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Avoiding the heat EU tour
  • Bec Moon
  • Phill Moon

Avoiding the heat EU tour

A 127-day adventure by Bec & Phill Read more
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  • Trip start
    September 4, 2023
  • Avoiding the heat EU tour
    1

    Departure day

    September 4, 2023 in Australia ⋅ 🌧 10 °C

    Today is the day!

    We spent the day packing and cleaning, and handed over the keys to a friend Amy who will be staying in our humble abode while we're galavanting across countries.

    The goodbye to the cats was bittersweet, but I only shed a tear or two before our lovely Uber (Aidan) drove us to the airport.

    Dropping off our bags was simple and quick; my bag came into a whooping 8.8kilos and Phills was 8.1kilos.

    We then had the luxury of spending 3 hours in the Emirates business lounge. Where we ate, drank and had a merry time away from the poor general population.

    Waiting for boarding now...

    Seeya in Dubai 👋    Read more

  • Avoiding the heat EU tour

    Flight to Dubai

    September 5, 2023 in the United Arab Emirates ⋅ ☀️ 31 °C

    Emirates has ruined Budget airlines for us both. Supplying a blanket and a pillow? Jetstar would never. And the food 👌

    We were lucky enough to book emergency exit seats, so we had leg space for days. We partook in a Bolognese dinner at 11:40pm (melb time) and popped antihistamines to help us sleep. Phill slept for about 4-5 hours and I got about 3. The 4:30am snack was a chicken and leek calzone which Phill missed as he was sleeping. Breakfast was served at and was very good - you can never go wrong with banana bread.

    Dubai airport is quite large, we enjoyed the introduction to a range of different cultures and takeout options!

    Seeya in Oslo    Read more

  • Avoiding the heat EU tour

    The adventure begins

    September 5, 2023 in Norway ⋅ 🌙 18 °C

    24 hours of transportation, and almost 46 hours with minimal sleep we have reached out first stop. The Wonderful Oslo.

    The plane ride was 6.5 hours and uneventful, but it was all worth it when we landed.

    We arrived midday local time with a sunny temperature of 24°, we caught a train from the airport straight into Oslo S the main station of the city. We checked into our accommodation at Citybox Oslo and enjoyed well deserved showers.

    Not letting the fact it was only early afternoon get us down we went on a walk and enjoyed the architecture and scenery of the cityscape. We watched a changing of the guards at the Norwegian Royal palace and Phill got yelled at for standing too close to the gate.

    Dinner was (Svinekoteletter) Pork chops with sauerkraut and Karbonademiddag (Steak of minced meat). At an interesting hole in the wall bar where the lady behind the bar gave off an intimidating scary Grandma vibes but was very accommodating at the same time.

    The night wrapped up with our first load of washing (our airplane clothes) and brainstorming our first full day.

    Step count for day 1:
    Bec: 22,800
    Phill: 22,800    Read more

  • Avoiding the heat EU tour

    Big Boat Bonanza

    September 6, 2023 in Norway ⋅ ☁️ 16 °C

    The day started slow, with the realization that Norwegians don't really have breakfast and a good chunk of cafes don't open up until 10am.

    We headed towards City hall and boarded a ferry to Bygdøy for a day of exploring some museums. First stop was Norsk Folkemuseum, which is one of Europe's largest open air museums and consists of a range of historical Norwegian buildings from the 1100s to the 1960s.
    My favorite building was the Gol stave church, Phills was the historical farmsteads and all the wood carvings on the buildings. After spending a few hours walking around we headed to a cafe to finally have a bite to eat and a well earned coffee: only to be disappointed that the coffee (that we paid almost $5aud each) came out of a machine and was tepid, the pastries weren't a letdown and were thoroughly enjoyed.

    Our next stop the Flam museum. We saw 2 very impressive boats that were used in Arctic exploration and learnt alot about their travels. This museum was more interesting than I expected, the building itself was actually constructed around the boat!

    The final museum of the day was the Norwegian Maritime Museum where we saw a viking boat from 900ad as well as Norway's oldest boat - which was just a hollowed out tree stump.

    The day concluded with more exploration of the city and pizza for dinner.

    Seeya in Flåm.

    PS. the seagulls seem to be bigger here?

    Bec steps: 24,000
    Phill steps: 23,000    Read more

  • Avoiding the heat EU tour
    122

    Flåm bam thank you ma'am

    September 7, 2023 in Norway ⋅ 🌙 15 °C

    Today began by catching a train outta Oslo at 6:00am. On this train journey we went along Flåmsbana which was a 60 minute train ride known for being one of the most beautiful in the world. The claim did not disappoint, puffing billy will never be the same in our eyes after what we saw today.

    After getting off our 6 hour train journey of beautiful views and interesting conversations with Americans, we arrived in the town of Flåm. The small townstead was filled to the brim with tourists, but we got to try whale, reindeer and Moose salami.

    We then took a 25 minute electric bus ride to Stegastein viewpoint which is a 30 meter long and 4-meter wide platform 650 meters above sea level, with panoramic views of the Aurlandsfjord, Aurlandsvangen, and the mountains. Our lovely tour guide Peter gave us some interesting facts about the living situation in Norway and talked about the amount of crashes he's seen on the road we were taking.

    The night ended with a beer tasting tray in Ægir brewery and a pizza while taking in our stunning surroundings, and piggy pats back at our quaint accomodation.

    Seeya tomorrow Flåm!

    A modest walking day with 15,000 travelled each    Read more

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    2

    The raid of Gudvangen

    September 8, 2023 in Norway ⋅ ☁️ 14 °C

    Today was a calm and slow paced day. We started it off by catching a bus through an 11km tunnel to a nearby town of Gudvangen.

    In this sleepy town they have the Viking town of Njardarheim which is an authentic village that shows how the Vikings lived 1,000 years ago. The workers weren't in 'dress up', they live and trade in the village according to history and all things sold at the village are made by hand and according to traditional ways.

    Lots of things were learnt about Scandinavian history and the career that was Vikings.

    Bec stumbled and fell into a chair where she received a historical Scandinavian stick and poke hand tattoo and Phill wowed the village ladies with his ace throwing skills.

    The day ended with packet soup and end of day rolls in preparation for an exciting cruise of the fjords tomorrow.

    Seeya in Voss!

    Phill steps: 13,000
    Bec: unknown    Read more

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    23

    From the bottom to the top

    September 9, 2023 in Norway ⋅ ⛅ 14 °C

    This morning we said goodbye to Flåm and our friend Shadow the pig.

    The morning started off with a mini hike around the area and by us visiting a very riveting train museum, which outlined the history of the railroad.

    We then boarded an electric cruise boat for a 2 hour tour through the Nærøyfjorden Fjord that links Flåm and Gudvangen. This cruise was absolutely stunning, we both can still not comprehend the scale and beauty of this country.

    We then had 3 hours to kill before our bus to Voss, we wandered around the town, partook in a tasty lunch and aimlessly walked around multiple souvenir shops even if we had no room to buy anything.

    The bus ride to Voss was also very scenic, which made the hour trip pass by quite quickly. Once we arrived at our destination we checked into our first 6 bunk shared hostel room - which has been an experience...

    We then took an electric gondola 818 meters up onto a mountain and explored what felt like a completely different country in itself.

    Dinner was a supermarket salad and a shared roll, let's see how we sleep tonight..

    Goodnight, hope the bed buds don't bite..

    Step count:
    Phill: 18.6k
    Bec: 18.4k    Read more

  • Avoiding the heat EU tour

    Breakfast included

    September 10, 2023 in Norway ⋅ ☁️ 17 °C

    I know we left yesterday on a cliffhanger - no bed bugs bit us while we slept, but we did share a room with 2 middle aged men who snored a symphony.

    We had our first included breakfast; so as you can imagine we both had 4 pieces of toast and plenty of meat cuts, cheeses and fruits so we could save money and skip lunch.

    After checking out we had a 3 hour wait until our train to Bergen. We made quick video calls to our respective families and ventured further into this sleepy ski town. We made the discovery that nowhere is open on Sundays, including most of the convenience stores - so lucky we gorged ourselves at breakfast.

    We had a slight hiccup with our train, so we had to buy new tickets, but it worked out as we were able to catch an earlier train rather than sitting around waiting. We boarded and caught the 1.5 hour train to Bergen, our last new Norwegian town.

    Once we arrived and checked into our hostel, we caught up on laundry and went for an initial expository walk, it started to rain so some snacks were acquired and we ventured back into the hostel to snack and lounge around for a bit.

    After eating too many chocolates and chips we went for a dusk walk to see this beautiful town at night, we ended up getting distracted with every new street we found (including stumbling across the shortest street in Bergen - Phill was excited about that) and ended up walking for almost 2 hours, before we decided to head back to rest for a historical walking day tomorrow.

    Step count
    Both: 24,400    Read more

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    More then we Bergened for

    September 11, 2023 in Norway ⋅ 🌧 14 °C

    Today started with a sleep in, both of us getting out of bed at 8am 😮 we wrangled ourselves over to Godt brød (good bread) a cafe franchise we'd been seeing for the past week and enjoyed some fresh pastries and coffee before we set off on a site seeing adventure.

    First stop was Berganhus fortress, which is when the rain began. We had a fun time frolicking the cobblestone paths and exploring these buildings from the 1700s while it was slightly spitting before we moved to the Bryggen Hanseatic wharf, which has more buildings from the 1700s that looked like a colourful Diagon alley.

    Then came lunch, we ventured into the fish market so Phill could finally enjoy his Bergen soup - a creamy fish soup, plus a side of fish cakes. Considering this is a coastal town this soup cost us a house down payment, but was indeed creamy and delicious.

    We continued to explore and stopped in at a shopping center - here we made the executive decision to buy a brolly. Let me tell you, this was the best decision to date.

    We continued frolicking all over the town when it started to bucket down with rain, we didn't let this stop us though - we pushed through the squelching of our shoes and saw the sites we wanted.

    As soon as we arrived back at our dry and warm hostel we threw our clothes in the dryer. While that was drying we ran to the closet co-op and bought snacks for our 7 hour train ride tomorrow.

    The laundry was then done so we ventured into the kitchen to cook up our pasta. The kitchen was full so Phill stayed there to cook and made friends with a Belgium man who gave Phill a bowl of his curry.

    We sat down to eat with our new friend and got talking to another lady who was from the Netherlands. The main topic was national foods. According to the internet Australia's national foods are Pav (sorry Michelle), avacado toast and meat pies.

    After the very important discussions concluded we faced the rain again in search for a cocktail and an ice cream before getting back to hairdryer our shoes in hopes they dry before tomorrow.

    Seeya back in Oslo,

    Step count
    Both: 25k    Read more

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    Chicken a day keeps the sickness away

    September 12, 2023 in Norway ⋅ ⛅ 9 °C

    Today was a slow day, we said goodbye to rainy Bergen and jumped on a train for 7 hours to Sunny Oslo.

    The train ride was smooth with no delays, the only qualm was that the people surrounding us kept coughing, as Phill so eloquently said "It's like a hospital ship, but without the morphine"

    Once we arrived we made our way to our hostel, dumped our things and went for a walk to make up for the long day of sitting around.

    We stumbled across a 'viking garden' which outlined herbs and plants that were grown way back when. After this mini history lesson we had some fried chicken for dinner, and on our way back to the accommodation we found a taco van so which Phill was excited about because apparently Norway is big on tacos?? It was good too.

    After the walk we went back to the hostel and watched Futurama until bed time.

    Final day in Norway tomorrow.

    PS. Our shoes have not yet dried

    Step count
    Both: 14,100    Read more

  • Avoiding the heat EU tour

    Interlude I - Takk for nå Norge

    September 13, 2023, Skagerrak ⋅ 🌬 16 °C

    This final morning in Norway started cheerily - we awoke to the feeling of dried shoes. On this high note, we skipped out of our hostel in search of some caffeine.

    We stopped at another franchise we've been eyeing off, and they had the elusive iced coffee (Bec was having withdrawals) while we planned our day.

    We hiked towards Akershus Fortress, built in the 13th century as a medieval royal castle, that is now being used as a military training academy. After a few hours of exploring the cobblestoned walkways, tunnels and Bec acting as a bad travel guide with her information sheet we headed towards the port to catch our ferry.

    We arrived at the port, went through customs and waved goodbye to Norway as we sailed towards our second country!

    Dinner was an all you could eat buffet, and boy - did we eat all we could. We wound the night down in the ferry 'nightclub' playing shuffleboard and hoped that our bunk beds don't collapse on us overnight.

    Seeya in Copenhagen.

    Step count
    Both: Around 20,000    Read more

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    Copen-HEY-gen

    September 14, 2023 in Denmark ⋅ ☁️ 14 °C

    Today we awoke to the sounds of construction under our level on the ferry, but thankfully the top bunk didn't collapse. We pulled ourselves out of bed and enjoyed an all you can eat breakfast, where Phill singlehandedly ate more danish pastries then there are Danish citizens.

    After debarkation, we started exploring immediately, our first stop Kastellet - a star shaped 17th century fortress with ramparts and a museum. After getting distracted with some other sites we then made it to Amalienborg, which is made up of four identical rococo buildings that have made up the royal Family's residence since 1794. At this time we'd been hiking around with our packs on for 4 hours and we were ready for a break, so we headed to our hostel and dropped the bags in a locker before heading to a walking tour. Politically incorrect walking tours was the name of the walk, and it was 1.5 hours of our tour guide Thor (his name translated to English was Thors hammer shaft) explaining sites and the history while dissing every other country he could.

    After the tour we headed to finally check on to our hostel. Tonight is another shared bunk room, so hopefully our roomies are more pleasant then our previous experience.

    We had a pizza buffet for dinner, then went to the in-house bar for a pub quiz, where we didn't do amazingly thanks to the US based questions.

    We finished the night off with a late night walk to finally hit 30k steps.

    Step count
    Phill: 32,000
    Bec: 31,470    Read more

  • Avoiding the heat EU tour
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    Royal flush

    September 15, 2023 in Denmark ⋅ ☁️ 16 °C

    Today started off with an iced coffee and a venture around Rosenborg Castle, one of the most well preserved Renaissance castles in the world, it was built in 1606 and was absolutely stunning - definitely lifted our expectations for our future residence. Down below the castle in the basement it contained many treasures and the impressive crown jewels and historical weapons of Denmark which were on display.

    We then headed to The Round Tower (Rundetaarn) which is a 17th century tower that boasted some nice views from the top, and what was more impressive was that it had a equestrian staircase - which is just a slope rather than stairs.

    After looking at the tops of houses, we had a roll and some stolen Nutella for lunch while we battle planned our next move.

    The travel card we purchased to give us free entry to all the attractions also gave us entry to Guinness World Records Museum, which we thought would be a nice palette cleanser from all the old history we'd seen so far.

    After seeing some current history facts, we decided to head to another castle. This time we ventured to Christiansborg Palace, and the first stop here was checking out the ruins under the castle of what remained from the previous 2 castles (both burnt down?) We also checked out the royal stables, the royal kitchen and the Royal Representation Rooms (which are still used by the royal family) where we had to don some fancy shoe coverings.

    After looking at more old things we got peckish and had a national Danish dish - the Smørrebrød, which is just an open faced sandwich on rye bread. Phill has been rating national foods we try so maybe at the end of each country we'll have a section at the bottom with his ⭐ ratings.

    Also included on our city card was an hour ferry tour of Copenhagen, so we jumped on a boat and saw all the sites. Including the famous little mermaid statue. Apparently the writer of the book H.C Anderson is Denmarks most famous citizen, so they love to reference mermaids.

    The sun had started to set by this time and it was getting cold, so we headed back to the hostel to get our jackets before we headed out for our nighttime stroll and snack.

    Tonights snack was expensive disappointing chips and churros with white chocolate, Oreos and ice cream.

    Last day in Denmark tomorrow!

    Step count
    Both: 31k    Read more

  • Avoiding the heat EU tour
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    Interlude II - Goodbye Scandinavia

    September 16, 2023 in Denmark ⋅ ☀️ 18 °C

    Our final day in Denmark started with a breakfast buffet, we then packed up our hostel pods and realized we didn't have many clean socks left and decided to do some laundry. While our clothes were washing we headed to the Lego store to browse some overpriced colourful plastic.

    Once our clothes were clean and dry we headed for a day of carnival fun at the 19th century amusement park: Tivoli Gardens.
    The first ride we partook was the 63m golden Tower, which was just a ride to the top to drop straight down - with the adrenaline pumping we knocked out some other rides, including a looptoloop rollercoaster and a 80m high carousel.

    As a post adrenaline snack we enjoyed a fairy floss icecream burrito... it was as strange and messy as it sounds.

    Once we had enough of the crotch goblins running around and fun we headed to another free activity, Ripley's believe it or not! And the attached H.C Anderson Experience. This was a fun way to pass the time.

    We gathered some snacks for dinner and headed back to the hostel to eat and enjoy some free beer.

    We went for another walk before preparing to catch our 9:55pm bus which will take us overnight with an arrival to Berlin at 7am tomorrow.

    Seeya in Berlin!

    Step count
    Both: Around 23k    Read more

  • Avoiding the heat EU tour
    12222

    The land of beer and pretzels

    September 16, 2023 in Denmark ⋅ 🌙 17 °C

    So the overnight bus was interesting... Was it cheap for transport as well as "accomodation?" Yes. We boarded just before 10pm and immediately popped one of our magical anti-pollen sleeping tablets and dozed off.

    We were awoken at midnight by the bus driver telling us to get off the bus because we had to go upstairs on a ferry so we could cross the Baltic sea. After our fun 45 minute ferry we hoped back on our merry way, trying to fall back asleep to be awoken at 4am by a scary German lady demanding to see our papers.

    After we were deemed acceptable to enter this fair country we 'napped' until 7am when we could disembark.

    We caught the tube to our accommodation, dropped off our bags and headed to a 3.5 hour walking tour. The tour was great, it gave us a brief rundown on the history of Germany and explained Checkpoint Charlie, Bebelplatz, where the Nazis burned banned books in 1933. Spent some time strolling along the Berlin Wall, and then stopped at the Topography of Terror Museum, situated at the former Gestapo and SS Headquarters.

    We also saw the end of a climate prostest where 14 people were arrested for vandalising Brandenburg gate, as well as gluing themselves to the floor. So there was lots of Polizei around and the pillars were nice and colourful.

    After our tour we decided to try a German delicacy - Currywurst. After refueling we headed back to the hostel to finally check in. For a few nights we are staying at a Space capsule hostel. So our pod is like a mini spaceship.

    We relaxed in bed for an hour trying to find the energy to not sleep as we were both tired so we decided to go for a little walk.

    The walk ended up being much longer than expected and ended with drinks and shaved iced by the river.

    Hopefully tonight we sleep well in outer space because after last night we are both exhausted.

    PS. How many pretzels can one eat respectfully? I wouldn't want to overdo it...

    Step count
    New record 🎉
    Both: 35.6k    Read more

  • Avoiding the heat EU tour
    12

    Anyone got a euro?

    September 18, 2023 in Germany ⋅ ☁️ 19 °C

    After awaking late in spaceship pod - which is super hot and uncomfortable. We started the day walking around the Mall of Berlin.

    We made our way to Topography of terrors and then decided to check out one of the museums on museum island. Although apparently museums are closed on Mondays??

    So we ate away our problems with our first fast food lunch: Five Guys. It was a chain we'd been both wanting to try and it was great! For lunch desert we got a pretzel 🥨

    It started to drizzle rain at this point, which we enjoyed because it had been around 27° and the sun was spicy on our necks as we walked around. We frolicked in the rain to the East Side Gallery.

    After looking at parts of a wall we headed further east to check out some of the more 'cultural' parts of Berlin - the nightclub area.

    After a little boogy we headed back to the spaceship and refueled at the local Lidl (it's literally just Aldi, so we'll have to check out their Aldi soon)

    Step count
    Both: 33k

    PS. Paying for a water closet is a travesty 🚽    Read more

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    3

    Eating our feelings

    September 19, 2023 in Germany ⋅ ☁️ 18 °C

    Today was a bit of a slow one.

    We had a quick video call with respective families on our way to Gedenkstätte und Museum Sachsenhausen. A concentration camp a 50 minute train ride away. It was in use from 1936-1945 and then a Soviet special camp from 1945-1950 once "liberated".

    We spent the most part of the day there learning about the history and the atrocities that were carried out.

    When we got back to the city center we had an emotional support doner kebap and chips and headed back to the hostel to pack and prepare for our 6am train tomorrow morning.

    Just before bed we decided to run out and grab a icecream snack, because who doesn't need sugar before trying to sleep?

    Seeya in Munich!

    Steps
    Both: around 23k    Read more

  • Avoiding the heat EU tour

    A sea of Trachten

    September 20, 2023 in Germany ⋅ ☁️ 16 °C

    Today we awoke at the ungodly hour of 4:30 to prepare for our train at 6am from Berlin to Munich. We spent 4 hours on the train and once we arrived we went about our main quest finding our traditional Bavarian garb.

    We spent a good couple of hours finding the right outfit for the right price. Once we found the right pieces we had a quick lunch and headed to our campsite. It was a bit out of the way - a train then a bus but we arrived at the tranquil grounds (lie: theres a dj booth and a bar 20m from our tent). We enjoyed some of the included sangrias and beers and prepared for our first night of Oktoberfest.

    We got to the Oktoberfest grounds and went on some rides and spent some time exploring the tents before finally sitting down in a seat and ordering some beers. Along with our beer we also got dinner; Phill a pork knuckle and Bec some bratwurst. We got chatting with some locals and enjoyed some tales.

    After a while we headed back to the train to get back to our accommodation and spent some time at the after party speaking to some Danish friends. We headed to bed early(ish) for a full day of Oktoberfest fun tomorrow.

    Step count
    Both: 31k    Read more

  • Avoiding the heat EU tour
    21

    Oktoberfest 🥨

    September 21, 2023 in Germany ⋅ ☀️ 23 °C

    Well the tent sleeping next to a party on a campground filled with a hundred people went about as well as you'd expect. We pulled ourselves out of bed and enjoyed the included breakfast and got ready to partake in a full day of Oktoberfest festivities.

    We arrived and went straight to a beer tent and enjoyed some lunch. Phill got a Ochsenfertzensemmel (Pulled Ox sandwich) and Bec got a taster platter. After this we explored the very large grounds again before settling into another tent where we met some nice Germans, Italians and questionable Americans that kept trying to get us to sing with them.

    The day progressed and a few more tents were visited and friends made. We ended the adventure with Phill getting his Wiener schnitzel and Bec getting her Apple strudel before making our way back to the campgrounds.

    Seeya in Athens!

    Step count
    Both: 22k    Read more

  • Avoiding the heat EU tour
    112

    Greek food: my Achilles heel

    September 22, 2023 in Greece ⋅ ☀️ 22 °C

    After another delightful sleep we awoke to rain and the cold. We packed, partook in free breakfast and headed to the airport.

    The transport to the airport was about an hour in total, then 2.5 hours waiting to board before a 3 hour flight. Today was lots of waiting.

    Once we touched down at 4:30pm local time we headed to the hotel, dumped the bags and went for a wander in the 30° heat and went to dinner at a location that was suggested to us.

    Dinner was enough food to feed an entire army, but was as good as we'd expected for traditional cuisine.

    We're very excited to explore tomorrow because what we've seen so far is just as we'd hoped.

    Now to sleep in a bed and a room that's not shared with 4 other people and has an AC and a kettle for a cuppa!! ☕ straight luxury

    Step count
    Both: 14k    Read more

  • Avoiding the heat EU tour
    221

    Fresh socks

    September 23, 2023 in Greece ⋅ 🌙 26 °C

    We had a slow start to the day which was wonderful - we got up, checked out of our hotel and trekked to the closest laundromat so we finally had access to clean socks again.

    We headed to the new hotel to drop off the bags before exploring more of Athens.

    We had a late afternoon dessert in a cool Halloween themed restaurant/alley called little Kook which was a fun detour, we headed back to the hotel to check in and meet with our tour group.

    The information session went for a few hours and outlined what we'd be doing over the next week. After we polished off a few complimentary cocktails we went for our late night walk of the old town, where we explored the markets and the oldest house in Athens.

    The tour officially starts tomorrow, lots of exploring and things to come!

    Step count:
    Both: 25k    Read more

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    11

    Pictures, Poros and Pistachios

    September 24, 2023 in Greece ⋅ ☁️ 25 °C

    Today was the first official day of our tour. So we enjoyed our early breakfast buffet and got on a bus to the port where we boarded the awaiting ferry.

    The first port was Hydra, it was a lovely introduction to Greece islands and the amount of stairs they involve. We climbed aimlessly and Bec took photos of all the cats we crossed paths with. After 2 hours we headed back aboard towards our next stop Poros.

    On the way to our next destination we enjoyed the included lunch buffet, which consisted of some incredible salads, pasta and fish.

    Once we arrived at Poros we took copious amounts of stairs to reach a clocktower with amazing views of the island and the surrounding areas and enjoyed 'coffee with ice cream' which was an affagato in a takeaway cup which was 👌👌

    The final island Aegina had 2 important aspects we wanted to explore: The temple of Apollo and pistachios. We first ventured to explore the ruins, after looking at some rocks and marble from 450bc we went into the township in search of the most important thing of the day - pistachio ice cream, which we found, devoured and thoroughly enjoyed.

    We again jumped on the ferry and made our way back to Athens. Overall it was a 14 hour cruise exploring and we enjoyed ourselves.

    Tomorrow we officially take off in the bus to explore more of Greece

    Step count
    Both: 15k (slow day)    Read more

  • Avoiding the heat EU tour
    211215

    A ruin-ed holiday

    September 25, 2023 in Greece ⋅ 🌙 24 °C

    This morning the tour started by taking us to the Acropolis and the Pantheon. We fought our way through the massive crowds and toured the top of the city. The views and ruins were as impressive as we had hoped - and our tour guide gave us more information about the history and the myths surrounding its creation and partial destruction.

    We hopped on our coach and then headed to some other major sites in Athens, including the Panathenaic stadium - which was very impressive. I would not have liked to participate in sports there, it may be beautiful but it was hot.

    We then ventured to our next destination, stopping at the Corinth canal and then in a small town for lunch, where we enjoyed stolen rolls and from our breakfast buffet and a bought affagato.

    We finally got to our accommodation in Nauplia; Greece's first capital city. We had 2 hours before we needed to gather for our dinner adventure so we decided to go for a walk around this beautiful town. On our travels we walked towards a hill in which the fortress of Palamidi sits, we got to the base and thought 'why not, we can do this without water, sun protection and in a dress' 999 steps later we definitely earned our dinner.

    We got to the top and realized we didn't have enough time to spend the 18 euros to enter the actual fortress, so we walked straight back down the stairs towards our hotel to shower off the sweat.

    We had a group walking tour around the town with our guide and learnt more about the history before jumping on a boat to see the fortress and the island a little better. Once we disembarked we headed to an included 3 course dinner (with wine) where we ate with our travel companions and was serenaded by lovely Greek men playing guitars and smoking.

    After we ate too much we went for a late night walk through the laneways and headed back to the hotel for a good sleep before more sight seeing tomorrow.

    Today's steps
    Both: 17k    Read more

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    2111

    My-seen-it

    September 26, 2023 in Greece ⋅ ⛅ 20 °C

    Our first stop after leaving our accommodation and breakfast today was Epidaurus where we visited an ancient open air theater that was built in 400BC and has remained unchanged since 200BC. Due to its incomparable acoustics, the actors can be perfectly heard by all the 15,000 spectator seats.

    We then headed to our next stop which was The archaeological sites of Mycenae and Tiryns which are the ruins of two major cities of the Mycenaean civilization, which was prominent from the 15th to the 12th century B.C. and played a vital role in the development of classical Greek culture, with it being linked to the Iliad and the Odyssey.

    After these sites we headed on the bus to our lunch stop where we enjoyed 'cheese bread' which was just pastry stuffed with 3 different kinds of cheese. Not far from where we had lunch we stopped again at a pottery warehouse where they showed and taught us how the ancient Greeks made pots and how they recreate/maintain the pots for museums.

    After 2 more hours of driving we finally arrived at Sparta. Here we walked around the ruins of ancient Sparta and saw a statue of Leonidas, his tomb, and the town's Acropolis. Phill very much enjoyed this as he would keep kicking things yelling 'This is Sparta!!'

    Dinner was included at the hotel, so we enjoyed our 3 course traditional meal of pasta, pork and a dessert I cannot name. We headed up to the room to watch the movie 300 while Phill drank a beer called 'Sparta'

    Step count
    Both: 20k    Read more

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