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Europe 2015

August - September 2015
A 24-day adventure by Edward Read more
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  • Edward SmallEurope 2015
    Day 14

    Day 1 Aegina

    September 5, 2015 in Greece ⋅ ☀️ 31 °C

    Our first full day on Aegina started with our first in home breakfast of muesli, yoghurt, figs and fruit juice, followed by a coffee after our drive from Perdika to Aegina town. In Aegina we took in the Greek people and culture by exploring backstreets and shopping. We bought new shoes and light weight hot Greek weather shirts from a crazy Greek shop owner who greeted us with "hello there! Thank you for coming and saving my country!!" And old but effective means of luring unsuspecting tourists into his shop. The clothes and shoes we bought were nice and comfy, perfect for the 35-40 degree sweltering temperatures. From the clothes shop we found a bakery and bought some lovely bread, sesame bagel type buns and Baklava... sold by the kilogram. After the bakery came delicious figs, fresh feta cheese - firmer and less salty sharp than we are used to in New Zealand - and gelaato to sustain us for our walk back to the car.
    As we,  as food we bought some local newspapers and small presents to take back home. We returned home and ate the food we had bought, along with some wonderful honey from the day before, and had a swim in our motel's pool; a welcome event during the brightest and hottest part of the day.

    After our swim and siesta time we went for a drive along the hill tops to try and find a so-called picturesque mountain side village. The "village" of a few houses and not even a taverna turned out to be a bit of a let down, accompanied with the supposedly wonderful beach at the bottom of the steeply sloping hills and valley... also a let down.
    Dinner was had at one of the little restarts on the quay in Perdika. We had taramasalata, boiled greens, bread, little grilled sardines, grilled swordfish and moussaka, with Mythos beer and a little cake and watermelon complimentary. It was all nice but nothing spectacular. Again my phone died for some of this day so I may have to steal a few photos from someone else. Also generally feeling pretty down, tired and grumpy hasn't inspired me to take many photos but this will hopefully change (or like I say, steal someone else's photos). In fact it seems as if I took none this day.. oh well tomorrow will be more!!    Read more

  • Edward SmallEurope 2015
    Day 15

    Day 2 Aegina

    September 6, 2015 in Greece ⋅ ☀️ 36 °C

    The second day day here on Aegina followed similarly to the first. We had breakfast at the motel and went out for a couple of coffees. Our day was spent winding our way around the island and looking at the sights to see.
    We stopped in a small town on the north end of the island for some cheese and calamari for a snack before continues on trying to find our way up to the top of the island. After half an hour or so we realised we were very lost and very low on petrol. The next hour was of course spent trying to find  an open petrol station in a Sunday on a Greek island.. not easy but we did it in time.
    Upmwe drove to the top of Aegina, past ancient churchs, monasteries,  olive trees, fig trees and pistachio plantations for which the island is famous.
    At the top of our drive was an ancient stone temple like a baby Parthenon.  Apparently built prior to and the inspiration for the afore mentioned monument. However this one was in far better condition and virtually empty of tourists and sightseers, so a marked improvement. Accompanying it was an excellent museum full of artifacts and reconstruction. A real hidden secret of Aegina.
    Of course there was an accompanying cafe where we had cold drinks and ice cream - again much needed as for the mid-late 30s degree heat with little shade.
    Our descent back towards the comparitive civilization was quick and easy and didn't stop until back in Perdika. We did a supermarket and afternoon tea run, just some bread and tzatziki with some Greek pine needle wine, not as nice as it sounds.
    Dinner was just simple bread, cheese, figs, jam, honey and fruit juice. A late night game of 500 and a quick swim finished off the evening nicely. All in all an OK day.. full,  of the same, frustration but managed to get away from the antagonist enough for it to be bearable.    Read more

  • Edward SmallEurope 2015
    Day 16

    Day 3 Aegina

    September 7, 2015 in Greece ⋅ ☀️ 32 °C

    Our third and final full day o  the Island was very chilled. I had a late night Skype session the night before so slept in till 10 or so before walking by myself down to the cafes and taverns in Perdika. I had a cheese, bacon and tomato crepe which was a little thick and filling, but nice nonetheless. Accompanied of course by a few short espressos. A short wander around the town led to some good sanity reclamation in the growing heat before going back to the Antzi Studios (our lodgings). I chose to lay around and not do much for most of the afternoon before facing the parents again. A quiet afternoon tea of melon, pistachios and Baklava followed by copious 500 games was very enjoyable. Also a drink by the pool was nice, despite the overwhelming heat.
    The olds have gone down to the beach for one last swim in the Aegean before our final dinner on Aegina.  .ate than I would like but oh well.
    Tonight will be packing and sorting out what our plans tomorrow are. Boat, train and aeroplane from Aegina, through Athens and ending up in ... LONDON. Familiar languages and culture will be nice, but Greece has been an excellent country

    A late night dinner turned out to be the best Greek food we have had: boiled octopus, boiled greens, bread with a creamy chese dip + tapenade, lamb souvlaki, slow roasted lemon lamb, grilled red mullet, stuffed vine leave (brown rice made a welcome change and nuttiness), beer, and more French pastries for dessert.. all, for 30 euros.. the waiter undercharged us but when we tried to pay more he just kept saying "THANKYOUUUU" and shooed us away.. he must've like us.
    Straight to bed with a little packing and off to sleep.

    P.s. oh and I found a pomegranate tree!!    Read more

  • Edward SmallEurope 2015
    Day 17

    Aegina to London

    September 8, 2015 in England ⋅ ⛅ 14 °C

    I'm writing this a little late so hope I do t miss anything. We had a full day of travel, leaving Perdika early and dropping off our car in Aegina. A quick coffee and croissant before getting on the hydrofoiling fast ferry was a little much needed sustenance get us through the long hot day ahead of us. We stopped off in Syntagma on our way through Athens between Pireaus and the airport and had yoghurt with honey and fruit, with a very rich, thick, sweet and strong iced coffee milkshake to accompany it. The railway delivered us to he airport in good time and we dropped of our bags and sat around waiting for our Ryan Air flight to London.
    The flight took about 4 hours but was very pretty over Italy, France and the English Channel. A long train ride followed by a few tube rides through the London underground spat us out at Earl's Court Station. We wandered down the road, fumbled with some keys to get into our flat, wandered upstairs and collapsed from such a long and exhausting day in our lovely little apartment.

    Oh and forgot to mention the Chinese we got quickly for dinner.. it was just excellent! Highlight being blackpepper and honey duck, but black been beef and sautéed prawns were also nice.. not to mention the excellent dumplings!    Read more

  • Edward SmallEurope 2015
    Day 18

    London Day 1

    September 9, 2015 in England ⋅ ⛅ 16 °C

    Our first day in London! What a cool city this is. I was expecting to hate the built up metropolis and for it to be overcrowded, noisy, smelly and generally pretty unpleasant. Boy was a wrong. The countryside coming in from the airport was beautiful: canals with boats, forests, rolling grassy hillsides and pretty buildings.
    Our first day here was busy and interesting. We began with finding a supposedly very good Lebanese cafe down the road in Earl's Court. It was as good as I we had heard: fantastic little Lebanese coffee shots, tapas-like platters for the olds, and smoked salmon, mushroom scrambled eggs with fresh made pita bread for me. All accompanied with some sweet croissants.
    The first stop on our day's itinerary was getting deep downtown on various tubes and taking the light railway to see the Cutty Sark. The beautifully restored vessel was just as awe inspiring as I had heard, and we all thoroughly enjoyed looking around her. The size and quality of everything from hull to rigging was just excellent, with plenty of accompanying information.
    Up the road from Cutty Sark was the national maritime museum. We went in looking for information on longitude (it being situated in Greenwich, 0 degrees longitude) and information on Captain Cook. Alas we found neither.. so just took advantage of the cafe for a quick refreshing drink before carrying on down the the Thames waterfront. From the Greenwich ferry berth we caught a fast cat down the river, past tall ship Tenacious, HMS Belfast, various Thames barges and the city in general. We got off the ferry near Borough Market (see tomorrow) and went to the tube station.
    Zoom zoom zoom.
    Up we popped in Picadilly Circus and Regent street. We had afternoon tea of salads, cakes and tea at the Hotel Royale Cafe which was.. interesting and not amazing but an enjoyable borgouis experience.
    From the Royal we went to Hamleys. . The most amazing toy shop.. 6 floors of childhood delights from Lego to soft toys were seemingly never ending. Just had a god look around before leaving as it was CHAOTIC. But very cool.

    I'm writing this a little late so admittedly may be missing details or not remembering as much as I'd like. . IL try to keep more on top of it in future.
    ZOOM ZOOM ZOOM
    Dinner this day came in the form of another multicultural Earl's Court experience. This time a wonderful Japanese place with great dumplings, tempura soba noodle soup, sweet chilli beef and teppenyaki noodles. Very nice and very enjoyable. But definitely was time for bed back in our little apadtment.

    P.s. SQUIRRELS!! SO MANY WILD SQUIRRELS!!!    Read more

  • Edward SmallEurope 2015
    Day 19

    Athens Markets

    September 10, 2015 in England ⋅ ☀️ 19 °C

    Just a quick post about the markets back in Athens. They were incredible! All of the foodie stuff I wanted and was waiting for. Buckets upon buckets of endless olives, feta, fruit and vegetables. Not to mention mountains of amazing figs costing just a few euros per kilo!!!?
    Bread stalls and ready to eats were spotted but mainly the ready to eat sustanence came from roadside cafes and a bag of figs. Yum yum yum.

    The meat markets were something else also.. any New Zealand health inspector would've shut the whole thing down in an instant. But still it was fantastic: piles of liver, kidneys and general offal beside whole skinned goats and sheep hanging it the 30+ degree heat on the roadside.cut and optioned meats were mostly already snapped up by local restaurants but some still remained.
    The fresh fish market was coming to a close when we arrived but still had mountains of sardines, squid, octopus, bass, mullets and a variety of Mediterranean fish.. all sitting on a far too warm bed of almost fully melted ice. The smell was, understandably, strong and it's fair to say we rushed through.

    Finally come the endless buckets of spices, nuts, grains, seeds, flours, dried fruits and everything inaginable filling them to the brim!

    Altogether it was a fantastic market and a wonderful place to wander and taste.    Read more

  • Edward SmallEurope 2015
    Day 20

    London Day 2

    September 11, 2015 in England ⋅ ⛅ 17 °C

    Day 2 of London was as busy and hectic as the first! It's getting hard to explain, in everything in as much detail as I'd like so I may do a follow up entry summing up England later on. Also only being able to squeeze in 6 photos is difficult!

    Just a little note that yesterday we also went to St Pauls Cathedral. Amazing! I've included a photo as I couldn't fit it in yesterday.

    Today we had coffee at a different Lebanese cafe in Earl's Court before rushing to catch the opening of Borough Market. Yet another market that will get its own post.

    From Borough we caught a tube to Parliment buildings, Big Ben and Westminster Abbey. All impressive and incredible sights in their own right. It was quite something sitting in a field staring at these 3 amazing antiquity buildings. It's quote something to be surrounded by architecture that has been around long before the discovery of New Zealand.. a very awe inspiring thought and place to be. Westminster was truly incredible inside, no pictures would do the inside justice so it's fortunate that none are allowed to be taken inside.
    From the inner city buildings we went home in preparation for dinner as it was Joy's (shh) 50th birthday.
    A long hassle of trying to find a taxi, then bus to Marble Arch in peak rush hour traffic left us rushed, grumpy and late for our dinner with my cousin Bella at Le Gavroche... and what a dinner it was. It deserves it's own post but I have few photos - until I can steal some off Bella - so will leave it at this: an 8+ course degustation in one of the world's top restaurants. The first in England and one of only a few in the world to be award 3 Michelin Stars. Run by Michel Roux, it was a truly incredible experience. Highlights were an excellent beef carpacio, a 30+ choose your own cheese trolley, hilarious twin Austrian maitre d's, and the experience of having one of the best meals and services in the world. No exaggeration.
    Nothing else needs to be said.    Read more

  • Edward SmallEurope 2015
    Day 20

    Borough Market. Fresh fruit and veges.

    September 11, 2015 in England ⋅ ⛅ 18 °C

    I have wanted to come to Borough Market since I was about 9 years old. Although we arrived just as it was opening, it was exactly what I had dreamed of it being. It was just wonderful. Nothing else needs to be said.Read more

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