Yens on Tour

So we arrived in Singapore after an 11 hour flight from Athens at about 5.30am. Luckily, with no sleep under our belt, our hotel, Nostalgia Hotel just outside Chinatown, had our room ready for us to slip into a 3 hour sleep. Could have been very bad - could have asked us to wait till the obligatory 2pm check in time. After the kip we headed to Chinatown and wandered aimlessly around the stalls and markets. We visited a chinese temple twice because it was so beautiful and apparently, chinese-astrologically speaking, I am in the worst year of my life! All I can say if this is the bad one, bring on the goodies because I'll probably find a cure for cancer or win a million bucks! Later we ate at a open Chinese restaurant just behind the hotel -delicious and the whole meal was $10! With that, we visited Raffles after the Museum of Ancient Civilisation today and spent $119 on 3 Singapore Slings and a middie of beer. After spending 2€ on beer and wine in Europe it was a bit of an awakening, let me tell you. The museum had a small showing of the Terracotta Warriors which was fabulous - cant imagine what the real exhibition must be like. Right now we are relaxing to the strains of How You Look Tonight (our song) by a blind Chinese man on guitar who, as wonderful as he is, sings like Elmer Fudd - no r's. We clap in respect. We laugh in tearful silence, Tony's side comments don't help. Apparently we are dining in Little India tonight but Tony is enjoying blind Elmer too much. Somebody save me! Plane home tomorrow night. Our wonderfully fabulous trip is almost over. Sad.

I have never really liked Athens and Tony feels the same - its just not an interesting city outside of the Acropolis and like-attractions. Since we made a point of seeing the Acropolis three years ago, we decided to avoid it this time. Instead we headed for the much acclaimed, new Acropolis Museum just a few streets from where we are staying. Incredible. Informative. Well layed out. Beautiful open building, modern against the ancient collections. With a 5€ admission fee its a real winner for Athens. After lunch at a nearby eatery we lounged around the Hotels pool before dinner. We wandered around the small, hilly backstreets at the base of the Acropolis and found some amazing little places to dine. We were so caught up in our exploration we lost ourselves, a bit, which I got the blame for. All I can say is thank heavens for Tonys tragic sense of direction or we would never have flooked our way back home. Today we headed up to the highest point in Athens where there sits a small Greek church (Lycabettus), a very large but sad-looking cafe and cluey, old Greek photographer who got me at a weak moment and cost Tony 4€. Not a happy boy. But the view of Athens, the virtual tree-less city, was pretty spectacular - well worth the 2 blocks of steep incline, the 213 steps (yes, I counted them), the 7€ each to board the cable car and that stupid photographer that took our 4€!! Almost. But we did get to walk through the National Botanical Gardens (very cool and relaxing) and serendipitously come across a marching parade complete with band and guards in Greek national dress. I've got to say though, Athens is very quiet. A few political riots, a taxi strike and the menace of riot police will do that to a tourism industry. Many shops are empty and the streets are not strewn with tourist buses as I have known it to be. All the better for us. We are poolside at present and thinking about going to dinner. Hopefully we can find that great little family owned restaurant in the back blocks again. Guess we'll just have to get lost!

It was our last day in Ithaca today so we packed away our swimmers, towels and sunscreen, piled our bags inyo the greek-mobile, said our goodbyes to Tassia, our beautiful landlady, and headed to Zacs for breakfast and to await our friends Christina and Lucas to say our goodbyes. Just to make sure we missed Ithaca enough I ate the fresh fruit with yoghurt and honey and Tony had a double Greek coffee, no sugar. It wasn't long between our friends turning up and our saying our final farewells, at least it didn't seem long. After big hugs and promises to catch up back home before Christmas, we took our last trip in the greek-mobile toward Vathi. Lunch and a taxi got us to the ferry and 3 hours later we arrives at the pprt of Patras. Another 2.5 hours by bus and we arrived in Athens to a taxi strike!! So Tony, in his inevitable way, wangled a group of out-of-work cabbies to take us by private car to our hotel in Plaka, the Divani Palace. Tony bargained them down to a deal and so here we are in a 5 star hotel with the mighty Acropolis a mere arm length away. We ate a late supper at the rooftop restaurant and now, at 1.06am we are finally in bed.

Yesterday was my 50th birthday. It started with a late morning tea at a place in Stavros that overlooked the Ithaca skyline then real breakfast back in the square at Zacs. We joined the throng at Polis beach where the wind had pickwd up a bit. It was the only time I liked the fact there is no sand on these islands. The water was still cool and under the shade of the umbrella I read and relaxed and chatted to friends, had a beer and Greek salad and bread for lunch. Today was also the last day for 8 of our friends so we wandered back about 4.30 so they could pack and have a bit of a kip before the evening festivities. Later we all met at Zacs for a pre-dinner drink and then piled into the greek-mobile and headed to Frikas. There, at a restaurant owned by the daughter-in-law of the owner of where we are staying - everyone is connected to someone else, somehow, on this island - 22 of my friends, including children, sat around eating, drinking and laughing right on the waters edge. It was very surreal to have so many familiar faces in an unfamiliar surrounding. After dinner a cake with a crown of sparklers drifted through the darkened restaurant toward our table to the strains of Happy Birthday sung in several different keys - just the way I like it. Photos, gifts and speeches flowed and cake was consumed. Besides the crew that had to leave the next morning, we then headed to Kioni for the 'panieri', the festival. So many people from the island come to these festivals. The old, the young, the Greek, the not-so-Greek all come together to dance, sing and celebrate a saint of that village. We arrived before midnight when it was just revving up and the energy and sense of festivity is strong and uplifting. It is easy to see how they can continue into the very early hours of the morning. But we stayed only until 1.30 and walked the distance to our car and drove the dimly-lit mountain roads home. Had a fabulous milestone brithday with some fabulous friends having a great time of it. This morning we sit at a late beakfast at Zacs, tony droped off our friends at an early ferry to Athens at Vathi and we are heading to the beach.

Yesterday morning we all hopped into the greek-mobile and headed off to Vathi, the capital of Ithaca. The intent of purchasing ferry tickets for when we leave the island almost covered the girls desire for a shopping trip. It may have worked but we had such a great time of it. By lunchtime we were back on the beach at Polis and there we stayed reading our books and lazing in the clear Ionian waters that gently lap the pebbly shoreline. After quick showers we found ourselves at where the Smiths are staying which has a beautiful, eagles eye outlook over Polis beach. We ate later in the town square and headed home around 1am. This morning 5 recreational boats zoomed across the Ionian straight to the most amazing beach I have ever has the pleasure of plonking my butt upon. The name? I learnt it but now forget it - it's all Greek to me. It sat at the immediate foot of a precarious, sheer cliff face whose falling rocks have the capacity to kill the unwary. But if you're going to depart this mortal coil I can't think of a more beautiful place to do so. It's heaven. We dropped anchor just off the shore into crystal clear, cool, deep water. We jumped off the boat into a liquid paradise and swam to the white, pebbly shore. As we sat on the shoreline the lapping waters gently jostled the perfectly rounded, smooth pebbles with small clinking sounds like a parade of skeletons in full swing. I have seen and swam in crystal waters before but this is almost beyond description. Our trip back was a bit more hectic as the wind blew up as the afternoon came in. We were glad to get off our little bouncy boat when we finally made it back to Polis. We spent the rest of the afternoon in the shade of the beach's cafeteria, then home for a little kip. It's my birthday tomorrow so Tony is taking me out to dinner tonight and we are now having a pre-dinner drink at the locals cafe, Zak's. Tomorrow night its dinner at Frikas with about 20 people and then off the festival at Kioni. Having a BRILLIANT time here.