Roma

Oh I feel so fat today. We had tried 29 gelati flavours in 3.5 days. These include Kiwi, Green Apple, Licorice, Choc-Chip and one that tasted like Sambuca. It was basically all we ate yesterday and I swear I had a sugar headache. Ri is sure that we will run out of flavours before we reach 100.

Today we went to Vatican City and spent the day in the museum followed by a quick trip to St Peters. Ri is starting to decide how he would like to decorate our future-house. Turns out our library (I love that our house seems to need a library) will need a massive map or globe - but an old map from like 400 years ago 'before Australia existed.' His words and don't worry I told him off for being Euro-centric.

One more day of Rome before we head down to Naples.

My 26th Birthday

I finally got to be somewhere on my birthday! Mykonos!

For so many years my birthday was an exam date. And it was a lovely day! We went to the beach, a literal 50 second drive down the hill from our resort.

I spent the morning on a sun bed, reading and just doing nothing.

We had dinner at a nice little place on the other side of the island that did not have electricity - so everything is grilled on a wooden fire.

And then Ri surprized me with a strawberry and chocolate birthday cake!

Roman holiday

Ri is suspicious of Italians. He has some serious trust issues after the Taxi driver charged 20 euro more than he should have yesterday. This morning a man called out from his car for directions to the colosseum (even I knew where it was from that location - like one street- it's a little hard to miss) he told Ri that he was a manager from Armani, showed Ri some products and then drove away. Ri was most confused saying "it was like he was going to try to sell me something, but he didn't."

I suggested that he was crazy.

Ri is concerned about Italians.

Today was day two in Rome, we are up to Gelati flavour 12, my favourite flavour so far was 'Ace' which was carrot, lemon and orange. Today we spent the day with our ears to audiotours while walking around the colosseum and Roman forum. I was very glad my brother had lent me Rome (the TV series) late last year, it did for Rome what Tudors did for London. And In Bruges did for Bruges.

At the Colosseum, when Ri was handing back our Audiotour he overheard a Dutch man asking for the audio guide for the Netherlands, the response he got was "we have German or English."

We often marvel at how lucky we are that we speak English. And how Aussies manage to be EVERYWHERE. We can go days without over-hearing an American or Brit, but Aussies are everywhere.

Island Odyssey

The first photo is me on my birthday in Mykonos. The next two photos are of Santorini.

I love the Greek Islands.

It is the perfect place to go and holiday. Not like an interesting but museum-y holiday (like in Berlin) or freeze your butt off in the cold while looking at amazing sites holiday (like in Scotland) (I loved both of these places btw) but a out in the sun holiday HOLIDAY. I'm even sporting a mild tan.

It was the beginning of September when we arrived in Mykonos and we got the feeling that it was the right time to go as the weather was lovely, but there were no crowds. All the resorts were having their end of season parties.

It was my 26th birthday while we were on Mykonos and Ri definately pulled out all the stops for my first birthday as his wife. I know Ri has a blog typed up all about Mykonos and Santorini so I won't go on too much about what we did, as he has been writing the thing for days and I don't want to send him into another re-write. My favourite island was Mykonos, for the beaches and the shopping. But we did have a pretty awesome day on the back of a quad bike on Santorini!

Ri is reading the book that his sister made up for us as a wedding gift. She's set us a challenge to eat as many gelati flavours as we can while we are in Italy, we've been in Rome for half a day and have tried 6 flavours. Hello waist line. Our goal for Italy is to eat heaps of gelati, see lots of art and find me a dress to wear to a wedding that we have been invited to on the 13th of November (less than a week after we get home!) I'm also seriously considering buying a Pope bobble head.

Ri is complaining that there just is not enough time. Me? I'm sad that we are getting closer to the end of the trip - there is still over a month and a half which is the length of a pretty awesome honeymoon in itself!- but I'm happy to be making plans with people back at home!

Acropolis Now

I was a little bit home sick this morning, I think it started a few days ago in France, where Ri got to see his dad and where we had vegemite for breakfast.
Well it's as close as I've ever come to home sickness, I miss my friends and family, I miss being literate, and I missed the sun. From Scotland to France I was cold. If I'm wearing jeans it's miserably cold. I've been singing "I come from a land down under," I think that is when you know you miss home.

Yes my homesickness is gone...

Our day in Athens today has completely refreshed me! It is just so different from what we've seen before! It's got me excited about this leg of our little journey.
We left our hotel room and for the first time in almost 2 months our skin started to go pink in the sun! And it was the type of beautiful sun that you can feel on your skin. It was about 28 degrees today and lovely. I think it played a bit part in curing my home sickness.
That and the Greeks are lovely. I already knew that Greeks are lovely, as one of my oldest friends is Greek, so it shouldn't have been a surprise when everyone here in Athens have been so nice to us.
They are just so excited to talk to you, thrilled by your responses, patient, and they have manners. Quite a contrast from the French.
Kidding...

So to start off my tales from Athens here are some interactions with Greeks:

Our Taxi driver was awesome. He was in his mid fifties, with a round face and angry eyebrows. He spoke next to no English and we spoke no Greek (since then Ri has mastered 'thank you'). He asked us where we were from and was

over the moon

to find out we were Australians. Honestly based on his eager response I'm sure we made his day. He went on to explain that it was 41 degrees the day earlier and that it didn't matter how high the AC was it was still so hot that you were sweating. He did this entirely with gestures.

As we stepped out of the lift this morning on our way out of the hotel we noticed that there was a massive crowd outside walking down the street. We looked to the guy at the desk and he laughed nerviously. He explained that there was a strike today and 'with strikes come demonstrations.... it should be peaceful' *nervous laugh.*
After talking to him for a few minutes, it turns out he laughed at everything that he said. But still.

The guy we bought suncream from went to expo '88 in Brisbane. It was a fantastic story when he told it.

We were so happy about the vast improvement in weather that we had two icecreams each today! Oh what crazy kids we are.

Back in Europe

I swear if Ri says 'what did you say' one more time....

So it's been four months of travel. We are back in France at Ri's dads house for a weekend break from travel. Ri was talking about Thailand like it's this awesome upcoming holiday. "And we will get somewhere by the beach?"

Yes.

"And we will just sit around? Doing nothing?"

Yes.

I think he has forgotten work.

Which means we are doing this right.

Since the last blog we went to the Isle of Skye. I'm afraid all I have for you on that is that it is so amazingly pretty and cold. Ri's Scottish Aunty makes this yummy fudge/toffee thing so Ri's sis set us a challenge of finding something like it in Scotland and we accidently did. At a petrol station leaving the Isle of Skye, I always ask Ri for a gift when he is paying for the fuel and he usually came back with a magazine in Scotland so I could study the life and times of Cheryl Cole and Katie Price. The above photo is Ri eating the fudge.

From Isle of Skye we made our way to Glasgow. Where we had an entirely fancy dinner at T.G.I. Fridays, and I didn't understand the waiter. Like at all. I would laugh along and when he left the table I was like "what did he say?" It was so bad that while we were listening to the radio we accidently switched to a Gaelic station and didn't notice for a few minutes as it made about as much sense as the other channels.

From Glasgow we went back to Edinburgh and from Edinburgh to Geneva, which is where we hired a car to drive to France.

Tomorrow we are heading to Athens!

And I'll have my birthday on one of the Greek Islands.

Happy Fathers Day Dad

Hey Dad.
Hope you had a tip top Fathers dad.
Love always the one who made you a dad.
Your one and only baby girl.
xoxo Tori