our belongings on the beach, this resulted in them being stolen by some Spanish guys, we put on the chase and realised that these guys where staying at the pink palace ,we also discovered that their IQ was probably about the same as my pet rabbit and we managed to get our stuff back after some persuading. This day just had it all.
a few days later I found myself in womans clothing and having plates smashed over my head.
It was an amazing time, with some amazing people,and im sure it wont be the last time we see everyone. Wish I could say more
We have arrived in Skiathos today ,Beautiful, just less than a week left.
keep well everyone
xx
ML
My deepest regrets for not keeping everyone updated and confirming that Lee and myself are alive, well we are alive and well. Things have been crazy since we left Milan and we haven't had a chance to reach the internet at all.
Let me give you a summarized recall of the past events as even now I dont have long.
We Left Milan and headed to Rome, I was extremely excited for this, Lee was almost tempted to tie one of those baby leads to me (whats up with those, childhood nightmare) We arrived in the city that started cities ,the most advanced of the civilizations in the world, only to discover we didnt have a hotel room as it had been flooded, interesting events passed to find us around the corner in a different hotel where the rooms where only half flooded. The next three days we spent walking Rome into the ground, we did everything possible in this amazing city, despite so much to do in Rome it is all relatively close together. The heat brought us to our knees and we did most our traveling at night. We fought lions in the Colloseum (again apologies for the spelling) we hi-fived the pope and ate more ice cream than an eskimo during summer. We met Guy traveling the streets and Lee and him decided to destroy their shoes about an hour away from home at midnight which resulted in some barefoot complaining through some nice dodgy streets. We discovered that the saying 'All roads lead to Rome' is very helpful when trying to get to Rome ,but very unhelpful we trying to find your way to your hotel, as all the roads definately didnt lead to our hotel. I think the real saying is all roads lead to Tin Roof, but neither tin, nor roofs had been invented yet so that is how the Romans may have got confused.
After a lovely time in Rome we headed for Corfu on one of the most interesting ferry rides I have ever taking in my life, we realised that trying to book the cheapest seats we have infact booked a tiny piece of carpet with half of Turkey on board, this proved to be quite a night, we met two Canadian girls Suzie and Ellise who where coming to the same place as us in Corfu, the legendary Pink Palace, but before we got there we had 10 hours of fun fulled events on board where the turkish population decided the only way to bear the trip was get hammered off their trollies and start fighting , not the men ,the woman, not as funny as you might think that is.
After eventually arriving in the 'prehistoric'(no proof though) island of Corfu we where driven to the Pink Palace, and oh WOW was this a 4 nights we wont be forgetting, not that we really remember them. When they say 'Pink' they really mean PINK, not just like light red. Apon arrival we had pink Ouzo shoved down our throats ,this was at about 7 in the morning after the turkish ferry so it wasnt ideal. we then went on to have one of the most amazing times of our lives, we spent the days in the sun and night at the bars, we met the most amazing people and may have become slightly Canadian/ alittle German, so Hey to Greg, Steph, Max ,Lorelle ,Mindy ,Calisha ,Vince and Benny we miss you guys already and have already cleaned your rooms in Cape Town.
On one of the days we decided to go on a tranquil cruse around the Island ,which proved to be extremely relaxing and calm, nothing out of the ordinary ,we all just enjoyed a sober day on the sea (The previous two sentances are a lie)
We then partied the night away and decided to go for a night time swim, leaving all our belongings on the beach, this resulted in them being stolen by some Spanish guys, we put on the chase and realised that these guys where staying at the pink palace ,we also discovered that their IQ was probably about the same as my pet rabbit and we managed to get our stuff back after some persuading. This day just had it all.
a few days later I found myself in womans clothing and having plates smashed over my head.
It was an amazing time, with some amazing people,and im sure it wont be the last time we see everyone. Wish I could say more
We have arrived in Skiathos today ,Beautiful, just less than a week left.
keep well everyone
xx
ML
Tuesday, 5 July 2011
Milan
I only have 7min
Yesterday we arrived in Milan,fun, even the people cleaning the streets are fashionable.
We went to a Gothic cathedral in the city centre called Duomo, was amazing can hold 40 000 people.
Leah didnt make it in however because her short where apparently to short, anyone who knows Lee will know that someone telling lee that could cause a riot, nearly did.
someone tryed to open my bag on my back, but realised it was me (Matthew Bruce Lee) and never got anything.
Coming back to the hotel abit of rushed miscommunication resulted in leah getting onto a tram and me on a pavement, after realising this wasnt that funny I did a 100m sprint after it to save the day.
Today we heading to Rome ,cant tell you how excited we are.
ML
Yesterday we arrived in Milan,fun, even the people cleaning the streets are fashionable.
We went to a Gothic cathedral in the city centre called Duomo, was amazing can hold 40 000 people.
Leah didnt make it in however because her short where apparently to short, anyone who knows Lee will know that someone telling lee that could cause a riot, nearly did.
someone tryed to open my bag on my back, but realised it was me (Matthew Bruce Lee) and never got anything.
Coming back to the hotel abit of rushed miscommunication resulted in leah getting onto a tram and me on a pavement, after realising this wasnt that funny I did a 100m sprint after it to save the day.
Today we heading to Rome ,cant tell you how excited we are.
ML
Sunday, 3 July 2011
Yesterday Salzburg ,tomorrow Milan
I have managed to find a computer
Yesterday we arrived in Salzburg after ,for the millionth time, getting madly lost. Was brilliant!
On the drive into the city we realised that there was going to be heavy rain fall for our night. Elena dropped us off and we found our was to our hotel. Then to my great delight we discovered that our hotel was in the centre of a big festival for the weekend.
The weather started to clear and Leah and I started to brave the city, we climbed up to the castle in the centre of Salzburg and discovered one of the most amazing views of this beautiful city, small, old, untouched.
What happened next is something im not proud of. Leah mentally pushed me into getting an all you can eat chinese dinner, which sounded a good idea at the time, it wasnt.
I was being typical and thought I could stock up on some food for tomorrow and all was going well until we headed back to the hotel. I was full,happy,pregnent, content, but then some electron in my brain was retarded and thought it be a cool idea to have a couple of beers at the festival. after having a couple we headed back, i was no unhappy, things wernt going well. I cut my losses and decided there was only one way out of this, the same way in.
I decided the toilet needed the food more than me, and amazingly the only thing in my head was now was that I couldnt believe I had wasted all that food,...times are tough.
The next morning we headed to the station and took a 6 hour trip to Venice. I made misjudgments when picking our sets and spent those next 6 hours backwards again. We where driving through beautiful country and spent the whole time glued to the widnow.
Once we arrived in Venice we took a water bus (theres a name for these things I cant remember it right now) We spent yesterday and the day before walking venice into the water ,this is a beautiful city and the artwork is amazing , everything about it seems unreal, we got perposfully lost and spent hours wondering the narrow streets. I must say though, dono whos idea it was to build a city on the water, but COME ON, these guys are going to be the first to dissapere.
Leah and I have both loved this place and tomorrow we leave to Milan for a night before heading to Rome...will be in contact soon...
ML
Yesterday we arrived in Salzburg after ,for the millionth time, getting madly lost. Was brilliant!
On the drive into the city we realised that there was going to be heavy rain fall for our night. Elena dropped us off and we found our was to our hotel. Then to my great delight we discovered that our hotel was in the centre of a big festival for the weekend.
The weather started to clear and Leah and I started to brave the city, we climbed up to the castle in the centre of Salzburg and discovered one of the most amazing views of this beautiful city, small, old, untouched.
What happened next is something im not proud of. Leah mentally pushed me into getting an all you can eat chinese dinner, which sounded a good idea at the time, it wasnt.
I was being typical and thought I could stock up on some food for tomorrow and all was going well until we headed back to the hotel. I was full,happy,pregnent, content, but then some electron in my brain was retarded and thought it be a cool idea to have a couple of beers at the festival. after having a couple we headed back, i was no unhappy, things wernt going well. I cut my losses and decided there was only one way out of this, the same way in.
I decided the toilet needed the food more than me, and amazingly the only thing in my head was now was that I couldnt believe I had wasted all that food,...times are tough.
The next morning we headed to the station and took a 6 hour trip to Venice. I made misjudgments when picking our sets and spent those next 6 hours backwards again. We where driving through beautiful country and spent the whole time glued to the widnow.
Once we arrived in Venice we took a water bus (theres a name for these things I cant remember it right now) We spent yesterday and the day before walking venice into the water ,this is a beautiful city and the artwork is amazing , everything about it seems unreal, we got perposfully lost and spent hours wondering the narrow streets. I must say though, dono whos idea it was to build a city on the water, but COME ON, these guys are going to be the first to dissapere.
Leah and I have both loved this place and tomorrow we leave to Milan for a night before heading to Rome...will be in contact soon...
ML
Thursday, 30 June 2011
The next 4 days
Today we leave southern Austria, we leave our host familys house. Its been an amazing time here ,leah and myelf have gone for many walks and rides all around this area.
Yesterday we decided to visit a chocolate factory and for some reason only know to them they let you eat as uch chocolate as you wanted to. I presonally thought this was a stupid idea after about 2 hours in the factory. I was adhearing to the man code and had to test every chocolate there was,which included the likes of chilli,fish and rose to name a few. After being a true mans man (im on a horse) I managed to consume more choclate than I have in my life,and that is saying quite abit. This did have its consequences on us however, we spent the next half an hour perched on a bench feeling sorry for ourselves,needless to say im never eating chocolate again.
we spent the rest of the day touring our countryside in the province of Steiermark.its is weird out of all the places we're going to we would never have thought Austria has the best weather.
Today we are road tripping to Salzburg taking the longer route through some beautiful areas.Now in the next 4 days our life is getting pretty hectic, ofcos tonight we in Salzberg then tomorrow we catching a train (hopefully,they dont know this yet) to Venice for two nights then we catching a train (angain,hopefully) to Milan for a night ,then we catch another train to Rome for a few nigths where we can recover. Hopefully by rome I will be in contact again.
Hope alls is well in SA. and whats up with this Greek thing??all the papers are in German and all I see are pictres, are they having a big festival?
ML
Yesterday we decided to visit a chocolate factory and for some reason only know to them they let you eat as uch chocolate as you wanted to. I presonally thought this was a stupid idea after about 2 hours in the factory. I was adhearing to the man code and had to test every chocolate there was,which included the likes of chilli,fish and rose to name a few. After being a true mans man (im on a horse) I managed to consume more choclate than I have in my life,and that is saying quite abit. This did have its consequences on us however, we spent the next half an hour perched on a bench feeling sorry for ourselves,needless to say im never eating chocolate again.
we spent the rest of the day touring our countryside in the province of Steiermark.its is weird out of all the places we're going to we would never have thought Austria has the best weather.
Today we are road tripping to Salzburg taking the longer route through some beautiful areas.Now in the next 4 days our life is getting pretty hectic, ofcos tonight we in Salzberg then tomorrow we catching a train (hopefully,they dont know this yet) to Venice for two nights then we catching a train (angain,hopefully) to Milan for a night ,then we catch another train to Rome for a few nigths where we can recover. Hopefully by rome I will be in contact again.
Hope alls is well in SA. and whats up with this Greek thing??all the papers are in German and all I see are pictres, are they having a big festival?
ML
Tuesday, 28 June 2011
Austria
So here we are its the 28th of June and we in Austria, Ive finally had a chance to sit down and write and I fear there wont be many more chances for me to do so ,but will continue to try.
I would just like to spend a minute talking about my education, it has come to my attention that people feel my spelling is rather useless, to put it nicely. This is no news to me as i know how terriable it is. I do however feel that mentoning the name of my school would not do much harm as they are truely the ones to blame so here it is,...i went to bishops, hated it,but dont think we are all as terrible spellers as I am,we try our best.
Now that that is out the way i would like to continue with our journey.
We left Amsterdam two days ago on the 26th bright and early in the morning,this is a very popular time in Amsterdam as it is about the time that all the highs are falling. Lee and myself then spent the next 19 hours facing backwards on a train with a screaming/politely talking german child running up and down the jungle gym/train and a retarted train driver suffering terrets who kept forgetting to switch the loud speaker off. Dispite the chaos we where able to really enjoy the countries we where driving through,the went through Holland , Germany then into Austria , as we where going through the Salzberg the sun started to set, the area of Austria is truely one of the most beautiful on the planet.After fighting for the window seat(not that I would ever do that) I had my eyes glued to the window which was all keeping me from the world beyond. As our train sped through the country night began to fall. We adventually arrived in Graz where we had an hour and a half wait until our next train.
We found a cosy cement brick and watched the world go by. I decided to venture into a dark alley to find a bathroom ,but rather I luckly bumped into a potential Austria serial killer who had me 'bolting' it down the platform until I found a police looking person: Thinking I was now safe I began to relax...and then it happened ,I realised I was in more danger now than ever the 'policeman' worked for the same company as UCTs Campuss 'police' (Cps). I couldnt believe my eyes,as anyone who goes to UCT will know how scary cps can be,the fear of getting a parking ticket or being spoken to rudely was just to much for me and I fled, Lee and I hoped on a train and headed to the town of Feldbach.
We then arrived at Feldbach just after one that morning ,yet our journey wasnt finished, after meeting my exchange brother from 2007/8 he then drove us to the small village of Bad Gliechenberg(dont bother looking for it on a map) once we reached this village we kept going as we where staying on the outskirts. We arrived and as our heads touched our pillows we where gone.
We woke up the next morning to a beautiful countryside full of colour ,life and peace. we spent the day swimming and laying in the sun. we fulled our tums up and then headed to the local resturant to play some traditional Austria bowling. Here Leah and I realised we are terriable South Africans and got destroyed,lots of laughs all round, mostly at us.
I went for a cycle around this area yesterday and have decided that I may even start cycling when I get home. felt like I was lancey baby riding the Tour de France, except am Matthew, Im in Austria and Im alot better than Lance Armstrong ,big ups to him though.I was however batterling to breath and blamed it on the altitude not my fittness ,only to discover our altitude is 300m,nice one.
Today we to a trip into the village of Bad Gliechenberg where we relaxed in the heat and let the fresh air full our hollow noses as we ambled along the roads.we headed back to the house for another swim where I decided to succesfully search for the local snake and regretfully found it and screamed like a little girl.
Falling more and more in love with this place was so beautiful in winter but such a different kind of beauty in the summer ,could spend alot of time here doing alot of nothing.
We've also decided to visit Salzberg for a night,but only going to be leaving here on the 1st ,so you'll hear from me before then.
ML
I would just like to spend a minute talking about my education, it has come to my attention that people feel my spelling is rather useless, to put it nicely. This is no news to me as i know how terriable it is. I do however feel that mentoning the name of my school would not do much harm as they are truely the ones to blame so here it is,...i went to bishops, hated it,but dont think we are all as terrible spellers as I am,we try our best.
Now that that is out the way i would like to continue with our journey.
We left Amsterdam two days ago on the 26th bright and early in the morning,this is a very popular time in Amsterdam as it is about the time that all the highs are falling. Lee and myself then spent the next 19 hours facing backwards on a train with a screaming/politely talking german child running up and down the jungle gym/train and a retarted train driver suffering terrets who kept forgetting to switch the loud speaker off. Dispite the chaos we where able to really enjoy the countries we where driving through,the went through Holland , Germany then into Austria , as we where going through the Salzberg the sun started to set, the area of Austria is truely one of the most beautiful on the planet.After fighting for the window seat(not that I would ever do that) I had my eyes glued to the window which was all keeping me from the world beyond. As our train sped through the country night began to fall. We adventually arrived in Graz where we had an hour and a half wait until our next train.
We found a cosy cement brick and watched the world go by. I decided to venture into a dark alley to find a bathroom ,but rather I luckly bumped into a potential Austria serial killer who had me 'bolting' it down the platform until I found a police looking person: Thinking I was now safe I began to relax...and then it happened ,I realised I was in more danger now than ever the 'policeman' worked for the same company as UCTs Campuss 'police' (Cps). I couldnt believe my eyes,as anyone who goes to UCT will know how scary cps can be,the fear of getting a parking ticket or being spoken to rudely was just to much for me and I fled, Lee and I hoped on a train and headed to the town of Feldbach.
We then arrived at Feldbach just after one that morning ,yet our journey wasnt finished, after meeting my exchange brother from 2007/8 he then drove us to the small village of Bad Gliechenberg(dont bother looking for it on a map) once we reached this village we kept going as we where staying on the outskirts. We arrived and as our heads touched our pillows we where gone.
We woke up the next morning to a beautiful countryside full of colour ,life and peace. we spent the day swimming and laying in the sun. we fulled our tums up and then headed to the local resturant to play some traditional Austria bowling. Here Leah and I realised we are terriable South Africans and got destroyed,lots of laughs all round, mostly at us.
I went for a cycle around this area yesterday and have decided that I may even start cycling when I get home. felt like I was lancey baby riding the Tour de France, except am Matthew, Im in Austria and Im alot better than Lance Armstrong ,big ups to him though.I was however batterling to breath and blamed it on the altitude not my fittness ,only to discover our altitude is 300m,nice one.
Today we to a trip into the village of Bad Gliechenberg where we relaxed in the heat and let the fresh air full our hollow noses as we ambled along the roads.we headed back to the house for another swim where I decided to succesfully search for the local snake and regretfully found it and screamed like a little girl.
Falling more and more in love with this place was so beautiful in winter but such a different kind of beauty in the summer ,could spend alot of time here doing alot of nothing.
We've also decided to visit Salzberg for a night,but only going to be leaving here on the 1st ,so you'll hear from me before then.
ML
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