Grand Finals and Grand Canals- Half Term Holidays

So, as you know last week was the half term holidays! And I thought i'd do a quick post about what I got up to during my week-and-a-bit off..

So I finished work on Wednesday afternoon, so as usual that night was spent making the now too familiar journey into London, where I arrived at 11pm..

A couple of weeks before I had made a bit of an impulse decision, and booked tickets to go to Edinburgh during the half term holidays. Now come Thursday morning I was seriously wondering why the heck I had done this, as all I wanted to do was stay in London and do absolutely nothing, and not spent two consecutive nights trying to sleep on a coach and the day in the middle wondering around a foreign city. However at 9pm on Thursday, after a day of doing absolutely nothing, I headed into London to the Coach station, and on the coach to Edinburgh. For the next 9 hours I tried, and partially succeeded at getting some sleep (I think that 5 weeks of coach travel over the summer helped with this!)

So Friday was spent in Edinburgh, and although I only had the one day there, I absolutely fell in love with the city. It was freezing and windy and hilly, so it felt a lot like home! I spent the first couple of hours wondering around and just for a change, getting wonderfully lost! I stumbled across a lovely park where all the leaves were on the ground and so I just had to run through them...

I got breakfast at McDonalds (can't go wrong with hotcakes and a hashbrown!) and then I got the touristy shopping out the way- the badge and postcard were bought and then I went and found something to do! I hopped on one of the hop-on-hop-off busses and spent the next few hours jumping on and off where ever sounded interesting. I walked up part of Arthur's Seat (you all know how much I hate hiking so half an hour up a hill was more than enough for me!). I wandered up the Royal Mile, got some lunch (I no longer feel weird sitting in a restaurant eating food alone, although people do often stare at you in pity because they think you've been stood up...)

I then had a look in the Edinburgh museum which was so cool! And I think it's one of the prettiest museum buildings I've ever seen! After that I got some dinner, and then went back to the bus station to get my coach back to London!

Some of the wisest words i've seen have been on chalk boards outside pubs. I thought some of you might like this..

Cheeky selfie walking up Arthurs seat

The Queen's residence in Edinburgh

He was wearing a Kilt!!!

Saturday was mainly spent sleeping, as my coach arrived in London at 6.30am, so by the time I got back to Sarah and Martin's I was shattered... The afternoon was dedicated to writing post cards and not a lot else.. I watched movies and watched NZ get into the Rugby World Cup final!!

Sunday was an errands kind of day, I had to get everything sorted for Venice, buy wrapping paper (because I was being super organised), and so the afternoon in late October could have easily been one in December because I spent it wrapping christmas presents!

Monday was another day full of travelling, but it was a nice change because I wasn't alone! Sarah, Sylvia, Charlie and I all made out way to Venice! Now there's not a lot to say about this, as it was mainly trains and planes, but one thing that I found crazy – it took longer to get from home to the airport than it did to get from London to Italy...

Tuesday was where the fun started! We walked to St Mark's square, which was slightly flooded so we walked along the raised boardwalk things they have. We of course had to get some gelato, even though it wasn't very warm, and then we wandered across to the Rialto bridge. Venice is one of those places where you shouldn't follow a map, so we spent the afternoon wandering around and getting good and lost (the only way to properly see a city). We went back to the apartment for an afternoon break and a much needed cup of tea, and then in the afternoon we got the water-bus out to the island of Burano at the suggestion of one of the teachers at work, and I'm so glad we went. It was such a contrast from the bustling streets and crowded squares of Venice, and the houses were all painted bright colours so it looked so different from the off-white houses where we had been that morning.

We wondered around, and Sarah and Charlie got very excited by the local cat population...

After an hour or so wondering around we headed back to our apartment for the night because we were all shattered from all the walking and all the excitement of the day.

Charlie and her new cape in St Marks Square

The next day was very much the same, we walked to St Mark's square and went into the church that's there. Where ususally in the massive European churches you're constantly looking up at the ceiling which is decorated beautifully, in this church I spent most of the time looking at the mosaic floor! While the ceiling was stunning, the constant smoke from the candles made it look quite dirty, whereas the constant flooding had kept the floor lovely and clean..

After the church we walked to the council building, where the ceilings were a lot more detailed and clean, with so much gold and ornate paintings that after about the 10^th room the wow-factor had completley worn off... We walked through the armoury and the jail (across the bridge of sighs!).

It was there that I taught Charlie what a proper hot chocolate should taste like, and I think I've converted her to Italian style hot chocolates!

The afternoon was again spent wondering around the place, taking in all the canals and buildings and boats.

Look at the different coloured marble!

The height of Venetian fashion,,,

You've got to have a mid-flight photo...

Thursday meant going back to London, so there's not a lot to report on that...

Friday was a shopping day for me! I made my way to Stratford and spent a magical few hours walking around the mall there, and then in the evening once I had finished shopping I met up with Adele! I hadn't seen her since Portugal so it was so good to see her again! We went back to Sarah and Martin's and had a good catch up!

Saturday was a fantastic day! We got the train into the city, walked 45 minutes to Oxford Street because we had both been saying how much we miss walking to places rather than always having to get trains. Then we walked to Trafalgar square and we et up with some other friends to watch the Rugby World Cup final! There was such an incredible atmosphere, and we were all wearing our all blakcs jerseys with pride! It was such an insane game, and when we WON the noise was deafening! I lost my voice from screaming at the big screen, and then screaming when we won, and then singing along to all the music! After we walked along the river and had one of those “can you believe life right now?” moments, because we were a group of kiwi's in London having just watched our boys in black make history, looking at Big Ben and the London Eye....

We went back home pretty early tho, and watched strictly before calling it a night..

Walking through Green Park on our way to Oxford Street. I just love Autumn here!

Me and my main man Richie...

Can I just say that none of the rubbish is ours... 

And so came Sunday, and I made the usual trek back to school, still buzzing off the last nights win.

So all in all it was a pretty great half term! Not exactly relaxing – I only had three days where I wasn't travelling somewhere, but it was still great! And so now you know why there were no blog posts – I just didn't have time for any!

Sorry this is such a long post, but I thought you deserved it after waiting so patiently!

A perfect visit to Greece

So I'm back!

Sorry about the lack of posts over the last couple of weeks, but as you will (hopefully) find out soon is that it was half term and I was busy being busy. So when it was friday I completley forgot about posting a blog! But hopefully I'll catch up on them soon so you can find out why I was so busy!

But until then, here's the next part of my Topdeck adventure: Greece!

So after an overnight ferry from Italy to Greece, where all we did was eat dinner (which took literally 50 minutes to arrive) we made the most of having a proper bed and slept for nearly 12 hours! And when we eventually woke up we had arrived in Greece! We had a short drive to where our boats were waiting for us and then the excitement set in! Once we had found our boats and put all our bags and food away in the cupboards, we had a quick explanation of what our roles on the boat would be (as first mate I was chief in charge of the radio/walkie talkie thing) and then we set off! Our boat was Apollo so the inner classics geek had a good ol' freak out over that, and then explained why I had just had a little freak out to my fellow boat mates (Aussie Tom, Dom, Claudia and Morgan).

For the rest of that day we just sailed on perfectly flat, crystal clear water. It was such an incredible experience, sitting on a boat sailing through the islands of Greece, relaxing in the sun, listening to music and of course taking my duties as first mate very seriously (I moved the radio to the back of the boat so I could hear it while I was lying down and relaxing in the sun.... 

After a couple of hours we arrived at our port for the night, and being the great blogger that I am,I didn't write down what it was called... Oops. But it was absolutely stunning! We had dinner at the restaurant, which was incredible – (proper) Greek salads, fresh fish and an amazing sunset with the best company, what more could anyone ever want?

That night I realised that sleeping on a boat isn't exactly the comfiest thing in the world, but after being in the sun all day I was knackered so that didn't stop me from having a decent amount of sleep!

La Familia at dinner on our first night!

The next morning was basically the same – lounging on the boat, swimming when we stopped off for lunch, relaxing in the sun (and of course being very sun smart and making sure I didn't get burnt!). But that afternoon was possibly the most stressful hour of my life. We had to properly sail the boats, with the actual sails and not the motor. Now only Claudia on our boat had sailied before, so the rest of us were freaking out. We couldn't get the front sail to 'tack' when we needed it to, and we were sure that the boat wasn't meant to tip that much when we were moving (Tom had us all sitting on the higher side of the boat to make sure it didn't tip over). It was made even more stressful when the local guide on the lead boat (that Kiki, Scotty and Matty were on) was calling over the radio that the first boat was heading to a sand bank. Now we didn't have a clue who the first boat was, as were were all spread out and we could hardly see each other, let alone tell what boat was the lead one, and who he was referring to. Turns out it was us heading right to a sand bank, and we started stressing out a bit when he was nearly yelling over radio that it was not a joke anymore and we needed to tack away, which we were trying to do, but one of the ropes had got caught on a wire, so while the guide was yelling at us, Tom was using every swear known to man to inform him that we were trying! I wish we had recorded that first hour of us (attempting) to sail, because while at the time it was scary as hell and stupidly stressful, looking back we must have looked and sounded hilarious as we freaked out. Thankfully Dom was an amazing Captain and he got us out of the pickles and we got to the next port in one piece. However the other boats were'nt so lucky- mainly because their boats weren't properly set up, so they had to hold their main sail up rather than locking it in place like they should have been able to do. It also didn't help that the guide wasn't helpful at all and when they asked him questions they needed answers to, he replied with “use your common sense..”. One of the boats motor's packed up, so they had to sail right into the port, where the rest of us put down the sails and used the motor to get us into the port.

After a day like that, we had a thoroughly deserved relaxed dinner with another stunning view, and amazing fresh fish (I had calamari and it was the best i've ever had).

After dinner it was time for a bit of local culture, and one of the local women taught us all how to Greek dance! I can't remember any of the moves we were taught, but at the time, after a few practices I got the hang of it! More so than some of the others who just couldn't get it right. I don't think I have ever laughed so much as I did that night, it was just so much fun, and an experience I never thought i'd have – yelling “Opa!” as we greek danced on a little fishing island in Greece after sailing all day. I even had two little local girls sitting next to me and teaching me hand games, and then singing along to the music while we were dancing.

At one stage a table was brought into the centre of the circle and it was explained to us that it was a tradition for the guys to pick it up, using their teeth... Now don't worry Mum I didn't do it! But about half of the group did, and amazingly there was only one chipped tooth by the end of it!

This guy had a shot of Ouzo on his head and then came over to me and started dancing. Completely random but it had me in fits of laughter!!

Looking back at the entire tour, even though every night was incredible, and there were plenty of nights were we did amazing things, but that night was my absolute favourite. By the end of the night I had no voice left because I had been yelling “Opa” rather frequently and enthusiastically all night, and then laughing to the point of tears and I couldn't stand up straight.

The next day was much like the other two (just without the sailing, thank god!). It was a bit of a slow start because one of the boats engines still wasn't working, so we had to wait for them to be towed our of the Port. To pass the time we tied one of the inflatable rings to the back of the boat and Claudia sat on that while we circled around waiting for the others.

That day was made a bit special because we saw some dolphins while we were sailing! I tried to call it over the radio (as I was taking my duty very seriously...) but because of the previous night, I couldn't speak but I think I got the message across! We stopped off for lunch and swam a bit more, enjoying our last day on the boats.

The afternoon was spent getting back to the port we started at, and while I was sad to be finished sailing, I was so happy to have a good shower and wash my hair, because I hadn't washed it while we had been sailing (there wasn't any point because I was in the sea every chance I got) and so three days of salt and sun had made it feel horrible as you can imagine. Even though the shower has no pressure and i had to pay for it (an annoyingly common thing) it was such a good shower! That night we had dinner, sat on the beach and shared stories, shopped at a cute little stall that sold jewelry that a local lady made, and then went to bed quite early because we were all shattered.

This was basically my view for three days...

Our trusty boat Apollo, she served us well!

The sunset on our last night in Greece... No filter of any kind is needed.

Me asleep on a boat in Greece. If it makes you feel any better at some stage in the night i fell off the seat and onto the floor...

I think it's safe to say that Greece was beyond incredible, and as soon as we were on the bus the next day making our way to Albania, I was dreaming about when I could go back and see more of that insanely beautiful place....