Italy-Roma

Well it's getting to be a bit of a habit where I have not updated much and end up writing what we have done over a 2-3 weeks period in one go.....sorry.

Well we landed in Roma (Rome) and went straight out to the main train station as this is where all the cheap accommodation is (according to the lonely Planet Guide). By the time we get there it is about 9pm at night and trying to find anywhere to stay is looking less and less likely :-( We finally find this dorm place that some Indians are running 25Euro each per night....grrrrrr. No the best looking place that's for sure. Well a bed is a bed.

Later that night we meet an Aussie (Steve) that had moved to Italy for to be married (earlier that night the poor bugger had found out his soon to be wife wanted to break up), he was out having a couple with some Italian friends . After a few beers we soon had them inviting us out tomorrow night for dinner at a true Italian restaurant. We could not say no :-)

The next day we got up and went to the Vatican City. It was very very amazing. Being that it was so close to Easter there were ton's of people. The queue to get into the Vatican was taking somewhere in the area of 2-3 hours so we took some photos and made our way to the Sistine chapel. We stood line for about an hour and paid our 12 Euros... we were in. Now I thought that queue could just have a quick walk down to the place with the painting on the roof and make our way out.....Wrong oh so wrong. This place is massive as well. We walked for about 45 mins just looking at statues, painting more statues more painting and we were still miles away.

We made the democratic decision to skip the next hour’s worth of art and head straight to the painted ceiling. It still took us another 20mins to get in there.............. (I can see Gracie rolling her eyes at us). It was worth the wait. To have the whole chapel packed with people all steering up at this brilliant piece of artwork was very cool. I could have stood there all day checking out all the little bits of detail but.................I didn't :-) Back to the room for a sleep......Art stuff can wear you out.

Later that night we meet up with Steve, Stefano, Simona and Zabria at the Irish pub. We all piled into their cars and were shooting off across town. I don't think they knew where they were going us much as we did because there was a lot of back tracking and going around in circles. We did make it in the end and found ourselves the restaurant. They did all the ordering as we could not read the menu but the food that came out was excellent.

Later we walked around the streets of Roma stopping into the occasional bar for a shot and then off to bed.

Greece

Well we left Israel with no dramas other than taking about 2 hours to get through all the check points before even getting to the check in counter. On landing in Athens we were meet by Jo at the airport. Carly and Jo were all smiles on seeing each other and I was quick to discover my new pecking order :-) We arrived at Hotel Olympia and checked in. The room was nice and we had a TV that seemed to just have XRated shows and opera.....crazy mix. Just the one night in Athens and the next day we were on a ferry for Mykonos Island (Acropolis will wait until we get back). The island was everything we wanted and more. All the houses were painted white with blue trims around the window shutters and doors. The first night on the island we had and nice dinner over looking the habour with a couple of quiets afterwards. The next we wake up and the weather had taken a turn for the worse (great day for my birthday). While it was not raining the wind had picked up and reminded me of Wellington. We were not to be put off so took the opportunity to hire a car and tour the island. It was the first time I have driven a right handed car but soon had the grasp. First stop was Paradise beach. Imperssion would have been good had the waves not been crashing so close up on the beach and the weather had of been hot. Next stop the other town at the top of the island (forget the name). We found a nice little cafe and spent an hour over coffee, bread and dips. After driving to the other end of the Mykonos and watching the weather pack in we headed back to the hotel. Later that night we all went out for a meal. I had put in a request for seafood and a good bottle of wine. Well that was the start of a big night. To cut a long story short we meet up with some locals that showed us the bars of Mykonos........come 4am we were staggering back into the hotel with Jo falling down the steps (she is OK). We have nicknamed her Angle after that night as she showed us her dancing skills at the last bar we went to.....very graceful :-) After 3 nights on the island we headed back for the mainland. We had an overnight ferry this time round thinking we could save on accommodation.......wrong!!!! People were spread out all over the boat so could not find anywhere good to sleep. I had an old dude next to me that was doing his best to sink the ship with his snoring. Yes not a wink of sleep to be had!!!! Getting back to Athens (5.30am) we made an executive decision to hire a room for half a day for some much needed sleep. We found a really nice old couple that ran a hotel right under the Acropolis so caught 5 hours before getting up to tour the famous site. The Acropolis was great! You could see all over Athens up the top and while there was some scaffolding it did not take away from the magic of it all......got the photo so we were off. We have a plane to catch for Rome, Italy!!!! We don't have any accommodation booked so are going to wing it!!!! Will fill you in on how that went later.

Jordan

Well it has been very hectic so I will just cover what we have been up to in a nut shell.....

What have we been doing? Well here goes;

From Cairo we went across the Seni that the 6 day war was over back in 1973 where Israel shot down the Egypt, Syria and Jordan air force in 24 hours and took over. It was given back to these countries after the Camp David agreement was signed which lead to the Assassination of some of these leaders later.

No dramas getting through but took 6 hours longer than was meant to. The Red Sea is just like any other but you can see 4 countries at once.

Next we were in Aqaba (Jordan). It's a duty free port so brought loads of booze.

Next we went up Mt Senai where Moses spent 40 days and 40 nights then came down with the 10 commandments. Carly and I both caught Camels to the top and walked down (Heaps easier).

Next we went to Wadi Rum Dessert where we went 4x4 driving around for the day and hung out with the Bedouin Tribes that live out there......a lot of mint tea drinking went down.

From there we went to Petra where that night we went to Petra by night. They lit the whole canyon with candles and we sat down in front of the Treasury (on the third Indy Jones movie) where we listened to Jordanian music.

The next day we got to explore Petra and spent the whole day there. It's 40 Km's square so as you can imagine we did not see all of it.

Next morning we went to Karak Castle which was built in the Crusader era, then to the Mosaic Church in some town (it was a map of the promised land that the first Christians made), next we went onto Mt Nebo which is where Moses died and was shown the promised land by God. Landed in Amman that night.

The next morning we went to Jurash which was an old Roman city that was built back in 100BC-100AD it was neat and got to push some pillars that weighed 200Ton. The second half of the day was spent at the Dead Sea where we got to float around in the water and cake ourselves in the mud.

We left the tour group at that stage and made our own way to Israel. Took us over 2 hours to get through the boarder with all types of guns pointed at us. We caught a bus through to Jerusalem and stayed the night in the old city. Had a look around but again like a lot we have seen already you really need a month to see it all.

Next morning we went through to Tel Aviv. It was raining there so we just hung out at the bus station until time to get to the airport to fly to Athens.

We are now in Greece but will update that at a later date but 'Got boozed last night!'.