La Dolce Vita

Ah yes, here we are - now over half way through out stay in Ostuni, Italy - as well as half way through our European trip - and I can happily report that life is in fact good.

Since my last blog post, we've left Greece and made our way to Italy via another overnight ferry from Igoumenista to Bari.

Unlike previous overnight ferry journeys this trip wasn't as comfortable, as approximately three months ago when looking to book our ferry journeys I was tempted by an "airplane style seat" sale which meant that we'd all be transported for less than £100.

Three months ago, that sounded like a pretty good idea - but sitting on a dock at 11:30pm with a screaming toddler waiting for our boat to arrive (three overnight ferries, three delayed departures - I think I've spotted a pattern) and I was beginning to wonder if it had been a prudent purchase or not.

Once on the boat, we were lucky enough to secure two seats near the front of the cabin, which meant we could setup our travel cot and put Milly down - which sorted out our screaming toddler problem.

Unfortunately the lights on all night/blaring TV showing Greek soap operas/large Greek man snoring problems were tougher to sort out, and as such I suspect I only had about half an hour sleep between 3 and 4 in the morning - ouch.

The next morning we disembarked onto the port at Bari - the sun was shining and the Italian coffee and pastries were tasty - despite our lack of sleep life was good once again.

An hours drive later, we arrived at our next long term destination, Ostuni - an ancient walled city set at the top a hill approximately 6 miles from the coast.

Having collected the keys to our apartment, I then proceeded to lump all our bags out of the car and then collapsed - exhausted with my days efforts even though it wasn't yet midday.

Over the course of the next few days Claire, Milly and I took our time to acclimatise ourselves to our surroundings. Our apartment is right next to the communal park - which has a children's play area - much to Milly's delight.

Within a block there are some excellent local food shops - a bakery, a green grocer, a cheese shop and a fish store - all of which offer fresh, cheap, local produce and whose services we have been making the most of to ensure that we've eaten like Italian kings since we arrived.

Once we were comfortable with our immediate surroundings, I also attempted to purchase a prepaid mobile phone sim which would allow us to connect to the internet - something that we'd done in Greece and had been really useful - both for keeping in touch with friends and family and researching places we'd like to go.

Whilst the initial purchase was quite straight forward, unfortunately the actual connecting to the internet proved problematic - and without going into specific details - it eventually took seven days of daily visits to the mobile phone store and €60 before we were finally connected - like David Cameron, had I known at the start what a hassle it would have been I think I would have happily not bothered - oh well, you live and you learn?

Ostuni is a lovely city - like Crete it closes down from about 2pm till 5pm - but once it opens back up again it is extremely busy - it seems that the locals like nothing better than to go out walking the central streets after dark - to help facilitate this the main streets are blocked off to traffic, enabling you to walk around freely.

With having Milly, we haven't been able to go out later than about 9:30, but from what we've seen - it only gets busier later on - the picture above is an example of the main square at about this time - with the cathedral in the background.

Our friend Kristyn has joined us for this second week, which has been nice - it's allowed us to take turns looking after Milly whilst the others go out and do adult things - like shopping or going to a bar for a drink - tonight Kristyn has kindly offered to babysit whilst Claire and I go out for dinner - just the two of us - a rare treat indeed.

With just over a week remaining in Ostuni, it's sad to think that our time here will soon come to an end - I know that the swift passage of time has been a recurring theme in my posts - but it really doesn't feel like 7 weeks since we left our lives in London.

Despite the fact that it's all going a bit too quickly for my liking, we are having an amazing time - and as the Italians would say... la dolce vita - life is good.

Trip in numbers:

Miles since N15: 3751.6

Beard Length: 2cm - although I did trim the moustache and daggy bits this morning, turns out that having a beard isn't nearly as much fun as I thought? Let's just say gelato and moustaches don't really mix - although I am determined to preserver with it....

Glasses broken since leaving London: 10+ - for whatever reason no glass seems to be safe since departing London for Europe - it's not that Milly is particularly responsible for all breakages either - both Claire and I have contributed - hopefully breaking a glass isn't the same as breaking a mirror?

Goodbye Crete, Hello Ancient Greece

Since last posting we've left Crete and made our way back to mainland Greece.

We were sad to leave our little beach home at Almyrida - it's funny how quickly you can get attached to a place and I suppose also a way of life, which has been fairly relaxed for the past month or so.

We had a lovely time in Crete and would highly recommend a visit - highlights included Francois - the cafe downstairs which was extremely good value and the staff treated us like family, lovely seafood - always fresh and cooked on the grill with a squeze of lemon and herbs - yum, and finally swimming in the Sea of Crete - which was always warm unlike the Tasman sea back in NZ.

You'll be pleased to hear that Milly did eventually start to enjoy swimming in the Ocean, and was even going in unprompted and unaccompanied by the end of our visit - shame it took over 2 weeks for her to come around, she can be quite stubborn at times if she wants to be.

Having said our goodbyes, we packed all our worldly possessions (at least those that aren't on a boat making their way back to NZ at the moment) back into our car and got the overnight ferry to Athens.

Our plan for the next week was to do some of the sightseeing that we'd never gotten around to, namely all the ancient wonders that Greece has to offer - which meant that Athens was our first stop.

Our ferry arrived into Athens at 5:30am - so we went and parked the car up and made our way to the Acropolis - having done our research we'd read that it was best to go first thing in the morning or last thing at night to both miss the crowds and the searing heat of the midday sun.

When we arrived at just a little after 8 - it seemed we weren't the only one who had arrived early intent on beating the crowds - whole bus loads of "crowd beaters" appeared to be in the queue for tickets in front of us... to make matters worse, it wasn't particularly cool either - with temperatures already in the low 30s - trust us to arrive just at the start of a heatwave.

Despite the crowds and the heat, Claire Milly and I made our way up the Acropolis to marvel at the Parthenon and other assorted buildings at the top - and marvel we did, when we weren't chasing Milly around - who had decided that the roped off areas were obviously THE place to be, and would make a beeline for them whenever mummy or daddy weren't looking.

Having had a look around, we descended back to central Athens and went to Syntagma Square, where all the riots have been taking place, to watch the changing of the guards.

Again, everyone and their tour bus seemed to have gotten there before us, so we got a few sneaky pictures and departed - walking past the protest camp as we made our way back to the hotel.

The next day we wanted to go to the ancient agora - where the normal folk would have hung out back in the day rather than the posh fellers that would have been swanning around up at the Acropolis.

This time, rather than setting off early, we spent the day in the hotel making the most of the aircon before heading out in the late afternoon.

We arrived at the ancient agora at about 6pm - and this time there was barely a soul to be seen. The place didn't close for another two hours so we could walk around at our liesure taking in the sights.

Again, Milly did her best to evade her parents and get into those places that only little folk can. The staff/security people were particularly watchful of her, and there was one woman who had a lovely habit of blowing a whistle anytime Milly went near anything - charming.

Suffice to say, Claire and I didn't spend as much time as we probably would have liked - but the thought of our child doing some sort of damage to a 3000 year old temple (the one in the picture, for example) made us cut our losses and head into the old town looking for somewhere to dine.

The next day we set off in our car on our way to the site of ancient Olympia. Another thing that Milly seems to come to terms with is the long car journeys - this one was 4 hours and we didn't hear a peep out of her the entire time - result! She does spend most of her time in the back watching Mickey Mouse - which probably isn't terribly good for her, but at least she isn't screaming?

Having arrived at modern Olympia, we checked into our hotel, and walked down the road to the archaeological site. Next to the site there was a museum, with all the artifacts that have been recovered - so decided to head into there first to discover some of the history before checking out the actual site.

Again - we arrived in the afternoon - and again, the site was more or less empty - with most people having departed on their tour buses back to the cruise ships earlier in the day.

Milly again was running around causing mayhem - wanting to touch the statues and things like that - so Claire and I struck up a deal whereby we took turns looking after Milly whilst the other one looked at the Museum - which worked out well.

Whilst Claire was in the Museum, Milly and I were outside playing in the water sprinklers, and when I went into the site, Claire and Milly stopped and had an icecream at the cafe - all very civilised and very low risk for any ancient relics that just happened to be lying around.

Having looked through the museum (which was fascinating), I then made my way down to the actual site - which was stunning.

As I walked through the ruins, with the late afternoon sun setting over the hills and the sound of cicadas singing in my ears, it didn't take much imagination to envisage what the place would have been like 3 millennia ago.

Whilst none of the buildings are complete, the foundations, some of the floors, and even some of the pilars are still standing - and you really get a sense of what it would have been like all those years ago when you walk around.

Once I'd been around once, I dragged myself away - back to the cafe to pick up Milly and take her back to the hotel so Claire could take her turn to marvel at the sights.

Today we left the hotel in Olympia, and made our way to Delphi - the third ancient site that we wanted to visit - we arrived in the early afternoon again, and as we're here for two days - Claire went to the site this afternoon, and I'll go and take a look tomorrow.

The day after tomorrow, it's a five hour drive to Igoumenitsa and one last ferry to Italy.

We've had an amazing time here in Greece, and it will be sad to leave, but we look forward to our time in Italy next and all the adventures that await us there.

Trip in numbers so far:

Miles since N15: 2962.4 - although 600 of those were driving around Crete

Beard length: 15mm - a frightening amount of my whiskers are grey - not a good look, I'm contemplating shaving the lot off in an act of denial....