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1 Europe adventure plz
  • Alfred Wilson
  • Kate Morrison

1 Europe adventure plz

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  • 1 Europe adventure plz
    1

    Just like home

    August 10, 2023 in Croatia

    Not much to report, except the best hobo fight I've seen since Victoria St. They may have kissed at one point? They might have been related? All we know is old mate got in a flying crane kick as they got kicked off outside split.
    Also, somewhat thematically adjacent to our journey, we have arrived in the land of the fun police - please refer to the signs around town for all the banned activities and subsequent fines.    Read more

  • 1 Europe adventure plz
    2

    "hOw'S tHe SeReNiTy"

    August 11, 2023 in Croatia ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C

    50% old town. 50% hike to a stunning and secluded corner of the peninsula.

    The morning began with us paying the tourist tax for a very worthy cause - the chance to drink a coffee in Diocletians palace 🤩 during this time a Roman asked Alfred to hold onto his pilum while he had a tea break and Alfred was utterly thrilled. Alfred led me around the ticketed parts of the palace on a private walking tour (because he knows just about everything there is to know about Diocletian) and we were impressed but also grateful for our student discount!

    In the afternoon we packed a picnic lunch and hiked up to a lookout on the hill where they have prohibited construction for the last few decades. The climb was not too bad compared to some of our previous efforts 🌋⛰️🚵‍♀️ but the view was quite spectacular! We took a climbing route down which was a bit more adventurous before arriving at a quiet little beach where we had the most relaxing afternoon. Alfred felt very vindicated as he finally got proper use of his hammock and we all thoroughly enjoyed the swim (except the bit where we had to dig some sea urchin spines out of some feet) 😶    Read more

  • 1 Europe adventure plz
    Me @ the architects who decided to remodel the mausoleum into a church

    In the hall of greatness

    August 11, 2023 in Croatia ⋅ ☀️ 29 °C

    Diocletian was a real stand unop guy. He was forced into Emperorhood by a bunch of senior officers who were worried that the next emperor would be killed in the upcoming civil war of succession. Instead, Diocletian won that war and ruled for 21 years. After that, he retired to live in a palace and farm cabbages. Unheard of in an empire who's leaders rarely died from natural causes.

    His palace formed the centre of Split, and we had a great morning exploring it all. It's a shame what the Christians did with the place.

    After that, we hiked down the peninsular for some serenity. Great day all round.    Read more

  • 1 Europe adventure plz

    I'm on a boat mum!

    August 12, 2023 in Croatia ⋅ ☀️ 27 °C

    Todays photos have been heavily supplemented by Bailey as he is less scared of taking photos on the fastest boat in all of Split!

    Before we jumped on the boat we went to a fish restaurant about 20m away from the fish market and demolished a very fresh fishy lunch that alfred rates in his top 3 lunches of the whole trip!

    We were promised a licensed boat driver as part of our tour but we concluded that Flavio must be short for "let's fucking go" because that is exactly what he did - more so than any other boat we passed. Bailey and I reckon he had a bit of Simon and Richard about him: doesn't like any other boat being in front. We went to visit the old town of Trogir, snorkelled around the blue lagoon and had a swim at a beach called 'deep beach' where the water was very deep 😶. Highlights included spotting an octopus 🐙 under a rock, Bailey's underwater disposable camera and not getting sea urchined today 🤠    Read more

  • 1 Europe adventure plz
    2Notice the orange boat we blasted past at the 8 second mark

    BOAT

    August 12, 2023 in Croatia ⋅ ☀️ 29 °C

    Today, we rode on a boat. It may have been the fastest boat in Split, or Falvio may have just been the fastest boat driver in Eastern Europe.

    Other things that Flavio likes are Dire Straights, Men@Work, and the wine his mate makes back in his village. Also, lunch was catch of the day deep fried 10/10.

    Stay posted for the photos that are developed from Bailey's underwater camera    Read more

  • 1 Europe adventure plz
    Looking out for barbariansKing of the castle (fort)1Bails and a bailThe barbarians won 😔

    Winter is coming... or something 👀

    August 13, 2023 in Croatia ⋅ ☀️ 27 °C

    This morning we decided to have one more split adventure before we went back to the beach.

    Alfred's pitch of going to a big old Roman fort that featured in game of thrones won in the interest/fun/ease/cost MCDA and we jumped on a bus to Klis Fortress ((: Unfortunately, dragons attacked half way through but at least we got a sick photo before Alfred bravely fought them all off. The view was insane and you could really tell why they picked this spot because you could see all the way down the Split peninsula and across the sea. On the way home, despite being at the bus stop 30 mins early, the bus blew straight past us 12 mins early and the next one wasn't for another 2 and a half hours so we got the roguest Uber ever instead 🤠

    After a quick siesta, we trekked back over to our beach corner and had another splish splash. We avoided any sea urchins in our feet (one of our friends wore her doc martin sandals the whole time just in case) and headed back into town for a picnic dinner and drinks on the harbour before packing our bags and preparing to depart from Split.    Read more

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    11

    Castles and Beaches

    August 13, 2023 in Croatia ⋅ ☀️ 29 °C

    Saw a Klis Fortress, and went back for an afternoon at the beach. The Fortress was first built by Illyrian raiders, and was then turned into a Roman Fort when Augustus (Octavian at the time) got sick of being raided.

    Medieval renovations made it proper impenetrable. As proven when the Ottomans besieged it for 25 years and didn't get in. The Fortress finally fell when the Pope tried to send reinforcements to the Croats - but the landing was such a disaster that the Turks managed to capture and execute the now ex-lord of Klis who went out to meet the reinforcements, which convinced the rest of the defenders to give up.

    Great scenery and military architecture all round    Read more

  • 1 Europe adventure plz
    This is where we sat for 2 hours while we waited for our bus1

    Literally just a bus

    August 14, 2023 in Croatia ⋅ ☀️ 30 °C

    We knew we were getting a long bus but we didn't know it would be delayed by about 2 hours )):

    There wasn't much interesting to photograph in our 7 hours of transit but Alfred finally bit the bullet and asked the Romans for a photo in the morning and the sunset was bright red when we finally arrived. We had the best view too as our place was at the top of a massive hill - so many stairs 😅

    Luckily Bailey had very generously cooked us some pasta to devour when we arrived and we got to meet the tiny kittens in his hostel 🥹    Read more

  • 1 Europe adventure plz
    😘😘Burek stealing bastard

    King's Landing (Dubrovnik & Lokram Islan

    August 15, 2023 in Croatia ⋅ ⛅ 27 °C

    Today we explored Dubrovnik old town which served as the set location for Kings Landing in Game of Thrones. I think this would have excited me more if I'd seen GoT properly but it was pretty cool with it without dragons. The morning was incredibly hot but we explored the old town and climbed up to a fort to look back over the whole city! It had big Split energy but it was built right on the edge of the cliffs (and wasn't as Roman 😔).

    In the afternoon we got a boat across a short channel to Lokram Island, a forested nature reserve just off the coast. The island promised a Dead Sea and we were hoping that Alfred might finally experience floating but it was not to be. There was a pretty cool cave though (stay tuned for Bailey's underwater camera pics). We had to leave after one of the Peacocks that inhabits the island yoinked Alfred's burek lunch 😠 so we instead set up on some stunning rocks on the edge of the island. It soon became apparent that we were right next to the jumping rocks so we did a couple of big leaps and went for a swim around the cliffs. We then hiked up to the highest point on the island (because Alfred is allergic to staying <100m above sea level for too long) and got the boat back just before the rain hit!

    We said goodbye to Bailey with a pub feed dinner and got our bags ready for our 9am flight to Greece tomorrow !!    Read more

  • 1 Europe adventure plz
    Can't escape Lourdes 😨

    Dubrovnik and surrounds

    August 15, 2023 in Croatia ⋅ ⛅ 27 °C

    We ran around exploring Dubrovnik. Weird town, with lots of tourists, but it is very pretty. Some of the highlights included:

    - game of thrones scenes
    - a fortress overlooking the old town
    - a cannon that had the inscription "get baptised by this (in latin)"
    - a trip to a secluded beach island
    - cliff jumping
    - the world largest sail powered boat pulling into Port

    Low lights:
    - peacock ate my burek    Read more

  • 1 Europe adventure plz

    Arriving in Athens 🏛️

    August 16, 2023 in Greece ⋅ ☀️ 30 °C

    The biggest downside of a 9am flight is not the early wake up, it's that the bakeries don't open in time and you have to pay €22 for some very dodgy sandwiches and aggressively mediocre coffee in the Dubrovnik airport terminal )):

    Our Volotea flight was very easy jet-esque but was a whole hour shorter than we thought because we didn't realise Greece was in a new time zone 🤦🏼‍♀️

    After we arrived we took a train to our accommodation just in time to see Sam Kerr's equaliser at the sports bar down the road! Let's not talk about the rest of the game 😶

    We had an early dinner on a rooftop over looking (under looking ?) the acropolis. When we left we saw a big ol tik tok queue out the front so we were very happy to have gotten in when we did as we got to watch the sun go down too!    Read more

  • 1 Europe adventure plz
    1Just some silly sausages hanging around togetherThose chickens have canklesAlfred's version of writing clean me on a dusty Yaris

    Acropolis and other Greek shenanigans

    August 17, 2023 in Greece ⋅ ☀️ 33 °C

    Day 1 in Athens! We had a massive sleep in after our early morning yesterday and also we're an hour ahead 🤯

    We eventually started our morning with a trip to the market to try a Greek (read Turkish but #politics amirite) coffee that is brewed on hot sand. Except it was too hot so I got a cold coffee called a Freddo instead which has foam that was about as thick as shaving cream - glorious. After that we bought many lemon olives from a man who is just so passionate about his olives and would have let us try all of his 20+ varieties if we had wanted.

    We then hit the Kerameikos Ancient Cemetery which was also home to part of the old city walls. When the Spartans attacked, they used the headstones from the cemetery for some hasty repairs which greatly confused archeologists. It also had a funky museum with some cool Greek stuff - I liked the dinosaur chickens the best.

    We went home for lunch and to avoid the heat and the crowds before heading up to the Acropolis in the evening. Thanks to Rick Steves we learnt about the illusions employed by the architects to make the Parthenon so imposing including slightly slanting pillars and a slight curve in the base! The view down the mountain was also spectacular and it was hard to know which way to look!    Read more

  • 1 Europe adventure plz
    1The inscription details a curse to app the lawyers this person didn't like3Refer back to penguins 30.07, here I have recreated the monument of Agrippa as it was first built

    Athens 500-350 BCE

    August 17, 2023 in Greece ⋅ ☀️ 34 °C

    A day exploring Athens, we visited 2 of the seven attractions on the Acropolis inclusive ticket: Karameikos and the Acropolis itself.

    Karameikos was a very cool Pompeii like ruin, which is famous for having a preserved bit of ancient city wall and the cemetery (see the photos of pots and gold faces that were found in graves).
    At one point in history, the cemetery and the city walls even became one and the same. In 478 BC, under threat of Spartan invasion and having only just got the city back from Persians, the Athenians needed to make some rapid defensive upgrades. Pushed for time and able bodies they mortared together head stones and sarcophagi, genius really.

    After siesta, we went and saw the Parthenon at the Acropolis. This is a great relique that everyone has had a go at using as a place of worship (Greeks, Romans, Christians, and Muslims) until Venetians blew it up on purpose in the 17th century.    Read more

  • 1 Europe adventure plz
    You might not believe it but there is an Alfred in this photo somewhere... 🤔41

    It's all Greek to everyone

    August 18, 2023 in Greece ⋅ ☀️ 34 °C

    More Greek Stuff !!

    We started the day by returning to our roots and doing a Rick Steve walking tour of Athens which took us to parliament where they reenact the Monty Python ministry of silly walks bit on the hour every hour. Then we headed to whats left of the Temple of Zeus which was the largest temple going round in Athens ("roughly the size of a football field" - Rick).

    In the evening we went to the ancient agora, it served a similar purpose to the Forum in Rome but because it wasn't made by Romans it had a few less bells and whistles. They had reconstructed one of the market halls and filled it with things they had found which was pretty cool. They had an old ballot system and an entire cabinet filled with votes for the same 1 guy to be ostracised lol.

    After that we thought it would be fun to cook dinner but the stove doesn't really do hot so it took 2 hours which was not fun. But we are in the end 😅😰    Read more

  • 1 Europe adventure plz
    1Hadrians Arch (not triumphal)1Votes to kick one guy out of Athens for 10 years. Probably deserved it?

    Here come the hot steppers

    August 18, 2023 in Greece ⋅ ☀️ 35 °C

    The crack squad of the Greek army does what can only be described as a hazing ritual at the changing of the guard. Great entertainment - although Kate I probably committed sacrilege by laughing the whole time.
    Other things we did today:
    - visited Hadrians civic upgrades
    - followed Rick Steves walking tour around the Ancient Agora (very fun time)
    - tried to cook food on a cheap induction stove    Read more

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    This city can fit so many columns in it

    August 19, 2023 in Greece ⋅ ☀️ 33 °C

    We ticked off the last few archeological sites on our 7 banger ticket this morning (thanks mum ((: ). Hadrian's Library had lots of columns and some pretty cool mosaics. The Roman forum had lots of columns too but also a weather predicting tower with a frieze of the 8 wind gods around the top that now houses weird bird art.

    In the evening we realised we had spent 0 euros today so we thought we should change that and try some cocktails on our way to dinner. We went to a couple of funky places and had some very funky drinks (see last picture)    Read more

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    This place is Syros-ly nice

    August 20, 2023 in Greece ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C

    After a sea sickening ferry ride and more stairs than Dubrovnik 😵 we arrived in our lovely little tiny house in Syros! It is in a neighbourhood up on a hill with tiny winding streets designed to fend off pirates back in the Venetian days (those guys just keep popping up everywhere).

    We popped into a cafe just down the road (because we didn't want to walk up and down the stairs) and had maybe the best lunch of our whole trip !? We then went to do our best impression of skinks and sun ourselves on some rocks and go for a little swim. We nearly got SNAVed again when the Fast Ferries boat arrived but we were more prepared this time - can't say the same about the French couple near us...

    We again just ducked into a little place down the road for dinner and had some amazing drinks with a wonderful view over the whole town. Alfred also got visited by one of the famed Syros cats who did not want to stop being petted. We ended the night by trying to watch a replay of the soccer but settling for the highlights bc FIFA+ sucks.    Read more

  • 1 Europe adventure plz
    We are staying up there somewhere, nearish the top
    Lot of boganvillea up here

    I see no pirates up here

    August 20, 2023 in Greece ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C

    Other than us 🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️
    Our accommodation is in Ano Syros, which is up the biggest hill near the old port. The town was designed by Venetians in the Middle Ages to protect the inhabitants from pirate raids. Either it doesn't work or we aren't pirates - given the maze and stairs everywhere, I really can't say.Read more

  • 1 Europe adventure plz

    A beach adventure

    August 21, 2023 in Greece ⋅ 🌬 29 °C

    We started the day by getting on the wrong bus (oopsies) so we spent a few hours at Kini beach in the morning. This was quite a happy accident as we had a great swim and snagged a great spot under a tree! We then got on an early afternoon bus to Galissas Beach (the planned destination) and it was utterly glorious.

    We found ourselves a little corner right down the far end of the beach, just close enough to the beach club to hear some tunes but not close enough to be charged €40 an hour for a beach lounge 😵 the water was so ridiculously clear we could see all the lazy fish splashing around. We returned to our roots with a picnic lunch although the cheese and meat melted en route. Our peace was only slightly disturbed by a very large old lady going for an extended nudie run/swim/sit around just near us which was wild on an otherwise swim suited beach.

    We watched the sunset up a nearby hill and while we were waiting for the sun to drop we saw another nudie man climbing the rocks out of the water to watch the sunset on the next point out - very brave 😬🐡 We had some banging gyros for dinner before jumping on our bus back home after a super beachy day ☀️🌊🐠🌴    Read more

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    1

    Alfred Wilson and the Accidental Alcohol

    August 22, 2023 in Greece ⋅ ☀️ 29 °C

    We spent the day at a new beach in Possidonia called Komito Beach. It was very windy and everyone was playing beach tennis which was okay until the guys that were bad at it hit a ball right over our tzatziki 😰
    We decided to get granitas for the walk back to the bus and somehow mine was just a granita but Alfred's really leaned into the vodka flavour. The bus trip home was not a great one for alfred 😔 so we had to get an emergency ice cream before we walked back up to Ano Syros to revive him.

    We went back to the Meze place from the first day for dinner and tried a few other dishes! Then we got some Greek donuts (very yum 11/10) and ate them on an abandoned balcony with a view right down to the water!

    It was the time for bed before an early ferry tomorrow 😴    Read more

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    Ferry Syros -> Naxos

    August 23, 2023 in Greece ⋅ ☀️ 29 °C

    After waking up early for our ferry, it was an hour late and we'd been told to get there an hour early... we were sleepy and not happy campers 🙃 it was not as comfy as the fast ferry but less rocky so 🤷🏼‍♀️

    We arrived in Naxos and figured out the busses to get to our acom and patted ourselves on the back because the place is maybe the nicest so far! We have a little balcony and Niko is the most enthusiastic host ever! Alfred picked out an amazing spot for dinner and afterwards we walked up to the Temple of Apollo. It may also be the temple of Dionysus - historians are unsure as it was never finished and all that is left is the door looking straight out into the Aegean 🤩    Read more

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    The scourge of the high seas

    August 24, 2023 in Greece ⋅ ☀️ 30 °C

    Happy Birthday Alfred !! (sort of)
    We went on a day cruise on a catamaran to go snorkeling and swimming all over Naxos island today! I didn't get many photos because I was too busy snorkelling, lying in the sun on the catamaran and eating the Greek food that Tomas and his sailing pal kept whipping up for us! We stopped at 3 different places and only worried Tomas once because we went for a fish finding adventure a little too far from the boat for his liking 🤠

    There were some very strange people on board but all very lovely and we had a fantastic day sailing around. Since we had technically spent no money today we went to a rooftop restaurant in the old Venetian castle for dinner. The food was amazing but very "experiential" as Alfred put it. The Greek salad had whipped feta and cucumber sorbet with the tomatoes - weird but surprisingly good!    Read more

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    11

    Naxos old town and beach adventures

    August 25, 2023 in Greece ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C

    The busses leave very irregularly from Naxos to Alyko so we just ~had~ to get brunch in town to fill in the time 😶 we also went for a wonder through the old town which was not quite as cool as Ano Syros but was still really funky!

    We took the bus to Alyko, an environmentally protected beach where sea turtles hang out (although we didn't see any 😔🐢) and there is a protected Cyprus pine forest. There was also a half built hotel from when a German company had started building without telling anyone and got caught half way through. It got jazzed up a bit when some famous street artists got together and did some murals all over the inside.

    After our swims we got the bus home and made pasta and salad for dinner which we enjoyed on our little balcony for our last night in Naxos 🤩    Read more

  • 1 Europe adventure plz
    Alfred is not a mastermind

    Naxos -> Santorini (last stop 😢🛑)

    August 26, 2023 in Greece ⋅ ☀️ 27 °C

    We finally had a respectably timed ferry so after a cruisey morning which included some of the best coffees we've had since we left from Nikos, and Alfred getting crushed at Mastermind (despite the most outrageous cheating attempt I have ever seen) we made our way to a very chaotic port and onto our last ferry!

    The ferry itself was the smoothest yet, we could look down for long enough to divide some baklava and we're getting really good at crosswords 🤓

    We spent the afternoon at the pool in our hotel and enjoying happy hour(s) at a restaurant by the beach in Perissa. A very relaxed start to the last stop on our trip ((:    Read more

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