Hi there, we have once again been on the move a lot since I last wrote.
After Turkey we headed to Greece by ferry which once again reminded me that I don’t like boats! We started our time in Rhodes, which is the eastern most point of Greece. It was a nice little island with plenty of winding alleys, beaches and best of all, Gyros. Our next stop was meant to be Santorini, but as we were on the cusp of peak, the ferries were infrequent. We had to make our way there via Athens. If you know the Greek islands or look at a map, you will no doubt have a chuckle.
Athens was pretty much what we were expecting. A city of as much historical importance as Rome but without the prettiness. We did the main tourist trip, the Acropolis, other ruins, the 1904 Olympic stadium, the list goes on. All in all we had a fun time but were happy to head back to the Islands to finally reach Santorini.
Santorini is the quintessential Greek island. White walls with blue roofs, amazing sunsets and high prices. We splashed out for a place on the cliffs and really enjoyed it. After a few days relaxing it was back to Athens to catch our flight to Poland.
We landed in Katowice, but headed straight for Krakow. Krakow was everything you would picture when you thought of Europe. It was small, but had an amazing castle, the largest medieval square in Europe and very cheap prices. It was fun sitting in the square knocking back 12% beers for under a dollar. The other attraction (if you can call it that) was the Auschwitz museum which was 80kms away.
Auschwitz was the infamous concentration camp where most of the horrors of the holocaust took place. It was quite an educating, but also moving experience which was well worth it. We got to see the ruined gas chambers and incinerators and it was hard to believe that anything like them could actually ever have been used. Our tour also showed us the prisons and the piles of belongings. Like I said, it was interesting, but we never for a second forgot what it was that actually took place there.
From Poland we headed to Budapest, Hungary for a few days which was fun. It was interesting trying to recognise anything at all from my trip there when I was 11, but I often found myself pointing things out to Robs that I had been to before. Overall, Budapest had enough to keep us busy and we really enjoyed it.
From there it was off to Bratislava, Slovakia where we spent only one day. The day we had was enough to appreciate the differences from its surrounding countries. The main difference being their love of Ice Hockey. I would say they love it just as much as the English like their football, or the Americans like theirs (not soccer).
After Slovakia, we headed to Austria for a second time as we missed Vienna when we were last there. Vienna was an amazing city with both history and beauty, but most important of all, Spiderman 3 in English… Really though, the buildings, gardens and people were some of the nicest we have seen. The highlight was seeing a world class opera in the Stadtopera Theater for only €2. We had to queue for a few hours but it was well worth it.
I am running out of time so I will leave it there. I will send our last European post next week that will include the Czech Republic (which we absolutely loved), Berlin and Holland.
Till then, I hope you are all well and we will see you soon.
Cheers,
Glen and Robyn