Thursday, April 12, 2007

Greece - Aaaaahhhh

Mick and I are now over a week into our post-wedding big travel adventure and I am afraid I might not have any of my travel tales of weirdness or laughable disasters. We are in Greece and it all has been.... lovely.

Highlights so far:

My brother Scott joined us for a week which was great fun to catch up.

Joining the Greeks in their Easter services. More like a orderly scrum at times, these services were attended by hundreds. At midnight on Easter Saturday we ended up shut inside a church while fire crackers went mad outside.

The island of Lesvos. Low key on tourism; its a big island of dramatic mountains currently coated in green grass, pungent wildflowers and endless ancient olive trees.

I tell you, Greeks can talk! We stayed in the main town of Mytilene for 24 hours and marvelled at hundreds of fashionable young things sitting in the funky cafes ALL DAY.

The sun on your face all day without (badly) burning.

Litres and litres of (kinda weak) red wine.

Lots of sleep.

Not being able to tear ourselves away from picture-perfect Molyvos in the north of Lesvos. It is everything you dream of in a Greek village – stone houses on top of each other up the steep cobbled streets, topped by an old fort, pretty painted shutters, cute boats in the stone harbour, plenty of healthy stray dogs and cats to play with, stunning views over the glassy Aegean and no foreign tourist crowds. The town ran out of food though as the Greeks on Easter holidays ate it all up. We drank Ouzo in a cafĂ© with the old boys and went bush bashing through the terraced olive groves which was fun; Mick nearly stood on a black snake.

Mick, Ouzo and a pretty spot in Molyvos

Off the track in the South. Yesterday we stayed in an almost deserted village on a pretty pebble beach after twisting and turning on the wrong dirt road through crazy mountains. We met a mad old German, Claus (of course), who took us for a 4 x 4 drive up tracks to an impossibly high, tiny church while entertaining us with tales of what the commanding rock outcrops speak to him. He showed as much joy at the changing natural "theatres" as we climbed higher and higher as I imagine he did when first arriving here 15 years ago.

Now, we are back with the kids in the cafes waiting for a midnight ferry further North.