Greek adventures

Rome was incredible, we visited the Vatican City as well as many museums, Borghese museum being Alex's favourite and Lara's the National museum of modern art. We were sad to leave it behind, as well as our new friend Lara Alex, who worked at the hostel we were staying at and Keith who worked at the ice-creamery and served us up the best gelati in a 6 euro super cone! We made our way to Corfu via Brindisi before catching the ferry (which alex loved) to the ionian island! There we were met by the very friendly Spyros who runs the family owned Sunrock cafe hostel. He even bought us our first authentic baclava, YUM! (Contrary to my mothers belief Alex and i are not yet the size of elephants, as we walk too much!) Sunrock was right on Pelekas beach, the view was stunning from the balcony were we were served delicious greek cuisine for breakfast and dinner; Moussaka, spit roasts, lamb roast and greek pancakes! We also met the very amiable Larry who was an old American hippy working there and greeted all new comers with "Welcome to paradise folks!". He took us on a lovely walk in the countryside into the less touristic village of Sinerades, where one of our fellow hikers got sick from eating too many of the delicious figs we picked along the way. Other than visiting the lovely Corfu town we spent our time at the lovely beaches, snorkelling and generally being beach bummers (not beached whales, we promise). We left with Larry's traditional farewell slogan; "real sorry to see you go folks, keep in touch now." Our intended journey to Paxi Island was cancelled at the last moment when we were informed that no boats were going to Paxi from Corfu. Impulsively we whipped open our lonely planet and randomly pointed to a region called Zagorohoria in a TINY village called monodendri which overlooks the Vikos Gorge, one of the largest in the world, 900m deep and is part of the Vikos-aoos National Park. On our arrival to our 40euro a night accommodation, we were quite surprised that our room was so decadently decked out, with an amazing view from our private balcony and a bathroom to die for (We won't mention the Corfu 'bathroom' experience!). Plenty of walks to keep us busy with our included buffet breakfast to keep us going, not to mention running away from Insane, man eating sheperd dogs. We'll elaborate; Alex was talking about how the LP guide mentioned that we may be lucky enough to come across semi nomadic vlach sheperds making their way with their goat and sheep to higher pastures (all very romantic). So with Lara's desperate desire to see a mountain goat, we got very excited when we heard 'goat bells' and we ran down to see them go by, this was a grat plan for about 10seconds, where we just got a glance of the first approaching goat, when one of the ferocious shepherd dogs spotted us and belted towards us with jaws opened, barking and slobbering like mad!!! We ran straight back up the road (we've never ran so fast in our lives) Alex trailing behind while Lara picked up many very large rocks to try and cover Alex's back in case the dog got into biting reach!! We thought we'd got to safe grounds until the man-eating dog and his other doggy friend (2!!not just one of them!!) Kept following us up the road! Eventually the flock went past and the dogs returned, we were safe but permanently scared shitless of goat bell sounds!!! So as we continued on our way home, just starting to see the funny sides of things (seeing we had all limbs still attached) it was a very unpleasant moment when we heard more bells!!!! Straight away we turned back the way we came, Alex worried we'd be caught in the middle of two shepherd flocks and their dogs! Finally, just as we decided to pick up some rocks and confront the danger a car came by which we practically jumped in front of, demanding them to take us to a safe place! Luckily they were a very friendly, english speaking Greek couple who had seen the flock before and understood our problem. We did run into the goat herd in front, luckily no dogs, although the male goats had very large horns and are apparently quite aggressive! All in all we got back safely, we decided we'd prefer to see tortoise (which we saw the day before), a much more peaceful experience!! Today we have arrived in Kalambaka, which is next to Meteora where monastries from the 11th century are perched ontop of very large boulders/pinnacles. Our legs hurt just from looking at what we will attempt to climb tomorrow. Now we are off to try our first real souvlaki, which are apparently on skewars not in wraps. We are here for three nights until we head to Athens, where our journey will sadly end. Love from Alex and Lara.

All roads lead to Rome...via Cinque Terre!!!!

Hello all!!! Been busy on the road so it's been a while, not to mention finding time on the internet. Where do we start? WELL...Marseille was good fun. We saw the Chateau d'if (being Count of Monte Cristo fans) but couldn't stop off due to rough weather but we managed to get to a neighbouring island, l'ile Frioul where there was an old fort area and crystal clear water. The sea was very salty and L was very happy because she 'never floated so well in her life!'. Lovely Anne laure lent us her appartment so we were able to cook some pretty delish meals with fresh salmon, merguez (spicy, yummy sausages) and plenty of nutella for breakfast!!! L also ate her first chocolate croissant for the trip!

From Marseille we jumped on a train to Genoa and eventually the coastal national park of Cinque Terre. The train ride took a whole day but the landscape was so amazing. We stopped in Nice and went through Monaco all along the coast seeing all the beautiful beaches and mountains. Cinque Terre is made up of 5 small villages. The houses are all tucked into cliffs and rocks surrounded by man made terraces of vineyards strecthing up the steep hills. We stayed in a hostel at Manarola. We walked to each of the villages on the first day, went up to the terraces the next day and hiked to Porto Venere, more to the south, coming back by ferry. We did SOOOO much walking and now our legs are in much pain! The walks themselves are not long but it can take up to 5 hours just to walk 10km because of the steep hills and terraces. It was also really hot, sweating non stop, but we were able to cool down in the sea on these things they call 'beaches'...more like rocks, concrete, black sand and cigarette butts. We mainly ate at the hostel, feeding on pizza, pasta and locally made pesto (veggie patches are quite an art up there)! The one night we did go out we quickly learnt the italian way where they charge for bread and water!!! But the fish (freshly caught) and desert were lovely. We also began our quest to find the best gelati, finding a little store where you could get 4 scoops for 2.50 euro!!! BARGAIN! Unfotunately we didn't get to go snorkelling (it's apparently really beautiful underwater) because of rough seas (again), we don't seem to have much luck with stormy weather!

Now we are in Rome, still walking lots and enjoying the warm weather. We started with the Colloseum, Palatine ane Roman Forums. Moved on to the Trevi Fountain, Pantheon and Spanish Stairs. But we still have plenty of museums to visit and gelati to eat. Last night we went to a piano concert in the open air (next to the ruined theatre). Afterwatrds we continued on our quest for gelati. We found a great shop where they have plenty of different flavours (fig/almonds/ricotta, dark choc and orange, vanilla and pine nuts just to name a few). It was twice the price compared to our little lady in 5 terre but (it's a big call) we may have found the best gelati ever!!!!!!!!!

We are here until Thursday before we make our way down to Greece, starting with Corfu island.

Hope you are all well and not too cold!

Love from L & A

Marseille

Hi all! Just a quick word because net time is limited. Lara arrived in Paris just this morning after a long journey {was very happy to see her!!}. She missed a plane due to fog and ended up staying a night in Moscow, was a bit of a worry as we had already booked our tix to head to Marseille where her cousin Anne Laure was waiting for us. But all is well and we are now in her cousins apartment, in the heat of Marseille about to have dinner! Didn,t realise the city was built on hills or that it would be so hot {the combination of which is not so comfortable when you have just come from rain in cooler Paris}. Looking forward to discovering the place with L. Will be here until Monday before making our way to Italy.

Love from A

Taizé

Hello! I''m feeling very tired tonight. Today I returned to Paris after the most amazing week in a christian retreat. It's called Taizé and it's hidden in the countryside in the south of France. The landscape is so beautiful, with farms, wineries, small villages, castles!!! Completely different to the busy life in Paris.

The Taizé Community was started by Brother Roger in the 1940s. It started as a place of safety for refugees fleeing the Second World War. Now, it is a place where thousands of people (mainly youth) from ALL over the world and from many different denominations congregate, with the guidance of the many Brothers who have given their lives to this community.

There was basically a lot of praying, discussing and reflecting in groups and individually. Three times a day there was 'Common Prayer' where the 5000 people staying at the community would head to the MASSIVE church to pray together. It was completely overwhelming seeing so many people and hearing us all sing together.

The accomodation and food was very simple but very well organised (catering for the masses!). Everybody takes part in cleaning bathrooms, preparing dinner, distributing food, washing up and everything else you can think of. I met some really wonderful people. In the photo are just some of the friends I made during the week (from Spain, Canada, England, America, Romania).

The girls in my dorm room were great fun. It was really nice to meet people from the other side of the world who had similar ideas and opinions and most importantly...didn't snore! From Germany to Senegal, New Zealand to Thailand, there was much diversity in the countries and cultures represented!!! It was an absolutely beautiful and relaxing experience, I'm so happy I decided to go!

I'll stay with Mamie for just a couple of days now before Lara arrives. Am very much looking forward to seeing her! We're leaving on Thursday for our journey. We will start in Marseille and then head to Italy, eventually making our way to Greece to catch a plane back to Paris!!! Don't know how much internet time I will have but I will try to keep you updated on where we're at.

Missing you all, please let me know what you're up to!

Love from Alex