Hello lazing on the beach!!

Greetings all! I am here in sunny Greece, soaking up the sun and swimming in a beautiful blue ocean and finally having real bathrooms! So much excitement, I don't know how I will contain myself!!!

Okay, where were we? I think I had just arrived in Venice, so lots to catch up on!

Venice was awesome, so pretty and full of lots of fun things! We started the day with a ferry taxi into the city, and then we had a glass blowing demonstration where a man blew a horse (not as gross as it sounds, trust me!). We then admired the pretty pretty glass and Cassie repeatedly told herself that a) it's too expensive and b) it will so break in your bag. We then moved on to the lace making demonstration... my wordy, the work that goes into it is amazing! Again, Cassie told herself it was too expensive and really, do you really need another doily? We then split up and went wandering the city. I found a lovely pair of earrings, ginormous pizza, and fruit. Glorious glorious fruit. More than anything, I have missed fresh fruit and perfectly cooked veggies on this trip (Mum, I think I'm going to want a massive bowl of fruit salad when I get home! And a steak. And a proper pie. And BBQ City... mmm, BBQ City.....) OH, and almost forgot! I had a gondola ride! So much fun... and the guy was dragging off the other gondolas. Gotta love that!

We then made our way to Florence. Florence... I love Florence... How do I describe how much I love it? They have this massive cathedral called the Duomo, which looks like its painted with pink and green trimmings, in lovely patterns all through the facade. However, when you look closer you see that it's actuallly marble! Lots of different marble, assembled in patterns which so looks like a painting but really isn't. They also have Michaelangelo's David, but the line was too massive so just faked it with the copy in the square! We also went on a tour of the city and got lots of ace information, such as Michaelangelo was a tool and thought everyone was crap except for him, and called Leondaro Da Vinci an amateur. Oh, and the de Medicis were just the most awesome family ever. Any woman who can poison a whole lot of people all at once has my respect... mostly because she would probably poison me if she didn't! Oh, and they were also responsible for funding the renaissance. Heh.

The light in Florence was amazing, and each sunset was a ripsnorter. One thing I'll stay about this trip, I'm certainly learning all the functions on my camera! We also had a 'traditional' tuscan meal. Don't know about the traditional, but the pasta was awesome! So, so yummy. And we had Chianti!

Okay, next we were on to Rome! Oh, and somewhere in there we stopped at Pisa and I got the obligatory photo. And was accosted by people selling things. Btw, Teresa, I steered clear of the gypsies! Hopefully, no more gypsies but I'm not holding my breath. They are tenacious, those ones!

So we arrived in Rome to go straight to the Colesseum and a walking tour of the Colesseum and the Forum. It was chockers full of info and the lady was really good! And speaking of gypsies, she spotted some in the Forum, so alerted the Guardia. It was fun watching them run! We then saw the Fontana di Trevi, the Pantheon and went on to have dinner. Fun! And then it all turned to shit. The campsite was the most awful place we had been on tour. We were stuck in the crappy cabins cos there was a billion contiki tours there and for some reason, apparently organisation hasn't hit Roman campsites as yet. So was a very angry Cassie at the Rome campsite. One thing after another went wrong and I don't think anyone enjoyed their time at the campsite. Rome, yes, the campsite, big no.

The next day, it was in to Rome at a ridiculously early hour to queue for Vatican City. And oh my god, it was so the right thing to do! The line was massive... we were in a really good possie, and tho we had to wait an hour and half for the City to open, we got in within 45 minutes. We then walked thru the Sistine Chapel (and all the bits leading up to it... massive chambers!), took a sneaky photo (shh, don't tell anyone!) and then went on to St Peter's Basillica! Oh, and I also saw Pope John Paul II's tomb by mistake. There is a sneaky exit from the Sistine Chapel that bypasses the massive lines into the Basillica, but this exit is for groups. So we attached ourselves onto the end of a group, hoped they wouldn't notice the decided lack of grey in our hair and followed them. Somehow, we ended up in the Pope's Grotto, where all the popes are buried. Meh. But we got to the Basillica, which was awesome! Lots of photos there!

We then went to the Spanish steps which were, well, steppy? However, opposite the steps was a Camper store! I drooled over the shoes, and then was dragged away to revisit the Colesseum and to actually go inside this time. Very fun. Great shots. I then wanted to go to the Mouth of Truth, which was a bit of hike but got there! Unfortunately, there was a massive line so just took photos of the mouth. No losing my hand for me! We then visited the Cappucino monks (or something like that!) whose bones are decorating the chambers of a church. It was very gross and disturbing to see hip bones used as wings, and spine bones used to ornately trace a pattern on the roof. I found it funny at first, but by the end it was all too overwhelming and I actually felt a bit nauseous! I know, I couldn't believe it either! I went outside to recover and then it was back to the shite campsite and a dinner where they ran out of food. Thank god we were leaving the next morning, even if it was at 6am!

We drove to Bari via Pompeii, which was amazing! I love Pompeii, even tho the plaster casts of the bodies was disturbing. Still, it was magnificent to see such a complete city and to realise that a lot of our modern convieniences were being employed in ancient Rome! They had reflectors in the roads so you could see where the lines were!!! After Pompeii, we went to Bari where we caught our overnight ferry to Greece. So it was bye bye Italy, and hello -ish time and no flushing toilet paper down the loo (there are bins for that, my friends. Oh yes. The grossness starts...).

We got in to Patras at 12.30pm-ish (read: 2pm...ish) and then drove to Athens. I was surprised by how poor the country seems... I always thought Greece was prosperous and, um, greener. It is very arid and rocky, with lots of white rocks and light coloured dirt around the place. We arrived in Athens at about 6.30pm, picked up our guide and raced to the Acropolis, hoping to make it before it shut. We did, luckily, and also had the most amazing sunset to photograph and enjoy through the temples of the Acropolis! We then hoofed it back to our hotel (a hotel, a glorious glorious hotel! no cabins, no campsite!) and on to a greek dinner which has definately been the best thus far! Lots of yummy food! The only downside was we didn't get there til quite late and thus, didn't get to bed until 12.30am. Why is this bad, you ask? Well, we had a breakfast call of 5.15am... that's right, Cassie had to get up at 4.30am. Grumpy Cassie? Why yes, yes she was. Anyway, we got up, caught a ferry, slept a little on the ferry and am now in Mykonos! Again, I was surprised by the lack of green, but have now swam in both the ocean and the swimming pool and am def enjoying the amenities here!

So now it's three days of doing nothing but soaking up the sun, swimming, relaxing and maybe hiring a car and discovering the wonders of right-hand driving!

Hope everyone is awesome and I'll try to update this as soon as I can. However, we are about to enter Eastern Europe and from the jokes I'm hearing about Albania, well, don't hold your breath waiting for my post!

And finally, GO PORT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(bummer, I can't get the grand final here... I'm sure Dad will let me know the outcome, however!)