Funny Moon

It seems like ages ago now but I must report on our honeymoon, or "Funnymoon" as we were calling it - because we had such a larf! We had an amazing time. Look at the pictures. How could you not have an amazing time? First stop was Athens (see Jose Ramon pretending to be a statue) where we took in the Acropolis and other age old sites and visited the Greek Museum of Archeology. The cultural/historic side of Athens is very interesting. The ancient centre called Plaka is lovely and the ruins very impressive, but anything "modern" is just a disaster - a real dump (apart from the olympic stadium and new metro). The metro is worth a mention actually. People must be very honest in Athens. Their system would NEVER work in London. You buy your ticket, at the counter or from a machine, much like in London, but then in order to reach the platforms there are just a couple of machines dotted around in which you are supposed to insert your ticket to validate it (stamp a date and time on it) for your journey. There is nothing physically stopping you from (A) just walking straight past these validation machines, nor (B) not bothering to buy a ticket in the first place. When you leave a station - you don't need to pass anything through anything. So your only enemy is a human inspector coming on to the train and cheking your ticket. Well any fool knows the odds against that happening. They'd never take any money if it was London. Anyway, I digress .....

The Hilton was our home for the three nights we were in Athens and it is worth a visit even if you are not staying thre just for the view that it has from its top floor bar/restaurant. It has the best views in all of Athens - straight across to the Acroplolis (which is floodlight romantically at night as if it were a prop in a RSC production on stage). The restaurant and bar are impressive in themselves, if not a bit pricey, in fact a lot pricey ...but never mind - a mojito is a mojito.

Fira, the capital of Santorini (a Greek island) is a picturesque place that is almost too perfect to be believable. You could almost start to suspect that the Americans had spent billions and copied a greek style and created a paradise. But no, its real. Genuine authentic old style Greece. We stayed in an original dwelling carved into the rock face - as most of the buildings there are - with views striaght over the water to the crater of the volcanoe. Amazing. Every single day we gazed out from our terrace as though it were the first time we had seen the view. You just can't get used to it. Its too perfect to assimulate and take as the norm. Of course, the restaurants on the front line with a similar view also know the value of this vista and so prices at such spots can be very expensive, but defintely worth it at least every other night.

We hired a little smart car - the one in the picture - and I did all the driving (to give Jose a rest from normal life). It was a really cute way to get around. The roof came down and it was automatic so you felt like you were in a futuristic supermarket trolley or something like that. The island is only about 15 km by 3 km so we went to every village and beach that featured on the noddy map and really got to know the place. The best two authentic villages are Fira and Oia. Both absolutely gorgeous. The best beaches are Kamari and Perissa. Kamari is more established and has a front line of restaurants and tourist shops etc. Perissa seems to be only just getting going and is heading in the Ibiza direction will cool bars and funky beds on the beach with live dj's pumping out the tunes (some considerably more talented and aware of the music scene than others!). All beaches are black sand - because its volcanic. So, you know what that means! Burning burning burning. You can't put your foot on the sand for even 2 seconds - well not during August anyway.

I ate like there was no tomorrow. The food was heavenly. I'm veggie (as most of you know) and I was overjoyed at the selection. I think thats because I ahve been in Spain so long and so I was happy not have a massive leg of ham dangling over my head. Also I think the island was more veggie friendly than the main land would be due to the fact that they ahven't got any animals there! Anyway, whatever the reason - I loved it and I put on half a stone and so did my hubby. I've lost it again now but I'd be happy to put it on again if it meant I could be eating that food for a few more weeks.

Although Perissa is heading towards funky clubland, it is by no stretch of the imagination a spot to attract world ravers yet. Fira is the only place you can go out at night. Perissa has dancing on the beach and cocktails whilst still in your bikin but all of this seems to happen between about 6 and 9pm. Then people go home, lie down, get changed, go out for dinner and if they want to dance all night - go to Fira. We were staying in Fira and it seems that the best nights to go out are the nights when you can see that there are a couple of cruise ships in the water - as the population of the place mulitplies up noticeably. Santorini is full of Australian travellers, Mexican and North American cruise ship holidayers and people from mainland Greece. I hardly ever heard British English.

All in all a totally recomendable island. When is my next holiday? ........oh yes this Sunday! Ha ha. We are hopefully going to Colombia on Sunday. I say "hopefully" because I am currently in the middle of a ridiculous administrative cock up between Spaniar's office in Barcelona airport and a travel agency in Colombia which is resulting in that Spaniar won't physically give me my tickets, although I have paid for them, until the Colombian agency give them some sort of techincal information. Technial information! Bothered! Just give me the tickets and fight between yourselves over stupid codes. I've paid they are mine! Watch this space as to whether this gets resolved.

S xx