Europe 2010 – Mykonos - Day 7

So... I woke up to see daylight streaming through the window which wasn't to the plan...  we were all meant to get up at midnight and go see Boy George DJ but we all slept through that. Gee we're fun.

We had a wonderful lazy day though starting off lazing by the pool. We decided to go down to the beach for lunch and had a delicious line up of Greek foods then we got a beach bed and lazed around.

A lady came round offering professional massages and Nancy said yes straight away. It only took me 2 minutes to see this woman in action and identify she was an excellent masseuse and I said I was next! It was wonderful.

I also broke the routine and did some physical activity. I swam the beach for 40 minutes and then returned to the beach bed to continue lazing...

Dinner that night was a wonderful fresh grill of seafood then we continued on for drinks - back to the Scandinavian Bar again. Where we were seated John was beside two 'lovely boys' from who were keen to engage John in conversation. At this point I'll divert to explain I'd told John prior to the trip that, being on a gay island, I should nickname him Stanford, after the gay male friend of the 4 girls in Sex In The City. Back on track, there's John merrily chatting away to his new male friends. Despite me singing out to John 'how's it going Stanford' my innocent husband didn't register. One then lent forward to John/Stanford and said "I see you're here with the ladies but are you really a true gentleman?". John looked puzzled for a long enough silence and he repeated "are you a gentleman, not a lady". There's me in the background singing out "Staaaanford" and then John clicked. Still to Johns true polite form the awkwardness was minimised by cheersing and friendly forgiveness for the misinterpretation.    

We had an excellent night chatting away to all those around us, going to the dance floor (me on the podium to bring back the good old days) and to finish the night off (at 4am) a delicious white nutella crepe

Europe 2010 – Mykonos - Day 6

Another lazy day...

We slept in until 10:30 (may have something to do with the 4:00am bedtime) then fogged our way down to breakfast.

After breakfast we did our 'warm up' relaxation and spent an hour by the pool before heading down to the beach area and catching a boat to one of Mykonos's most famous beaches, Paradise Beach. We got ourselves a beach bed each with umbrellas and settled in for some serious relaxing, the occasional swim, the occasional read and snacking. Surprisingly no naps for me today (may have something to do with the dozen naps I had yesterday!). Nancy and I also played a few games of Backgammon - Nancy won all 6 games.

Paradise Beach is a bit of a party beach with music pumping and bars lining the beach. Around 5pm the music was turned up, the bikini clad tabletop dancing girls hit the tabletops and the party kicked off complete with the 'Elephant Man'. This is a man who is paid to also dance on the table and encourages the crowd to dance and get up on the tabletops. He's called the Elephant man due to his "uniform" which is a red g-string with an elephants face at the front. His doodle is tucked into the long truck and its silhouette can be seen especially as he swings that trunk alternating between clockwise and anti clockwise. It was hideous.

We left the beach around 6pm to get the bus back to Mykonos town. Waiting for the bus Nancy and Jo identified two guys from a reality show. This is all news to me but there are men termed 'Guidos' who are known for over grooming in a tacky way and this reality show follows them around to catch their egocentric lives on film. The show is called 'Jersey Shaw'. I'm still in a bit of a grey area about the show but these super botox-ed, bright white capped teeth, superman looking guys were something else. On the bus they were announcing they don't work rather they 'maintain', they think Greek women aren't very good looking and can't comprehend why they're so stand-off-ish when they don't have money etc. Clearly, these guys liked attention and their method off getting it was to provoke responses to their controversial comments. All very weird.

We had an early (8pm) dinner in Mykonos town as the plan was to have a 3 hour nap then go out as Boy George is DJing here but guess who went to sleep, never woke up and missed the whole thing?! Me :( Damn Me!!!!!!

Europe 2010 – Mykonos - Day 5

Ahhhh relaxing...

We got up, had breakfast, found a pool chair beside the pool then I repeated this process: read, swim, sleep, eat... read, swim, sleep, eat... It was great. This was my day from 8am - 6pm.

Then I went to the hotel room for a nap :)

At 8:30 we headed out for dinner. We went into Mykonos town but couldn't really see where we were going as the island had a blackout. We found a restaurant by the sea and had some traditional Greek starters i.e. tzitziki, tarama, Greek salad followed by souvlaki for the mains. The blackout finished and we wandered the town (during this I stopped for a nutella crepe - so good) then we found a bar and had a few cocktails. The people watching was excellent. There's a lot of men here (gay island, makes sense) and the ratio of men to women is easily 10:1.

We missed the last bus to get back to the hotel so we got a cab, as we were leaving the cab driver started screaming out the window to another cab driver who was screaming back - both had arms flying around too. We discreetly asked Nancy what was going on as it was a tad scary. But apparently, they were simply planning to join each other for coffee later. I have been married to a Greek for years but clearly still haven’t adapted to the drama and voice decibels/inflection that come with planning/discussing routine events.

John, Jo, Nancy and I are all getting browner each day. John, Jo and Nancy alternate between baking and swimming throughout the day. I stay under the shade and apply a thick layer of fake tan nightly before bed. Its working, I'm keeping up!

Europe 2010 – Athens - Day 4

Hello from Mykonos,

Yesterday we had a delightful start to the day - a 4am wake up to head to the airport.

When we landed there was a bit of commotion where security (or maybe police) came onto the plane. What we could overhear was passengers were acting up and the staff at some point during the flight had said they would get security/police involved, if it continued and that's what happened. Two non amused greek security/police came on the plane, looked at the naughty passengers and said "do you speaka the greek" and then the passengers said in a heavy french accent "non engleesh" and then the chaos began with greek, french and  english all flying around between security, passengers and flight attendants. I have no idea how they problem solved as it was unclear who was asking/translating/responding etc. Every so often an announcement in broken english saying " we are sorry for the problems at the front"...    

At Athens, Jo and I had 5 hours to fill in before going to meeting John to then all go to Mykonos. We had ambitions to do the Acropolis, watch the changing of the guards at parliament then do the shopping strip (mainly for Zara). It was all very do-able 40 mins into town on the train then 3 hours for 3 activities. But, when we got to Athens... it ... was ... so ... hot. We did the Acropolis with sweat pouring off us then pretty much got on the train and went back to the airport. I don't think we smelt particularly pleasant.

John arrived safe and sound in Athens, complete with arm in cast freshly out of surgery.

When we arrived here at Mykonos of course seeing Nancy again was WONDERFUL!

We went for an amazing dinner down on the beach with a mix of traditional greek foods for starters then grilled seafood for mains.

As we were all a little tired we went to bed by 11 - its important to get a good night sleep to prepare for a day of relaxing at the beach :)

Europe 2010 – Paris - Day 3

So we went to the Lido last night http://www.lido.fr/us/ and of course loved all the costumes and entertainment. I've only seen one show at the Lido and one at Moulin Rouge but my opinion is Moulin Rouge maybe has more "bells and whistles" but the Lido has possibly better-looking performers and a bit more talent. I could be way off with that summary though. One's not better than the other just slight differences. Of course to get to the Lido we caught the metro to Place de la Concorde then walked up the Champs-Elysees. And after we took a few pics of the Arc de Triomphe by night - if the photos print out as well as they look on the viewing screen they're not bad pictures.

Today was another perfect day with Jo. We went to breakfast this morning on a cute little Place - Place La Contrescarpe here in the Latin Quarter near our hotel then continued on to the Mosquee De Paris. First we did a tour of the Mosquee De Paris http://www.mosquee-de-paris.org/ that was simple yet amazing - lushest of green garden in the middle of white walls... stunning tiling. We then went into their Hamman (Turkish steam bath) and did the steams, body scrub, massage and mint tea experience. Wonderfully relaxing! Then on site they have an eatery that specialises in Tajines (North African Stews) and we had a vegetable and chicken with couscous tajine, is was delicious.

We then walked down to the Islands and walked Rue St Louis - the ultimate in food shops and cute little gift stores. It was beyond wonderful - I was nearly giddy with glee! Anyone who loves food – must must MUST go there. I died and went to heaven... Fromagerie... Olive oil store ... Chocolate ... Mustards ... Fudge ... Fois Gras ... Ice cream (oh my god the Grand Marnier ice cream with the soaked orange rind pieces...)

After sort of eating my way down the street we purchased some cheese, nougat, olives then later got some bread and wine and had a picnic in a cute park that looks across to Notre Dame - Square R Viviani. We chatted away and enjoyed the life for at least an hour then headed back to the hotel.

As we came back we went through a lane that was highly touristic with a heck of a lot of Greek yiros places but also salsa dancing restaurants and lots of restaurants that had these gigantic skewers that had threaded on lamb cutlets, sausages, giant prawns all in sets of 3, there were other meats on there too (maybe chicken wings?). There were maybe 6 different meats in total on those skewers and the whole lane was bizarre. All popped up out of nowhere it seemed.

And that was our day!

Jo and I came back to the hotel and packed, fake tanned (Greece tomorrow!), and we're having an early night - kinda - 11pm bedtime.  

Notes to self - yes I've been to Paris 3 times but still so much more to see... Catacombes http://www.catacombes-de-paris.fr/english.htm .... The Perfume Museum ... Chanson Venues... I would be more than happy to come back again and again

Europe 2010 – Paris - Day 2

Today we started the day by doing a bike tour with Bike About - it was WONDERFUL. Last time we were here we went through Fat Tire Bike Tours http://fattirebiketours.com/paris/tours/paris-day-bike which was great for seeing all the tourist spots but it was soooooooo American (think Davinci Code extremists who think that book is the true story of the Louvre and participants who think a Boulangerie is the French version of Star Bucks). This time we did Bike About http://www.bikeabouttours.com/ which goes to places you don't necessarily know to go and see as a tourist.

It started at the 4th district at Le Marais (the swap) which is a trendy/Jewish/gay district. Here we saw St Gervais Church, and learnt a little bit about Jewish history. Also, saw a wall where all the people who helped hide the Jews during wartime were listed (2600 names)!

From there we peddled past Hotel de Sens known for the canon ball that's stuck to it and continued on stopping to see some of the wall that surrounded the original Paris. It’s now mostly destroyed and they've even lost track of the other remaining pieces of the wall surrounding nowadays as houses have been since built around them.

Next the tour went through a shopping spot Rue De Turenne (may go back if we have time) and Place Des Vosges (formerly known as Place de Royale) previously which was Louis-XIII's Palace and then it became apartments - one of which was writer Victor Hugo's. There's also a few offices there too including Issey Miyake's office.

Back on the bike again and past Jim Morrison's apartment where he lived and died - he's actually buried in Paris, interesting! 

On the bike again past The Bastille, along the Seine and the tour guide pointed out that along the river there's a nudist’s beach. Imagine that - nude in the middle of your city?!

There was an excellent view of Notre Damme so lots of pics were taken and we were shown the restaurant where Ratatouille worked - in real life it’s called La Tour D'Argent where dinner for 2 costs around 1000 euros. Bon Appetite!

The tour stopped for lunch in the Latin Quarter then headed onto to see The Louvre. The tour guide pointed out to us there is another entry that not many people knows about where there aren't the horrific lines - wouldn't you be annoyed if you'd joined that massive queue only to find out after that there's a sneaky side entry! If you stand at that Mini Arc de Triomphe and look right it’s just there.

Also, we may go back as there are stairs also beside that Mini Arc de Triomphe that go underground to a shopping centre apparently it’s called the Carousel or something? Sounds interesting.

Next, past the modern art museum and that was the tour!

It was only just past 2pm so we decided we'd then do Montmartre. So off we went... Of course we saw Basilique Du Sacre-Couer then headed up to Place Du Terte to watch all the artists at work. We then started to wind our way back down and came across a macaroon store - EXCELLENT! When we got to the base we walked down to Moulin Rouge then hopped on the metro and came back to the hotel to put our feet and legs up before heading out!

Tonight's Lido night!

Europe 2010 – Paris - Day 1

So I'm here!!!

Met Jo at the hotel and did a dance of joy that we made it here! This is the third time I've stayed at Hotel St Jacques http://www.hotel-saintjacques.com/ I wouldn't say we were tired but there was a bit of mutual fatigue so we decided to take it easy and head for Tour Montparnasse. Nothing like a nice hotel and Paris views for a little pick me up. Given its 210m tall and has the best view of the whole city, why try and find somewhere new. I asked the concierge if there is somewhere better for views and Tour Montparnasse is still the way to go - other option is on top of Galleries Lafayette but its not as tall.

At Tour Montparnasse we had 2 Kir Royals with Cassis each and absorbed the view and started to lay down some plans for the next few days. Ofcourse the plans are all around touristy things but we're also wanting to do things like go to the baths in the Mosque and be scrubbed and massaged... yes yes yes www.la-mosquee.com

After Tour Montparnasse we decided to stroll back to the hotel via Jardin du Luxembourg. I managed to find a chocolatiere on the way and of course bought some chocolate to enjoy. In the park we watched a game of patong and just strolled around.

Next we came back to where the hotel is and had a look at the Pantheon then traversed across to Rou Mouffetard which is a bussling street with lots of bars where the locals seem to 'hang'. We found a cute bar with 4E cocktails then continued on for a late dinner at Le Petit Prince - check out the menu www.lepetitprincedeparis.fr

Off to bed now, the aim being to get up and do a bike tour.

Europe 2010 – Plane - Day 0

Hello from the plane. Let me preface this by saying I think it's a bit silly when a travel diary starts on the flight but this is a story that can't go un-diarised.

It starts with the part where I'm in transit without my husband. John and I are meant to be going to Paris, meeting Jo then the three of us go to Mykonos to meet Nancy but that's not what's happened so far. Two weeks ago, John sustained an elbow injury at a Karate competition. Two days ago, we find out Johns elbow is broken and into surgery he goes to have the elbow manipulated back into place via metal plates. So revised plan is I go meet Jo in Paris, John joins us in Mykonos.

Now, at this stage the next question would be 'why isn't Jo on the same flight if you're going to Paris together' which is a good question and best answered by my trip on frequent flyer points 'rewarding' me for my patronage by making me fly Sydney to Paris via New York for a refuel. This is how flight issue no.1 came about. I didn't realise that me standing in an American airport while the plane is refuelled, required a visa. That's right, I don't even go as far as customs but I need a visa. 'Don't worry' said the lady at check in 'this happens all the time, go to that Esta counter over there to fill in a quick online form and a visa usually clears straight away but if it doesn't, your flight doesn't leave for 2 hours so you'll be 100% fine.' The application wouldn't clear for whatever reason. The same check in woman called the mothership of Esta (which was in Hawaii I think she said). But, no, can't clear a visa for me.

QANTAS put me on another flight, flight no.2. When I went to check in for that one, I was told "the call centre shouldn't have done that, your booking was logged 40 minutes before takeoff and all flights close 45 minutes before takeoff - sorry can't let you on". So I waited and waited.

Finally, I got a flight - Sydney to the UK with a connecting flight to Paris, Flight no.3. Flight 3 started as a success - it left on time. Then problem no.1, TVs weren't working therefore 9 hours of staring at a wall. There wasn't even a person sitting beside me, I had the row to myself, otherwise I would have forced some innocent person to exchange life stories with me. Problem no. 2, as we landed there was an announcement that the TVs not working were part of a greater electrical problem so we would not be getting back onto the same plane to go to the UK as  that one had to go in for repairs. Problem no 3 – the plane we were reallocated to, which was coming across from Perth, didn't arrive as when it was flying across Darwin a lady had a seizure. Due to the minimal medical resources available in Darwin, rather than take the woman to Darwin hospital they plane went back to Perth. Problem no.4 - By the time the Perth plane arrived for the UK, we were 3 hours behind schedule (which isn't too bad actually). However, my problem was I was meant to arrive in the UK and get on a connecting flight to Paris all within an hour. Not possible now to make that plane due to the late arrival time! Problem no.5 (you guessed it) I did arrive late in Heathrow and missed the Paris connection. So here, I sit waiting to board my revised flight connecting from UK to Paris.  If my luggage makes it to Paris at the same time I arrive this will be a miracle!