Rome Antics

The flight to Rome was only a couple of hours. Jumping on the train to the city, Shannon was visibly unimpressed with the surrounds. Rome had worse graffiti than Athens, and the decrepit and derelict collection of buildings on the way from Leonardo da Vinci airport to Roma Central Termini left a lot to be desired. We alighted, and found our way quickly to our hotel which was located very close to the central train station. As our hotel was so close to the train station and check-in was not until 2pm (it was 11:00am), Salvatore (I have no idea if that's his name) wouldn't allow us to check in. So we ditched our bags and high tailed it for the Colosseum. On the way, we thought it best to have lunch. Being in Italy, we decided that Italian would be the obvious choice. So, we ended up having Butter Chicken, New Delhi's answer to the Fettuccine Carbonara, at Sitar Restaurant.

Venturing our way south on Via Cavour, we eventually stumbled upon the Colosseum in all its glory. I'd forgotten how annoying the street salesmen here can be, with their fake handbags, crystal cubes with tiny engravings of the Colosseum, "silk" scarves, and the sublime "splat ball" (a ball which loses its consistency when thrown against a flat surface, yet slowly recovers to its original spherical shape). Despite their best efforts, however, we were not deterred from appreciating how incredible it was that this massive construction was even built in the first place, and the miracle that it still stands today, after millennia of war, emperors, dictators and Silvio Berlusconi. We took pictures outside the Colosseum, and decided we'd venture back tomorrow to go inside. 

We returned to check in to the hotel, and had dinner at an authentic Italian ristorante this time. Shan ordered a calzone that turned out to be twice her size, and I went with a standard Fettucini Bolognese. 

The next morning we returned to the Colosseum bright and early. Some background: this entire trip, whenever we have arrived at a set of stairs with an escalator on the side, Shan has taken the stairs while I've taken the escalator. If you'll pardon the French, this has shat me off to no end. While entering the Metro Station at Termini, as usual, I opted for the escalator to take us underground. Shannon, on the other hand, opted for the "healthy" route - the stairs. Due to current station renovations, however, the escalator finished at a place that the stairs did not. The result of this was about fifteen seconds of intense panic, a few more seconds of me swearing at my mobile phone for losing reception underground and thus being unable to contact said Shannon, two seconds of elation upon seeing said Shannon's fragile anglo-saxon frame coming down the escalator, and forty five minutes of gloating on how Shannon should take the forking escalator next time. For your information, we now always take the escalator. So, I won. 

Back to the story: we arrived at the Colosseum nice and early, with the idea to get pictures without other people in them. This was partially successful (though admittedly not as successful as our people-less pictures from Athens). 

We walked around the Colosseum's interior for about an hour before checking out the Forum and the Palatine Hill, the central market and meeting place for the ancient Romans. After a couple of hours here, we had seen so many ruins, we were "ruined". So, we walked to Vittorio Emanuele's monument, then to the Pantheon. The Pantheon is something to be marvelled at. It's been in continuous use for thousands of years, originally built as a temple to honour "all the gods" in the polytheistic ancient empire, though it was consecrated as a Christian sacred site in about the year 600AD and has remained as one since. The Pantheon also houses the tombs of Vittorio Emanuele and Raphael, the first ninja turtle of the renaissance. We then walked to the Trevi Fountain, and then on to the Spanish Steps, and photo'd at both, before taking the Metro back home.

We awoke this morning with only one goal in mind for the day: conquer the Vatican. We rocked into St. Peter's early and garnered some people-less photographs, as has been our style this trip. Though annoyingly, those silly Italians have scaffolding over approximately one quarter of the piazza. They're putting up a nativity scene in the middle. That doesn't help US though. Inconsiderate. No wonder the Roman Empire collapsed. We walked our way through the Vatican museums with a very knowledgable guide, and were impressed by the thousands of paintings, sculptures, tapestries and general decadence that the bourgeois popes had collected over the last two thousand years. Our guide also threw in a few random "fun facts", such as telling us about the best job in the Vatican (Fire Fighter - there hasn't been a fire in 200 years), and how Swiss Guards are trained in every form of combat known to man including sword fighting, martial arts, ballistics and krav maga, and must be "of good family" (meaning, they check to see that their parents were married before they were born). Interesting. We then walked into Raphael's Rooms, where the young ninja turtle had thrown his skills all over Pope Julian II's apartments. He'd cleverly included himself and the faces of other great people whom he'd admired (including Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo) in his paintings. Then it was on to the Sistine Chapel, where we were impressed with the epic skills of Michelangelo. Though people are required to be silent in the chapel, this does not happen - and ironically, the only thing louder than people's talking is the guards telling everybody to "shut up - no photo" - every ten seconds.

We then walked into the Basilica itself. One word: monumental. It's amazing what you can do with stone and paint when you're the richest organisation in the known universe. Absolutely gorgeous, though. And I think even people who are not Catholic would find it hard not to feel a sense of magnanimity and awe when in St. Peter's. We climbed the Cupola (the very top of the Basilica) - and I use the word "climb" loosely - we cheated (upon my request) and took the elevator for an extra 2 euro. 

This saved us 200 steps, but we still had 320 steps to the very top. It was worth it though - no building in Rome is allowed to be taller than St. Peter's by law, so this was a truly panoramic experience. 

We then ventured into the Tomb of the Popes underneath St. Peter's, which was pretty cool, though we couldn't find JP2's tomb (turns out he was already moved upstairs as a consequence of being beatified and somehow we missed it on our tour around). Still, we saw St. Peter's tomb, the first Pope, founder of the Roman Catholic Church and the first in the longest unbroken line of state sovereigns in history. 

The day ended with gelati (again) from a fantastic place recommended by our tour guide and then dinner at an authentic (?) Italian restaurante called "Washington". Like we said, authentic. Either way, the food was amazing, although we didn't particularly appreciate a surprise 7.50EUR service charge making our bill over 50 EUR. Oh well - we managed to accidentally miss lunch for a second day, so it was kind of cancelled out.

Tomorrow? Well we don't know yet!

Zach & Shan.

The last of Greece

Awoke this morning (Wednesday) for our trip to Delphi and Meteora. Breakfast was once again amazing; the only thing which detracted from the awesomeness of the dining experience was the four Grecian food hostesses eyeing us off like we were stealing from them. I have no idea why there were four staff working a breakfast room with only us in it, but we see now why Greece is in financial ruin. Anyway, the meal was still tasty, and we were scooped up by the tour guide soon after. 

Once on the bus, it became apparent that half of the tour group that went to Mycenae and Epidaurus the previous day had also signed up for the two-day tour to Meteora and Delphi that we were about to embark upon. Unfortunately, these were the only people in yesterday's tour that we neither liked nor spoke to. This included two Asians, two British people, and one lost Greek man who I think was named Stavros. Or maybe he was the bus driver. In any case, he didn't fill us with confidence. 

The tour guide today was very knowledgable, and spent the -entire- drive to Delphi talking: either to the tour group in English, or to the bus driver in Greek. She rattled off a few of the same Mythological stories that the guide from yesterday told us, as well as a few interesting (???) facts about local industries (do you know the four most important? We do!) and agriculture (we now know how to farm cotton, olives and oranges - useful!), so we tuned in and out. It didn't take too long until we arrived at Delphi, the "Navel of the Earth", where the Ancient Greeks and Romans had built a temple to Apollo on the mountainside, to thank Apollo for slaying a massive Python.

People in ancient times would come to Delphi to visit the Oracle, and to have their futures told to them. Though, according to our guide, the answers were always cryptic and could go either way. For example, if a Greek couple went to ask if they were going to have a boy or a girl child, the answer would be in the form of "Boy not girl" putting the comma wherever you liked. For example: "Boy, not girl", or "Boy not, girl" - kind of like today's Star Signs really. It was also interesting that because one of the Grecian city states (Hios) had donated the money to build the altar where the animals were sacrificed pre-consultation, any person who came from Hios had first-rights to a consultation - no waiting (inscribed on the altar). Kind of like Event Cinema's "Feel like a Star" red carpet for those who pre-order online. Consults then went in order of who had given the priests the most money/gifts for temples. The original definition of a corrupt church.

Delphi also had a theatre and a stadium for those of us brave enough for the large climb (which we were, and it was epic). 

Sadly, we didn't get time to visit the Museum before the tour whisked us away to Thermopylae and the monument to Leonidas (aka. Gerard Butler) and the 300 Spartans who defended the Hot Gates from Xerxes and the invading Persians. They were ultimately unsuccessful in keeping the Persians out, however the phrase "Thermopylaean" has become synonymous with fighting valiantly, win or lose. At this site, there was also a monument to the Australian and New Zealand "Thermopylaean" soldiers who gave their lives in an attempt to keep the Germans out of Greece. Like their namesakes, they too were unsuccessful, though we were both proud to see a monument to our boys nonetheless. 

The next day, the tour took us to the site of the Monasteries of St. Stephen's and St. Barbara's at Meteora. Some of you may recall these sites from the greatest ever James Bond film, "For Your Eyes Only", starring the sublime Roger Moore in his most compelling role since "The Saint". And who could forget the classic tones of Sheena Easton? Well, if you're unlucky enough that it's you, you'll feel my pain. Zach sung the entire theme song while dancing his way through patches of Greek Orthodox Nuns. They loved it. He thinks.

We didn't get such amazing pictures of the monasteries hanging off the rocks as seen in the film because it was misty and raining, though we think the rain and the mist added a sense of… gravitas to the place. 

Each monastery contained a myriad of amazing gold covered icons (sort of like painting-portraits), which showed disproportionate humans and animals. Apparently at the time the church was trying to decide whether or not to ban icons as idolatry and to prevent people from worshiping icons instead of God, they decided unnatural scenes were best. 

The frescoes covering the walls and ceilings all documented important biblical events, and were incredibly detailed, as were the decorative ornaments and woodwork (no photos allowed, but we snuck some film). It was a beautiful place to behold. 

We then had a six hour drive back to Athens, which was boring as all hell. The weather, because it was misty and foggy, made it so that we couldn't see much of the landscape. The worst part was the American tourists on board the bus. More specifically, their children. *Shudder*. The American parents had two children - a son and a daughter, though we weren't really sure that the son was in fact a son. It was only later confirmed by the excessive amount of time he spent talking (drawling/yelling) to his sister about succubi, ghosts, vampires, and zombies. Plus, he loudly reported that he "had plenty of friends on the internet" - cool story, bro. So does Mugabe. 

Today (Friday), we awoke to an action packed day - we were running short on time thanks to a Grecian airline fail involving them shifting one of our flight times from 6pm to 8am. You would think with the impeding financial ruin of their country they would want us here longer to spend more money. Silly Greeks. We visited the Acropolis & Parthenon first - jokes aside, it was absolutely majestic to stand up there. 

We went early so as to avoid having pictures with any other people in them, which turned out to be a fantastic idea, because as we were leaving, a horde of approximately 400 rowdy tourists was ascending the steps. Phew. 

Next, we visited the two Agoras (Roman and Greek), Hadrian's Library, Hadrian's Arch, the Temple of Olympian Zeus and Syntagma Square, where we had lunch at an authentic Greek restaurant - McDonalds. Admittedly, (and thankfully - Shannon) for the first time this trip. 

At parliament, we watched the Changing of the Guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Shannon is now in love with the Evzones, Greece's answer to the Buckingham Palace guard - with job requirements to be a handsome, tall, gifted male in military service. Well that, and to look good in a dress and ridiculous pom-pom shoes. The ceremony was an experience itself - practically choreographed by John Cleese - though the crowning glory belonged to Zach, who managed to stand still just long enough to become a pigeon roost. The look on his face as he tried to remove it from his head will forever be ingrained in my memory.

The afternoon brought us a trip to Cape Sounion and the Temple of Poseidon, which although INCREDIBLY windy, was glorious as the sun set. The Greeks sure know how to do breath-taking. 

Tomorrow we head to Rome… 5:15am wake up!

Zach & Shan. 

Athens: Mycenae & Epidaurus Tour

Departure. 8:45pm, Sunday night. The airport at Brisbane was effectively dead, save for a few stray French perfumers and the odd Asian tourist. After making our way onto the plane, Shannon was pleasantly surprised with the amount of space and the size of the seats that we would be sitting in for our first flight of fourteen hours. Delighted, even. Though it did not take long for her to realise that we were being coaxed through the Business Class section and towards the Sardine section. This aside, the seating was not particularly bad, and we didn't have such an annoying flight. There was a tour group consisting of what we assume were a Christian mission group on their way to Africa (they were all wearing matching shirts with Africa stitched on), and we both decided we hadn't seen an uglier collection of people since they stopped filming Sex & The City. There always seemed to be at least two of them standing up, as well. It's like they needed to be talking to each other all the time. AND the two sitting in front of us pushed their chairs into "recline" position literally .4 seconds after the seatbelt sign went off, which really *Parental Guidance Advised* shit us RIGHT off - okay, it's a long flight, and you can't be expected to not do it at some point, but at least wait until we've left Brisbane airspace. Rude bastards. The rest of the plane trip was relatively uneventful, except for Shannon failing to lock the plane toilet door and being walked in on by a random guy, and some guy in the seat behind playing a four hour game of footsie with Shannon over the course of the flight. Though creeped out, Shannon later admitted to me that she enjoyed the interaction (just kidding). All jokes aside, I am pleased to announce in this forum that my record of never having used an aeroplane lavatory continues!

We landed in Dubai at 5am local time, and had a five hour wait until our next five hour flight. Would you like more fives with that? The next plane was considerably smaller than the first, and older. It didn't so much have TV screens as it had ex-Cold-War era missile shield monitors. A plus was that it wasn't a full flight. A negative is that four bastards, who I assumed were named Nikolaos, Yannis, Giorgos and Konstantinos (or at least they should be), unfurled their hairy Grecian frames out across all of the spare seats near us. Not happy, Stavros. But we got over it, and landed in Athens without issue. Quick through the customs, and out to the Metro. We navigated our way to the hotel, which is close to the Akropoli metro station, though we lapped the adjacent metropolitan area just trying to find the place (though in my defence, if we had turned "right" out of the metro instead of "left", as per my suggestion, we would have found said hotel within approximately fifteen seconds). Shannon defends her advice to turn "left" by saying that we would have missed out on a glorious journey of discovery should we not have made this error, pointing out that the discovery of penicillin was also a mistake. Plus, quote Shannon: "We got some sweet Parthenon views".

This is true. Our hotel is actually called the Parthenon Hotel, and it is only a few minutes away from the Parthenon. We dumped our things at the hotel and, though we were exhausted, we decided to go for a walk around the base of the Acropolis. We discovered a scenic lookout nearby that had a great view up at the adjacent Acropolis, and spent a good half hour taking pictures and absorbing the sights from the surrounding Athenian suburbs. Pretty breathtaking.

The next day, we awoke at 6:30am local to get ready for our tour for the day - to Epidaurus and Mycenae. Hotel breakfast buffet was very decent - so decent, in fact, that Shannon discussed how decent it was for at least an hour and a half after we had finished eating. Ok, maybe not for that long, but she definitely mentioned that it was enjoyable. This is in most part to my downplaying the quality of such breakfasts to her at an earlier time. I fear now that Shan will have such high expectations of future breakfasts that nothing will measure up. I will make it my mission to lower these expectations once again.

After pickup, the tour stopped at a hotel in order to pick up the guide and to allow those of us who had been on board for a while to use the bathroom. Shannon decided to go for this option, though she experienced great difficulty navigating which side of the rotating glass door to enter. This resulted in a hilarious door in the face moment, which I am deeply upset that I missed recording on film for posterity, as I think it would probably have been funnier than watching Justin Beiber do the same thing earlier in the year.

The tour first visited Corinth and the epic canal, of which construction only recently finished (120ish years ago) despite the design being based on centuries old Roman engineering.

We then headed to Mycenae, and the ancient Kingdom of Agamemnon (played by Brian Cox in the recent classic film "Troy", also starring Brad Pitt, Eric Bana and Orlando Bloom). We had a great opportunity to take some film and some pictures, and walk through the Kingdom. 'Twas epic.

After this, we visited an old Tomb located nearby (The Treasury of Atreus), and then we went on to the Ampitheatre at Epidaurus, which was relatively breathtaking. Great acoustics, too - you can hear somebody whispering from the stage even at the top/back of the theatre. Acoustics so good, they even made my falsetto rendition of Michael Jackson's "Thriller" sound almost angelic. Shannon concurs. Sort of.

Here's a picture of us, with an awesome dude named Harry who was also on the tour:

The tour group was small, which was good for us, and the tour guide was very friendly and knowledgeable. For example, she referred to another tour member as "San Francisco" after he made the mistake of revealing where he was from (Harry). She had no qualm pointing out that, for an Australian, my skin is extremely pale. I pointed out that, unlike the Greeks, we are not blessed with naturally olive skin - we have useless British skin, which does not tan, but burns. She conceded the high ground.

That's all for now. Tomorrow, we head to Delphi and then on to Meteora.

Zach & Shan.

100 Hours to Go!

100 hours until Shan and my epic departure to the land that God decided to bankrupt. Greece. From there, who knows? Well, we do, because this impending trip has been more meticulously planned than Barack Obama's croc insurance. I won't bore you with many final pre-departure details because, let's face it, you probably don't care. The fact that you're even reading this is testament more to your own boredom than it is to your interest in our travels.

Despite this acknowledgement, we still have a few tours to book, and one German overnight train that the Krauts haven't yet put the schedule online for. How is it that they can engineer the finest automobiles in the world, have both hands holding together the ever declining Eurozone, and produce such fine musical talents as Kraftwerk and Rammstein, yet they have great difficulty in confirming two beds on an overnight train from Berlin? Frustrating. In any case, we're exceedingly excited for this trip. I'm going to attempt to hone in my excessive swearing and blatant stereotyping for this blog, as Shannon and I are both keen to keep our PG rating. Though, this might change, depending on the depth of ill treatment that we suffer at the hands of the most fragile collection of economies in the known universe.

Stay tuned - next time, we might have done something noteworthy!

Zach.