Eeek...Summer is coming to an end

Eeeek...I have just realised how far behind I have fallen in my blogging over the past two weeks.  The old saying ‘you have no one to blame but yourself’ comes to mind, but I am going palm this one off to the crazy amount of travelling we have been doing since leaving Turkey.  To arrive at our final summer destination of Croatia we have passed through many different countries, some admittedly only for a few hours but I will venture back to Bulgaria and catch you up.

Turns out that Bulgaria is a hidden beauty that Aussies don’t even consider when making their travel plans.  I am here to tell you people that you should be making this top of your destination list.  First impressions did not fail as we took the opportunity to check out the costal town of Nessebar, which evidently turns out to be a world heritage city.  Before continuing I have to give special mention to one of the most interesting breakfast buffets we have had on our travels, never before have I see golf balls/rum balls/truffles (whatever you like to call them) served up at breakfast, a nice chocolate hit in the morning never hurt anyone right.... !?
They were delicious by the way mixed in with yoghurt, which turned out to be very sour and not at all the yoghurt I was looking forward to.  We then headed off into the old town and discovered some amazing sights and ancient ruins scattered through what is clearly a large travel destination for everyone else in the world with many souvenir shops lining the street.  As we were only planning on being in Bulgaria for a few day I took every opportunity I could to have a traditional Bulgarian dish and for dinner I choose a chicken sach.  Not really knowing what to expect, a massive frying pan like dish is served to me with sizzling meat and a few mushrooms, zucchini and carrot bits here and there with melted cheese on top.  The best way I can describe this was almost like a massive pizza without the tomato paste and base.  At first it was really delicious and had a chicken stock combined with white sauce like flavour but after a few mouthfuls it tasted more like I was eating a plate of salt!  I definitely loved the concept but if I was to give this a try I would be altering the flavours to be a little more balanced.

 

The following day is where our real adventure began on our journey to Split, Croatia. We first started with an 8hour bus ride from one side of Bulgaria to the other.  We arrived late in the evening at the Bulgarian capital of Sofia where we stayed one night.  The next train to Belgrade in Serbia was not until 8pm the following night so we decided to wander around the streets a little and have a shop, where I discovered the biggest waffle cones I have ever seen.  This of course meant that I could treat myself to a delicious and healthy goats cheese salad for lunch.  For a town that is a major capital city it amazes me that you do not see the hustle and bustle and the streets seem so quiet as the locals are all off at work.  A very peaceful town that I would recommend visiting if you had the chance.  We then took the opportunity to have another healthy meal where I opted for an avocado and shrimp salad.  It was really tasty and was great to have something so fresh, oh how i miss avocado.  Doom time arrived as we headed to the train station for our first overnight train.  I was nervous to begin with but gosh sharing a cabin with 5 other people in an area that is not even big enough to turn a full circle in sure was an experience.  We at least managed a little sleep before arriving at Belgrade at 7am.  Our next connecting train was at 10:30am to Zagreb, Croatia so I can’t say I saw or did anything in Serbia but none the less it is a stamp on my passport.  The next train was thankfully a little more ‘upper class’ than the previous and we passed the next 8 or so hours playing cards and chatting to some people we had shared the overnight cabin with.  Arriving at Zagreb, Croatia around 7pm we were so exhausted we were contemplating staying the night but as the next train to Split left at 11:30pm we decided to suck it up and get it over and done with.  Finally we reached our destination of Split around 8am two days later.  It was heaven to have a shower and for the people that travel like this all the time, you are crazy! 

 

As you can imagine we were rather exhausted so we spent very little of the day out and about but we did venture out on the town to grab some dinner.  I have discovered that Croatia is similar to Australia in the fact that it is influenced by many other cultures, especially Italian and Eastern Europe and does not have a ‘traditional’ cuisine as such, at least not one that I can find.  Being by the sea however you would expect that they have great seafood, so I opted for salmon which was cooked quite well.  I was very surprised to find that it was served with gnocchi but it was a welcome to change to other versions of potatoes that all meals are served with and the creamy sauce complimented the dish well.
Time to get some rest as my travel buddy had decided to go canyoning the next day.  Not my cup of tea so I spent the day exploring the old town.  It has an amazing history as the old town is built inside the old castle walls and like many European countries has some really interesting buildings.  I did the sophisticated grown up thing and had a lovely sit down lunch on my own and ordered an octopus salad.  It slipped my mind that I had made the same mistake in Italy expecting to be served a calamari salad when I was instead served a cold chopped up dish with small octopus, potato, spring onions and a few herbs here and there.  Even though not at all what I was expecting it was still a fresh salad, however lacked some flavour.  I think I ended up adding vinegar, oil and lemon to try and bring it to life!  After spending more of the afternoon shopping and then relaxing under the air conditioner we decided to check out the night life in Split before departing for the island of Hvar the following day.  Before our departure we had to grab some lunch and gosh you have no idea how I excited I am to report that I discovered ‘breaded chicken’ on a menu and when I got a chicken schnitzel served up that was not out of a steggles box I was so happy! The things that make your day when travelling hey...having a shower, eating chicken schnitzels haha.

 

Unfortunately our limited time in Croatia meant we could only visit one island but we decided to give it a fair crack and stayed for 4 nights in Hvar.  As seems to be our theme for arriving at places we did very little with our first afternoon expect go out for dinner.   I have had a bizarre carb craving over the past few days and couldn’t go past the vegetable risotto.  It was so delicious to get some cauliflower, broccoli and carrot even though the vegies were from a frozen packet (at least I assume they were).  The rice was a little undercooked but the longer it cooled the nicer it became and the flavour could have done with a little more tomato as it had a very prominent chicken stock taste (this was definitely no seafood risotto from Mykonos, oh how I wish I could go back just to eat that again!)
Day two and we decided to do a little exploring of the town.  The views were amazing and the similarities to Greece were unbelievable at times, the main difference being the buildings are not white and blue, but grey and red.  We decided it was time to soak in some sun and hit the beach.  It was a bit of a laugh when we discovered that there is no beach as such and that you just go in the sea wherever you please.  There are people sunbaking on rocks and cement jetty’s and not a speck of sand or even pebbles in sight but we made the most of it and spent some time being a lizard on a rock soaking up some rays before again heading out for dinner and a wander around to check out the night life.  I opted for Mexican, or at least that is what the menu claimed!  I had a chicken flauta which was served in a wrap with melted cheese on top.  I was expecting some spice but was similar to a chicken pie filling with avocado, corn and white cheese sauce wrapped in fresh tortillas.  It was actually very nice and was served with a mild chilli sauce and mayonnaise as condiments.

 

After what turned out to be a boringly tame night we were all revved up for our big adventure on the island, SAILING.  Yep we decided that we cannot go to Croatia without going sailing so we organised an afternoon on a yacht, unfortunately we could not afford to go on some of the private yachts that easily have 3 levels and are bigger than I ever imagined, but out to sea we headed.  It was one of the most relaxing afternoons where we were served wine in between sun baking and swimming behind the boat and we also docked to go snorkelling.  After having snorkelled in Fiji I have seen some really cool marine life so while we saw hundreds, if not thousands of fish, there was a lot of rubbish such as tyres and chairs and not a great deal of coral or spectacular colours to see.
An amazing afternoon was finished off with a visit to Hula beach bar and another fix to my carb cravings, this time pizza.  It was a meat lovers pizza and was cooked in a wood fire oven.  It was really nice, but I perhaps would have removed the corn in future, an odd addition to a pizza in my opinion.

 

This has almost brought us to now, where I sit at the kitchen table of our apartment in Dubrovnik while my travel buddy is cooking dinner, lucky me.  Unfortunately, but not at all surprisingly, we did not research the days that the ferries went from Hvar to Dubrovnik so we spent most of yesterday travelling yet again where we caught the ferry back to Split and then a bus down to Dubrovnik arriving late in the evening.  We headed out for dinner where I again managed to satisfy that carb craving but this time with lasagne.  It was probably one of the best ones I have had and apart from the steaming heat that the bowl was producing it was very satisfying.  I was also on the hunt for some chocolate cake to celebrate my Dad’s birthday but sadly did not succeed, fingers crossed that we find some tonight and I can have a belated celebration.

But for now I will sign off and enjoy our first home cooked meal in well over a month and the next time you hear from me will more than likely be a sad occasion as I fill you in on our last two summer destinations of Dubrovnik and Zagreb xxx

Pamukkale Cotten Candy

Alright first things first.  I’m very pleased to report that my Turkey experience has dramatically improved, you can all breathe a sigh of relief (or perhaps disappointment for some) that the feeling of wanting to pack up and come home has now passed and I will continue to taste test some more cuisines for you.

After spending our last day in Istanbul under the air conditioner we had our first overnight bus experience. One thing we have learnt about the Turkish public transport is that it is near to impossible to organise a bus ticket yourself and you must go through a travel agent.  Another is that everyone travels on overnight buses and there doesn’t seem to be many options for day travel.  So we finally got on our bus at 11pm and arrived the next morning at 9am to Pamukkale.  We had the day to ourselves so we headed in to town to grab some breakfast.  Another thing that has become very apparent is that the Turks like Turkish food and that is all, the variety between restaurants is next to none.  Every meal is served with bread, rice and chips and when asking for a breakfast menu the only thing on it is a Turkish breakfast.  This has proven a little difficult for us over the past couple of days so when we saw this tiny little Korean type restaurant that had multiple options for breakfast we were there.  I ended up choosing tuna on toast, probably not something that you would normally have for breakfast but after 10 hours on a bus that was a brilliant start to my day.  We decided to head back to our hotel for a bit of a nap and an afternoon by the amazing pool before heading back into town for dinner.
We were still a little unsure what we were going to see in Pamukkale as we were doing the tour the following day but the moment we saw the amazingly breathtaking cotton castle lining the edge of town we were both excited for what was to come.  We spent the evening sitting by the lake watching some cute little kids feeding the ducks while having another serving of lamb kofte for dinner.  This time it was more of the traditional grill and tasted just like BBQ rissoles served with of course rice and chips and some salad which I cannot tell you how pleased I was to see that on my plate, very satisfying.

Time to head off on our tour where we were picked up from our hotel and first taken to the red thermal baths just 5kms out of town.  The waters are natural springs due to volcanic activity and reach up to about 55 degrees.  We dipped our toes in and gosh it was warm.  The colours are spectacular on the surrounding rocks but it is much smaller than expected.  After spending a small amount of time here we headed off to the ancient town of Hierapolis.  This runs adjacent with Pamukkale and we walked through the ruins seeing many tombs and remains of buildings before arriving at the main attraction for the day, the hot springs that form the calcium covered cliffs on the outskirts of town, aka the cotton candy castle (the meaning of the name Pamukkale).  The view from the top is even more breathtaking than what we saw at the bottom the previous day.  The natural springs run down the cliffs and over time have formed the largest calcium cliff formation in the world.  There are small pools that run down the cliff where you can swim so we spent an hour or so of our free time wandering around and relaxing in the pools before heading off to our lunch that was provided as part of the tour.  The words buffet are like music to my ears as I knew this would mean salad!  I must admit it was no boat cruise buffet but I literally filled my plate with salads including lettuce, couscous, cabbage, eggplant (quickly becoming one of my new favourite vegetables) and tomatoes to name a few.  We finished our tour with a visit to an onyx masonry where we saw a demonstration of how products are made, it was very interesting and if only I had more room in my pack I would have loved to have purchased some things.
Before our next overnight bus (this time leaving at 10pm and arriving at 7:30am) we headed off to find ourselves some dinner. We were both in need of something that was not lamb and not cooked on a grill and the moment we saw chicken schnitzel on a menu we were in that restaurant before they could even say hello. We both had a bit of a laugh when it was served as it was basically a big chicken nugget from a Steggles box in the frozen section, but gosh it was delicious. If only we could have turned it into a parma!

Night bus number two down and we arrived in Eceabat, a small town near Gallipoli where we stayed the night, feeling more than exhausted to say the least.  I was very happy that we were allowed to go straight into our hotel room and by 8am we were both curled up in bed asleep still in our clothes from the bus trip.  We woke to the sounds of crashing thunder a few hours later and water dripping from the light fixtures in our roof.  Looking out the window the streets were flooding and there were some amazing lightening strikes, if only it was dark to see them better as I love a good thunder storm.  After gathering our things we moved rooms and settled in for a day of Olympic watching, the only problem being we were starving hungry.  So a trip to a near cafe with our rain jackets on where we ordered some toasted cheese sandwiches for breakfast and grabbed some cup of soup and fresh bread for lunch.  Turns out that the Turkish version of cup of soup is a little different than ours, if only I could have read the instructions that say you must mix it with cold water and boil for 15 minutes instead of just tipping in boiling water like we are used to, lets just say that the receptionist thought we were hilarious and was very keen to try and fix our soup but it was too late, lumpy soup for lunch was surprisingly still pretty good.
Spending the remainder of the day sleeping and watching tv we decided that we should venture out for dinner since the rain had cleared and maybe see what the town has to offer.  Turns out we could cover the town in a few minutes and settled on a nice little restaurant near the port where the roof was covered with grape vines and there were onions and garlic cloves hanging all around, something that I loved seeing.  I opted for some calamari, which by the way for the frozen kind it was cooked very well.  It was served with an interesting yoghurt/garlic/mint mayonnaise which seemed to be more of a sour cream consistency than a mayonnaise but it was really tasty to have as a condiment and something I might have to try and find a recipe for to try when I am at home.

The day had finally arrived for the purpose of our entire trip to Turkey, a visit to the Gallipoli memorial sights.  A day that started with a provided lunch at the hotel (yep rice & chips) we headed out on a 4 hour venture to see the memorial sights such as ANZAC cove, shrapnel valley and Lone Pine to name a few.  It was certainly an exhausting day but to see the sights was well worth the visit to Turkey, a highlight for me was seeing the original trenches that were dug out by our soldiers.
Standing out in the sun for hours on end called for a refreshing Turkish ice cream when we had the chance and I have never had ice cream like this before.  It is a very sticky consistency and to get a spoonful is certainly a task, it’s almost like a reward each time you put some in your mouth!   We then began the 5 hour journey back to Istanbul and I tell you this place has it in for me!  We were meant to be dropped at our hotel but our bus driver refused to as it was too hard to get to in the bus, not knowing where we were going ended with wandering around the city for about an hour before finally finding the most comfy bed of the entire trip for a quick few hours sleep before leaving this city.

3 months travelling has now bought us to a gorgeous little town called Ravda in Bulgaria after another 6 hour bus trip.  Luckily I was so exhausted from the antics of the night before so I fell asleep the moment my bum hit the seat.  One thing I did like about the Turkish bus companies is the hostess like service where they provide you drinks, snacks and lunch.  I was very pleased to be served a cheese roll mid journey while watching my tv in the back of the seat. 
We have now settled into our swish hotel with two pools where we have discovered this country is so incredibly cheap (I paid AU $7.50 for dinner and drinks) and so far our small dealings with the locals has been wonderful.  We headed into town to have some dinner and the excitement to be served a meal without carbs carbs carbs was amazing.  A tried a traditional Bulgarian dish, Haidushki style chicken which was served in a dish similar to a  gravy boat with chicken, carrot, zuchinni, capsicum and onions in a an unusual tasting sauce which tasted like a cross between a gravy and bbq sauce.  It was not most amazing flavour I have tasted but it was certainly a good start of what I hope to be a Bulgarian taste sensation.  Now time to get some sleep as I am anticipating breakfast to be amazing as the Bulgarians claim they discovered yoghurt and it is used in widely in all meals across the country, here’s to hoping for a healthy breakfast story xx

Gobble Gobble Turkey

On a whim we made the decision off multiple recommendations to head across to Istanbul, Turkey from Greece.  It was apparently cheap, spectacular & has amazing food.  So we thought why not give it a go while we are so close.
Well I hate to tell you Istanbul, but I will not be returning to you in any kind of a hurry.  We arrived at the airport firstly to discover that our luggage did not turn up from our connecting flight at Izmir.  After some searching around we discovered that it had arrived some other way, I am still not sure how, and was waiting in the International terminal.  Not a great start, but we had luggage, yay. 

An hour or so in the taxi and we finally got to our hostel in the old town of Sultanahmet.  I was honestly not prepared for a city that has a higher population than our whole entire country and the humidity far beyond anything you can imagine.  I was a little shocked/heartbroken to learn that our room did not have aircon and that at night it was cooler outside than in our room, if only it was safe to sleep on the streets!  We decided to head out to dinner for an early night before it got dark.  I was super excited to try some Turkish food as I had heard the kebabs were amazing. I ordered a mixture of chicken and lamb with vegetables.  Well it too was not the best introduction to Turkish food as I was only served lamb and the vegetables consisted of a tomato and a pepper.   I took a deep breath and ignored the fact that I was not served what I ordered and began eating what I thought would be delicious tender lamb.  Growing up on a farm, I have eaten more lamb chops than you can imagine, to the point where I did not eat lamb for many years and still will not go near a chop, so to describe that this tasted like an overcooked chewy lamb chop does it justice.  I reminded myself while eating that there are starving children and the world and that I should be blessed to have food on my plate.

Thankfully my experience with food has gotten better.  The next morning after almost drowning in our own sweat, we headed out to breakfast.  The options for breakfast are very limited where traditional breakfast consists of bread, butter, jam or honey, olives, tomatoes, cucumbers and cheese.  Trying to avoid bread here is impossible but I am doing my best and decided to give an omelette a try as this is the only other option for breakfast.  It was served in a copper pot and was more like scrambled eggs with cheese, vegetables and sausage mixed through.  It was surprisingly very nice and I enjoyed that it was not too eggy. 
We had already spent enough time in the main street to realise that you cannot walk anywhere without being spoken to or harassed to enter a restaurant or to buy some water or books off the street that we decided to spend the remainder of the morning doing some research on where to head next.  This turned into a skype session and built up quite an appetite for lunch.  We headed towards the mosques where we discovered a nice restaurant to have some lunch before wandering through the markets outside.  I made the decision to go back to lamb and this time tried traditional lamb kofta in a stew style served with chips and rice.  Now this is what I call traditional amazing food.  The flavours were sensational, the lamb was superbly cooked and the addition of the vegetables in the stew made the dish.  Feeling satisfied we wandered around the markets for a while before take two of organising the rest of our time in Turkey which we decided will be spent at Pamukkle and Gallipoli.

Our last full day in Istanbul and we decided that we must check out some of the major sights.  We headed to two different mosques, one being the famous blue mosque.  I must admit that I was surprised as to how similar they are to many of the other churches we have seen across Europe.   While they were spectacular I was expecting dramatic differences for different cultures however the only major difference to me was the huge courtyards and outside areas that make the buildings such temple like structures. 
Time to try another traditional meal for lunch so I opted for a mixed pide.  These are served in Australia, but very different to what we are used to.  The Turkish refer to a pide as a Turkish pizza and this is a much better description that I can provide as it tasted so similar to a pizza, but the base is more of a bread than a dough.  As I am only in Turkey once I needed to break my no lollies rule that I made about a week ago (whoops!) and have some Turkish Delight. So before heading to the Grand Bazaar market I decided to give a try.  Again something the Aussies don’t do quite right as we coat it with chocolate and have only one flavour, but the flavours here are endless.  The texture is the same jelly like consistency, but I could not find any that tasted the same and I sampled rose, traditional, orange, mint and pomegranate(why break the rule if I wasn’t going to do it properly)!
After gauging this delicious treat we headed to the market where I certainly will not be returning.   By far the largest market I have ever been to but never have I seen so many of all the same shop. The hustle bustle was enough on its own, but the endless salesman trying to get you to buy an overpriced souvenir did not entice me to purchase anything.
To continue with our traditional day we decided to head out on a boat cruise along the Bosphorus River to see some traditional dancing such as belly dancing.  The night started with a buffet meal and it was a hit.  I decided to try a little of everything and my plate was overflowing.  The salads were amazing and we wish we could have wrapped up all the extras and taken them home for lunch the next day. I did have a little chuckle to myself as a large number of the men headed directly to the meat and avoided the entire table of salads except to return to grab what I counted to be about 10 pieces of bread each! They should have just taken an entire loaf!
I was a little disappointed after all the money that we payed that the acts were still begging us for tips and seemed to be a little annoyed when the majority of people refused to give any.  All in all it was a fun night and the dances we saw were very unique.

Our last day in Istanbul and we are avoiding the heat and waiting for our 7pm bus to Pamukkle by sitting under the air conditioner in our hostels common room.  We have ventured out twice however, once for breakfast where I had a small argument with the waiter as I was again not served what I ordered (cheese, bacon and spinach omelette but was served cheese, tomato and spinach), this time I decided to speak up.  Let’s just say that he didn’t take it so well and told me it was what I ordered.  Well after my three days here that was enough for me to turn from polite to angry in under a second and I became one of those customers I loathe but instead of correcting my order, he just bought a small bowl of bacon to add to my omelette myself...hmm Turkey you are not doing yourself any favours.
There was one more thing that I just had to try before leaving the big smoke, so for lunch I had a chicken doner kebab to compare to the Greek gyros and on all reports (me and my travel buddy) Greek gyros wins hands down.  The chicken was delicious but the missing element of tzatziki, or any kind of sauce infact, turns out to be an important element as does the bread to ingredients ratio where it felt like it was 100 to 1!  Time now to organise ourselves for a big couple of days of sightseeing where I am sure our Turkish experience will improve dramatically, well here is to hoping xx

Goodbye Greece

Time to move on to the island of rest, Paros.  No people I do not mean Paris! The amount of people that I needed to explain that Paros is another island and we were not going to France before moving on to Mykonos was crazy.

We spent many hours on another ferry where we sadly ate more ferry food before arriving late on Thursday night.  We were both exhausted so got settled into our room and before we knew it, it was sleep time.  I was determined to get my body back into a normal routine so I was up early for a morning run along the beach before a tasty breakfast.  I decided to give an omelette a go and it was a good healthy start to the morning.  We spent most of the windy day wandering around the old town before we headed to a lovely restaurant on the beach for dinner.  We decided it was time to give some fresh fish a try, sea bass and red mullet which was from a catch earlier that morning...or so the waiter told us.  The sea bass was really well cooked and it certainly was a task pulling it apart ourselves, something I clearly need to learn for future!  We also tried avocado shrimp which was served not at all as i expected.  Similar concept to a prawn cocktail mixture but served in an avocado.  It was a refreshing change although the shrimps seemed few and far between but something that I would try making myself in future. 

Another delicious (maybe not as healthy) breakfast, this time ham, tomato and cheese crepes and it was surprisingly so filling I could not eat all of the crepe.  We spent most of the day organising the next month or so of our trip before heading to Noussa for the afternoon/evening.  Noussa is another fishing village and as we wandered along the port we saw numerous boats with octopus our drying, I was so intrigued I was tempted to go find one of these fisherman and ask him to cook one for me!  Instead we headed to another restaurant to try another greek dish, stuffed tomatoes for that me.  There were two served to me with rice and it turns out the ripeness and the flavour of the tomato can really make or break the dish.  One was full of delicious flavour and the other a little bland but still another great Greek dish. Time to head home to organise ourselves to head out to the beautiful Mykonos the following morning.

My body again rejected the idea of getting itself back to being healthy by giving me a head cold but I refused to let it win and up and went for another run before a delicious yoghurt and honey breakfast.  We had a couple of hours to kill before getting on the ferry so we stayed at the same cafe using some much needed wifi where I had a tasty sundried tomato and prosciutto salad for lunch.  Finally off to the much anticipated Mykonos, an island that is known for its sheer beauty, magnificent beaches and amazing views.  Our accommodation did not disappoint and we were so impressed with the view of the beach and the pool from our balcony.  A night of partying was perhaps not the smartest idea when coming down with a cold, but we pushed on anyway and met some amazing people at Paradise beach.

A day of recovery was needed and we spent the day checking out the town, but not after a delicious lunch.  My healthy streak of less than 24hours was out the window until I get over this cold so it was back to a yum tasting chicken burger with chips and freshly squeezed orange juice while overlooking the beach.  It was just what I needed before heading into town to see what was possibly the highlight of my trip...I know this is an off highlight to have but we spotted a man with his pet pelican wandering around town.  Originally I thought it was just a stray that stopped in to say hi, but no no no, this guy had the pelican trained to follow him around and react to commands, he even let some little kids feed him a fish.  I really want a pet pelican now!  Time to try and forget my new plan for a pet, so what better way than to let some fish eat the skin off my feat!  Not what you were expecting I bet, but I have seen this in a lot of places and have always wanted to give it a try so I stuck my feet into this massive fish tank and let the fish clean my feet.  An odd experience, a similar sensation to pins and needles that lasted about 15minutes, but my feet did feel amazing afterwards! Feeling super relaxed it was time to have our last Mykonos meal, i opted for seafood risotto.  It was amazingly silky and possibly the best risotto I have eaten, I have been dreaming about eating that again!

Another ferry day where we spent hours sleeping and eating horrible plane like food that I will not bore you with before heading to Athens.  We made it late at night and had a quick snack before resting up for a big day of sightseeing the following day.  Up bright and early for our buffet breakfast at the hotel and then off to see the acropolis.  It was a steaming hot day, forecast for 37 degrees so we ticked as many things off the list as possible before heat stroke set in! We headed to Acropolis, the temple of Zeus and the Olympic Stadium.  All breathtaking and super glad we made the decision to come to Athens to check it out.  We made it home to spend the afternoon watching the Olympics in the air conditioning of our hotel and decided it would be a bit of fun to order room service....well room service did not have over half of the options on the menu so we declined and headed out to find some Chinese takeaway and eat on our bed.  Mine was meant to be the hottest on the menu but it was the mildest that I have ever had! Either the Greek are not sure what spice is, or the peanut satay that my travel buddy was served was not a satay as it had more kick than mine could dream of!!   We are now organising ourselves to fly to Turkey tomorrow and sadly say goodnight to Greece and goodnight to you xxx