Posts

El Elin Eşeğini Türkü Çağırarak Arar - A stranger searches for the donkey of another while singing…? (Turkish proverb)

Image
  Türkiye'den selamlar (greetings from Turkey), well Istanbul to be more precise. We’re almost at the end of the first leg of our Turkey trip and until today the weather gods had not been very nice – requiring a search to the depths of the case to find our ‘more wintery’ clothes!   But I’ll get back to that shortly. Picking up where I finished the last blog: after a quick stop in Heraklion on Crete, we jumped on the boat to Naxos – about 3 and a half hours away. It was a fairly calm crossing stopping at Santorini on the way to drop off and pick up passengers. Coming into Naxos was magical – just like you imagine a Greek Island to be. White washed buildings climbing up the hills, waterfront cafes/bars/restaurants, outdoor dining, shops with brightly coloured clothes and cobbled roads. We stayed at the Naxos Beach Resort about 100m from a very nice beach and although the temps had dropped, we were still able to enjoy a stroll along it and a couple of hours lying in the sun! I br...
1 comment
Read more

‘By all means, get married: if you find a good wife, you'll be happy; if not, you'll become a philosopher,’ Socrates

Image
Χαιρετισμούς από την Ελλάδα (Chairetismoús apó tin Elláda – Greetings from Greece). It is just as well that a lot of Greek people speak English because their alphabet (which all road signs, instructions, shops and descriptions use) is VERY hard to interpret!! We have a supermarket underneath our apartment and have to google translate to work out what everything is. We went to the counter with what we thought was washing powder (based on the pic on the container) but it turned out it was washing machine cleaner!!! Luckily the check out woman spoke English and said she didn’t think this was what we were after!!!   We are loving Greece – great food, lovely people, sooooo much to see.   The fates were conspiring against us. With an ETA in Athens of 6am after a 4 hour flight with no sleep and a check in time of 3pm at the hotel, somehow our flight left on time, arrived early, immigration and luggage arrival were efficient and there were no customs to speak of! Our driver was ready...
Post a Comment
Read more

A good friend is like a four-leaf clover; hard to find and lucky to have

Image
Well, all good things must come to an end and we have reached the end of this part of our journey. We’re heading to Greece tonight (on a midnight flight – ugh), but looking forward to some warm weather again 😊   Ireland certainly has some magnificent scenery and the ‘Wild Atlantic Way’ down the south and west coast certainly lives up to its name. However, before I get to that, I need to back up to where I last left off, I believe we were in a little town called Swanlinbar. We headed off nice and early to do a wee tiki tour, taking in lush countryside, some small villages and arriving late afternoon into Doolin, which turns out to be a very busy little tourist village. Not a huge amount to it but a favourite stopover for the Cliffs of Moher visitors (like us). Like most of Ireland so far, it was very windy and cold, but we found a nice bar to park up in and enjoyed a lovely Irish stew followed by folk music. Just a stumble back to our B&B (minus the second B). It was nice and...
1 comment
Read more

What’s the craic

Image
  Fàilte from Norn Iron. Well, it’s been fairly busy since we last posted. We took a quick trip to Nottingham on the way to Newark to drop off our home before spending a few days in London, then jumping on a plane to Ireland.   In Nottingham, we managed to catch the bus into town and then promptly turned the wrong way, so instead of 5 mins round the corner we ended up doing a walking tour of the city before finally finding Nottingham Castle!! The upside of getting lost was that we found a beach, water and a beach bar right in the middle of town. Complete with an amusement park, games and food trucks, the ‘sea’ was geared towards the little ones and the bar towards the parents!  We didn’t go for a paddle but it was one of the better beaches we’ve seen 😊.  After a wee wander round the grounds of the castle, I posed with Robin Hood (well his statue anyway) before we headed to the ‘oldest pub’ in England. There are at least three other pubs who claim that honour, but we...
Post a Comment
Read more